Originally posted by: souro
USA is the England of 1800s. Their word is the rule and their might makes it right. They spread discord, try to suppress the progress of other countries and pressures it's allies to alienate all those countries that US dislikes or have a clash of interest to hurt those country's economy. There is nothing to love about US's foreign policies unless one is residing there. But yes one can certainly learn from them how to keep every other country under one's influence.
As far as Iran is concerned, they have every right to develop nuclear technology for civilian purpose or for warfare. It's not upto US or any other country to decide who should develop what technology. US never consulted other countries when they developed their atomic bombs or decided to drop them on Japan. Why should other countries be obliged to take permission from them then?
The wars that US have engaged in recently have resulted in greater instability in those region. US produced Taliban to fight USSR, Afghanistan was run over by Talibans and now although they are not in power but continue to lurk in the shadowy sidelines. Thanks to US, Afghanistan is coming under increasing influence of Pakistan. Iraq war everyone now know was conducted under false pretext. Saddam atleast was a liberal (in terms of religion) Muslim leader, now that country is unstable and in danger of becoming another radical Islamic state. Syria a secular nation is facing the threat of war. Middle East is anyways moving towards even more radical Islamisation under the garb of popular uprising and radical Islamic parties replacing the older governments, US is only hastening the process by supporting such movements and destabilising even those countries which are not hardliners.
I don't always agree with US foreign policy a lot of the time, I definitely don't agree with a lot of their sanctions and military agreements. The Bush era was the worst in terms of our foreign policy and made matters bad to worse. However, at the same time I feel that people have an unfair bias against US as well and perceive our foreign policy as a one homogenous continuum. Just because a few leaders made really bad choices, does not mean that the entire foreign relations is malicious and will continue to do so. Also every country does act in its self interest and influence the world in their favor. Since USA for a long time had wealth and resources, it came of as a bully. Tomorrow, India, China, Brazil, Russia, whoever has the wealth and resources can come off as a bully. It also takes time to rectify mistakes made. Once you make a military intervention somewhere, it is very difficult to simply pull out and hope everything will be fine right away.
The conflict in Afghanistan was a necessity after what happened in 09/11. Even if the USA was responsible for creating Taliban due to their irrational red fear, one cannot hold USA at fault for wanting to retaliate post 09/11. On the other hand yes, the war in Iraq was a monumental blunder that Iraq, the world and Americans themselves were pulled into due to poor choices, intelligence and even misdirection of the elected officials. The operation to kill Osama Bin Laden, was again a necessity.
It is unfortunate that the region is in turmoil due to US intervention and contrary to popular belief most Americans civilian, military and politicians regret the extent of collateral damage. 50% of the turmoil is USA's responsibility in poor strategy to minimize civilian loss and handling their military better. However, 50% of the turmoil is due to the distrust in USA, pressure to withdraw that resulted in erratic, unplanned operations due to the state of limbo – can't engage fully, but cannot back out either.
As for Iran, like any sovereign nation they have the right to develop nuclear technology for power or weaponry. As a nation that was first to use nuclear weapons and start the arms race the USA does not have a right to dictate nuclear technology to the world. At the same time if a nation feels that nuclear weapons are being developed by rogue states with high risk of falling into the wrong hands, it is well within any nations right to warn other nations and request that some measures be taken. Ultimately it is upto the rest of the nations to decide what to do.
When it comes to USA foreign policy I think many people also forget about the humanitarian branches of our State Department – USAID and the PeaceCorps two non military and non political arms whose mission is to provide humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and economic aid for the development of regions. Very few nations have such branches that actually receive a significant chunk of national budget to benefit other nations.
CID
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
