By SJ Otto
In the area of foreign affairs we can really see the effects of the end of the Soviet Union. The US is now the main superpower and there is no real opposition to it. The US acts as a superpower on steroids, with troops all over the world, fighting multiple wars on almost every major continent, accept Antarctica and Australia. Two countries are now occupied by the US, Afghanistan and Iraq. Just recently the US military is building up a presence in Africa.
Islamic revolt has been the major challenge to the US superiority and imperialism. The US has made the destruction of Islamic movements such as ISIS (Islamic State), a major priority. There are several organizations the US has targeted, such as al Qaeda and various local versions of that group throughout the Middle East and Africa. There are also the independent Islamic groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan. Many Marxist anti-imperialist groups have had to adjust to the fact that there are no more Marxist superpowers to support them. Right now they just don’t have the numbers of people and support networks of the Islamic groups. ISIS was the one group that had the audacity to take land that the US had conquered when it took over Iraq. President Barack Obama decided to go after ISIS and destroy them as a country. When President Donald Trump took over he followed the same plan to first destroy the country that ISIS had set up and then carried on the extermination campaign to wipe that group off of the face of the Earth, along with all its people and supporters. No attempt was ever made to negotiate an end to the war against ISIS. The US was intent on destroying that movement completely. In Europe and the US, those who are recruited to join ISIS are considered mentally ill. After all who would oppose US democracy and the system we all love so well? Any opinion in favor of ISIS in any way is viewed as a crime in the US and Europe.
And the new modern American Army takes no prisoners. There is no reason to expand Guantanamo because the US has allowed the Iraqi Army to kill all prisoners right after they are caught. Some prisoners have been thrown off the tops of buildings to save on bullets. This country has made it clear there is no tolerance for those who dare rebel against the US Empire. The barbarity of today’s military far surpasses the kinds of war crimes committed during World War II, at least on the ally’s side. And while the US continues to commit all kinds of war crimes, the troops are constantly hailed as heroes here at home. And the constant lie that gets repeated over and over—“they are fighting to keep us free.” They are fighting to maintain an empire.
That brings us to the issues of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The alliance was supposedly needed to keep out the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. So the Soviet Union fell and the Warsaw Pact faded away. But not NATO. It has expanded. Now many Warsaw Pact nations belong to NATO. So what does NATO really do? It is a major tool of the empire.
The pro-NATO argument is that it keeps the peace in Europe and allows the West to efficiently cooperate on counter-terrorism and humanitarian military operations……
According to Vox, “Everything you need to know about the military alliance that's freaking out Russia:”
“The positive spin is that NATO has adapted to the post-Cold War world, and now helps prevent wars, protect weak states and peoples, and promote democracy.”
The negative spin is that NATO allows the wealthiest and most powerful nations to bully the weaker ones. While it prevents war, it also prevents any kind of change. Revolution is nearly impossible since an attack on any NATO country is considered an attack on all. That part of the alliance has allowed the US to pull NATO allies into wars it started, such as the war in Afghanistan. The US had demanded and got NATO troops and support from the other NATO nations. It gives the false illusion that the war in Afghanistan is a war that the entire world, or most of it, is behind. And how democratic is it to force nations into a war they never had a chance to debate? While the main enemy of the Afghanistan puppet regime is the Taliban, there are others in that country who have opposed the US presence and they have also taken military action.
NATO and the European Union are control mechanism to prevent internal changes in European countries. The best example of how it works can be seen in Greece. By 2010 the Greek government was in trouble and in debt. In order to pay off its debts the government put in place severe austerity measures. The people fought the measures on every front. But the one thing they put a lot of faith in was elections. They voted in a leftist party known as Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς, (Translated: Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás), mostly known by the abbreviation SYRIZA. Voters rejected the Eurozone creditors' bailout terms in a voting referendum, in 2015, only for Alexis Tsipras, the elected leader, to endorse even tougher terms for a third bailout agreed the following month. Despite having popular support for turning back the austerity plans, the European Union was able to force the party and the nation to keep the austerity measures in place.
The people of Greece and SYRIZA had to decide if it was more important to overturn the austerity or to stay in the European Union. They stayed in the European Union and now the leadership of that body has more control over Greece than their own political leaders.
For examples of NATO being used to interfere in a European nation we only have to look to Ukraine. Nearly every minor superpower (such as Russia) is interfering in Ukraine and its civil war. Ukraine is actually considering joining NATO. If it does it will be joining an organization that has lead to constant meddling in that nation's internal affairs.
All of this shows us that it is not the Soviet Union that is interfering in the internal affairs of individual European nations, but it is NATO and the European Union. It could be argued that Eastern European countries were more controlled and lacked more autonomy than countries in the West, back when there was a Warsaw Pact. But today it is the West (The US and major European powers) that puts more control over the vary countries that NATO was originally supposed to defend.
For third world countries, they are now so dependent on Western powers the fall of the Soviet Union has been a major disaster. Marxist-Leninists are nearly gone from Africa. Political experiments in Nicaragua, Mozambique and Angola were among the many nations where newer, more democratic examples of Marxism were being tried. For those of us on the left, these nations held out great promise. Thanks to the constant meddling of President Ronald Reagan and then the actual collapse of the Soviet Union all such experiments have been scrapped. The Sandinistas, FRELIMO and other Marxist parties changed their alliances to the Democratic Socialists of Europe[1] to get development aid. There was nowhere else to get it. China has been no help to such countries and no other nation, other than the US and European nations, have the kind of development aid such nations need.
Such nations used to be able to bargain with one of the two super powers to get a good deal on aid and weapons. Now they have only one superpower and there is no bargaining. Many nations have learned the hard way as did when Yemen the leaders there refused to back former President George H. W. Bush in his war against Saddam Hussein, in the first Iraq war, in 1991. Yemen was punished for not supporting the only super power left in the world.
For now we live in a stagnant world where one US empire does what it dam well pleases. Foreign people in the less wealthy countries are little better off than slaves. There is absolutely nothing to counter the belligerent US military, a force that acts drunk with power. When they wiped ISIS off the map they wanted to let other groups and national leaders know they won't tolerate dissent. We are supposed to support the US because they tolerate a diversity of views, a trait that is championed as a cultural bastion of the West. But that is a bold face lie. Until someone can stand up to the US military machine we are all just the victims of a massive world-wide bully.
[1]