The US has a responsibility to right its many wrongs, starting with the Middle East.
In 2019, former US
President Jimmy Carter told a church congregation about a conversation he had with Donald Trump, the
incumbent president at the time. He said Trump called him for advice about
China. Carter, who normalized US ties with China in 1979, told the president
that the United States had only been at peace for 16 years since the nation was
founded. He also called the US “the most warlike nation in the history of the
world.”
Carter considers
his time in office to be peaceful, but his record says otherwise. Under his one term as president
from 1977 to 1981, the US was still instigating conflicts across the world. The
most notable was the Iran-Iraq War, which the US, the Soviet Union and their
allies were heavily involved in by supporting the Iraqis.
Causing Trouble
The Civility Report 2021, a publication of the Peace Worldwide
Organization, labels the US the world’s worst troublemaker, followed by Russia.
The evidence for this is clear.
First, the US maintains at least 750 military bases in around 80
countries. It also has more than 170,000 troops stationed in 159 countries.
Second, in 2016, The Washington Post reported that the US has tried 72 times to
overthrow governments of sovereign nations between 1947 and 1989. These actions
were in clear violation of the UN Charter. Third, the US continues using
economic sanctions against numerous
countries to force their leadership to bow to Washington’s demands.
The worst example is Iran, which the US has
sought to use a policy of “maximum pressure” against. Sanctions are also in
clear violation of the UN Charter and affect civilians more than the political
leaders they seek to squeeze. These
unwarranted interventions in Iran have brought pain and suffering to people in
a country that is not known for its human rights.
The US, meanwhile,
is known well as a country that pays lip service to human rights, democracy and
peace. It talks about a lack of democracy in some nations but favors tyrannical
rulers in others. This includes countries like Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab
Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The US today is the
world’s only superpower, and with such power comes great responsibility. If the
US is truly interested in human rights, democracy and peace, then it too must
change its actions. It must begin by complying with the UN Charter and
respecting international law. Washington must right its many wrongs —
particularly in the Middle East — not because it is forced to do so, but
because it is the right thing for a world in which peace can prosper. For this
to become a reality, there are a number of areas for the US to consider.
The Coup That Has
Never Been Forgotten
The first area is
addressing the US relationship with Iran. In the 1980s, in violation of the
Geneva Protocol of 1925, the United States and its European allies provided assistance to Iraq when it leader,
Saddam Hussein, ordered the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops. Most victims of that attack
in 1988 died instantly, while many others are still suffering from the consequences. Some survivors of the
chemical warfare now struggle to find inhalers in Iran, which is scarred by
sanctions. The US should acknowledge the role it played in the war and provide
reparations for the injuries and damage it caused.
Today, the
draconian sanctions the US has placed on Iran has deepened a rift with the
European Union, Russia and China, all of which signed a nuclear agreement with
Tehran in 2015. The US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
(JCPOA) in 2018 under US President Donald Trump led to the reintroduction of
crippling sanctions that have hurt the Iranian middle class and the poor, causing
hardship and death.
Washington must
lift its unlawful sanctions, which Trump introduced to bring Iran to its knees.
The US thinks that Iran is meddling in the affairs of countries like Iraq,
Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, and that a policy of “maximum pressure” will force it
to rethink its foreign policy. The Trump administration used this as an excuse
to pull out of the nuclear deal, despite the Iranians complying with all of its
obligations under the JCPOA. The US under President Joe Biden should do the
same by rejoining the agreement and lifting sanctions.
In the long term, a
détente between the US and Iran could pave the way for the Iranians to forgive
the 1953 coup d’état against the democratically elected government of Mohammad
Mossadegh. At the time, a US-orchestrated campaign led to the overthrow of Prime Minister
Mossadegh. He was replaced with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the brutal last shah of
Iran, who himself was overthrow in the 1979 revolution. Yet the memories of the
coup have never been forgotten.
Lies Over Iraq
Iraq is another
country where US actions have not been forgotten. If you attack anyone without
being provoked, any court with ounce of justice would require you to repair the
inflicted damage. Relations between nations work in the same way. If a nation
harms another without provocation, the aggressor is expected to repair the
damage caused.
In 2003, under the
false pretext that the Iraqis had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ties
with al-Qaeda, the US under President George W. Bush invaded Iraq. The result was the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and his
government, the destruction of infrastructure, the death of hundreds of
thousands in the years to come and the displacement 9.2 million Iraqis.
The US invasion
inevitably led to the rise of radical groups like the Islamic State (IS), which
in 2014 seized territory in Iraq and Syria. The trillions that American taxpayers paid for the Iraq war
could have been well spent in the US on addressing poverty, building high-speed
rail networks or repairing infrastructure. Instead, the dollars were spent on
bombs and bullets.
When Iraqis led by
Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Mahdi al-Muhandis
formed resistance against IS militants and expelled them from Iraq, many people
were jubilant that their country was freed. Instead of congratulating Soleimani
and Muhandis for the role they played, the US violated Iraq’s territorial
integrity. In a US drone strike at Baghdad airport in January 2020, both men
were assassinated in violation of international law. The US action was not only
unlawful, but it also puts all foreign diplomats in
danger by setting a precedent for other countries to assassinate enemies.
There are two ways
the US can make up for its illegal actions of 2003. First, holding those
responsible to account for the invasion and human rights violations would show
the world that the US is serious about the rule of law. That includes the likes
of Bush and his accomplices, who lied and betrayed the trust of the American
people, as well as security and military personnel who went beyond the rules of
war. Holding such persons to account would restore respect for the US across
the world by demonstrating that no one, not even the president or American
soldiers, is above the law. Second, providing reparations for the loss of Iraqi
and American lives, the injuries caused, the people displaced and the property
destroyed is essential.
Famine in Yemen
Yemen is another
country where bombs have destroyed the country under the watchful eye of the
Americans. In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition supported and armed by the United
States, Britain and France began indiscriminatingly bombing Yemen in response
to a takeover by Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The destruction of Yemen has led to accusations
of war crimes by all parties involved. It has
also resulted in 5 million people being at the brink of famine and millions more
facing starvation.
The US must promptly stop all military
and intelligence support to the coalition. As the one nation with such
political power, the US must work on bringing the combatants together by
implementing the UN Charter that calls for
respecting “the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples,
and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.”
As citizens in a
free world, we must assume responsibility for our political leaders’ actions.
First, as a bare minimum, we should realize that the problems we cause for
others, sooner or later, will come back to haunt us. The example of US support
for the mujahideen during the 1980s in Afghanistan is well known. Second,
electing the right political leaders who strive for freedom and peace will not
only benefit people in faraway lands, but also in the US itself. Instead of
taxpayer dollars being spent on weapons, cash can be reinvested into our
society to educate children, improve access to health care and do much more.
United, we can put
“maximum pressure” on the US to become a leader in creating a world free from
war, oppression and persecution.
*[The author
is the founder and president of Peace Worldwide Organization, a
non-religious, non-partisan and charitable organization in the United States
that promotes freedom and peace for all. It recently released its Civility
Report 2021, which can be downloaded here.]
This article was originally published on Fair Observer on December 21, 2021.
