A new Lady Liberty is on her way to the United States of America, 135 years after the renowned Statue of Liberty was brought to New York City. But has the US reaffirmed its commitment to liberty, democracy, and freedom?
And, in today's world, can its domestic and international policies be regarded a model for the so-called "free world"?
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| [Statue of Liberty] |
We will explore some of the war crimes perpetrated by the United States in this article.
1. Philippine-American war
Spain surrendered the Philippines to the United States shortly after the statue of liberty was brought in 1886. In its pursuit of colonialism, the United States was confronted with a Filipino independence fight.
According to the US State Department, US Concentration camps murdered more than 20,000 Filipino fighters and more than 200,000 Filipino civilians as a consequence of brutality, hunger, and illness.
2. US Collaboration with Nazis
Despite the fact that the United States played a critical role in conquering Nazi Germany, released documents have shown several of the country's scandalous dealings with the Third Reich. This includes direct collaboration with the American corporation IBM and its creator Thomas Watson, which lasted throughout the war years. George Bush's grandfather, US senator Prescott Bush, was also a director and shareholder of firms that benefitted from Nazi Germany's involvement, according to a Guardian investigation.
Finally, in cooperation with the CIA, US government officials deliberately recruited and worked with proven Nazi war criminals such as fascist thinker Emil Augsburg, who was used in the US's Cold War fight against Soviet Russia.
3. The Nuclear Crime
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| [Nuclear crimes] |
Despite the Allies' overwhelming victory in WWII, the United States dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 200,000 civilians. In the history of armed warfare, this is the only time nuclear weapons have been used.
4. The US backed coups
The United States molded or established administrations in numerous nations across the world around the turn of the twentieth century, including neighbors Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
The US achieved its pinnacle of foreign meddling and interventions during the Cold War era, including the 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran against socialist leader Mohammad Mossadegh to reinstate the authoritarian Shah of Iran. The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, as well as 638 assassination attempts on Castro, were all against him. According to a research published in the New York Times, the United States orchestrated at least 81 overt and covert international election interferences between 1946 and 2000.
5. Proxy Wars
The United States' struggle against communism necessitated the involvement of its military forces in a number of proxy wars, such as those waged in Vietnam and Korea.
A total of 365,000 people died as a result of the United States' participation in Vietnam. This covers atrocities done by US forces against unarmed villagers, such as the slaughter at My Lai. According to Vietnam, 2 million civilians were murdered on both sides, as well as 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. During this time, the United States made significant use of chemical warfare. From 1961 through 1971, a US operation known as Operation Ranch Hand sprayed 20 million gallons of herbicides across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
6. War on Terror
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| [US Army in Iraq/Afghanistan] |
Following the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001, the United States embarked on a new crusade, this time against Iraq and Afghanistan. It lied by claiming Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Iraq, on the other hand, lacked any. Regardless, the US invaded, culminating in the deaths of over 1 million Iraqis as a result of the invasion, insurgencies, and civil conflicts that followed. Torture, rape, and other war crimes committed by the US in Abu Ghraib jail were also uncovered.
The United States' extended instability in the Middle East gave rise to terrorist organizations like Daesh, which have wreaked havoc across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. This is in addition to the United States' own operational torture and imprisonment facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as its global rendition program.
More than 240,000 people died in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a result of the US war on Afghanistan in 2001, including more than 70,000 civilians.
7. Zionism and Apartheid
Israel has just carried out 11 days of air attacks on 2 million Palestinians besieged in Gaza, despite the fact that apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and occupation of the rest of ancient Palestine continues.
The United States has vetoed at least 53 UN Security Council resolutions that are crucial to Israel during the last half-century. The United States' unwavering backing for Tel Aviv has resulted in impunity for violence against demonstrators, as we saw during the Great March of Return. It includes a nonchalant attitude toward Israel's colonial colonies in the occupied West Bank, as well as violence against journalists, unarmed men, women, and children.
Israel is the beneficiary of the greatest amount of US funding more than any other country while Washington continues arming, supporting and abetting apartheid. It isn't the first time the United States has backed apartheid. Remember that until 2008, Nelson Mandela was on the terror watch list. Meanwhile, Netanyahu is free to do anything he wants with the United States, its policies, and the money and support it provides.
Where does this end?
If you delve further, you'll find many more crimes, and they're not only limited to US foreign policy; there's also a profound internal component to Washington's activities. The self-proclaimed "freedom" and "home of the brave" has turned against itself. We've seen the president of the United States encourage violence and spread hatred. A year after the horrific assassination of George Floyd, we watched images of police brutality and sociopolitical asphyxiation every day, crimes being done against the very people who constructed the White House. And the voices of BLM (Black Lives Matter) have been heard across the world.
The irony is that the cries are directed at those who lecture and intimidate others under the banner of freedom, justice, and human rights. Is this, however, really surprising in a country that was founded on slavery and the genocide of its own indigenous people? "There is no difference between diplomacy and deceit," a former UN Secretary General famously stated. As a result, if the Statue of Liberty is meant to reflect the United States' attitude toward the rest of the world, it is undoubtedly a lie not just to the rest of the world, but also to its own people.
[This article may resemble TRT World's documentary]