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In the aftermath of the recent September 11 attacks, the ordinary Americans continue to ask why it happened, they still ask themselves this question why there is so much hatred towards their beloved America? Their America -the land of liberty and opportunities. Their home which has been so hospitable to so many immigrants, sharing their freedom and the goodness of the American way of life. But the American people ought to know that it is not them but their foreign policies that are so hated. The problem lies in the fact that the American goodness is hardly exported; it remains confined to its shores.
What we hear about the American liberty and rules of law and democracy are rarely practiced in their Foreign Policy. Today as things stand their foreign policy towards the developing countries can be branded immoral because it employs double standards, is self-serving and justifies the use of excessive force. (Several current world events highlight the double standards employed in the US foreign policy, most noted of which are the situations in Iraq and Palestine) The American government claims that it condemns and looks down upon crime on children by adults. When a few American children are killed in school shootings then the whole nation mourns and the media is used to blast the whole issue out of proportion to gain sympathy from people all over the world. But if we look carefully at the situation in Iraq after the economic sanctions were imposed we would get to see the first signs of double standards in the American foreign policy towards the Middle East. The economic embargo imposed on Iraq has destroyed the counties entire infrastructure and the people to suffer the most have been the children of Iraq. According to foreign affairs, 576000 children have died as a result of the sanctions due to malnutrition and preventable diseases.
Today Iraq has become a Pediatricians hell with no way to stop dying. Although leaders worldwide have forced the US to ease the sanctions, the US took the position that the sanctions would remain even if Iraq complied with the UN Inspectors. IN 1998 Dennis Halliday the assistant secretary general of the UN who was in charge of enforcing the sanctions resigned rather than administering the sanctions in protest due to the deaths it was causing. But the Americans still stayed focused on their mission to hunt down Saddam Hussein at the expense of innocent Iraqi civilians.
The American government also claims that one country simply invading the other is unacceptable and will be stopped by force. This is the doctrine they used to justify their actions to attack Iraq during the Gulf war when their actual interests where in the oil fields and pipelines in Iraq. How about Chechnya in the past and Palestine today do they not constitute countries. Are the people living in these countries not human. Today millions of Americans have no real clue of the situation in Palestine. The American media has very cleverly managed to portray the ongoing terrorism in Palestine as mere clashes and fights.
But the truth is that the Israelis with arms and ammunition's are enforcing terror on the Palestinians who at the most have stones to defend themselves. To make matters worse the US instead of protecting Palestine has taken the side of Israel by supporting them with diplomatic, financial and military support to battle against the Palestinians and this is a direct violation of the UN security council resolution no. 465 which calls upon states not to provide Israel with any assistance. In fact the US has blocked the enforcement of UN security council resolutions calling for Israel to withdraw its settlement of Palestinian land. Another place where their double standards is visible in when they imposed sanction on India and Pakistan who were developing nuclear technology. The question here is why are the Americans free to develop any form of nuclear weapons when other countries are not allowed to do so. The main idea here is that the American government does not want any other country to rise to power. (The US foreign policy, plagued by inconsistency and volatility has always been known to support their self interests. ) The American Policy has also always supported their self-interests.
They have been a nation to create problems, take action and then slowly fulfill their own interests. The Americans have always supported the Israelis although they are enforcing terrorism on Palestine. The reason for this is because Israel supports American strategic interests in the Middle East and the fact that Israel remains the most dominant military force in the middle east capable of deploying forces quickly. This could enable America to have a good military base in the Middle-East. Historically too, the US has used nations mainly for strategic purposes like oil and when they fail to cooperate with the American interests that have overthrown those governments. The US has organized the killing of many leaders in CIA coups.
In 1953 DR. Mossadeq from Iran was killed in a successful CIA coup because he was perceived to be acting against American Interests. The CIA also engineered the assassination of S. Vietnam's president NGO Did dien a friend and ally of the states because he had outlived his utility to American interests. To this Dr. Henry Kissinger rightly said to be an enemy of America can be dangerous but to be a friend is fatal.
The self-serving policies of the United states foreign policy is most evident in the ongoing attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan. In 1996 the Taliban had been welcomed to power by the US and its top leaders were flown to Texas and entertained by the then president Bush Senior. Afghanistan has always been on the top of the long term US foreign policy priorities because of its large reserves of untapped natural gas and because of its strategic location in the Caspian. When the Americans realized that the Taliban were no more serving their interests, they have now in effect got rid of them and set up a new democratic government which would their interests better. Interestingly Pakistan's foreign minister revealed that he was told by a senior American official that military action against Afghanistan would start by the middle of October. The September 11 attack was just the right trigger they needed or probably even the trigger they created.
America's treatment and use of international institutions such as the United Nations is often seen as self-serving and hypocritical in other countries. On one hand, there is non-payment of UN dues and ignoring the decisions of the International Court of Justice against them and on the other, there is the enthusiastic embrace of international trials against war criminals and US sanctions against certain countries. America's veto power in the UN Security Council has repeatedly been used to protect Israel. Recently, the US government's principled defense of the property rights of pharmaceutical companies holding the patents for drugs used to treat HIV-AIDS in Africa was quickly revised when it became necessary to treat anthrax in the US. All this reinforces the image of a deeply hypocritical global power, pursuing its interests without regard to principle.
The other reason why I believe their foreign policy is immoral is because it advocates the excessive use of force. After the cold war America has the honor of being the country to be involved in the most number of military wars. They have conducted military strikes in Korea, Somalia, Iraq, Palestine, Cambodia, Indonesia, Guatemala, china and the list goes on. At present they possess the largest stock of weapons and their use of force account for the most genocide, subjection and human rights violations ever in history. We have to only look at what is happening in Afghanistan now to understand the brutality of the American foreign policy. We see a deeply wounded super-power nation reacting in anger on one of the worlds most poorest, most ravaged nation in their hunt for one man, in their hunt to end terrorism.
They havent found their man, they havent even begun to end terrorism but it looks like they have gained foothold. Perhaps that is all they ever wanted. In their this hunt for one man they have converted the farms of Afghanistan into graves. After the September 11 attacks President bush in his speech said that the terrorists have attacked their freedom and democracy. But if u think about it the terrorists attacked the Pentagon and WTC which are American symbols of Military and economic power and not the statue of liberty. What it could imply is that the attacks were direct results of resentment towards the American military and economic foreign policy which has taken more innocent lives than ever in world history.
I think its ironic how the policies of the biggest campaigner against terrorism and those of terrorists are almost the same. I would like to conclude by pointing out that the military and foreign policies of the United States had indeed reaped hatred. The only way for America to get the rest of the world to respect its foreign policy would be to do away with its double standards, its self-serving attitude and curb the use of force.
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Research essay sample on Analysis Of Current American Foreign Policy
