The Illusion of American Generosity
Despite the mythology of the good superpower, the American empire has been enormously destructive.
Because of our strong Christian heritage, most Americans innately believe in being generous to their neighbors. Good neighborliness was central to our country’s founding ethos. Locally and nationally, there are a myriad of groups and organizations that provide support and assistance to people in need. This tradition is an important component of our culture. Consequently, much of our populace believes the United States government is a force for good around the world and an important contributor to world stability. This is a myth.
For decades, this traditional national embrace of generosity towards others has been used by our political and cultural elites to gull the American population into supporting many activities that are anything but generous, and often turn out to be extremely destructive. Over the years, there has been a continuous chorus from the leading elites supporting the false narrative that the United States is doing good around the world—the myth of the “indispensable nation”.
Since the Second World War, American ruling elites have called for numerous military interventions to “save democracy,” protecting some nation from communists, terrorists, fascists, or various reincarnations of Hitler. (Or worse.) The accusations are usually accompanied by shrill calls for the great and indispensable nation to act, to hold the line, or mete out harsh justice to the latest designated evildoer. This nonsense is cheered on by mainstream media outlets. Until recently, average Americans have not had access to any information which would expose the lies and hidden malfeasance behind these claims. Fortunately, thanks to alternative media, that ignorance is rapidly receding.
Americans are now beginning to grasp the fact that most of what we have been told about American foreign policy is materially not true, and that this policy is not benevolent. Contrary to popular imagination, the U.S. has spent decades directly supporting jihadi groups or condoning the support of terrorist groups by our “friends.” The Global War on Terror serves as a convenient excuse for interventions. It has been particularly useful in the Middle East to destroy obstacles to an expansionist Israel.
If we truly wanted to stop terrorism, one of our first priorities should have been to stop funding and arming such groups and inducing our “friends” to stop funding and arming them.
The recent collapse of Syria was a result of the support of the United States, Israel, and fellow NATO member, Turkey, for anti-government jihadi groups. The new leadership of Syria is drawn from the ranks of Al Qaeda. How is that benevolent or “acting as the world’s policeman”? We have been told for decades that Al Qaeda is bad and must be eliminated, and now in Syria we have direct proof of Al Qaeda and related groups being employed as proxies for U.S. “interests.” How is creating another failed state in the Middle East good or in U.S. interests?
It is time to stop allowing ourselves to be duped by deceptive claims of generosity and good intentions, and start to acknowledge and learn from the many disasters our country’s leadership has authored. Jesus told us “you will know them by their fruits.” The list of tragic disasters is quite long, but the following is a sample of the most egregious examples.
During the fighting portion of the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, we killed millions of civilians, and after seven decades, have not officially ended the war. We still have thousands of troops in Korea hindering normal relations between the North and the South. Our troops enforce the blockade which contributes to the starvation of North Korean civilians.
The CIA’s role in the 1953 overthrow of Iran’s duly elected President Mohammad Mosaddegh was the initial cause of strife with Iran before Israel’s Likud government and its cheerleaders decided to start an ever-intensifying campaign vilifying 3000-year old society. (That same campaign has been successful in the destruction of the Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, Libyans, Syrians, and other disobedient peoples.)
In the Pacific, the Vietnam War from 1955 to 1975 killed millions in Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia. Cambodia was so destabilized by U.S. bombing that the Khmer Rouge managed to seize control of the ravaged country and killed over one third of their population, on top of the people killed by the U.S. military. Most of what we were told about that war was untrue from the beginning.
Our bad behavior has not been exclusive to the Eastern Hemisphere. Closer to home, numerous American-backed coups and interventions in Central and South America caused instability that continues to trouble those regions today.
In April 1961 the CIA engineered and supported the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. It was a complete catastrophe and cemented the Castros’ control, ensuring they ruled until their deaths six decades later. The inexplicable U.S. blockade still causes suffering for the Cuban people.
The Somalian Civil War has been ebbing and flowing since the 1980s, thanks to U.S. money and weapons.
The First Persian Gulf War (1990–1992) was followed by crushing sanctions which caused many deaths and destruction in Iraq, and turned out to be a prelude for the 2003 Iraq invasion.
