As the Makeup Runs, Hitler Smirks: The Hypocrisy Embedded in US Foreign Policy

A value-centred approach to foreign policy has been widely debated and criticized since World War I. Critics often focus more on its form than its substance. Essentially, it recasts 'brute force' and 'hegemonic struggle' under the guise of a set of values. Today, these purported values effectively act as a facade to mask violence; the concepts of democracy, human rights, peace, freedom, justice, transparency, and identity rank as the most ostensibly useful.

On the face of it, the states professing to adhere to value-oriented policies have seemingly lost any moral connection to the lofty values they promote. This disconnect is most evident in the contradictory strategies the United States and the United Kingdom have adopted in response to the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel.

It is significant to recognize that humanitarian values, a collective legacy of our species for millennia, do not belong exclusively to any group, alliance, or nation.

When used as instruments of dominance, these values lose meaning; worse, they corrupt public perception.

A Conceptual Deception

International relations experts identify two fundamental approaches to foreign policy: realism and idealism. These approaches are inherently contradictory.

Value-centred policies belong to the idealist framework, existing solely in the realm of ideas — discussed in books and theoretical debates but lacking practical application in the real world.

States naturally adapt their foreign policy approaches in response to the evolving conditions and challenges of the international environment. However, humanitarian values remain constant, irrespective of circumstances or individuals.

Given the history of massacres committed by the Washington administration, both domestically and globally, the notion of values often proves to be nothing more than a conceptual deception.

Bismarck's Legacy

The realist approach centred on interests, gained a unique distinction under German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. During his tenure as President of Prussia, in a speech on September 30, 1862, about the unification of German territories, he coined the term Blood and Iron, which became synonymous with the Machtpolitik (power politics) philosophy.

This approach prioritizes national interests above those of other nations or the international community and aggressively protects these interests through military, economic, and political means. It also romanticizes military objectives, presenting them with a veneer of morality and asserting that international conflict serves a moral purpose. In this context, violence is a key tool to achieve success, while value-centred moral rhetoric merely legitimizes violent actions.

Therefore, the so-called humanitarian values the U.S. cites to justify its actions in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine quickly dissipate in the face of the bloody operations of Israel in Gaza, which have claimed over 31,000 civilian lives, shifting to a politics driven by interests and violence. Setting aside values for now. This situation prompts a question: 

What does the word 'human' mean to those controlling the American war machine, which has relentlessly caused death for 228 of the past 248 years since 1776?

Let’s simplify our question further:

Who is considered a human by the American military-industrial complex?

Perception Engineering: Creating the Villain

"The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human," says British writer Aldous Huxley. Propaganda, from Modern Latin, the neuter plural gerundive form of 'propagate,' means 'to spread,' or 'to propagate', thus it means the things which are to be propagated, and that word has long served as a covert weapon for those in power or seeking power.

For this weapon to work efficiently, it requires constructing a simple 'moral perception' that one side embodies good and the other evil (bad). It takes little time for masses conditioned to this dichotomous framework, which categorically excludes the opponent, to forget that the other side is also human.

With the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine War on February 24, 2022, we witnessed an intensely unprecedented ‘disinformation’ campaign. The windows through which you observed the war, had an inevitable impact on your views.

According to the Western mainstream media, the 'bad guys' should be severely punished, and judgments should rely on the familiar arguments tied to a so-called set of values.

Let's take a closer look at how leaders have used these arguments.

The Great Demagogy

As is widely recognized, the U.S. has sided with Ukraine in response to the war between Russia and Ukraine, which commenced in 2014 and intensified in February 2022. Since the outset of the crisis, the U.S. has played a significant role, not only by providing military, financial, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine but also by spearheading the imposition of various sanctions on Russia, a key player in the conflict.

According to U.S. officials, this conflict transcends the Ukraine-Russia dynamic, representing a confrontation between the so-called "free world," governed by democracy, and a "totalitarian regime" that threatens democratic values.

This narrative underpins U.S. propaganda efforts.

