The coronavirus pandemic is magnifying the cruelty of U.S. foreign policy. The economic collapse is showing the failure of neoliberalism and how the empire-economy is not working for the people of the world, including the United States.
The U.S. is losing its global dominance as it demonstrates its own incompetence in response to the pandemic and its viciousness in the midst of this crisis. Other countries are showing leadership and solidarity while the U.S. is escalating its attacks.
This is an opportunity to change direction. What seemed impossible in the recent past is now possible. We must seize the opportunity to create change that ensures the necessities of the people are met and the planet is protected. COVID-19 is one immediate crisis, but the climate crisis, nuclear war and economic insecurity all require solidarity between the people of the world.
No country can fully recover from COVID-19 or the economic collapse unless these crises are resolved for the whole world. Both the economy and pandemic are global and interconnected as are the looming crises of climate chaos and nuclear war.Rather than showing solidarity with other nations in the midst of the crises, the U.S. is escalating economic sanctions and threatening war while undermining a global response to climate and increasing the risks of nuclear war.
Black Alliance for Peace points out:The brutality and criminality of the colonial/capitalist system of state violence is reflected most graphically by the illegal and immoral policy of sanctions imposed on 39 nations by the U.S. and its Western allies.Venezuela, Iran and other nations are being denied the ability to import medicines and medical equipment to protect their populations from the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 23, theU.N. General Secretary Antnio Guterrescalled for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world sayingnations should focus together on the true fight of our lives the#COVID19pandemic.Fifty-three countriesimmediately agreed.Instead of heeding this call, the U.S. has threatened Iran and Venezuela with military attacks and continued the war with Yemen whileeliminating the majority of humanitarian assistance to Yemen.These actions were wrong before the pandemic, but in the midst of the pandemic, they are obscene.
China is sending medical supplies and assistance to 89 countries so far as part of itsHealth Silk Road.It is ignoring U.S. sanctions bysendingdrugs, test kits, and supplies to Iran and Venezuela. Hard-hit Italy noted thatthe other EU nations ignored their desperate plea for medical equipment while China responded. China is building positive relationships by providingessential equipment and expertisewhile theU.S. is tryingand failing to get other nations to sign on to a statement blaming COVID-19 on China.
Cuba hassentbrigades of doctors and nurses to Italy, as well as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Suriname, and Grenada. Russia has also sent medical supplies to hard-hit countries like Italy.Even Venezuela, suffering from a U.S. economic blockade and threats of a military attack, issending aid to its neighbors, including Ecuador and Colombia even though Colombia has joined the U.S. in threatening Venezuela.The U.S. blocked a shipment of coronavirus aidfor Cuba from Chinas richest man, Jack Ma, including 100,000 facemasks and 10 COVID-19 diagnostic kits, along with other supplies.
Europe is starting to break with the United States. The EU finally sent aid to Iran ignoring U.S. sanctions.France, Germany, and Britain have sentmedical goods to Iran through INSTEX a workaround to export goods to Iran that bypasses U.S.sanctions. This development could have major implications for the ability of the U.S. to unilaterally sanction nations as it provides a way for countries to trade without the U.S. financial system.Europe, led by Germany, also backed out of war gamesagainst Russia, which would have included a practice nuclear attack, due to the COVID-19 virus.
President Rouhani of Iran sent an open letterto the people of the United States saying, the war on this virus can only be successful if all nations can win this war together, and no affected nation is left behind. He urged us to change the direction of the U.S. government, writing, Future generations will judge the American people based on the actions of their government.
The zig-zagging incompetence of U.S. policy is evident.During the three months when the Trump administration did not take the virus seriously, the Interceptreportsthe United States allowed exports of medical supplies and equipment. After examining vessel manifests, the Intercept found medical equipment needed to treat the coronavirus [was] being shipped abroad as recently as March 17. This has led to a persistent lack of medical supplies in the U.S.
Now, the U.S. has angered allies by diverting medical supplies to the U.S.The Washington Post reportsthat Berlin expressed outrageover what they said was the diversion to the United States of 200,000 masks that were en route from China, while officials in Brazil and France complained that the United States was outbidding them in the global marketplace for critical medical supplies. They report the U.S. is also stopping the export of masks to Canada and Latin America.
