IS THE US DOOMED TO REPEAT ITSELF?

In light of recent US military action in Iran and Venezuela and Trump’s supposed plans for his foreign policy, more attention has been drawn to the USA’s pattern of interventionism, especially the invasion of Iraq and America’s subsequent actions in the country following the fall of the regime.

Iraq and Afghanistan were the main targets during the War on Terror after the 9/11 attacks. The US government had wanted Saddam Hussein to be overthrown from the 90s and the September 11th terror attacks gave them the perfect opportunity to use weak links between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime to invade the country in 2003. Many Iraqis celebrated the fall of Hussein and his regime but their euphoria was soon eclipsed by the face of US occupation and the destabilisation of Iraq. Less than two hundred American and British soldiers were killed in the invasion. Figures on Iraqi civilians that were killed in the conflict are not confirmed but the numbers are shockingly high with the Associated Press estimating that between March 2003 and April 2009, at least 110,600 Iraqi civilians faced ‘violent deaths’. A harsh reminder that military interventions extend beyond just casualties and losses in soldiers; it kills regular civilians who have no say in political leaders’ decisions. 

As already mentioned, Afghanistan was another front during the War on Terror though a less controversial one. Iraq’s invasion was justified using weak links that could not truly verify Saddam Hussein or his regime’s links to the terrorist group al-Qaeda. In Afghanistan, however, the target was the terrorist group itself and the aim was to overthrow the Afghani regime to prevent any further radical groups emerging and posing a danger to American or Western interests. At this time, the Taliban did rule over most of the country, the invasion soon marking an end to their time in power. Yet two decades later when US troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban reemerged stronger than ever, as they succeeded in taking over the whole country and firmly set down their authority, rolling back any progress made in women’s rights in the last twenty years. It seemed that the US left the country of Afghanistan worse off than before.

Even before 2001, the US resorted to military intervention as part of their foreign policy on many occasions. The US emerged from World War Two as a superpower embroiled in a Cold War with the Soviet Union and used its power for its benefit, even at the detriment of other nations. Despite its boasting about democracy and human rights, the US and the CIA were guilty of overthrowing leaders and governments in favour of regimes more beneficial for American interests. Chile, in 1973, faced a coup d’état that toppled the socialist president, Salvador Allende. The coup was supported by the Nixon administration which promptly recognised the new government led by General Pinochet. It is no coincidence that the US government was opposed to the idea of a left-wing government in Latin America during the Cold War. Chile faced years of oppression under Pinochet’s dictatorship in which thousands were tortured and killed. The US have overthrown other governments during the Cold War too, such as Iran in 1953, where the CIA and the MI6 worked together in overthrowing Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh to protect American and British interests in Iran after Mosaddegh nationalised the Iranian oil industry. After all these years, oil still serves as a major factor in foreign policy for the US.

January 2026. Trump attacks Venezuela and American forces capture President Nicólas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores and take them into custody on American soil. Certainly not the first time the US have removed a leader from power, especially from a country would benefit American interests regarding oil. Venezuela has the largest oil fields in the world and for Trump to remove Maduro from power and ‘run the country’, not only would he benefit himself, he would be continuing a long pattern over decades in the making which does not seem to be ending any time soon. It remains to be seen what will happen in Venezuela under the rest of Trump’s second term, but what does differ is that the US government did not stage a full-scale invasion of the country. 

Iran is another story. Iran is still ongoing so not much can be said about the current conflict between the US and Iran but the two nations have an interesting history. As previously mentioned, the US was involved in a coup in 1953 that overthrew the government in favour of strengthening the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who was later overthrown in 1979 in the Islamic Revolution. Since then, the US and Iran have considered each other enemies and the ongoing conflict has done nothing to ease the fraught tensions between the two. 

This article has barely covered the surface of US military action and invasions. It has said nothing of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Syria, Lebanon or Somalia or the many other countries affected by it. It has said nothing of the war crimes committed by American troops in global conflicts or the concerns raised by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. It seems that for the United States of America, governments are doomed to blindly follow American interests at the detriment of foreign civilians.