The Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest war in American history. Altogether, over 600,000 died in the conflict, more than in World War I and World War II combined. In the 1900s, the United States fought in several long and difficult wars around the world. Between 1917 and 1945, the United States fought in two major world wars: World War I and World War II, which helped America to emerge as the biggest and strongest single power, contested by the former USSR until 1990. Since 1950, the United States has fought in several other wars: the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the Syrian War, and Ukraine, and is once again supporting, hand in glove, Israel’s expanding genocidal war against Palestine and the Middle East for the final realisation of the Zionists’ dream of Greater Israel. As I am writing these lines, Iran has retaliated with a 100-missile attack on Israel to avenge the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, while an Israeli military spokesperson announced a timely response followed by POTUS’s order to US armed forces to defend Israel at all costs. Thus, the Middle East stands on the verge of witnessing yet another great unholy and immoral war.
American involvement in direct and indirect military conflicts and regime changes all over the globe is supported by more than 750 military bases installed in 80 countries, with 173,000 troops deployed in at least 159 countries. Is it for the love of democracy, the protection of human rights and Western values, for the protection, security, and welfare of the American people, or something else? Let’s explore a bit. I recently read a very revealing paper titled “The Regime’s Wars Are Built on Lies,” written by an American veteran named Karen Kwiatkowski, who opines, “Americans are increasingly uneasy about their ‘national’ security, and increasingly concerned that war is lapping at our shores. Instead of reducing the risk of harm to America and our interests, the federal government in Washington seems to be seeking it, investing in it, fuelling it, and lying about it. Congress openly talks about fighting wars and reliably funds them, and we can easily verify that it’s piled billions of dollars into this particular spending basket. What we cannot see is why Washington acts as it does. The why is often suppressed, and the underlying rationale for the ongoing investment in war is obscured. Instead, state media and our politicians bleat continually that Washington is defending freedom and helping small states stand up to their oppressors.”
Freedom, whether in individual or state form, rests not on words but on private ownership of self and property, and on state protection of those individual property rights. If it’s not defending freedom, is the US helping a small independent state stand up against its larger and wealthier oppressors? Neither of these alleged motivations for American foreign intervention applies to what the US is doing in Ukraine or Israel. So why is the US government so committed to funding, fighting, and expanding these wars? The answer is that war helps the state seize our property and our freedom. The answer is that war truly is the health of the state. Israel, the size of Vermont and with the population of New Jersey, but ranked the fourth-best performing economy in the world by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2022, is a militarised society with top-notch defence and technology sectors. It is nuclear-capable, and its defensive capabilities are mighty, unmatched by any oppressor’s power. Israel doesn’t need the US to “defend” it. The Zionist state is no doubt evolving and remains a place of domestic and international conflict. But it can only be described as an “independent underdog” with a wink and a nod. The state of Israel has nurtured a very peculiar political relationship with the United States, which not only guarantees political top cover at the UN and in Congress for all of Israel’s actions, but also provides Israel 24/7 access to Congress and US executive agencies. Since 1948, this peculiar relationship has produced over $300 billion in unconditional annual military aid and economic payments to Israel. In times of active conflict, this aid is rapidly doubled and tripled with overwhelming bipartisan support from Congress and the president. As supporters of this aid like to remind us, some of these tax dollars are spent at home by our own state to shore up our own defence industries.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Ukraine began transitioning away from state ownership of land and property. Ukrainian land today is primarily in the hands of politically connected national and international corporations, and large commercial farms hold most of its agricultural land through leases, according to the Oakland Institute. For decades, Ukraine was considered the most corrupt nation in Europe. Mind-blowing levels of state and state-connected graft persisted through the transition from Soviet republic to EU member and NATO hopeful. As centralisation and state control of the means of production continued in Ukraine, now with encouragement from the West, a private economy and civil society failed to flourish. We must acknowledge the hard truth of Senator Lindsey Graham’s recent statements on Ukraine’s $10 trillion to $12 trillion in mineral and natural resources, which the US state wants to control: “It’s a gold mine” — not for the people of Ukraine but for a US government fighting for ever-expanding control beyond its borders. As with all US-supported wars, the US government is seeking its own advantage, one that is wholly incompatible with recognising and protecting individual property rights, and with liberty in general.
Can we consider Ukraine an independent underdog, as US politicians insist it is? Ukraine is a massive European powerhouse of natural resources, geography, cheap labour, and cheaper politicians. This is precisely why its natural transition from Soviet rule to a classical liberal republic can never be permitted. Too many interested parties with too many different reasons want to shape Ukraine’s evolution, the US state chief among them. Ukraine is not only not independent, but its dependency was carefully crafted by Western interests before the 2014 coup and is designed to persist long after new lines are drawn between Ukraine and Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and, of course, Russia. Ukraine, like modern Israel, emerged as an artificial and political state. Not only did Israel and Ukraine not arise organically, but neither was allowed that opportunity in the rushed “end of history” years of the 20th century, the most murderous, and most statist, of centuries. The US government is not investing in conflict in Ukraine and Israel to help a small independent underdog stand up to its larger oppressors. The US, by actively aiding liberty-abhorring state institutions, fundamentally oppresses both the Ukrainian and Israeli populations. Remember, the US government, regardless of politics or party, counts dead Ukrainians and dead Russians as a win-win, publicly justifying its use of bombs, missiles, and cluster munitions — used to kill the innocent and to target homes and hospitals.
Saleem Qamar Butt
The writer is a retired senior army officer with experience in international relations, military diplomacy and analysis of geo-political and strategic security issues.