Even worse, Trump took time from his daily press conference on COVID-19 to escalate threats against Venezuela bysending U.S. naval vesselsnear Venezuelas borders.AP reportsThe deployment is one of the largest U.S. military operations in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama It involves assets like Navy warships, AWACS surveillance aircraft and on-ground special forces seldom seen before in the region.
This followed aphony indictment of President Maduroand other Venezuelan leaders foralleged narcotraffickingthat included a $15 million bounty on Maduro. President Maduro wrote an open letterto the people of the world that decried the indictment as illegal and part of a U.S. coup attempt writing, the U.S. government, instead of focusing on policies of global cooperation in health and prevention, has increased unilateral coercive measures, has rejected requests from the international community to lift or make flexible the illegal sanctions that prevent Venezuela from accessing medicines, medical equipment, and food.The indictment was announced after Venezuela prevented weapons financed by the U.S. from being sent into Venezuela from Colombia for another coup attempt.
Venezuelans in the U.S. who want to fly back to Venezuela to escape the economic and health crises here are not being allowed to charter flights from Florida.The escalation against Venezuela also included the US-controlledIMF blocking a COVID-19 emergency loanto Venezuela.Venezuela has taken aggressive actions to stop the spreadof the virus and has been more effective than the U.S.
The U.S. also shows disregard for its own people, including those in the military, byfiring aU.S. Navy Capt. Brett Crozierafter he sought help for sailors on the U.S.S. Roosevelt aircraft carrier. Crozierwrote his superiors about hundreds of COVID-19 cases and when the letter was leaked, he was fired. As he left the ship,the crew cheered himfor standing up for their health and risking his career. The first government official fired over the virus was one trying to protect people from illness. The U.S. has also directed that reports onCOVID-19 in the military be kept secret.
The actions of the U.S. are leading tothe reshaping of global leadership.Patrick Coburn describesCOVID-19 as aChernobyl momentand concludes nobody is today looking to Washington for a solution to the crisis.
The people of the United States have been sold a false definition of national security. The pandemic shows that mass military spending on bombs, weapons, bases, and troops does not provide security. The coronavirus is expected to kill between 100,000 to 240,000 people in the United States if our response goes well and could be more than one million if it is inadequate. Deaths have already passed 9/11 and Pearl Harbor and could exceed the Vietnam War and World War 1.
We need to redefine national security.David Swanson calls for a real Department of Defensethat would prioritize the twin dangers of nuclear and climate apocalypse, and the accompanying spin-offs like coronavirus. He points out it would be less expensive to providefinancial security and top medical care to everyone on the globe than to fight wars.
Gareth Porter writes,For decades, the military-industrial-congressional complex has force-fed the American public a warped conception of U.S. national security-focused entirely around perpetuating warfare. The cynical conflation of national security with waging war on designated enemies around the globe effectively stifled public awareness of the clear and present danger posed to its survival by the global pandemic. As a result, Congress was simply not called upon to fund the vitally important equipment that doctors and nurses needed for the Covid-19 crisis.
The Pentagon was well aware of the threat of a pandemic and anticipated the lack of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds, according to a2017 Pentagon plan.Intelligence agencieswarned about the threat from influenza viruses for two decades at least and warned about coronaviruses for at least five years.Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefense preparednessat the National Security Council in May 2018warned that aflu pandemicwas the countrys number one health security threat and that the U.S. was unprepared.
In January 2017, Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, saidthere is no doubtDonald Trump will be confronted with a surprise infectious diseaseoutbreak during his presidency. In 2019, HHSorganizeda month-long simulation involving multiple federal offices that demonstrated the U.S. was seriously unprepared to cope with a pandemic. Despite all of this,the president claimedthe virus surprised the whole world, and nobody knew thered be a pandemic or an epidemic of this proportion.
The White House created a National Security Council office on pandemics, but in 2018 that wasdisbanded by Trump. The Trump administration also ignored apandemic playbookthat would have ensured a more effective response. The Strategic National Stockpile has not been maintained for years, as it competes with the military budget, whichshoveled $15 trillion into wars. The unreplenished stockpile is one reason the U.S. does not have sufficient ventilators and other necessary equipment. The U.S. is also weakened by theshortcomings of the for-profit health systemincludingthe closing of hospitals.
