Did Russia give the US a taste of its own medicine?

Sartaj Chaudhary

Trump in, Obama out! Did Russia really propel the Trump campaign? Perhaps we will never know. But it wouldn’t come as a surprise if the KGB actually did. The CIA has been protecting American ‘interests’ for decades. So much so, it actually trained Latin American officers on how to conduct coups, interrogation, torture and murder in a special school called the “School of the Americas”.

A CIA operation ‘Mockingbird’, tried controlling the media and shaping people’s perceptions. Operation ‘MK Ultra’ tried controlling human brains by drugging unsuspecting citizens. Huge public outrage (after the exposé of 1970 when the US Army was caught spying on the civilian population) compelled Congress to hold hearings on CIA crimes. Senator Frank Church headed the investigation. The Church Committee brought about a number of reforms and increased the CIA’s culpability to Congress. The reforms proved completely futile as the Iran-Contra scandal later revealed. The CIA was powerful enough to completely sidestep Congress.

Let’s look at post-WW-II presidencies and examine the CIA’s role in protecting American “interests” around the world. The Eisenhower administration orchestrated the overthrow of the conservative government in Iran, resulting in years of brutal dictatorship. Eisenhower overthrew the first democratically elected government in Guatemala – which led to years of massive atrocities. The US conducted a major clandestine operation in Indonesia, leaving nearly 2 million dead. The US State Department acknowledged the wrongdoings in 1994 and furnished a detailed account of major CIA covert operations.

President Kennedy’s years saw the invasion of Vietnam, where the US used chemical weapons to destroy food crops. Millions of people had to live in concentration camps. The Cuban missile crisis was a clear case of international terrorism. It nearly led to the obliteration of the whole world!

Johnson’s presidency expanded the war in Vietnam, leaving millions dead. Under his leadership, the US supported the Israeli occupation. President Nixon brought the Vietnam War to an end – a war America was clearly losing. Nixon is also credited with bringing back American prisoners of war. He initiated a détente with China and signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. Ford was President for a short time, but long enough to endorse the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. It was as close to genocide as anything in contemporary times. The Ford administration pretended to oppose it, but secretly (in fact, not so secretly!) supported the incursion. Immediately after the invasion, the US joined the rest of the world in condemning the invasion at the Security Council.

Under Carter, the flow of weapons into Indonesia increased. Congress imposed a human rights restriction of advanced weaponry into Indonesia. Carter arranged through Vice-President Mondale to get Israel to send US Skyhawks to Indonesia to enable them to complete — what again turned out to be genocide — slaying a quarter of the population. Carter raised military aid to Israel to more than 50 per cent of the total aid worldwide. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Carter administration pumped billions of dollars into Pakistan. The ISI was set the task of nurturing the ‘Haqqani network’ (intertwined with Al-Qaeda) to counter the Soviet militaries. The US supported the Mujahideen – armed them, funded them. The implications? Still conspicuously evident!

Reagan became the first president to be condemned by the International Court of Justice for the unlawful use of force against Nicaragua. The Security Council endorsed it in two resolutions — both of which were vetoed by the US.

Bush Senior’s presidency saw the invasion of Panama. It was done to kidnap a disobedient thug who had been supported by the US right through his worst atrocities. The Panamanian dictator Noriega was brought to Florida and tried for crimes that he had committed on the CIA payroll! There were opportunities for a diplomatic settlement before declaring war on Iraq. There was no intelligence failure (worth mentioning here – Bush was a former director of the CIA). It was a well-calculated strategy. It reaffirmed America’s supremacy as the superpower.

Clinton’s presidency strengthened Saddam in the war against Iran without realising the imminent ramifications. Clinton simply declared the past UN resolutions ‘obsolete and anachronistic.’ The cruise missile attack on Sudanese pharmaceutical factory ‘Al-Shifa’ left tens of thousands dead as a consequence of medicine shortage.

Bush Junior’s presidency administered torture, extraordinary rendition and the anarchy in the Middle-East. The attack on Iraq and Afghanistan was a complete disregard for international law. Iraq was attacked in a manner that is criminal under the laws of war. The US attacked infrastructure. The nature of the attack amounted to biological warfare. It was simply ‘right of the might’. Most of the “rebuilding” was done by American companies — funded by the oil wells of Iraq. Joe Allbaugh – Bush’s former head of Federal Emergency Management Agency, started the ‘New Bridge Strategies’. It promised to use its top-level political connections to help US multinationals land a piece of action in Iraq. This whole idea of protecting US “interests” goes back to James Madison and the framing of the constitution. The interests of the state-corporate sector are of priority. The US government makes every endeavour to help the US trade flourish around the world.

Obama will be remembered as the “cool” president who went out to buy burgers for his staff. The president who got off his copter to shake hands with the marine whose salute he had forgotten to return. Trump’s victory, despite Obama’s unconditional support for Hillary, has definitely taken away from his legacy. The targeted killing of Osama Bin Laden after flying into a “sovereign” Pakistan is one of his greatest achievements.

President Obama has commuted Chelsea Manning’s (the soldier who leaked thousands of confidential documents to Wikileaks in 2010) 35-year prison sentence. She is set to walk free in May. With just under 1,400 commutations, President Obama has commuted sentences of more people than the previous 12 presidents combined. The weak are never in a position to forgive. Forgiveness is a virtue of the great. “Rok lo gar galat chale koi/ Baksh do gar khataa kare koi.” As for the incoming president, “Jab tawaqqu hi uth gaye Ghalib/ Kyon kisi ka gila kare koi….”

The writer is an expert in international law.