{"id":62184,"date":"2017-01-09T05:23:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T12:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=62184"},"modified":"2017-01-09T05:23:37","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T12:23:37","slug":"the-united-states-of-america-as-a-global-power-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/01\/09\/the-united-states-of-america-as-a-global-power-pt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS A \u2018GLOBAL POWER\u2019.\u00a0 Pt 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

One country, Cuba, positioned in the Caribbean, \u00a0\u00a0right under USA\u2019s nose, managed to withstand the USA. Fidel Castro, leader of the Communist Party, took power in Cuba in 1958. USA tried to strangle Cuba economically with a decade long trade embargo. US tried repeatedly to bump off Fidel Castro, once with an exploding cigar. USA\u2019s attempt to overthrow Castro in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, failed miserably, adding to Cuba\u2019s stature.<\/p>\n

Russia supported Cuba from 1960 onwards, otherwise Cuba could not have survived. \u00a0Under Castro, Cuba, with generous Soviet aid, provided basic food and housing, cradle to grave health care and free and universal education to its people. Cuban doctors, working all over the world, were considered excellent.\u00a0 Russian subsidies were withdrawn in the 1990s and Cuba was in difficulty. Then China came to the rescue. Venezuela and Bolivia also became allies.<\/p>\n

In 2015, USA re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba. But America still deeply resented the success of Cuba, This was openly demonstrated when Castro died in November 2016 \u00a0and his life was celebrated. TIME said, inter alia, thousands of dissidents languished in his prisons or were killed. This was a severe price to pay for free doctoring and schooling.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0In Sri Lanka it was noted that Castro and Cuba show that a country can face challenges from world powers provided it had a leader of the caliber of Castro.<\/p>\n

The first strategy employed by USA in its foreign meddling was direct and brutal Regime Change\u201d. \u00a0This was achieved by marshalling opposition political parties, NGOs, ethnic and religious minorities groups, and the English language media to create an ongoing low intensity internal conflict, with the objective of to installing a proxy government.. The regimes it installed were always repressive and corrupt.\u00a0 The US turned a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in their \u2018client states\u2019. The countries governed by these regimes were kept unstable,\u00a0\u00a0 so that they could be easily controlled and manipulated. \u00a0Regime changes manoeuvred by the US have usually been disadvantageous to the people of the country and have created immense suffering.\u00a0 Iraq today is far worse than it was under Saddam.\u00a0 Afghanistan is no better. As a result, USA was hated in the countries it dominated.<\/p>\n

In the 21 century however, the US is trying a different strategy, it is going for smooth electoral change. The US has engineered electoral changes in several countries. There was the Rose revolution in Georgia (2003), the Orange revolution in Ukraine (2004), Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan (2005).\u00a0 None of these \u2018revolutions\u2019 were genuine, critics say. They were coup d\u2019etats engineered by US. \u00a0The new rulers simply shifted their foreign policy towards US interest, without any benefit to the people.\u00a0 The\u00a0\u00a0 uprisings in Venezuela and Thailand in 2014\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0are also blamed on the US. Venezuela said \u2018US wants our oil and that is why they are encouraging a Ukraine like coup\u2019. Hong Kong\u2019s Umbrella movement (2014) is considered another US attempt.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0In 2016 China said it would not tolerate any independence movement in Hong Kong directed at damaging mainland stability.<\/p>\n

In Venezuela the US moved from supporting opposition parties and NGOs to create new political parties, led by youthful fresh faces. Over one third of US funding was directed towards youth and student groups in Venezuela, including training in the use of social networks to mobilize political activism. Student leaders were sent to US for workshops and conferences on internet activism and media networking. They were\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 shown\u00a0\u00a0 tactics to promote regime change via street riots. Also, how to use media to portray the government as repressive. In 2007 those student groups took to the streets in Caracas. The protests were composed mainly of middle and upper class youth and opposition politicians.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0\u00a0 second strategy used by the US, is to\u00a0\u00a0 break up a sovereign state. Fissiparous separatist organizations are set up in selected countries and financed for the purpose. USA engineered the creation of South Sudan. Sudan\u2019s oil is in the south. A Sudan caucus was set up in USA. Western humanitarian aid groups and American evangelical groups promoted the South Sudan secessionist movement. US provided huge quantities of arms to the rebels through the client states of Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia.\u00a0\u00a0 Every step of the process involved \u2018carefully managed plots by the US and its collaborators\u2019.\u00a0 South Sudan achieved independence in 2011 with the help of the US. It is today, an unstable country with fighting between the government and rebel forces.<\/p>\n

