Analysis of Current American Foreign Policy
Analysis of Current American Foreign Policy
In the aftermath of the recent September 11 attacks, the ordinary Americans continue to ask why it happened, they still ask themselves this question why there is so much hatred towards their beloved America? Their America -the land of liberty and opportunities. Their home which has been so hospitable to so many immigrants, sharing their freedom and the goodness of the American way of life.
But the American people ought to know that it is not them but their foreign policies that are so hated.
The problem lies in the fact that the “American goodness” is hardly exported; it remains confined to its shores. What we hear about the American liberty and rules of law and democracy are rarely practiced in their Foreign Policy. Today as things stand their foreign policy towards the developing countries can be branded “immoral” because it employs double standards, is self-serving and justifies the use of excessive force.
(Several current world events highlight the double standards employed in the US foreign policy, most noted of which are the situations in Iraq and Palestine)
The American government claims that it condemns and looks down upon crime on children by adults. When a few American children are killed in school shootings then the whole nation mourns and the media is used to blast the whole issue out of proportion to gain sympathy from people all over the world. But if we look carefully at the situation in Iraq after the economic sanctions were imposed we would get to see the first signs of double standards in the American foreign policy towards the Middle East. The economic embargo imposed on Iraq has destroyed the counties entire infrastructure and the people to suffer the most have been the children of Iraq. According to foreign affairs, 576000 children have died as a result of the sanctions due to malnutrition and preventable diseases. Today Iraq has become a Pediatrician’s hell with no way to stop dying. Although leaders worldwide have forced the US to ease the sanctions , the US took the position that the sanctions would remain even if Iraq complied with the UN Inspectors.
IN 1998 Dennis Halliday the assistant secretary general of the UN who was in charge of enforcing the sanctions resigned rather than administering the sanctions in protest due to the deaths it was causing. But the Americans still stayed focused...