America does an amazing job at instilling in its citizens that we are a positive protagonist on the grand world stage as a hegemon. We are taught that we always seek justice, we fight wars for good reason, we help our allies, and the main end goal in any conflict is one word: peace.
However, sometimes we must unlearn the harsh realities of our upbringings to come to real-world conclusions. How can we, as a nation, justify some of our actions in foreign countries on the precipice of “peace”- when we are instigators and bystanders of the exact opposite?
All war is bad. No one will sit and say that they like war unless they directly benefit from it and are far away from the actual horrifying actions of it. Surprisingly, the US will put forth a stance of peace, whilst the reality is that our country, headed by politicians and lobbyists, greatly benefits from foreign wars.
Over the years, America has had direct involvement, militarily or financially, in wars raging across the world.
Now, the assumption can not be made that every time the US is involved in a war, it is wrong. Take Ukraine for example, without our support through weaponry and funding, the fear arises that Russia could fully invade and move on to invading neighboring NATO countries. So, the US supporting Ukraine is not necessarily a net negative, as we could be saving ourselves and innocent people in foreign countries by not having a full-blown potential world war.
However, the United States has had more than its fair share of devastating involvement in foreign countries. We have overthrown leaders of countries due to our individualistic interests, like in 1953 when the United Kingdom convinced the US to join them in ousting the leader of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, through a coup by claiming he had involvement with communism, due to the country's parliament nationalizing its oil industry. Of course, the two countries had a major interest in that area since it had vast oil reserves, so it was seemingly okay that it led to hundreds of deaths, overthrowing a democratically elected leader, and began what many say led to the idea of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. [1]
Of course, we can not speak about the devastating consequences for countries due to US involvement without bringing up Iraq. The United States invaded Iraq, beginning an over 8-year-long war, and “vowed to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein” [2]. Except, there was no hardcore evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction, period, which led to the Bush administration later acknowledging they were led to false prewar intelligence.[3] Let’s be honest though: was it false intelligence, or the administration's justification for this war?
Through Bush consistently linking together Iraq and terrorism [4], many Americans began to believe that Iraq was connected to 9/11 and al-Qaeda, which therefore helped make the war popular at first due to the “revenge” idea many clung to after the devastating attacks in the US, as well as the invasion of Afghanistan already occurring. However, over time, as more and more information came out, and many viewed the devastating effects on Iraq, as well as the United States military members, the war became increasingly unpopular, and as of today, many believe it was pointless even to fight.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq by the United States have led to economic instability, large levels of displacement, flooding of Iraqi refugees in other countries, hundreds of thousands of lives lost between both sides, and even widespread violence that led to civil war [5]. America's promise of democracy for the dictatorship largely failed. Also, the disbandment of the Iraqi military, as well as the invasion by the US, directly led to the creation and strengthening of the terrorist group ISIS. [6]
Lastly, the current ongoing war involving Israel and Hamas is another example of US involvement that is directly hurting a foreign country. Palestine is facing a humanitarian crisis at the hands of Israel after decades of being oppressed, yet since Israel is an ally of the US in the Middle East, the majority of whom do not like us, we are giving Israel hundreds of millions of dollars to help continue their fight. However, their fight is largely injuring innocent civilians and has led to genocidal levels of lives lost in Palestine. Truthfully, how long can you expect the oppressed to stand still and never fight back?
Why do we allow our politicians to stand by and demonize innocent Palestinians when Israel has been negatively impacting their livelihoods for longer than I have been alive? Well, as I pointed out earlier, war is okay to American leaders when they benefit from it, and AIPAC directly funds many of the most pro-Israel politicians, ironically. So, it’s obvious most of our political leaders are bought and paid for, if it wasn’t clear beforehand, and will continue their hatred campaign against Palestine if it results in campaign financing.
I am an American. However, I am not above criticizing my own country and its actions when I see the horrific impact it has, and I can not stand for its false image of purity.
When do we as a country admit that we are not who we claim to be? Instead of acting like we are just, simply because we are the world’s leader, we need to admit it:
Maybe we have been a part of the bad guys for some time now.
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