A third strategy is planned for the near future, \u2018Responsibility to protect\u2019. The term Responsibility to Protect\u201d (R2P) was first introduced in 2001, in response to the genocide in Rwanda. The Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State sovereignty (ICISS 2001),\u00a0\u00a0 argued that state sovereignty does not mean unlimited power of a state over its own people. States must respect the rights of its citizens and their human dignity.<\/p>\n

R2P was included in the annual reports of UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan and Ban ki Moon in 2005 and 2006. It was also pushed at the UN World Summit, 2005, as a doctrine to justify international intervention in domestic affairs of other countries. But member countries did not embrace the idea and R2P has not been formally accepted. \u2018R2P is just another pretext to justify neo colonial intervention in the domestic affairs of developing nations,\u2019 they said. The UN Charter\u00a0\u00a0 deals with this adequately. Also R2P flies in the face of the founding principles of the UN. \u00a0UN declaration of 1970 on international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among states imposes an almost total prohibition on intervention.<\/p>\n

There is no legal basis for R2P either. One of the basic rights of a sovereign state is the right to be and to remain independent. And for this the state is given sovereign rights over its citizens. This includes the right to defend and protect the state against external attack and internal subversion of its authority and protect its citizens. Other states are expected to respect this right and not interfere or intervene in the internal affair of other states, said G.H.Pieris. There was a plan in 2007 to convert Colombo\u2019s International Centre for Ethnic relations (ICES) to the R2P centre for the region. The government stopped this.<\/p>\n

The image of USA as a desirable country, perfect in all aspects, has now been dented. US politics is messy. The last Presidential election showed that. US administration is no better.\u00a0 The Watergate scandal of 1971 showed that CIA and FBI engage in domestic spying.\u00a0 While President Nixon and Kissinger were eavesdropping on officials, Department of Defence was eavesdropping on Kissinger<\/a>.\u00a0 White House and Camp David were also bugged. The President can order the assassination of a citizen without so much as a hearing, said one critic. Government\u00a0\u00a0 can spy on its citizens without a court order and its officials are immune to prosecution for war crimes. \u00a0The media are not independent either, they support agendas and spread misinformation. This also emerged at the recent Trump election.<\/p>\n

The human rights aspect is also not good. Racism has been a major issue in America for almost a century. African Americans were lynched and no one was punished. The Ku Klux Klan\u00a0\u00a0 organization specialized in these lynchings and burnings. These killings are continuing. US Police\u00a0\u00a0 killed at least 102 unarmed black people in 2015 and more than 194 black people in 2016. This led to the recent Black Lives Matter\u201d movement. The black minority still live in dilapidated and run down ghettoes in the inner cities. US has a high proportion of prison inmates, mainly drug users. Poor whites in America are called \u2018White trash\u2019.What other country labels a segment of its population as \u2018trash\u2019?<\/p>\n

The US infrastructure is the most backward among the advanced industrialized economies, said TIME, with crumbling roads, highways and ancient bridges, some over 50 years old, in almost all the states. They were not designed to take today\u2019s traffic loads either. US air traffic control relies on a 1960s radar system.\u00a0 There is not even one high speed train in the entire continent, falling well behind Europe, Japan France, China and even Indonesia. The power distribution systems are still strung overhead.\u00a0 Welfare expenditure is no better, continued TIME. Federal spending on education has been declining. The funding for the legal system is very low, and cases take many years to complete. National Institutes of Health, USA complained that Congress did not approve sufficient money for research into the Zika virus.<\/p>\n

