<\/p>\n
By Natalia Marques<\/strong><\/p>\n When US President Joe Biden ended his final address to the UN General Assembly with \u201cmy fellow leaders, there is nothing that\u2019s beyond our capacity if we work together\u201d, it can be easy to forget that the United States is the number one obstacle to mutual co-operation around the world.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s mention of the various conflicts and aggressions around the world \u2014 from Ukraine to Sudan to Gaza \u2014 of course made no mention of the US\u2019s complicity in each of these conflicts.<\/p>\n Biden calls for \u201ca ceasefire and hostage deal\u201d for Gaza in order to \u201cbring the hostages home, secure security for Israel, and Gaza free of Hamas\u2019 grip, ease the suffering in Gaza, and end this war\u201d.<\/p>\n But while Biden calls for an end to the war, the US continues to send weapons and other forms of aid to Israel as it carries out genocide in Gaza, aggression in the West Bank, and extends the war to Lebanon. <\/p>\n Biden\u2019s administration has ignored the popular demand for an arms embargo against Israel, supported by major labour unions, which represent almost half of all unionised workers in the US as well as 61% of the US population. Instead, the US has only expanded its military support for Israel, approving a US$ 20 billion dollar arms package to the Zionist state in August.<\/p>\n The US has maintained its unconditional support of Israel, even as Israel floats a possible ground invasion of Lebanon. Yet ironically Biden said of the war in Sudan, \u201cthe world needs to stop arming the generals\u201d. According to the Palestinian Youth Movement, an international Palestinian diaspora organisation, \u201cthe Biden-Harris administration is responsible for the current massacres in Lebanon\u201d.<\/p>\n The US\u2019s support for Israeli genocide has received additional scrutiny after it was revealed that USAID and the State Department knew that Israel had deliberately blocked humanitarian aid to Gaza. US law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries which block deliveries of US-backed aid, and so US Secretary of State Antony Blinken seems to have deliberately told Congress that Israel did not block aid so that weapons shipments to Israel would remain unaffected.<\/p>\n Yet in his speech to the UNGA, Biden entreated Sudanese generals to \u201cstop blocking aid to the Sudanese people\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance,\u201d Blinken told Congress on May 10, despite being told the opposite by USAID and the State Department in April.<\/p>\n In Ukraine, not only were the US and Nato\u2019s violations of Russian security red lines the chief cause of that war, but the West continues to be an obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the conflict. There has been no negotiation between Ukraine and Russia ever since the West allegedly forced Ukraine to withdraw from talks in April 2022, and the US in its usual fashion continues to supply billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine to continue the war.<\/p>\n And while Biden urged other UNGA member nations to \u201cstand up\u201d for the Ukrainian people, US military officials openly thirst for Ukrainian blood \u2014 complaining in a New York Times article from last year that the Ukrainian military has become too \u201ccasualty averse\u201d, causing it to \u201crace through precious [US-provided] ammunition supplies\u201d as opposed to human lives.<\/p>\n Biden spent time lamenting the humanitarian situation in Sudan and claiming that \u201cthe United States has led the world in providing humanitarian aid\u201d to the war-torn country. But like many global conflicts, the war in Sudan has its roots in the savagery of US imperialism.<\/p>\n According to Stephanie Weatherbee Brito of the International Peoples Assembly, \u201cThrough both military interventions and economic sanctions, the United States has shown its willingness to coerce any nation deviating from its interests.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has fostered a global environment where nations vie for power and influence. The US\u2019s propensity to invade and punish perceived adversaries has spurred countries to bolster their military and geopolitical capabilities to safeguard their sovereignty in a world marked by violence and conflict, saturated with weaponry and lacking effective mechanisms to ensure peace.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is essentially what is happening in Sudan today, where the conflict has resulted in more than ten million displaced persons. The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces serves to thwart the democratic process the people have been struggling for since 2018, as rival military groups struggle to control the country and its resources,\u201d Brito said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur task, our test, is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart,\u201d Biden claimed in his address to the UN, despite his administration\u2019s wielding of sanctions that cause economic devastation throughout the world.<\/p>\n For decades, the international community has been calling on the United States to lift deadly sanctions on Cuba that are part of an over 60-year-long blockade against the socialist nation. Most recently, a group of nearly 600 parliamentarians from 73 different countries penned a joint letter condemning the continued inclusion of Cuba on the list. And 35 former heads of state from across the globe penned a separate letter to Biden, urging him to remove Cuba from the US\u2019s \u201cState Sponsors of Terrorism\u201d list.<\/p>\n But when it comes to US sanctions and other violations of the sovereignty of other countries, Cuba is but one facet. Comprehensive US sanctions target and put a stranglehold on the economies of countries such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, and Syria. Other nations, such as China, are under constant attack on many fronts, whether through media fear mongering or military exercises near their territories.<\/p>\n And yet in his speech to the UNGA, Biden seems to deny that his administration has deliberately stoked conflict with China. \u201cWe also need to uphold our principles as we seek to responsibly manage the competition with China, so it does not veer into conflict,\u201d Biden pontificated.<\/p>\n \u201cWe stand ready to co-operate on urgent challenges for the good of our people and the people everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Amanda Yee, journalist, anti-imperialist activist, and host of The China Report on \u2018BreakThrough News\u2019, Biden\u2019s China strategy has nothing to do with managed competition. \u201cIn reality, it\u2019s a belligerent policy which will only escalate toward war,\u201d Yee told \u2018Peoples Dispatch\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he calls \u2018strengthening our network of alliances and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific\u2019 really means the continuation of arming Taiwan, building more military bases on allies\u2019 soil and in the South China Sea, sending cruise missiles to Japan, conducting war games exercises in South Korea \u2014 all to further build up the military encirclement of China.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve made the preservation of democracy the central cause of my presidency,\u201d Biden claimed during his address. And yet those in the US who have protested against their governments\u2019 domestic and foreign policies have faced police violence, mass arrests, and even deportation.<\/p>\n As US presidential elections fast approach, whether the winner is Biden\u2019s successor Kamala Harris or the ultra-conservative former president Donald Trump, anti-imperialist activists can expect more of the same repression.<\/p>\n * Natalia Marques is a Socialist, organiser in NYC @pslnational and writer @peoplesdispatch covering news for the working class.<\/p>\n ** This article was first published on Peoples Dispatch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Natalia Marques When US President Joe Biden ended his final address to the UN General Assembly with \u201cmy fellow leaders, there is nothing that\u2019s beyond our capacity if we work together\u201d, it can be easy to forget that the United States is the number one obstacle to mutual co-operation around the world. Biden\u2019s mention […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1838,15755,16621,11620,6966,16620,125,16204,13015],"class_list":["post-219335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-address","tag-bidens","tag-contrast","tag-cooperation","tag-democracy","tag-espousing","tag-reality","tag-sharp","tag-unga"],"yoast_head":"\nUS hybrid wars chief obstacles to global co-operation<\/h2>\n
The future of US democracy<\/h2>\n