IN-DEPTH / IN-DEPTH
GT Investigates: Layer by layer, peeling back the US’ masks and what it has wrought onto the world
Editor's Note:
The masks covering the true face of the US have been removed one after another through the seven investigative stories the Global Times published over the course of the past few weeks. These masks are engraved with beautiful words such as peace, liberty, security, unity, science, humanity, and global order, hiding the country's true visage distorted with lust, greed, and subjugation.
Wherever the US turns with these deceptive masks, it authors turmoil, disaster, and anxiety. We should realize that the US is the crisis instigator between Russia and Ukraine, the architect behind the turmoil around the world, the vampire who is obsessed with accumulating wealth from others' misery, the schemer of the Cold War in the 21st century, the poison disseminator who creates and spreads plagues and hatred, a human rights violator, and a Voldemort-like figure hell-bent on dominating global order.
To expose the US' hypocrisy is to protect the collective international conscience. Both Eastern and Western cultures believe in one thing: Virtue trumps acts of evil.
Through the flames ignited by the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the international community is increasingly able to see the role of US-led NATO in this crisis.
"They cheated! Just brazenly tricked us!" Russian President Vladimir Putin said angrily at his annual press conference on December 23, 2021. He said that NATO had deceived Russia by violating the promise made in the 1990s - "Not one inch to the East."
In the 30 years since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the US has hemmed in Russia's strategic security space in a characteristically brazen way.
From waiting for an opportunity to launch a "color revolution" against Russia and its neighboring countries, to continuing to manipulate Ukraine and constantly creating regional instability; from frequently wielding sanctions against "disobedient countries," to forcing other countries and allies to pick sides... Washington's siege on Moscow has led to a bloody battle between two brotherly nations: Russia and Ukraine.
Countless facts show that the US is the instigator of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As an old man in Ukraine said before the outbreak of the conflict, the deterioration of relations between Russia and Ukraine is not the doing of Russians or Ukrainians, but the sole doing of the United States.
The US has not been at war for only less than 20 years in the more than 240 years of history since its independence in 1776. From the end of World War II in 1945 to 2001, 248 armed conflicts took place in 153 countries and regions, of which 201, or 81 percent, were initiated by the US. From the Vietnam War to the Gulf War, and the Afghan, Iraq, and Syrian wars - the US, having gained dominance over the international order, is never absent in playing up its military force in conflicts. In order to gain global hegemony, it has always sought out enemies, unleashing waves of interventionism in many parts of the world, followed by infiltration, subversion, and color revolutions. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is just Washington's latest creation.
Serbian soccer fans on March 17 brandished banners in the stands of the Europa League quarter-finals to remind the world which countries the US had invaded. Several of the banners held up by spectators listed all the countries invaded and years of invasion by the US, including Panama, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Grenada, Afghanistan, etc. Spectators also held up banners with John Lennon's anti-war lyrics - "What we want to say is, please give peace a chance." When will the US unhand its turmoil-creating machine in the world All those who love peace are asking!
The Russia-Ukraine conflict instigated by the US has so far led to the displacement of 4.65 million Ukrainians. Under pressure, the US announced it would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. However, it had only resettled 12 by the end of March.
For decades, the US has used excuses including human rights in its instigation of chaos, instability, conflict, and even war globally. Data shows that the wars waged by the US after 9/11 have resulted in 49-60 million refugees. About 5.6 million are Syrian refugees who have since fled to neighboring countries.
Inside the US, incidents of racial discrimination and violent law enforcement have emerged one after another, including the shocking murder of George Floyd who was choked by an officer who kneeled on his neck. The US is the only developed country insisting that human rights do not include the right not to die from hunger or lack of medical care due to poverty. Some 40 million Americans are living in poverty. All the facts reveal that the US, which claims itself to be a "human rights defender," is no more than a cold-blooded killer and violator of human rights.
Believing in power, abusing violence, killing competitors to seek hegemony... these are the words used to describe Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. Interestingly, the director of the Harry Potter series and the BBC have used the character Voldemort to describe former US presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
The US does act like Voldemort in the real world, busy with political manipulation, economic bullying, and exercising long-arm jurisdiction. "Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia's economic gains" and make Russia "an outcast on the international stage." These were the remarks made by US President Joe Biden after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict.