TIME magazine, 2016, has confirmed\u00a0\u00a0 that the US economy is in difficulties. Many Americans lost their jobs, pensions and houses in the\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0financial crises such as the Subprime Mortgage crisis of 2007.\u00a0 This mostly affected the working class and the lower middle class. Families that earlier had comfortable lives, with cars and houses find that their children \u2018now have to struggle\u2019. There is high unemployment,\u00a0\u00a0 reduced incomes,\u00a0 \u00a0rising inequality and less chance of upward mobility, said TIME. The middle class is shrinking. It has fallen to 27% of the population. One extreme reaction is that California and Texas want to secede from the USA (Texit\u201d).<\/p>\n

We are clearly witnessing the demise of the American empire, continued TIME. US does not carry as much weight in the world economy as it used to. When US re-started diplomatic relations with China and Cuba, China and Cuba did not go to US to pay homage. USA went to them.\u00a0 President Nixon went to China in 1972 and Obama to Cuba in\u00a0\u00a0 2016.<\/p>\n

US is now losing ground to China and Russia. Russia is challenging the USA in the Middle East by giving support to Assad and Syria.\u00a0 Russia\u2019s powerful nuclear arsenal could destroy a significant portion of the US with a single attack, observed TIME. US was the single largest contributor to world growth earlier, not now, continued TIME.\u00a0 The Chinese economy has overtaken US. China has greater economic power than any other country, today. Further, US lacks the strength to deal militarily with its formidable opponents, in one swipe. Even singly, it will be an immense and costly effort. US may have global dreams but its means are limited, said an analyst.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka must understand that the US is an oligarchy not a democracy. \u2018Oligarchy\u2019 means\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a small group of people having control of the country. This US oligarchy is no ordinary oligarchy.\u00a0 It is also\u00a0\u00a0 a leading global economic power. The whole world, not only the US, is dominated by these global economic elite. This elite includes American billionaires, such as Soros, the big banks such as Goldman Sachs and the big corporations. These are all interlinked. This powerful group also owns the leading media agencies, such as CBS and Time-Warner and these are used to influence public opinion worldwide. \u00a0Only about 15% of the elite\u2019s capital actually goes into the US economy.\u00a0 The rest circulates within global high finance.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The American public are given a delusion of power and control\u00a0\u00a0 but actually, US policy is controlled by this exclusive, high level elite. Decisions that affect the public are taken, in private, behind closed doors by this financial elite. A considerable section of the US public, including the youth, low income groups and minorities are\u00a0\u00a0 considered unimportant by this group.\u00a0 \u00a0The US cabinet is decided by the leading bankers such as Citibank.<\/p>\n

In its foreign policy, America went in for alliances not colonies.\u00a0 It has the highest number of embassies, consulates and missions. But USA is not liked in the countries where it has a strong presence. The unethical and criminal behavior of the USA has cost them respect of the international community, said\u00a0\u00a0 an observer. There has been long standing opposition to the\u00a0\u00a0 heavy US military presence in Okinawa, Japan.Philippines president Duterte on a visit to China in 2016, said it was time to say goodbye to the US. He said Philippines had gained little in its long alliance with the US. \u2018Your stay in my country was for your own benefit,\u2019 USA\u00a0\u00a0 retaliated and said its aid package to Philippines would be withheld, giving human rights as the reason.<\/p>\n

Countries coming under US gaze, object strongly to American interference in their affairs. They see it as blatant interference in the domestic affairs of independent countries.\u00a0 US interest is never compatible with local interests, they complained. \u00a0\u00a0USA has for a long time pursued a foreign policy calamitous to the whole world, including their own, critics said, using bogus reasons such as human right abuses.\u00a0 America never won its overseas wars. Those wars only devastated countries and created havoc, they observed. Today there is a huge anti American sentiment sweeping the developing world mainly because of its activity in the Middle East. The US has become the biggest source of international uncertainty said TIME. US is so regularly\u00a0 blamed for any international\u00a0 destabilization that it had\u00a0 to actually deny that it had any involvement in the 2016 \u00a0failed coup in Turkey . (CONCLUDED)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS One country, Cuba, positioned in the Caribbean, \u00a0\u00a0right under USA\u2019s nose, managed to withstand the USA. Fidel Castro, leader of the Communist Party, took power in Cuba in 1958. USA tried to strangle Cuba economically with a decade long trade embargo. US tried repeatedly to bump off Fidel Castro, once with an exploding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}