Friendship is a form of egalitarian relationship where mutual understanding, support, trust, interests, respect, equality, and dignity thrive to expand cooperation, minimise risks, and share both happiness and sorrow, thereby creating a society based on mutual dependency and solidarity. These values are crucial in friendships between people as well as between countries. However, these values are alien to Yankee imperialist US foreign policy and its parasitic approach to international relations and politics. American imperialist foreign policy uses friendship as a strategic tool to advance its so-called national interests—that is, to uphold the dominance of capitalism at costs.
There is no genuine friendship in American foreign policy; it is driven by corporate interests. Strategic friendship is no friendship but an opportunistic alliance that the US pursues at a cost. American foreign policy has, at various times, betrayed Australians, Afghans, Africans, British, Egyptians, post-Soviet states in Eastern Europe, Chinese, French, Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, Japanese, Nepalese, Sri Lankans, Spaniards, Ukrainians, Russians, Western Euro peans, Iraqis, Iranians, Latin Americans, Mexicans, Canadians, Kurds, Vietnamese, Koreans, and countries in the Arab and Gulf regions. The list is so long when it comes to what is seen as American betrayal of friendly countries across the globe. The US has used these countries at different stages to serve its own strategic interests by backstabbing these countries at different stages of its imperialist history.
There is no country, other than Israel, that US foreign policy has not betrayed, at some point, disappointed or turned against in its interactions. The USA has not truly helped any country; rather, its assistance, aid and relief packages have often been tied to advancing its own interests. For example, food aid to India was designed to undermine Indian agriculture and food sovereignty, potentially creating food markets for American corporations.
American foreign policy often seeks to undermine democratic governments and constitutional states while supporting reactionary, authoritarian, and anti-democratic regimes to advance its strategic interests. Pakistan, for instance, is widely seen as having suffered politically and economically due to its unequal strategic partnership with the US, in which the Pakistani army is often acting in alignment with American interests at the cost of the Pakistani people and their interests. Afghanistan was also deeply affected, as US policies during the Soviet period involved supporting militant groups to undermine progressive changes in the country with Soviet support.
American regime-change operations have occurred in many parts of the world. Washington has frequently been destabilising countries and governments that do not align with its strategic priorities. US actions have single-handedly contributed to the devastation of countries such as Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, as well as several nations in Africa and the Middle East, while at the same time supporting reactionary family-led regimes in the Arab and Gulf regions. Similarly, in Latin America, the US has backed right-wing and authoritarian forces, often under the justification of combating drug cartels.
American foreign policy is often seen as using the language of terrorism, democracy, freedom, and human rights to destabilise and disrupt the prevailing order and stability in different regions of the world. President Donald Trump’s recent unprovoked attack on Iran is not merely an accident or a sudden decision by a megalomaniac president, but is part of a well-designed foreign policy. It is argued that such actions aim to divert public attention from issues such as the abandonment of Ukraine and the Epstein scandal, while also fuelling prolonged ethnic conflicts in Asia, the Arab, and the Middle Eastern countries. These strategies are intended to weaken existing structures of governance in order to gain greater control over natural resources in these regions, thereby strengthening the petrodollar-led capitalist system, which is seen as facing challenges due to the increasing independence of the OPEC countries from Washington’s influence.
From Vietnam and Korea to Kosovo and Ukraine, American foreign policies have contributed to creating divisions within families, communities, and countries to preserve its own interests. British colonialism divided the Indian sub-continent, but American policy is keeping India and Pakistan apart by supporting the terror strategies of the Pakistani military, thereby containing India while also contributing to Pakistan’s political and economic deficit and instabilities within democratic governance. US foreign policy has been using the Kurds as strategic allies but abandoning them, with little support for an independent Kurdistan. Similarly, American policies have emboldened Zionist regimes in Israel, which are carrying out large-scale genocidal violence against Palestinians in their own land.
American foreign policy is serving corporate interests in the name of national interests, while many working people in the US continue to face hunger, homelessness, unemployment, and poverty. The American state and its ideological apparatus are not aligned with the broader interests of people or the planet, but instead serve the propertied classes and various forms of their capitalist interests. Therefore, opposition to American imperialism is framed not as opposition to the American people, but to the American state and its ideology, which is fundamentally at odds with peace and the well-being of people worldwide. Both ruling and non-ruling classes within the US are often operating within this framework, shaped by an entrenched political system that advances these interests across party lines. The American state is not only a rogue state but also a highly organised mafia system that primarily serves entrenched economic power, often at the expense of people, peace, and the planet.
The writer teaches at the London Metropolitan University.