With the joint "efforts" of the US and its allies, Russia has become the country that has suffered the most sanctions from the US in recent years. According to a report by the Sputnik News, data from a sanctions tracking platform shows that since 2014, Russia has been subjected to 5,532 sanctions, surpassing Iran and Syria. Of the sanctions, 2,778 were imposed since February 2022.
In the Harry Potter series, the Voldemort character's arrogance and unchecked need for absolute power lead to his eventual demise. Similarly, in the real world, the US' hegemonic acts and sabotage of the international order will only come back to haunt itself.
The masks covering the true face of the US have been removed one after another through the seven investigative stories the Global Times published over the course of the past few weeks. These masks are engraved with beautiful words such as peace, liberty, security, unity, science, humanity, and global order, hiding the country's true visage distorted with lust, greed, and subjugation.
Wherever the US turns with these deceptive masks, it authors turmoil, disaster, and anxiety. We should realize that the US is the crisis instigator between Russia and Ukraine, the architect behind the turmoil around the world, the vampire who is obsessed with accumulating wealth from others' misery, the schemer of the Cold War in the 21st century, the poison disseminator who creates and spreads plagues and hatred, a human rights violator, and a Voldemort-like figure hell-bent on dominating global order.
To expose the US' hypocrisy is to protect the collective international conscience. Both Eastern and Western cultures believe in one thing: Virtue trumps acts of evil.
Unmasking the superpower: Where the Ukraine crisis started Illustration: Xu Zihe/GT
Ukraine crisis instigator: US-led NATO reneges on 'Not one inch eastward' promise to compress Russia's space to the extremeThrough the flames ignited by the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the international community is increasingly able to see the role of US-led NATO in this crisis.
"They cheated! Just brazenly tricked us!" Russian President Vladimir Putin said angrily at his annual press conference on December 23, 2021. He said that NATO had deceived Russia by violating the promise made in the 1990s - "Not one inch to the East."
In the 30 years since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the US has hemmed in Russia's strategic security space in a characteristically brazen way.
From waiting for an opportunity to launch a "color revolution" against Russia and its neighboring countries, to continuing to manipulate Ukraine and constantly creating regional instability; from frequently wielding sanctions against "disobedient countries," to forcing other countries and allies to pick sides... Washington's siege on Moscow has led to a bloody battle between two brotherly nations: Russia and Ukraine.
Countless facts show that the US is the instigator of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As an old man in Ukraine said before the outbreak of the conflict, the deterioration of relations between Russia and Ukraine is not the doing of Russians or Ukrainians, but the sole doing of the United States.
Unmasking the superpower: Warfare-addicted Illustration: Xu Zihe/GT
Instability brewer: Behind every war and turmoil in the world is shadow of the Star-Spangled BannerThe US has not been at war for only less than 20 years in the more than 240 years of history since its independence in 1776. From the end of World War II in 1945 to 2001, 248 armed conflicts took place in 153 countries and regions, of which 201, or 81 percent, were initiated by the US. From the Vietnam War to the Gulf War, and the Afghan, Iraq, and Syrian wars - the US, having gained dominance over the international order, is never absent in playing up its military force in conflicts. In order to gain global hegemony, it has always sought out enemies, unleashing waves of interventionism in many parts of the world, followed by infiltration, subversion, and color revolutions. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is just Washington's latest creation.
Serbian soccer fans on March 17 brandished banners in the stands of the Europa League quarter-finals to remind the world which countries the US had invaded. Several of the banners held up by spectators listed all the countries invaded and years of invasion by the US, including Panama, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Grenada, Afghanistan, etc. Spectators also held up banners with John Lennon's anti-war lyrics - "What we want to say is, please give peace a chance." When will the US unhand its turmoil-creating machine in the world All those who love peace are asking!
Unmasking the superpower: Vampires in the war Illustration: Xu Zihe/GT
Vampires in the war: US warmongers feeding on the bloody turbulence in other countries
After the start of the Russia-Ukraine military conflicts, many countries urged peace talks, while the US continually advocated for further militaristic antagonism through its words and actions. Instead of coming up with a peaceful solution to the crisis, it has been digging the war knife deeper into Ukraine's back, pouring in military aid, fearing that the war will not go on long enough. Behind such a stance is a very powerful military-industrial complex (MIC) bolstering the US government.