During a speech at the summit held in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, on July 12, U.S. President Joe Biden, amidst applause, articulated this stance:

"Faced with a threat — faced with a threat to the peace and stability of the world, to democratic values we hold dear, to freedom itself, we did what we always do: The United States stepped up.  NATO stepped up..."

He continued:

"Folks, as I look around the world today, at a moment of war and peril, a moment of competition and uncertainty, I also see a moment of unprecedented opportunity — unprecedented opportunity — the opportunity to make real strides toward a world of greater peace and greater prosperity, liberty and dignity, equal justice under the law, human rights and fundamental freedoms which are the blessing and birthright of all of humanity."

In his speech, Biden appears to have applied nearly all the components from the multifunctional makeup kit mentioned earlier, all at once. However, he still could not have succeeded in crafting an appealing portrait.

How Did the Nazis Become 'Heroes?'

"Demagogy is the ability to dress minor ideas with major words," says Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, and apparently, he is not wrong. Since the inception of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Washington administration precisely executed this strategy, encapsulating it in a mere ten words representing the so-called 'libertarian' values.

The libertarian ideology was the cornerstone of the Age of Enlightenment before devolving into an instrument of 'special warfare'. Today, it functions as a mask for concealing human exploitation and invasions, and whenever the mask slips, Hitler's sly grin is revealed underneath.

The Times, a British magazine, etched its name in history as one of the first publications signalling a policy shift regarding its stance on Nasisim. Catherine Philp's article on March 30 defined the Azov Battalion as "A group of white supremacists." However, in an article titled, "We are patriots – we’re fighting the real Nazis of the 21st century," the Azov Battalion described itself as "an elite battalion challenging its far-right reputation."

On the other hand, when NATO launched its attack on Yugoslavia, Time magazine featured the headline "Bringing the Serbs to heel; a massive bombing attack opens the door of peace", while the Russian-Ukrainian war was characterized by the headline, "How Putin shattered Europe's dreams".

Additionally, an article by Sam Biddle in The Intercept stated that the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group based in Ukraine, blacklisted by Facebook in 2019, had been removed from the blacklist and could now be "openly praised."

A particularly noteworthy exclusive report circulated by the Reuters news agency on March 11, 2022, revealed that Facebook and Instagram had temporarily permitted "calls for violence against Russians." 

After contributing to the partial extinction of Native Americans, enslaving Africans, and subjecting Afro-Americans, Asians, and Muslims to humiliation, this campaign extended its reach far beyond the Russian state and the army; Russian culture, civilization, history, and society have now become the latest victims of one of history's most barbaric lynching campaigns.

Evaluating social media monopolies, which regularly supply information to American security agencies like the FBI and CIA, independently from the American military-industrial complex, would be a grave mistake. 

Furthermore, the pivotal role these monopolies play in the war waged by the U.S. and its allies against the rest of the world has become more evident with Israel's bloody occupation in Gaza.

Who Qualifies as 'Human' According to META?

The conflict that erupted in Gaza on October 7, 2023, acted as a litmus test for Silicon Valley-based social media giants, much like numerous mainstream media outlets that heavily promoted 'high humanitarian values' during the Russia-Ukraine war.

An article published on November 21, 2023, by The Intercept revealed that Facebook approved a series of ads "dehumanizing Palestinians and advocating violence against them." This decision was purportedly made "to evaluate Facebook's content moderation standards."

However, the ads, published in Hebrew and Arabic, blatantly violated Facebook's and its parent company Meta's policies. Some contained explicit calls for the killing of Palestinian civilians, while others urged the 'genocide' of Palestinians or called for the "elimination of Gazan women, children, and elderly." Moreover, certain ads labelled Gazan children as "future terrorists" and portrayed Arabs as 'pigs' using inhumane arguments.

In essence, just as Facebook had temporarily permitted calls for violence against Russians at the outset of the Russia-Ukraine war, it was now 'temporarily permitting' calls for violence against Palestinians amid the Gaza crisis.

Let's revisit our inquiry: According to Meta, the social media behemoth owned by Mark Zuckerberg, who qualifies as human?

