Source: CGTN
The large-scale feature film "Human Rights Disaster Caused by 'American Intervention'" produced by China Central Radio and Television Corporation CGTN was launched on August 9.
From the Gulf War to the War in Afghanistan, from the War in Libya to the military invasion of Iraq... In recent decades, behind the wars, chaos and turmoil in the Middle East and its surrounding areas, the United States has been everywhere. Over the years, the United States has frequently launched wars, incited conflicts, and disrupted the political situation on the grounds of "human rights," "democracy," and "counter-terrorism." Now that the United States is gradually withdrawing its troops from the Middle East, what kind of residue has it left in the region? This episode focuses on the accumulated human rights blood debt owed by the United States in the Middle East and its surrounding areas, and uses various ironclad facts: its so-called "safeguarding human rights and combating terrorism" is only a cover, and maintaining US hegemonism and power politics is the truth.
Life is like grass: the trampled right to life
According to a Brown University "The Cost of War" survey, since 9/11, more than 929,000 people have died in the so-called "global war on terror" launched by the United States, and more than half of them are unarmed civilians.
In 2003, the United States launched a military strike against Iraq on the grounds that "Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction". The civilian death toll caused by the war reached more than 200,000, of which more than 16,000 were directly killed by the US military. To this day, the United States has not been able to produce evidence of the so-called "Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction", so much so that the initiator of this war, former US President George Walker Bush, has to admit: "A lot of the intelligence has proved to be wrong." ”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell Chief of Staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson said frankly: "Whether it is the Mexican-American War, the Vietnam War or the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, when the United States wants to go to war with a certain side, we will find an excuse." ”
Refugee crisis: the neglected right to peace
According to the United Nations, the war launched or participated in by the United States in the wake of 9/11 resulted in the displacement of at least 38 million people, most of them civilians in and around the Middle East. In Syria alone, more than 13 million people have been forced to leave their homes in the past 11 years, the United Nations noted, creating the worst humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time. In Afghanistan, where the United States has been interfering militarily for 20 years, more than 10 million Afghans have become refugees. The sheer number of refugees from Syria or Afghanistan is evident from UNHCR data. According to statistics, by the end of 2020, one in every nine refugees is from Syria or Afghanistan.
In August 2021, the United States hastily withdrew from Afghanistan, but this is not the end of its debt in Afghanistan. After the withdrawal of the United States, nearly ten billion U.S. dollars of overseas assets of the Bank of Afghanistan were frozen, and strict financial controls and blockades were imposed on Afghanistan. It was only after repeated calls from the international community that the United States unfrozen nearly $7 billion in assets. However, only half of those funds went to humanitarian relief funds to help Afghans, and the remaining 3.5 billion was used to compensate the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
This move caused an uproar in international public opinion. More than half of Afghanistan's current population of 39 million people do not have enough food, children face severe malnutrition, and nearly 9 million people face famine. Rory Stewart, britain's former secretary of state for international development, angrily rebuked: "The US approach is quite shameful, and the withdrawal of multinational troops from Afghanistan and abandonment has plunged Afghanistan into the most serious humanitarian crisis." Millions of people are hungry. Now, the President of the United States has proposed stealing money that would otherwise belong to Afghanistan, which could be used to aid hungry people. ”
The various approaches taken by the United States have exacerbated the economic and livelihood difficulties of Afghanistan, created a new humanitarian crisis, and sharply increased the risk of refugee flows in Afghanistan. For many refugees, the beginning of exile means the end of individual development.
Professor Joseph Gregory Mahoney of East China Normal University pointed out: "Refugees usually face three problems. First, they are sometimes unpopular and cared for, and even suffer abuse. Secondly, for many refugees, it is difficult to start a new life. They face depression, poverty and other problems. Third, many refugees are unable to integrate into their new environment because they are not migrants who have voluntarily left their homes. Instead, by the force of the times, they moved away from home, cut off contact with their relatives and friends, and fled to a place almost completely different from their hometown. Many want to return home, and many end up stranded – the moment they become refugees, their social, cultural and professional development is essentially over. ”
Livelihoods are dying: the oppressed right to development
Due to endless wars and conflicts, the economic development prospects of countries such as the Middle East are bleak. Iraq's gross domestic product has not yet returned to its 1990 levels. Basic needs, such as health care, cannot be met. Before 1990, 97 per cent of urban and 71 per cent of rural residents in Iraq had access to free basic medical services. But now, the 1.8 million population has fewer than 1,000 hospital beds. Medical facilities were destroyed and 20,000 Iraqi doctors fled to other countries.
