Turning Pax Americana from Sour to Toxic
Paul Krugman stepped into international relations this week with a column about the destruction of America’s good name with our allies. I don’t disagree with his analysis, but it is not complete. He laid the blame on Donald Trump who has scrambled alliances by pulling back from a full-throated commitment to help allies if attacked — despite the legal, economic, and social ties that bind us. He blamed Trump for cozying up to authoritarian regimes around the world who routinely imprison and even execute transgressors from and opponents to the ruling group. He worried that we may need generations to mend these tears in global relations, even if Biden wins the election.
The part he mentioned but did not really explore is that we have been transgressors ourselves quite often since we helped create global systems of governance after World War II. The hallowed Marshall Plan was also an effort to prop up weak states on the periphery of the Soviet Union, so they would not fall behind the Iron Curtain. Secretary of State George Marshall specifically conditioned American aid on the exclusion of the Italian Communist Party from any Italian governing coalition. The US has thrown its weight around quite a lot since 1945, and not always peacefully.
Krugman does mention US-backed coups in Iran and Chile, but more in passing than stopping and asking what those actions did. In both cases, we caused authoritarian elements in the society to take power and overthrow either elected officials or movements with popular support. While these were relatively bloodless efforts on our part, our partners in these crimes against democracy were quite willing to spill opponents blood, usually in the darkness of prisons.
The biggest sticking point in my mind, however, was the fact that we repeatedly invaded countries that posed no direct threat to the US. The list includes North Korea, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Granada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (again), Libya, and Syria. These were justified on ideological, geopolitical, humanitarian, and occasionally economic grounds. Usually, the bigger the intervention, the more important were the ideological reasons.
Krugman left out Iraq in his discussion of America’s fall from international grace. We invaded a country in 2003 on false intelligence reports that were cobbled together in an effort to exploit the anger Americans felt after the 9/11 attacks. We invaded a country that was not involved in the plot because we did not like its leader. (Lots not to like there, but we don’t often invade to overthrow authoritarian leaders. We even have a catchphrase to describe our attitude: “He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.”) Our invasion did much more damage than overthrow a regime and disrupt one nation, it destabilized the entire Middle East. Coupled with invading Afghanistan and the resistance fostered against America and the groups we supported, our actions unleashed even more anti-US sentiment than before.
So, before we complain that Trump contributed to the slide in American grace and global influence, let’s remember that these seedlings were already thriving. Our hubris has led us to act with little regard to history, ethnicity, religion, and justice. Our interventions were not America at its best. The difference with Trump today is that he already had a sour stew on the international stove. He has turned it toxic by embracing our adversaries and shoving our allies aside.
