Comrade Putin’s Revenge? — A 2013 WIN/Gallup International Global Poll Showed that the US Is Seen as the Biggest Threat to Peace — and Nicolas J. S. Davies’ Essay — 35 Countries Where the U.S. Has Supported Fascists, Drug Lords and Terrorists — Gives the Polled Perspective Credence

© 2014 Peter Free

 

06 March 2014

 

 

With America slinging mud at the Russian Federation, perhaps mild self-examination is in order

 

Egregious hypocrisy is America’s blind spot.  It weakens us diplomatically.

 

 

A memory for history removes wings from the American foreign policy angel

 

Looking foolish, hypocritical and geopolitically inept (all at the same time) cannot be good for our American brand. See here and here.

 

Being viewed as a murderous and hypocritical nation removes elements of our soft power’s ability to persuade.  And it increases armed resistance to our troops’ occupying presence(s) abroad.

 

 

Two illustrative points

 

A long streak of supporting fascists and neo-Nazi regime-changers muddies the American image abroad.

 

A global poll, taken at the end of 2013, indicates the rest of the world predominantly sees the United States as the world’s preeminent foreign policy trouble-maker.

 

 

Let’s start with our American penchant for supporting fascists, neo-Nazis, terrorists, and other unsavory groups abroad

 

This is the kind of often clandestine stuff that non-Americans remember — at least in those nations that have been negatively affected by the United States’ surreptitious funding and arming of anti-democratic groups.

 

For example, I alluded to this kind of surreptitious and destabilizing American activity in Ukraine.

 

More broadly, Nicolas J. S. Davies published an outstanding overview of similarly illegal (and arguably immoral) interventions a couple of days ago.  His is the best short synopsis of America’s Dark Side abroad that I have seen in a long while:

 

 

Nicolas J. S. Davies, 35 Countries Where the U.S. Has Supported Fascists, Drug Lords and Terrorists, AlterNet (04 March 2014)

 

 

Some will argue with a few of Davies’ characterizations — but overall, he gets the gist of the interventions right

 

For the most part, U.S. foreign policy is run by fearful, plutocratically-oriented dopes.  Quasi-fascists, if we use the word “quasi” to imply an anti-democratic and/or corporate greed component.

 

 

Definition — fascist, fascism, quasi-fascist

 

From Dictionary.com (visited 06 March 2014):

 

 

1. any ideology or movement inspired by Italian Fascism, such as German National Socialism;

 

any right-wing nationalist ideology or movement with an authoritarian and hierarchical structure that is fundamentally opposed to democracy and liberalism

 

2. any ideology, movement, programme, tendency, etc, that may be characterized as right-wing, chauvinist, authoritarian, etc

 

In other words, totalitarian, with the main emphasis on being opposed to democratic principles — “democratic” here meaning majority rule, with the implementing institutions not yet having been bought up by wealthy self-interests.

 

American quasi-fascists comprise both our political parties, which have been bought (bribed) to do the socio-economic elite’s will.  If we look at Mr. Davies’ examples of unlawful interventions abroad, greed’s theme and an unwillingness to allow foreign “rabbles” to rule themselves run throughout.

 

 

How our violent tinkering plays in world opinion

 

The United States is seen as the world’s most threatening nation, and not in the helpful (to us) sense.

 

Extracts from WIN/Gallup International’s December 2013 global End of Year poll showed that:

 

 

The US was the overwhelming choice (24% of respondents) for the country that represents the greatest threat to peace in the world today.

 

This was followed by Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%).

 

Respondents in Russia (54%), China (49%) and Bosnia (49%) were the most fearful of the US as a threat.

 

Respondents in South America mirror those around the globe in believing the US to pose the biggest threat, with a significant 46% of Argentinians and 37% of Mexicans choosing the US.

 

Whilst Australia agrees with the trend, with 17% seeing the US as the biggest threat, Japan listed North Korea with 22% and Papua New Guinea felt Iraq (16%) was the most threatening to world peace.

 

UK respondents found Iran and the US (both 15%) to be the most threatening.

 

Morocco (45%) and Iraq (24%) classed Israel as the biggest threat, with Kenya fearing Somalia the most (43%).

 

US respondents are most fearful of Iran (20%), while in Canada the biggest threat is also perceived to be Iran (17%).

 

1% of respondents believe that the UK is a global threat.

 

Western European respondents (14%) found the US to be the most threatening country, followed by Iran (13%) and Syria (10%).

 

UK respondents found Iran and the US (both 15%) to be the most threatening.

 

© 2014 WIN/Gallup International, WIN/Gallup International’s annual global End of Year survey shows a brighter outlook for 2014, Wingia.com (30 December 2013) (for the specific regional links from which the above extracts were taken — see here, here, here, and here)

 

Note

 

Individual nation results are here (in table form).

 

 

You can only act like a malicious jackass for so long, then the rest of the world catches on

 

Notice that, as of late 2013, the Russian Federation didn’t even make it into the list of top bad guys.

 

 

The moral? — We Americans should probably drop the self-righteous act because few who matter are buying it

 

When Secretary of State John Kerry told Russia:

 

 

[Y]ou just don't invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests.

 

I had to laugh — given the United States’ much worse ploy in Iraq and our probably continuing support to neo-Nazis in Ukraine.

 

Americans never look so unattractively stupid, as when we get caught with our hand in the cookie jar, trying to blame someone else for the coming theft.

 

Comrade Putin may be smiling, even in the midst of his geopolitical risky gamble in Crimea.  It must feel good to pull America’s self-righteous chain.

 

That, in itself, is a good argument against continuing the United States’ long streak of hypocritical meddling.  Artful strategy avoids giving our adversaries reason to mess with us, just to be messing with us.

 

 

Sadly though, greed, combined with American arrogance, avoids learning self-restraint at every opportunity.