Despite Facebook spokesperson Erin McPike's assertion that the ads were played 'by mistake,' additional data unequivocally reveals Facebook's stance in this regional conflict...

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Meta systematically suppressed pro-Palestinian voices during the Israel-Palestine conflict. The organization's investigation of over 1000 Meta censorship cases across 60 countries revealed that censored content included "peaceful expressions supporting Palestine and basic demands for Palestinian human rights."

The Emperor Has No Clothes!

For a staggering more than 170 days, the Israeli army has relentlessly targeted civilian settlements, hospitals, schools, and shelters in Gaza, which has been under blockade since 2007. Despite being home to 2.3 million people, Gaza is enduring one of the worst humanitarian crises of the century, yet curiously, discussions about 'high humanitarian values' are notably absent.

Since Israel's onslaught on Gaza began on October 7th, more than 31,200 Palestinians have lost their lives, including approximately 13,500 children and 9,000 women. Additionally, an equivalent number are feared trapped under the rubble. This data certainly reflects the information available at the time of writing, and the numbers continue to escalate exponentially with each passing day. But what really concerns us is that the gap between the 'libertarian' or 'humanitarian' values Western governments profess to champion and the harsh reality is increasingly widening. 

Since Israel's onslaught on Gaza began on October 7th, over 31,200 Palestinians have lost their lives, including approximately 13,500 children and 9,000 women. Additionally, an equivalent number are feared trapped under the rubble. This data certainly reflects the information available at the time of writing, and the numbers continue to escalate exponentially with each passing day.

However, another concern that troubles us amid the rising loss of life is the widening gap between the 'libertarian' or 'humanitarian' values Western governments profess to uphold and the stark realities of the present day.

When the Russia-Ukraine War erupted, the Western-centric 'human rights chorus' cautioned against being on the "wrong side of history" and spared no expense in isolating Russia. However, concerning Gaza, the master of ceremony, the U.S. vetoed the 'humanitarian ceasefire' proposed at the U.N. Security Council, acting as expected.

Let's recall that the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99, "reserved for situations where international peace and security are threatened." Following this move, the Washington administration vetoed a resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire at the U.N. Security Council and then opposed another ceasefire resolution backed by 153 countries at the General Assembly. The U.K. abstained from both votes. 

Let's ensure this is recorded in history, and persist in exposing more instances where the Emperor has no clothes.

Staging the Obvious

The West, on the one hand, incessantly talks about commitment to human rights and democratic values, while on the other hand, it lends support to Israel's political goals aimed at the total elimination of the people of Palestine and their state. Western states, faced with one of the greatest civilian massacres of the century, are adopting a stance opposed to the arguments they have been advocating for years.

The vetoes against General Assembly resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, committing to a two-state solution, and condemning Israeli settlements are the most significant evidence of this.

Finally, the words attributed to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, pronounced so clearly that they cannot be dismissed as a mere slip of the tongue, are the most explicit expression of the disastrous distortion of the so-called humanitarian values.

During his visit to Israel on October 13, Blinken invoked his Jewish ancestry in his speech at Israel’s Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. He said, "I come before you not only as the United States secretary of state but also as a Jew. My grandfather Maurice Blinken fled pogroms in Russia. My stepfather Samuel Pisar survived concentration camps. I understand on a personal level the harrowing echoes that Hamas’ massacres carry for Israeli Jews and, indeed, for Jews everywhere..."

The Keywords are the #UnitedStates., #SecretaryOfState, #Jewish, #Russia, #Pogroms, #ConcentrationCamp, #Hamas (bad guys), #Massacre, #Israel (good guys), Jews (the superior guys).

The response to the inquiry "Who qualifies as human for Blinken?" lies within the mentioned keywords, and regrettably, this response is poised to spawn a new, dreadful Auschwitz somewhere on this blue planet.

In another corner, at the centre of the 'high human values' tableau, the bloody-handed dictator Hitler smiles slyly from beneath his characteristic moustache.