During his recent visit to the White House, US President Joe Biden promised Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the Ukrainian leader would “never be left alone”. The smiling Zelenskyy reminded me of a football manager who gets full public approval from his club president days before being sacked.
The likely reality is that the public expression of support for the most powerful man in the world holds as much water as a broken sieve. Biden will keep the flow of American weapons for the war against Russia going for as long as it suits Washington to do so, and not a moment longer. This is the way with all the American promises.
After losing the 20-year war in Afghanistan, it is evident that the United States is looking to fight and win future battles by proxy. American boots in the field will be rare. Someone else will fight against America’s perceived enemies. Can Ukrainians trust Biden though? Or any other American president? Over the years, members of the White House have repeatedly betrayed others; ask the Palestinians, Vietnamese, Iraqi Kurds and Afghans, for example.
Washington is certainly a formidable enemy, but his friendship is also perilous. Millions of people in Britain marched against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but the friendship between President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair saw British troops drawn into a war the country had clearly rejected. The result was over a million widows and orphans in Iraq, a country that is still in turmoil today.
The betrayals of American foreign policy are many, as MEMO editor Omar Ahmed observed last year: “The United States has a form in this regard. We have seen, for example, how they betrayed the Iraqi people during and after the 1991 uprisings; in the face of the Taliban takeover, how he stopped supporting armed opposition groups in Syria and how he betrayed the Kurds on numerous occasions. allies made the Ukrainians fear that they would be the next to suffer the same fate.”
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I believe that the war in Ukraine was imposed on innocent Ukrainians, but not necessarily by Moscow. Russia was wrong to invade the country and wrong to stay there; I accept this unconditionally, but Vladimir Putin was pressured into launching his invasion. The United States poked the Russian bear with a sharp stick knowing it would react aggressively.
As NATO played war games on Russia’s borders this time last year, remember, the Russian leader urged Biden to sit down and talk. When the pair finally spoke, it was a 50-minute phone call on December 30, 2021, their second conversation that month at Putin’s request. Biden has said he needs to see Russia reduce its military buildup on Ukraine’s borders; Putin responded by saying the sanctions threatened by Washington and its allies could lead to a severing of ties.
We have to wonder if Zelenskyy has unwittingly become a useful idiot for the United States. Dressed in his now-iconic military-style trousers and t-shirt, he praised American support while warning that it is hard to see an easy end to the conflict. “There can be no just peace in a war that has been imposed on us,” he insists.
His fiery speech was very different from the words of the same Ukrainian leader who twelve months ago urged the US president to tone down his rhetoric against Russia. However, like many leaders who rely on US support, his own rhetoric has become more aggressive as Biden has upped the ante in the war of words with Putin.
Perhaps intoxicated by American might, the Ukrainian leader traveled to Washington to address the US Congress last week as the new Republican leadership of the House of Representatives grew less keen on signing checks in white for military aid to Kyiv. Public support is therefore essential.
I don’t know if Zelenskyy is naive or was dazzled by the sheer scale of American military might, but is Biden’s support really unconditional? As I wrote following a recent visit to Afghanistan, US bombs and missiles are no longer falling on innocent Afghans, but Biden’s executive order imposing sanctions and freezing Afghan assets has doomed many innocent to a slow death by starvation. If that’s not a war crime or a crime against humanity, I don’t know what is.
The United States treated Afghanistan like a high-maintenance military playground, and ordinary people suffered. Biden even accused Afghans of being ungrateful and not fighting back against the Taliban. How long, I wonder, will it take to turn against the heroic Ukrainians who have more than proven themselves in the face of Russian aggression?
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Perhaps no one has been more betrayed by the United States than the Palestinians. President Bill Clinton placed himself at the heart of the Oslo Accords, the much-heralded “peace accord” between Israel and Palestinian leaders signed nearly 30 years ago. The deal has been exposed as a sham, and the Zionist state’s occupation of Palestine continues to grow and appears permanent, though few in Washington and other Western capitals will admit it, including presidents Americans. The fact is that the two-state solution is long dead. In its place, we see growing support for a one-state solution – a secular state with equality and democratic rights for all – because Palestinians recognize that this is the only way for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to be able to exercise their legitimate right to return.