Syria faces a similar situation as Iraq. Syria's standard of living was once comparable to that of Western European countries, but after the outbreak of war, everything changed. UN Special Rapporteur Idris Gazaili confessed: "Many Syrians tell me that even when the war is over, they will flee because they have no water and lack basic necessities. In the past, as an Arab country, Syria had a standard of living comparable to that of Western European countries, was completely self-sufficient in terms of food supply and had good health conditions. For example, vaccination rates for children are as high as 95 per cent. Today, the situation has seriously deteriorated. Syria's unemployment rate, which used to be only about 8 percent, is now more than 50 percent. Syria's per capita income, which used to grow at an annual rate of about 4.5 percent, is now falling at the same rate. ”
In addition to creating a military conflict, the United States has also imposed economic sanctions on countries such as Iran and Syria, and millions of people are living in dire straits. As countries around the world struggle to combat COVID-19, countries like Iran, which are subject to severe U.S. sanctions, are in a more difficult position.
Moreover, the impact of military intervention on culture and civilization is often overlooked by the international community. For example, a few days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the National Museum of Iraq was looted. More than 170,000 artifacts have been looted, causing enormous cultural and civilizational losses to Iraq and the Muslim world.
U.S. crimes are paid for by other countries
Despite its numerous crimes, the United States has never been held accountable for its own faults. On the contrary, if anyone dares to investigate the war behavior of the United States, he will be hindered and threatened by all kinds of people coming to the United States. In 2020, for example, the International Criminal Court said it would open an investigation into crimes committed in Afghanistan by U.S. military and CIA personnel. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced visa restrictions against those "directly responsible" for the investigation, revoked or refused to issue visas, and frozen its assets in the United States, prohibiting them from trading anywhere in the world using dollars. In the end, the International Criminal Court abandoned the investigation of U.S. crimes in Afghanistan on the grounds that the Taliban had come to power.
John Ross, a senior researcher at the Chongyang Institute of Financial Research at Chinese Min University, said: "This is the consistent style of the United States. The U.S. Congress promotes American exceptionalism in foreign policy. In fact, this is not American exceptionalism, but American supremacy. The U.S. sees itself as better than any other country, so the U.S. doesn't have to follow in the footsteps of other countries. But the United States accounts for only 5 percent of the world's population, and if it goes around claiming that Americans are superior to the other 95 percent of the world's population, the other 95 percent of the world's population will naturally not swallow their anger, which is the root cause of global instability. ”
Doomed failure: Exporting Democracy or Exporting Turmoil? One of the reasons for the United States to launch military operations in and around the Middle East is to export American-style democracy and protect human rights. In this regard, Professor Izzy Zaran of Kabul University pointed out: "Exporting democracy is doomed to failure. Because if you really want to bring about change, you have to respect the values and understand the challenges that this country or nation is facing. The democratic export of the United States in the past few decades has ultimately brought only human rights disasters and 'forced migration' to the Middle East. ”
Mark Sloboda, an expert on international affairs and security analysis in Moscow, criticized: "The United States treats human rights as a weapon, a geopolitical weapon, specifically against its opponents, without restrictions on itself and its allies." This is the U.S. State Department's own admission. In 2017, an aide to rex Tillerson, then the new U.S. secretary of state, sent a memo to the newly appointed Tillerson to tell him how to handle human rights issues. The memo reads, "[The United States] should treat allies differently and give them more preferential treatment than their adversaries." Otherwise, the United States will have more and more opponents and fewer and fewer allies. ”
The United States: Protecting Human Rights or Trampling on Human Rights?
The situation in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq makes people wonder: Is the United States protecting human rights or trampling on them?
After decades of military conflict, how many bullets and bombs have left in war-torn countries? What damage has been done to the environment by the use of depleted uranium shells? How will terrorist organizations continue to pose a threat? How long will countries like Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq have to struggle to rebuild their homes?
"He who has a hammer in his hand sees everything in the world as a nail." If the United States does not abandon its hegemonic thinking, the world will be more turbulent because of the United States. And people's rights to subsistence, peace and development will continue to be trampled upon – in the name of "protecting human rights".