U.S. intervention in the Kosovo War (1998–1999) killed many civilians. What the military leaders promoting that cruel bombing campaign claimed would last a week at most turned out to be 16 months of death and destruction. It is hard to tell what was accomplished except proving to the Russians that NATO was not a defensive organization, as promised by the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations. This is one of the early provocations that eventually led to the present Russo–Ukrainian War.
The 2001 Afghanistan War was the result of America’s decision in 1979 to support Sunni Jihadists’ entry into Afghanistan as a means of destabilizing the Afghan government. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security advisor, wrote that year, “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.” The plan was designed to force Soviet intervention to protect their southern flank. To the applause of the neocons, the Reagan administration decided to arm and finance the same organizations to fight the Soviets. When the Soviets departed, the freedom fighters—the Taliban—took over. So of course, after September 11, 2001, the U.S. couldn’t resist the allure of another intervention and fought them for 20 years. After years of dishonest claims of success, the U.S. retreated in defeat, leaving death and destruction for the unfortunate Afghans who aided us during the occupation. Sadly, as Scott Horton has pointed out in Fool’s Errand, beginning in 2001 and 2002, the Taliban offered many times to surrender but was continuously rebuffed by Washington.
The Iraq War of 2003 started with the standard-issue vilification campaign. After much death and destruction, there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction or of support for Al Qaeda terrorists. The many neocon assertions made to justify the war turned out to be false. Nearly a quarter of a century later, we still have troops in Iraq, and the region has yet to recover.
After the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Libya signed a cooperation treaty with the George W. Bush administration agreeing to give up their nascent nuclear program and vowed to stop their support for terrorists. The neocons gave victory whoops. Just a few years later the same crowd cranked up the familiar demonization campaign and bombed the Libyan government into oblivion. The remains of the country are now fiercely disputed by rival warlords. The Libyan double-cross is a big reason that Iran will not give up its missiles. Most of the American public is not aware of this betrayal, but the rest of the world is—especially the Iranians.
The Syrian Civil War that started in 2011 was fueled by covert American support. The U.S. claimed to support “moderate freedom fighters” who turned out to include Al Qaeda–allied jihadists. That war appears to have ended, due to the recent collapse of the Syria government; the country is now ruled by former terrorists—but there will be more war coming from this sad example of U.S. cruelty. The American War Party will not let a good tragedy go to waste.
The Russo–Ukrainian War is a continuation of the conflict that arose from the 2014 U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine and is the result of decades of American provocation. These provocations have been carefully documented by Scott Horton in his book Provoked, which shows how decades of policy choices in Washington led to the war in Ukraine; the former CIA analyst Larry Johnson has listed the more recent provocations. After failed treaties and ceasefire agreements, in 2022 Russia invaded. Millions have been killed, wounded, and driven from their homes. The country is being wrecked. To this day, the U.S. is still sending weapons, money, and other assistance to encourage the continuation of that war.
In Yemen, the U.S. is still bombing Houthis after all these years. In 2015, we aided the Saudi bombing campaign. Now the Houthis’ crime is to protest the starvation and killing of the Gazans. The U.S. has spent billions on this project killing civilians. The past year of the failed U.S. military bombing campaign is proof that attacks on much larger Iran would be a complete disaster.
Finally, the Israeli genocide in Gaza escalated intensely in 2023. To this day the U.S. is sending weapons and money to Israel which add to the starvation, destruction, and death. This is in no way generous and benevolent.
How is this generosity? Where is the benevolence? The beneficiaries are special interest groups and military contractors. Certainly not the suffering citizens of the debilitated countries, nor the average Americans saddled with trillions of dollars of ever-increasing war debt. None of these countries are functioning democracies as promised. None of the interventions turned out as promised. As usual, the result is death and destruction.
Our leaders talk about credibility and honor. The rest of the world sees a heartless bully that breaks its agreements and spreads devastation and suffering. We as a nation have allowed ourselves to be fooled.
The truth is many of our leaders are completely indifferent to the suffering they have caused. For example, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright thought that the deaths of perhaps as many as 500,000 Iraqi children—starved by a U.S. blockade—was “worth it.” Our leaders are also indifferent to the starvation and death we support in Gaza. Lindsey Graham believes the deaths in Ukraine are a “great deal for America.” Almost none of America’s political leaders will make a genuine effort to stop enabling this daily slaughter.
This is not what our country should be. It is not what our founders intended. It is not what we should support.
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