The U.S government is accusing Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. If the accusation is confirmed as a truth, it is you, America that asked for it.
The United States has long meddled in other nations’ politics: “For more than 100 years, without any significant break, the U.S. has been doing whatever it can to influence the outcome of elections ― up to and including assassinating politicians it has found unfriendly,” quoted from The U.S. Has Been Meddling In Other Countries’ Elections For A Century. It Doesn’t Feel Good in The Huffington Post. This content is sarcastic but extremely real at the same time.
Take the notorious 1953 coup for instance: the CIA admitted they were responsible for the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddeq, Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 until 1953. Not only helping launch the coup, the U.S government also has a hit list of leaders around the world. Doesn't it sound terrible? Considering the United States is “The Land of The Free,” it seems to be not free at all when talking about politics elsewhere.
Recently, there’s been a discussion on the social platform called PTT in Taiwan, talking about why America has the “gut” to brazenly establish the CIA, an organization that specializes in interfering in foreign affairs, inciting coups, assassinating foreign leaders and challenging foreign media. If this is how the CIA looks to foreign countries, it is definitely not a good thing for America’s images.
In the 2014 State of the Union Address, President Obama said: “America must move off a permanent war footing.” However, if America keeps interfering with politics in other countries simply out of its own interests, wars in some form will definitely take place.
Wei -
ReplyDeleteA great deal of this American imperialist attitude you describe really well, comes from the the 19th century Monroe Doctrine (enacted by then President James Monroe) which states that "any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas is a potentially hostile act against the US". So initially while this is framed for conflicts INSIDE North America, in the 20th century when the US. has stronger influence in international markets, the Monroe Doctrine becomes interpreted as "any intervention by external powers in the INTERESTS of America...is a potentially harmful act against the US".
This has really deep historical precedents, unfortunately I do not see American attitudes changing anytime soon.
My cynical understanding of the application of the Monroe Doctrine is, "How dare those people believe that just because they live atop the resources that the USA needs, they own them."
ReplyDeleteThe first time that anyone successfully stood up to American Imperialism was when OPEC responded to our support for Israel in 1973.