Clinton encouraged Palestinians to dream of peace, but despite successive presidents’ treaties, promises, and promises to Washington, those dreams are in tatters. He betrayed the Palestinians to a large extent. When the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, 110,000 illegal settlers lived in the occupied Palestinian territories; today there are 600,000. Clinton’s promises were a classic betrayal of Washington. So much so that few Palestinians will trust an American president again.
Some political observers cite the Vietnam War as a low point in US history when secret talks with North Vietnamese officials opened with America in Paris. The United States supported the South Vietnamese, sending money, supplies and military advisers, but tens of thousands of body bags containing the remains of American soldiers saw domestic opposition to the war grow.
In order to make Saigon accept the agreement secretly negotiated between Washington and Hanoi, the United States promised to bring substantial military aid to South Vietnam. This aid never materialized.
A peace treaty was signed in January 1973 between the warring parties of the United States and Vietnam, leading to a complete and ignominious withdrawal of American forces. A similar scenario played out in Afghanistan in 2021. “It’s so easy to be an enemy of the United States,” former South Vietnamese leader Nguyen Van Thieu said wryly, “but so difficult to be a friend”.
The irony is that the official motto of the United States is “In God We Trust”. That’s probably just as well, because confidence in American leadership is at an all-time low at home and abroad. Zelenskyy should take Biden’s words with more than a pinch of salt. No American president can be trusted; their promises last only as long as they suit Washington.
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The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia are all Arab and African states.
What is the biggest country in the world?
The largest country in the world is Russia with a total area of 17,098,242 km² (6,601,665 sq mi) and an area of 16,376,870 km² (6,323,142 sq mi), which is equivalent to 11% of the total landmass of the world’s 148,940,000 km² (57,510,000 sq mi). See the article : The situation in Burkina Faso – United States Department of State.
What is the smallest country in the world? The smallest country in the world is Vatican City, with a landmass of just 0.49 square kilometers (0.19 square miles). Vatican City is an independent state surrounded by Rome. Vatican City is not the only small country located inside Italy.
Which country is No 1 in world?
United States. The United States of America is a North American nation that is the most dominant economic and military power in the world.
What are the 3 biggest countries?
The three largest sovereign countries by land area are Russia, Canada, and the United States. Together, they take up about a quarter of the Earth’s landmass. This may interest you : Executive Order on Strengthening Efforts to Bring Home Hostages and U.S. Citizens Unjustly Detained. The other heavyweights are China, Brazil, Australia, India, Argentina and Kazakhstan.
Is Pakistan considered Middle East?
Being part of South Asia, Pakistan is generally considered to be geographically outside of what is known as the Middle East. However, it still maintains strong ties and shares common challenges with the region. On the same subject : 10 Unique Experiences You Can Only Have in the United States. The country is also a frequent victim of terrorist attacks which rarely make the headlines.
Which country belongs to the Middle East? Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen.
Is Pakistan is in Middle East?
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defined the Middle East as “the area between and including Libya on the west and Pakistan on the east, Syria and Iraq on the north, and the Arabian Peninsula on the south, plus Sudan and Ethiopia”. In 1958, the State Department explained that the terms “Near East” and “…
What region is Pakistan part of?
Pakistan (official name Islamic Republic of Pakistan) is a country in South Asia with a coastline on the Arabian Sea, which is a region of the Indian Ocean. The country is bordered by Afghanistan, China, India and Iran.
What Middle Eastern country doesn’t exist anymore?
Pages in category “Ancient Middle Eastern countries”
- Aden Protectorate.
- Colony of Aden.
- Al-Dhubi.
- Alawite Sheikh.
- Alaouite State.
- State of Aleppo.
- Assyrian Empire.
- Chronology of ancient Assyria.
Which countries in the Middle East are not Arab? Iran and Turkey are not Arab countries and their main languages are Farsi and Turkish respectively. Arab countries have a rich diversity of ethnic, linguistic and religious communities. These include Kurds, Armenians, Berbers and others. There are over 300 million Arabs.
Which countries will no longer exist?
| old country | Reduction year |
|---|---|
| Texas | 1845 |
| Tibet | 1950 |
| Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) | 1991 |
| United Arab Republic | 1961 |
