America Has Lost Its Role in the World
“On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war. These are the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign. More than 35 countries are giving crucial support — from the use of naval and air bases, to help with intelligence and logistics, to the deployment of combat units. Every nation in this coalition has chosen to bear the duty and share the honor of serving in our common defense.”
“To all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces now in the Middle East, the peace of a troubled world and the hopes of an oppressed people now depend on you. That trust is well placed.”
George W Bush addressing the American people, announcing to them that the Invasion of Iraq has just begun.
The America that George Bush once gave that speech to is an America that is almost unrecognizable today. Part of the reason for this drastic change is because of the ramifications associated with the invasion that Bush announced in that speech. More specifically, how he was announcing it to them, the catalyst was how he announced the justification for this invasion to the public, the rationale for why America should invade Iraq. To understand why the consequences of this speech are still echoing throughout our political landscape today, we must look at the origins for the rationale. We must examine how America moved from storming the beaches of Normandy to being a country that increasingly retreats from foreign affairs and conflicts.
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
Those were the words the American people heard from President Roosevelt the day after a crucial crossroads in our history—the Pearl Harbor bombings. The provocative attacks were a complete surprise, as the Japanese had deliberately delayed sending notice to Washington that they were going to declare war until after the attack had concluded. The attacks at Pearl Harbor were followed up by similar strikes on US naval bases in the Pacific, signaling to the American people that war with the Japanese had truly begun.
Later in the speech Roosevelt states:
“The United States was at peace with that Nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American Island of Oahu,(American pacific base that was also attacked) the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack”
This section is vital because it lays the moral framework for why Japan’s attack on the United States was condemnable and why it was a subversion of the International Order. Here, Roosevelt is explaining that peaceful America was an innocent victim, that it was Japan who was the aggressor, and that it was the Japanese who senselessly and violently took the lives of Americans.
This is important to establish, because it provides us a glimpse into how Americans once viewed their country, and thus how America viewed itself on the world stage. The upholding of Peace, Democracy, and Self Determination were considered core to America’s role in global affairs. America was a country that valued Peace, valued the Rule of Law, valued Democracy, and most importantly, America was ready to fight for the protection of those values. Now some readers might think this is a little “idealistic” for a lack of a better word. After all, at the same time FDR gave this speech, he was also making preparations for the deportation and relocation of a hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans, just for the purported crime of simply being Japanese. Despite the hypocrisy of its actions, America still saw itself as a country with a role in the world—a role that involved standing up for liberal values, even if at times it was, in the same breath, undermining those values for which it claimed to stand for.
FDR framed WW2 as a battle between good and evil; a battle between democracy and autocracy; and a battle between tolerance and violent dominance. The monstrous evil that was Nazi Germany made this comparison all the more apt. The Nazis were the perpetrators of the largest genocide in human history, and America would not stand for its atrocities. Thus, America deployed millions of soldiers to help liberate the invaded countries of Nazi Germany, soldiers who were well aware of what they were fighting for—the rights and dignity of their fellow man. Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, and future United States President Dwight D Eisenhower said when addressing a group of soldiers soon to be deployed to Europe,
“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”
Freedom, Liberty, and Opposition to Tyranny:these ideas were key to why so many men and women gave their lives in the Second World War. At the end of the War America won, the Nazis were defeated, their evils exposed, and America took a leading position in shaping the postwar order.
Sidenote, there’s a quote by Eisenhower on the War that I think is apt today.. We will come back to it later on.
“Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”
Almost as soon as the sound of bullets fell quiet, a new type of War would begin. The USA and the USSR become locked in war, albeit a Cold War, each striving for dominance over the postwar order. The same sense of American idealism that had been a driving force behind American entry into the Second World War, carried over into the Cold War. American Presidents framed the USSR as a totalitarian oppressive country, and America as a free and democratic one. American foreign policy was very well established during the Cold War and it became a very simple picture: the USSR were evil because they were totalitarian and oppressive, while America was good because it was Democratic and Free.
Ever since the inception of America in the 18th century, the values of Democracy and Freedom have been core to its national identity. During the Cold War, this “American Identity” so to speak, was formalized in the political sphere. Various American Presidents referenced the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution when rationalizing to Americans why they ought to oppose the USSR and its communist allies. While Presidents before the Cold War had made reference to America being a “Shining Beacon on Hill”, it was now, when faced with a clear enemy, that the American people began to truly embrace this unique identity centered around liberal ideals. America framed itself as a nation, unique amongst all others, due to its founding ethos not being based around a specific national ethnic identity (even though throughout its history that very much was the case), but instead being a nation based around a set of values and ideas—democracy, liberty, and Lockean contractualism.
America’s foreign policy during the Cold War was a clear reflection of these values. America intervened in other countries under the appealing guise of “opposing authoritarianism and communism”. We developed strong Military alliances with other Democratic European countries, alliances that we still maintain today.
