In this piece, given recent events, I will be focusing on the United States of America. The same arguments can be made about countries such as Britain, Germany, France, Spain, China, Japan, Russia etc.
On the 11th of September, 2001, two planes collided with the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, in New York City, USA. In the aftermath of the attack, the US invoked Article 5 of the NATO charter, and the other members of NATO joined forces with America on their revenge tour of the Middle East. Despite the terrorists who carried out the attack being stationed in Pakistan etc., i.e. countries which were not the ones attacked, the joint forces of NATO attacked Afghanistan and Iraq. 20 years after the attack on the US, the US claimed victory and withdrew. The victory was not one that one would imagine and seems rather to be along the lines of ‘screw this, I’m done’. President Biden’s announcement to start withdrawing troops by the 4th of July, American Independence Day, and end it by the 11th of September showed that the whole event was staged as political theatre. Although President George W Bush proposed the plan without a withdrawal or clearly defined ending, subsequent Presidents such as Obama and Biden decided that they, and their country, had had enough and it was time to go. The moment they were out the door, the Afghans who had aided the US were attacked, many slaughtered, as the terrorists claimed victory. It had taken them 20 years, but one small act of terrorism had seen them defeat the self-proclaimed, ‘Greatest Army ever’.
This half-arsed going in, making a mess and then scarpering off, was nothing new. America, since its inception with the genocide of the Natives, has always been America First, the same thing President Trump was vilified for. What Trump was doing was tapping into the natural indifference and insecurities of the country (why else would they be desperate to have guns?) and saying what many people thought, what, indeed, with his international policies, President Obama was doing. A Syrian I was speaking to expressed his dismay with Obama. When in 2012 President Obama sated that if the Syrian Government used chemical weapons on its people (let that sink in for a moment) a ‘red line’ would be crossed and America would step in. When Bashar Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian President, used chemical weapons (sarin gas) on his people, Obama um’d and ah’d and nothing was done. When the world Security Council were to step in, China and Russia said it never happened and it was just US propaganda and so no actions were taken. Again, America had shown that it was America First and that the consequences of its actions or inactions were superfluous.
In 1945, America, who had joined World War II after it was attacked (Pearl Harbour) despite being well aware of the actions of Hitler, fascist states and the genocide of Jews, Gypsies, the disabled, homosexuals etc., having declined to take part before then dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was seen as the ending of the war, and in many ways it was. The action, many have argued, saved lives and was unavoidable (note: the subsequent arguments against dropping the bomb were, according to a biography of the physicist Fermi, who worked on the Manhattan (A-bomb) project, made before also). However, the very notion of the bomb would have been enough to end the war, so if the US had dropped the bombs on unpopulated islands the effect would have been one and the same. The decision to drop the bombs on cities, as we would see after September the 11th 2001, was the response of the US having been given a bloody nose and responding as a kid on the playground who had been teased- this is not to lessen the tragedy of the US lives lost, but to add perspective. America could have shown off their bomb without the loss of lives. Even to this day, almost 80 years later, children are being born in the region with birth defects due to the nuclear residue which, not only destroyed the cities, lives, land, but also entered the water table. America’s one fell swoop to end death and suffering is still being felt today, but not by the US so who cares, right?
The bomb was built partially due to the fear that the enemy (Germany) were building a bomb (they were but they were years behind and the war would have probably ended before they could finish it), and this rumour of a rumour resulted in mass destruction (note: see the amusing 2009 film The Men Who Stare at Goats to see how rumours of secret projects in super soldiers etc. have delightfully absurd consequences).
The reality of the bomb, instead of ending war, only created a new war, one with the Soviet Union (leading to another of America’s wars with great suffering and no end- Vietnam), the Cold War. For the next, well, even to today, the antagonism between the USA and Russia causes the world to become full of nuclear states as the world knows that the US not only have the bombs but are also willing to use them on human lives. The US, is has to be said, petitions against the use of nuclear weapons, but this can only be seen as, again, America First, as, having used the bomb, they don’t want them used on them. Nazi scientists who performed experiments of Jews were given asylum in the US to aide with the Space Race (to be the first to land on the moon- something that still continues with China playing the role of the USSR).
Here we have two examples of how geopolitics are carried out as a whim after antagonism, actions carried out with no restraint or forethought to the consequences. Whilst the likes of the United Nations are essentially toothless in bringing about positive world actions, superpowers such as the USA, the UK etc. have the power to create a safer world in which things such as hunger, genocide, chemical weapon attacks on their own people etc. are rarer, if not done away with. However, as the superpowers care only for themselves and have no conscience when it comes to geopolitics, these countries cannot be seen as leaders on the worlds stage, indeed, it could be argued that it would be better if they stepped back, if, indeed, the alternative world powers were not more egotistical, power-hungry and all of the other synonyms for insecure.
’till next time
thegreaterfool2016 