America was born, then marinated out of greed, violence, bullying and cruelty. America will soon be 250 years old. It has been starting, joining and threatening wars and intervening in other people’s affairs ever since it was founded as a nation in 1776. One would believe and hope that by now 250 years after, they would have learnt that wars are senseless and expensive approaches to resolving anything. Oh no!. Not America! They still try to outspend every other country on the planet in mostly useless military equipment, enriching the owners of the military establishment who in many ways are the real powerbrokers in their country. After 20 years of a senseless war in Afghanistan, these hustlers decided to pack up and leave the country. The country is now in a state no better than the Americans found it 20 years ago!! If anything, it is in worse shape now.
When will they learn? And what will it take for the rest of the world to tell them, enough is enough? As a nation, they have slaughtered and disabled more people than any other in recent history. They have created more chaos in individual nations’ economies than any other country in history. One thing they are exceptional at is public relations. Over the centuries they have been able to successfully convince so many people of the world that they are the greatest society in history! Irony is, had it not been for immigrants, the country would have been a near dump. Most of the major innovations coming out of America over the decades, come from the minds of immigrants! The same immigrants that are so mistreated and vilified by the current ignorant MAGA republicans running the country! History, despite their never-ending attempts at distorting it, will never be kind to America.
The recent bullying of the sovereign nation, Venezuela, by the Trump administration is a case in point. They went in with two objectives. The first was regime change and the second to take control of the country’s oil reserves. Sadly, this has been the American playbook for well over two centuries. History has shown that on every occasion that America enters a country and rapes it of its resources, while insisting on regime change, whether through intimidation, war or otherwise, the country is left worse off, than when they entered. Who can forget the chaos they caused in the 1970’s in Jamaica, with their orchestrated misinformation campaign encouraged and supported by the then opposition political party, whose only mission was to seize power at any cost to the country. And this was all because the then government of Jamaica insisted that it was time that the Americans who controlled our bauxite reserves and milked the country dry with little development to show, start paying a levy on the bauxite it mined for export back to the United States.
Their most recent geopolitical move in the Caribbean region is a new assault on Cuba. America has been terrorising Cuba since 1952, seeking regime change ever since. Cuba has been an example to the world of what resilience is and should be. The country has suffered significantly over the past seven decades of American aggression. And despite the cruelty imposed on its people by the US government pressure, often aided and abetted by some of its own Cuban citizens who later ran to America, seeking that elusive “better life”, Cuba has shown the rest of the world what is possible when a government shows real concern, not merely for the rich, but for the general populace.
Their education system has been a standard for many undeveloped and developed nations. In fact, many, including Jamaica, have benefitted from their kind assistance over the years in the training of our medical personnel as well as in other critical disciplines. Their generosity knows no boundary when it comes to assisting their friends. Thankfully, Jamaica has been counted among their friends for so many decades. And all this, while the bully up north is strangling their economy with every illegal sanction. The only crime that Cuba has committed is to let the world know that they are a sovereign nation and must be allowed to determine their own path in the world. What a terrible crime!!
One of the most hypocritical arguments America keeps touting as their reason for interfering in other country’s affairs is that they need to adopt a democratic approach to governance. The honest reality is that America is one of the most undemocratic countries on the planet! One does not even have to look far back on its history for confirmation.
A mere glance at the recent attempts and directives coming from the current leadership in so far as voting rights and gerrymandering of districts across the country to facilitate the current ruling party in upcoming elections, will tell the real story. Their low voter turnout in elections over the years is also an example because, increasingly, significant amounts of eligible voters realise that their votes do not really count, as the elected leaders are essentially bought out by the moneyed class who demand and expect returns on their financial investment in the election process. It is well known that their corporate lawyers often craft the bills (to the advantage of corporations) that eventually are voted on in the Congress. Sadly, many of the Congress men/women do not even bother to read these bills that they table for votes by the legislature! And that’s DEMOCRACY?? As a brilliant writer, Zackie Messenjah noted in an article, “When the U.S. talks about democracy, it has nothing to do with ballots, freedom or human rights. It has everything to do with resources, oil, who controls it, who profits from it, and who dares to keep it out of American hands”. To that I would add not just oil, but whatever resources America needs to control, that is in another country’s possession.
America has always been obsessed with wanting to be an empire, despite all the nice words in its constitution. It has always been desperate to exercise control over other nations, especially if they possess resources that it craves. This is bullying 101. A glance at history should tell all one needs to know about America and its 250-year grand plan. Sadly, so far, all it has done is create chaos, wars, mass human disability, death and destruction across the world. And those who stand up and resist are punished. There is urgent need for a new world order. One in which sovereignty means something. The current order is too heavily skewed in favour of the so-called rich nations, many of which were former colonial masters yearning for the “good old days”. Time for revolutionary changes to the existing order!