But of course, there was an irony to America projecting this image of itself to the world. While America’s intervention in other countries were under the guise of opposing totalitarianism and oppression, they often only worked to serve American-backed despots. And back at home, millions of Black Americans still lived under the injustice of the Jim Crow system, subject to constant oppression and subjugation at the hand of the White class. Looking at America during the 1950s and 1960s, it was clear that the America that was sold to the world, was oftentimes an image of America that America itself failed to live up to.
And people realized this. The Civil Rights movement sought to challenge the entrenched system of Jim Crow in the South, while the steep opposition to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War sought to challenge the dubious morality of America’s entanglements abroad. Both of these movements framed their opposition to the injustices of their time based on an idea of what America was supposed to be, how it was not that, and that we should all work to make it what it was supposed to be: A free and democratic country for all.
As the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr said
“We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance. We cannot have a healthy nation with one tenth of the people ill-nourished, sick, harboring germs of disease which recognize no color lines—obey no Jim Crow laws.”
These movements for social change were not a rejection of the American ethos. Instead, they were a realization of its values.
Ultimately these movements led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, an unprecedented piece of legislation that expanded the liberties and rights bestowed in the constitution to all people, regardless of race. It was a final realization of the promise given to the marginalized some century before.
On December 26th, 1991, the USSR and the Eastern Bloc came tumbling down. America had won the Cold War, and there was much celebration of the success of Western Democracy. Good had triumphed over evil; Democracy had won against Totalitarianism. As then President George H.W. Bush said:
“During these last few months, you and I have witnessed one of the greatest dramas of the twentieth century — the historic and revolutionary transformation of a totalitarian dictatorship, the Soviet Union, and the liberation of its peoples. As we celebrate Christmas — this day of peace and hope — I thought we should take just a few minutes to reflect on what these events mean for us, as Americans.
For over 40 years, the United States led the West in the struggle against Communism and the threat it posed to our most precious values. This struggle shaped the lives of all Americans. It forced all nations to live under the specter of nuclear destruction. From Union, a Commonwealth”
America was now unchallenged on the world stage. It was free to shape the world in the image of the values it had for so long strived to uphold. Under the Bush and Clinton administrations, several ex-Soviet nations signed up for NATO, a collective military alliance committed to opposing totalitarianism. President Clitnon, in conjunction with NATO forces, bombed Serbian positions in order to prevent the outbreak of a genocide in Kosovo–a clear demonstration of the nation’s new global power. Later that year, Clinton would negotiate an end to the fighting all together, paving the way for the emergence of several successful and prosperous countries, independent of Yugoslavian totalitarianism.
It seemed that finally America would be able to craft a world in which all humans, regardless of their circumstances, would be granted the rights and privileges that America had been, in some form or another, fighting for since its very inception.
“We can now confirm that a second plane has hit the South Tower. America is under attack”
Those were the ominous words that were dispensed to President Bush, and the American Public, on September 11th of 2001. Terrorists had hijacked planes and had flown them into the World Trade center buildings in New York, taking the lives of hundreds of Americans. In the midst of the chaos that followed, Bush was rushed to the White House, where he delivered a televised address to the nation.
“Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.
The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong.
A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.
America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.”
Following the attacks, the American resolve only strengthened. The American people echoed the words of their President: America was a great nation, a nation that stood up for its values, and that today we must fight for those values. Thousands of Americans from all walks of life took up the pledge to defend the values that had animated America’s participation in previous conflicts. Just like the Second World War and the Vietnam War, Americans signed up for the army in droves, all motivated to stand against the people who sought to destroy the America they cherished.
America would invade Afghanistan, dislodging the Taliban and killing Osama Bin Laden. The people who attacked America were dead, the American beacon of freedom continued to shine bright as ever.
But that was not enough for President Bush. Bush wanted to use the American Military to dismantle any and all totalitarian regimes across the globe. Bush designated several countries as “terrorist stats”, nations he claimed had aided in the 9/11 attacks. Bush along with his vice president Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State, and Colin Powell made the collective decision to pursue military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
“On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war. These are the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign. More than 35 countries are giving crucial support — from the use of naval and air bases, to help with intelligence and logistics, to the deployment of combat units. Every nation in this coalition has chosen to bear the duty and share the honor of serving in our common defense.”
“To all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces now in the Middle East, the peace of a troubled world and the hopes of an oppressed people now depend on you. That trust is well placed.”
Bush framed the War in the same way past US presidents had framed there’s: as a battle between Good and Evil.
Except in Bushes’ case, it all went terribly wrong.
Bush had told the American public that Iraq was developing WMDS (Weapons of Mass Destruction), and that they had aided in the 9/11 attacks. Both of these were outrageous lies. America invaded Iraq, fought a war, and then was left with the undesirable job of picking up the blood stained pieces. The American people soon found out they had been lied to about the War. Wikileaks revealed that American drone attacks had been targeting civilians and journalists—not terrorists and state agents building nuclear bombs. Corrupt business interests were revealed to have had a stake in the war.
