America's vast war machine endangers world security

America's Vast War Machine Threatens World Security (Bells)

- The "origin of war" must be traced to the United States (3)

The U.S. Department of Defense recently released a "Global Posture Assessment" report, claiming that it will strengthen military infrastructure in Guam and Australia. The report is full of Cold War mentality, which is the embodiment of the long-standing hegemonic thinking of the United States and the inertia of the United States in safeguarding its US-style hegemony by military means. For a long time, the United States has wantonly flaunted its military force around the world, repeatedly exerted military pressure on other countries, and even provoked wars and conflicts, with the fundamental purpose of maintaining US-style hegemony.

In the American dictionary, "war" has always been accompanied by "hegemony". Turning over the short history of the United States, from the westward expansion movement to the Mexican-American War to the Spanish-American War, a series of foreign expansion accompanied the early development of the United States. After the end of World War II, the United States became the country with the strongest comprehensive strength in the world, and war became an important tool for the United States to safeguard its hegemony. The Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Panama War, the Kosovo War, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, the Libyan War, the Syrian War... The Ambition of the United States to maintain hegemony has spawned one foreign war after another. Even the enormous cost of losing the war did not dampen America's war impulses. National Interest magazine quoted Dakota Wood, a senior fellow in the defense program at the Heritage Foundation, as saying that the United States is involved in an average of one war every 15 years. From Asia to the Americas, from Europe to Africa, wherever the black hand of the United States is extended, there will be no tranquility.

In order to maintain its hegemony, the United States maintains a huge war machine and even establishes a network of military bases all over the world. Since 1945, the United States has established nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and has continuously strengthened its military presence. In the Middle East alone, more than 70,000 U.S. troops have been stationed for a long time, and advanced military equipment such as aircraft carrier battle groups, stealth fighters, and strategic nuclear submarines have been deployed to maintain the so-called "strategic deterrence" at all times. In his book U.S. Military Bases Abroad: How They Harm the World, U.S. columnist David Wayne argues that U.S. military bases abroad exacerbate geopolitical tensions and actually make the world and the United States more insecure.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the Cold War, but U.S. foreign policy has never been freed from the influence of Cold War mentality, and its dependence on military means has never diminished. Over the past 30 years, the United States has always maintained the deployment of global military power, and in order to seek its own absolute security, it has not hesitated to harm the legitimate security interests of other countries; the United States has constantly sought out "imaginary enemies," exaggerated external threats, and has not hesitated to provoke the risk of confrontation between major powers; the United States has repeatedly relied on its super-strong military strength, or directly launched wars, or waged proxy wars, or sought various excuses to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, repeatedly creating security crises and humanitarian disasters. According to a report released by the U.S. anti-war group Code Pink, the United States and its allies have dropped an average of more than 40 bombs and missiles a day over the past 20 years, causing countless casualties. The Los Angeles Times commented that the United States reveled in its post-Cold War power and selfishly focused on its own politics and interests.

The adjustment of the international pattern is at a crossroads, the democratization of international relations is the trend of the times, and building a world far from fear and universal security is the broad demand of the international community. However, what the United States has done is contrary to the general trend of the world. Constantly upgrading nuclear arsenals and lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons; forming foreign air forces, establishing a space command, and accelerating the development of outer space weapons tests; strengthening military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region, and drawing allies to engage in military pressure... The 2020 global military spending trend report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden shows that the US military expenditure ranks first in the world for many years, and even in the face of economic crisis and financial difficulties, its military expenditure in 2020 is still 4.4% higher than that of the previous year, accounting for nearly 40% of the total global military expenditure.

At present, the people of all countries have more ardent expectations for peaceful development, their call for fairness and justice has become stronger, and their pursuit of win-win cooperation has become firmer. The United States continues to be obsessed with the "power of the fist" and indulges in the "law of the jungle", which will only put itself on the opposite side of historical progress and let more people see the true face of its hegemonism.

Source: People's Daily