Washington’s commitment to international law and multilateralism died long before the emergence of Donald Trump. America’s commitment to upholding global liberal values has always seemed to be largely symbolic and determined by circumstantial events.
Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all <https://apjjf.org/nick-turse/2956/article> authorized operations within Indochina that violated the laws of war and killed hundreds of thousands. Bill Clinton managed to rack up <https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/august-20-1998-the-us-bombs-a-suspected-qaeda-run-chemical-plant-in-sudan/> some rather horrific incidents and boondoggles. And practically no nation in the entire Western Hemisphere has escaped the tentacles <https://truthout.org/articles/proxy-war-and-surrogate-terror-how-the-us-came-to-take-an-active-role-in-war-and-torture-in-latin-america/> of U.S. regime change policies <https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/from-guatemala-to-venezuela-a-timeline-of-us-interventions-in-latin-america/ar-AA1TvCrg>. Thirty-six years to the day before Trump’s military kidnapped Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Manuel Noriega was detained by George H.W. Bush’s Delta Force in Panama and removed forcibly from power. Despite these divergences, for decades the Cold War and its myriad proxies helped to provide our government with cover from global criticism. That many of our human rights <https://www.nybooks.com/online/2017/10/20/uncovering-indonesias-act-of-killing/> atrocities and anti-democratic actions were done in opposition to Soviet activity helped to paper over some of our worst deeds. But after the collapse of the USSR, during America’s brush with unipolarity and the war on terror, this pretext for international order collapsed under the weight of new and intractable conditions. George W. Bush’s foreign policy wasn’t an aberration, but it was the moment where, unfettered from Cold War commitments to international law and liberal international order, America began to drunkenly bumble its way through unipolarity. Put simply, Bush’s actions directly paved the way for Trump’s bellicose unilateralism. And many incidents during the Bush years helped to build toward this idea. Bush set the precedent for all future presidents and world leaders. Unilateral acts of aggression are now only illegal if you cannot back them up with force or leverage. The economic spoils of war are now normalized and quite ubiquitous. Adherence to human rights or freedom is now window dressing, only to be used when politically convenient. The hubris of Bush, and his failed attempt to cement America’s unipolarity through force, has now led to a world where the powerful can act without consequences. Putin can invade, Xi can invade, and Trump especially can invade. Leaders can be abducted overnight. And there seems to be little in the way of stopping these forces from progressing further, dragging us deeper into a world order of chaos and power projection. https://portside.org/2026-01-07/bush-walked-so-trump-could-run-venezuela Let’s not forget - Bush and Cheney didn’t carry out the rape and destruction of Iraq alone - they had support from Democrat leaders like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Genocide Joe Biden. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40084): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40084 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117152577/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