The American ethos—the American idea in its entirety—all came crumbling down. A cynicistic American public threw Bush out of office, and his successor continued to be plagued by the same entanglements that took down Bush. The more and more the American people learned about what their country had done, the more they began to turn their backs on the America of truth and liberty, instead embracing the America of Hatred and Evil.
Whereas previous movements for change had been driven by a commitment to realize and build an America that lived up to its founding values, in the wake of 9/11 and the Invasion of Iraq, many outright rejected the values that had been core to the American Identity for so long.
This frustration with the status quo, rejection of the American identity, and embrace of extremism, paved the way for the rise of the most Anti-American President in US history: Donald Trump.
Trump disregarded almost every tenet thought to be core to the American foundation. He pulled away from our allies abroad, instead choosing to embrace tyrannical despots like Putin and Kim Jong-Un. He pulled out of Syria, abandoning the Kurds, because he, according to at the time Secretary of Defense John Bolten, “had a call with Erdogan and was impressed with his dictatorial nature”. Trump questioned our commitments to NATO and our Asian allies, encouraging the ambitions of China and Russia in the process.
Most importantly, Trump betrayed the democratic values that this country had always upheld. He refused to concede that he had lost an election, instead insinuating that it was “rigged”, all the while instructing his supporters, and the people at the highest levels of state and federal governments, to throw out the results of a democratic election. Since then, Trump has continued to insinuate that if elected, he will enact policies that can only be described as extremely dictatorial. Trump disregarded the peaceful transfer of power so integral to the democratic process in this country.
What do we have now? Well what we have is an America that is doubtful of what kind of country it wants to be.
Extremism is at an all time high.
Republican politicians actively talk of making America a “White, Christian Nation”, while supporting the policies of a man who wants to redefine America’s democracy as a dictatorship. In plain writing, the Republican party has laid out a “Project 2025”, a plan to give the president supreme authority over all the functions of the Government—a plan that is eerily similar to the strongman policies of Orban and Erdogan.
The Democratic Party has not been immune to this rise in extremism. Many on the left deny that the US has ever been a country of freedom, disregarding our nation’s history of resistance to injustice, instead choosing to side with the totalitarian regimes of China and Russia. In the wake of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, many on the left have adopted the same prejudices that would normally be attributed to those on the Far-Right.
Many, both on the Left and Right, have given up on America as a country. Instead, they envision an America completely reshaped in their imagination.
This has led America to be utterly clueless as to what kind of nation it wants to be geopolitically. Many on both sides would prefer for America to retreat entirely, giving up on our role as the guardian of freedom and democracy, something that many millions of Americans have given their lives in protecting.
These tensions have not gone unnoticed by our adversaries. Russia and China have been emboldened on the World Stage. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and America only barely being able to provide the minimum aid necessary for Ukraine to continue fighting, many of our oldest allies are turning away from us, towards the values championed by Russia and China, values we used to champion ourselves on opposing.
What is there to make of all of this? Well I don’t have all the answers, I can only speculate as to what actions need to be taken.
In that vein, I call on all Americans to love America. Embrace our history that is rich with a commitment to the values that underscore the foundations of our democratic institutions. Embrace the enlightenment values that make this, and many other places, the nations where people regardless of what they believe or who they are can live freely and with the same equal rights that so many still continue to yearn for.
We need to stand up to injustice, bigotry, totalitarianism, and all the other opponents of freedom, for that is what was layed out in this nation’s founding document.
Esinhowers prediction has become a reality. Many forget the sacrifices previous generations made so we could live in comfort. Today we might very well be forced to face an obstacle to the global liberal and democratic order they helped uphold, only in our case we are too hopelessly divided to even begin to start taking the action they were forced to take, the sacrifices they were forced to give.
We’ve forgotten all the good this nation has done, instead focussing on the sins of the past, sins while very real, do not represent the sum total of what America is.
Despite what many say, America still is a beacon of freedom. That’s why so many people make the risky journey to emigrate to this country. That’s why my parents left their home countries. America was seen as a prosperous, free, and democratic country, characteristics that were oftentimes not seen across the globe.
I fear that in a few decades that will not be the case.
Now more than ever we need to rally around the flag. The sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of Americans must not be discarded.
We must continue the fight that our ancestors started. We can not be passive observers to history.
Now is the time. We must act now.
We must fight foes both external and internal, foes who seek to destroy the values that Americans have been fighting for since the very birth of our country.
We need to stick up for Democracy and Freedom.
For nobody else will.
Bibliography
Kisin, Konstantin, and Peter Lloyd. An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West. Constable, 2023.
Doherty, Carroll. “A Look Back at How Fear and False Beliefs Bolstered U.S. Public Support for War in Iraq.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 14 Mar. 2023, http://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/03/14/a-look-back-at-how-fear-and-false-beliefs-bolstered-u-s-public-support-for-war-in-iraq/. “Assessing the Role of the United States in the World.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, carnegieendowment.org/posts/2019/02/assessing-the-role-of-the-united-states-in-the-world?lang=en. Accessed 29 June 2024.