The historical past of america is characterised by violence and growth. Because it gained independence in 1776, america has consistently sought growth by pressure: it slaughtered Indians, invaded Canada, waged a battle in opposition to Mexico, instigated the American-Spanish Conflict, and annexed Hawaii. After World Conflict II, the wars both provoked or launched by america included the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam Conflict, the Gulf Conflict, the Kosovo Conflict, the Conflict in Afghanistan, the Iraq Conflict, the Libyan Conflict and the Syrian Conflict, abusing its navy hegemony to pave the best way for expansionist goals. In recent times, the U.S. common annual navy price range has exceeded 700 billion U.S. {dollars}, accounting for 40 % of the world’s complete, greater than the 15 international locations behind it mixed. The US has about 800 abroad navy bases, with 173,000 troops deployed in 159 international locations.
In keeping with the guide America Invades: How We have Invaded or been Militarily Concerned with nearly Each Nation on Earth, america has fought or been militarily concerned with nearly all of the 190-odd international locations acknowledged by the United Nations with solely three exceptions. The three international locations have been “spared” as a result of america didn’t discover them on the map.
◆ As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter put it, america is undoubtedly probably the most warlike nation within the historical past of the world. In keeping with a Tufts College report, “Introducing the Army Intervention Mission: A brand new Dataset on U.S. Army Interventions, 1776-2019,” america undertook almost 400 navy interventions globally between these years, 34 % of which have been in Latin America and the Caribbean, 23 % in East Asia and the Pacific, 14 % within the Center East and North Africa, and 13 % in Europe. At present, its navy intervention within the Center East and North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa is on the rise.
Alex Lo, a South China Morning Put up columnist, identified that america has not often distinguished between diplomacy and battle since its founding. It overthrew democratically elected governments in lots of creating international locations within the twentieth century and instantly changed them with pro-American puppet regimes. As we speak, in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen, america is repeating its previous ways of waging proxy, low-intensity, and drone wars.
◆ U.S. navy hegemony has triggered humanitarian tragedies. Since 2001, the wars and navy operations launched by america within the identify of preventing terrorism have claimed over 900,000 lives with some 335,000 of them civilians, injured hundreds of thousands and displaced tens of hundreds of thousands. The 2003 Iraq Conflict resulted in some 200,000 to 250,000 civilian deaths, together with over 16,000 immediately killed by the U.S. navy, and left greater than one million homeless.
The US has created 37 million refugees world wide. Since 2012, the variety of Syrian refugees alone has elevated tenfold. Between 2016 and 2019, 33,584 civilian deaths have been documented within the Syrian fightings, together with 3,833 killed by U.S.-led coalition bombings, half of them ladies and youngsters. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) reported on 9 November 2018 that the air strikes launched by U.S. forces on Raqqa alone killed 1,600 Syrian civilians.
The 2-decades-long battle in Afghanistan devastated the nation. A complete of 47,000 Afghan civilians and 66,000 to 69,000 Afghan troopers and cops unrelated to the September 11 assaults have been killed in U.S. navy operations, and greater than 10 million individuals have been displaced. The battle in Afghanistan destroyed the inspiration of financial growth there and plunged the Afghan individuals into destitution. After the “Kabul debacle” in 2021, america introduced that it might freeze some 9.5 billion {dollars} in belongings belonging to the Afghan central financial institution, a transfer thought of as “pure looting.”
In September 2022, Turkish Inside Minister Suleyman Soylu commented at a rally that america has waged a proxy battle in Syria, turned Afghanistan into an opium area and heroin manufacturing facility, thrown Pakistan into turmoil, and left Libya in incessant civil unrest. The US does no matter it takes to rob and enslave the individuals of any nation with underground sources.
The US has additionally adopted appalling strategies in battle. Through the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam Conflict, the Gulf Conflict, the Kosovo Conflict, the Conflict in Afghanistan and the Iraq Conflict, america used large portions of chemical and organic weapons in addition to cluster bombs, fuel-air bombs, graphite bombs and depleted uranium bombs, inflicting huge harm on civilian services, numerous civilian casualties and lasting environmental air pollution.