First and foremost, the U.S. must cease its drive to be the dominant power in the world and recognize we are part of a community of nations that must cooperate to take on the many crises that will define the 2020s. This means ending military aggression and regime change efforts by respecting the sovereignty and integrity of other countries, large and small. It means ending our occupation of other nations in the form of hundreds of military bases and outposts and ending our support for other occupiers such as Israel until it stops its colonization of Palestine. Instead of international war games, we could hold international exercises on disaster responses to save lives. And it means respecting and obeying international law and joining the International Criminal Court. The U.S. must stop behaving with impunity.
Second, the U.S. must scale down the military to what is required for protection, an actual defensive approach rather than being offensive. This means cutting the military budget by at least 50% and converting all production of military equipment, supplies, and weapons into public entities to remove the profit motive that drives conflict around the world. These resources can be used for social uplift instead of causing death in a peace economy.
Third, the U.S. must move quickly to eliminate threats to human extinction.TheBulletin of the Atomic Scientistsreset the Doomsday Clock to100 secondsto midnight, putting the world closer to destruction than at any point since the clock was created in 1947. As Alice Slaterwrites, we have avirus of nuclear proliferation asnuclear arms control agreements collapse. The U.S. is spending more than a trillion dollars to upgrade nuclear weaponswhile placing low-yield nuclear weapons on submarines.
Its not only superpowers that are engaged in a nuclear arms race, countries like North Korea, which is threatened by the U.S., and allies likeGermany and Saudi Arabiabelieve they need their own nuclear weapons.The U.S. must commit to the rapid disarmament of all nuclear weapons in cooperation with other nuclear nations and disband the Space Force, which violates the treaty that makes space a global commons.
While COVID-19 isalmost certainly a zoonotic disease,David Swanson points outat least some diseases, such asLyme Diseaseand Anthrax, have been spread by military labs.Germ warfare is a criminal enterpriseand so labs disguised as being for our defense but that create bioweapons need to be closed.
Foreign policy includes trade, which has been designed for corporate profit since NAFTA. The coronavirus collapse shows corporate trade creates weak supply lines. It also hollowed out U.S. manufacturing for cheap labor in Mexico, China, and other nations, creating economic insecurity and leaving us ill-prepared for a crisis. Trade must be remade into fair trade that serves the people and planet, supports industry at home, ends factory farming andcreates a balance with naturethat will help prevent future animal-based viruses.
A new foreign policy must also confront the climate crisis. This is a global challenge and nations of the world must work together to confront it. The U.S. has been playing a counterproductive role by building fossil fuel infrastructure, becoming a leading oil and gas producer, and holding back global climate treaties.Next week, in our series on The Decade of Transformation, we will focus on the environment.
The global economic collapse and COVID-19 pandemic are causing widespread suffering and death but will result in change. What that change looks like, positive or negative, is up to us.We must create the new normal that provides for the necessities of the people and protection of the planet. The world must unite in solidarity to confront not only COVID-19 but other crises too.
We applaud countries that are beginning to stand up to U.S. sanctions and work around the U.S. financial system to help countries like Iran and Venezuela. These are positive steps to end U.S. hegemony. We agree with President Rouhani of Iran, it is our responsibility to remake the government so it reflects the best of us.
An immediate step is to end U.S. sanctions.Join us inthe Sanctions Kill campaignwhere the coalition will be organizing webinars and other events to end illegal unilateral coercive measures. There will be aninternational week of action against imperialism and sanctions from May 25 to 31. We will need to be especially creative to build an effective campaign with tactics that work in this time of physical distancing.
We must alsotake action now to stop the war on Venezuela. Join the webinar with Carlos Ron, vice foreign minister of Venezuela on Monday night at 6:00 pm Eastern.Click here for information. Sign ontothis demandthat the U.S. drop its charges against President Maduro and other Venezuelan officials who have been falsely charged with narco-trafficking. We must be ready to mobilize quickly if the U.S. moves to attack Venezuela, or Iran or any country for that matter while the government believes we are distracted by the pandemic.
We are living in a time of crisis and that can be unnerving. But we have the power to get through this if we mobilize together with a clear vision of the world we wish to create and show our solidarity with each other through our actions. We are one human community and we need each other to get through the rough times ahead.
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