The US' MIC is in cahoots with the media, think tanks, academic circles, and intelligence agencies. While US-agitated wars cause widespread death, the complex continues to make a profit. The US is increasingly becoming a polarized nation, with Democrats and Republicans at loggerheads over most policies, with one exception: Military spending. Defense spending recently hit a record $813.3 billion in the administration's annual budget.
And up to a third of the Pentagon contracts went to just five weapons suppliers. In 2020, for example, the money Lockheed Martin alone got from Pentagon contracts was one and a half times the entire budgets of the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, the US-based broadcaster PBS reported. The top five military contractors took home a whopping $2 trillion during the Afghan War.
The military conflict between Russia and Ukraine "has the champagne corks quietly popping in the Pentagon, on K Street, in the defense industry, and throughout the halls of Congress," wrote Franklin Spinney, a former military analyst for the Pentagon, in a recent commentary. That's true, because Russia and Ukraine are the latest victims to have fallen prey for these vampires.
The specter of the Cold War has still not been vanquished 30 years after its end, and its architect, the US, continues to summon forth turmoil across the world in its grand plan to maintain and enforce its global hegemony. After deliberately promoting the desolation of the Soviet Union, the US continued to bait, deceive, and contain Russia. The "Ukraine trap" is a special weapon that Washington has spent years carefully customizing for Russia.
From NATO's five rounds of eastward expansion to the "color revolution" in Russia's backyard, to the incitement of the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, the US pushed Russia into a corner inch by inch and finally prompted Russia and Ukraine to bear arms against each other.
The Cold War mentality, which hovers like a ghost over the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the CIA, has augmented US politicians' view of the international geopolitical landscape as a zero-sum game open for ideological competition. In the 21st century, the US, which is keen on fomenting ideological rivalries and indulging in the illusion of fighting imaginary enemies, not only maintains its Cold War mindset but is also insidiously advancing its "new Cold War" agenda.
"The Cold War was not a golden era of foreign relations, but instead was a tragedy that cost millions of lives around the world. Washington cannot fall for feel-good nostalgia about its Cold War victory," a commentary published on the US National Interest website stated.
The US biological laboratories in Ukraine came into the public eye with the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. But they are just a tip of the iceberg: the US controls 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world. Most of these labs are directly funded and controlled by the Pentagon and are located in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
At the same time, the US has used biological and chemical weapons in a number of wars. It has created countless ethnic divisions in various countries through ideological infiltration and color revolutions, whether deploying biological weapons or an ideological arsenal - the US has proved itself to be a top, cold-blooded poisoner.
US scholar O'Rourke Lindsey found that the US was engaged in 64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change during the Cold War, There is overwhelming evidence that the US is the most belligerent country in the history of the world as it attempts to impose its values on other countries.
Former US president Jimmy Carter once referred to the US as"the most warlike nation in the history of the world," as evidenced by the US forcing other countries to "adopt our American principles."
Human rights destroyer: US causes humanitarian disasters around the globe, killing innocent civilians and creating millions of refugees
After the start of the Russia-Ukraine military conflicts, many countries urged peace talks, while the US continually advocated for further militaristic antagonism through its words and actions. Instead of coming up with a peaceful solution to the crisis, it has been digging the war knife deeper into Ukraine's back, pouring in military aid, fearing that the war will not go on long enough. Behind such a stance is a very powerful military-industrial complex (MIC) bolstering the US government.
The US' MIC is in cahoots with the media, think tanks, academic circles, and intelligence agencies. While US-agitated wars cause widespread death, the complex continues to make a profit. The US is increasingly becoming a polarized nation, with Democrats and Republicans at loggerheads over most policies, with one exception: Military spending. Defense spending recently hit a record $813.3 billion in the administration's annual budget.
And up to a third of the Pentagon contracts went to just five weapons suppliers. In 2020, for example, the money Lockheed Martin alone got from Pentagon contracts was one and a half times the entire budgets of the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, the US-based broadcaster PBS reported. The top five military contractors took home a whopping $2 trillion during the Afghan War.
The military conflict between Russia and Ukraine "has the champagne corks quietly popping in the Pentagon, on K Street, in the defense industry, and throughout the halls of Congress," wrote Franklin Spinney, a former military analyst for the Pentagon, in a recent commentary. That's true, because Russia and Ukraine are the latest victims to have fallen prey for these vampires.
Unmasking the superpower: Cold War schemer Illustration: Xu Zihe/GT
Cold War schemer: Reminiscing on its past 'glory,' US brings color revolutions to the 21st century to maintain its hegemonyThe specter of the Cold War has still not been vanquished 30 years after its end, and its architect, the US, continues to summon forth turmoil across the world in its grand plan to maintain and enforce its global hegemony. After deliberately promoting the desolation of the Soviet Union, the US continued to bait, deceive, and contain Russia. The "Ukraine trap" is a special weapon that Washington has spent years carefully customizing for Russia.
From NATO's five rounds of eastward expansion to the "color revolution" in Russia's backyard, to the incitement of the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, the US pushed Russia into a corner inch by inch and finally prompted Russia and Ukraine to bear arms against each other.
The Cold War mentality, which hovers like a ghost over the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the CIA, has augmented US politicians' view of the international geopolitical landscape as a zero-sum game open for ideological competition. In the 21st century, the US, which is keen on fomenting ideological rivalries and indulging in the illusion of fighting imaginary enemies, not only maintains its Cold War mindset but is also insidiously advancing its "new Cold War" agenda.
"The Cold War was not a golden era of foreign relations, but instead was a tragedy that cost millions of lives around the world. Washington cannot fall for feel-good nostalgia about its Cold War victory," a commentary published on the US National Interest website stated.
Unmasking the superpower: Poison disseminator Illustration: Xu Zihe/GT
Poison disseminator: How the US spread biological 'poison,' ethnic division, and ideological antagonism around the worldThe US biological laboratories in Ukraine came into the public eye with the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. But they are just a tip of the iceberg: the US controls 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world. Most of these labs are directly funded and controlled by the Pentagon and are located in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
At the same time, the US has used biological and chemical weapons in a number of wars. It has created countless ethnic divisions in various countries through ideological infiltration and color revolutions, whether deploying biological weapons or an ideological arsenal - the US has proved itself to be a top, cold-blooded poisoner.
US scholar O'Rourke Lindsey found that the US was engaged in 64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change during the Cold War, There is overwhelming evidence that the US is the most belligerent country in the history of the world as it attempts to impose its values on other countries.
Former US president Jimmy Carter once referred to the US as"the most warlike nation in the history of the world," as evidenced by the US forcing other countries to "adopt our American principles."
Unmasking the superpower: Human rights destroyer Illustration: Xu Zihe/GT
The Russia-Ukraine conflict instigated by the US has so far led to the displacement of 4.65 million Ukrainians. Under pressure, the US announced it would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. However, it had only resettled 12 by the end of March.
For decades, the US has used excuses including human rights in its instigation of chaos, instability, conflict, and even war globally. Data shows that the wars waged by the US after 9/11 have resulted in 49-60 million refugees. About 5.6 million are Syrian refugees who have since fled to neighboring countries.
Inside the US, incidents of racial discrimination and violent law enforcement have emerged one after another, including the shocking murder of George Floyd who was choked by an officer who kneeled on his neck. The US is the only developed country insisting that human rights do not include the right not to die from hunger or lack of medical care due to poverty. Some 40 million Americans are living in poverty. All the facts reveal that the US, which claims itself to be a "human rights defender," is no more than a cold-blooded killer and violator of human rights.
Unmasking the superpower: 'Voldemort' of global order Illustration: Xu Zihe/GT
'Voldemort' of global order: America is the 'Dark Lord' set on destroying international orderBelieving in power, abusing violence, killing competitors to seek hegemony... these are the words used to describe Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. Interestingly, the director of the Harry Potter series and the BBC have used the character Voldemort to describe former US presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
The US does act like Voldemort in the real world, busy with political manipulation, economic bullying, and exercising long-arm jurisdiction. "Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia's economic gains" and make Russia "an outcast on the international stage." These were the remarks made by US President Joe Biden after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict.
With the joint "efforts" of the US and its allies, Russia has become the country that has suffered the most sanctions from the US in recent years. According to a report by the Sputnik News, data from a sanctions tracking platform shows that since 2014, Russia has been subjected to 5,532 sanctions, surpassing Iran and Syria. Of the sanctions, 2,778 were imposed since February 2022.
In the Harry Potter series, the Voldemort character's arrogance and unchecked need for absolute power lead to his eventual demise. Similarly, in the real world, the US' hegemonic acts and sabotage of the international order will only come back to haunt itself.
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