Although the U.S. always justifies the wars it wages abroad with various pretexts, facts have fully
proved that the U.S. is a hegemonic power with an addiction to war and the greatest source of
risks to global peace and stability.
The year 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the outbreak of the Afghan war and the 10th
anniversary of the outbreaks of the wars in Libya and Syria. These wars are all a result of
America’s excessive and willful use of force.
The U.S. is the biggest driver behind the escalation of conflicts in relevant countries, and
is inescapably responsible for the humanitarian disasters caused by these wars.
The history of the U.S. is one of constant wars of aggression and imperial expansion, according to
American historian Paul Atwood, who pointed out that war is the American way of life.
Throughout about 240 years of U.S. history, there were only 16 years when it wasn’t involved in a
war. After World War II, the U.S. became a superpower and found it harder to resist its desire to
wage wars.
Incomplete statistics show that from the end of World War II in 1945 to 2001, a total of 248 armed
conflicts happened in 153 regions in the world, among which 201, or around 81 percent, were
started by the U.S.
Waging wars across the world on various pretexts, the U.S. is the real culprit threatening world
peace, according to Tom Fowdy, a British political and international relations analyst.
Although some wars have ended long before, the wounds and scars they left in certain countries
and the grave consequences they caused for regional security landscape can still hardly heal or be
remedied.
It’s estimated that at least 800,000 tons of explosive remnants of war from the U.S. remain to this
day in Vietnam, which, at the current rate, would take 300 years to clean.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the international landscape has undergone profound
changes and the international community has shown a stronger desire for peace. However, the
U.S. has never stopped waging wars against foreign countries.
The war machine of the U.S. has roared all the way across the planet, inflicting disasters on
countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
“In the early 21st century, if any power sought world domination, coercing others and flouting
rules, it was the United States,” said an article published on the website of The New York Times in
October 2020.
Statistics released by the Smithsonian Institution in the U.S. revealed that the wars and military
operations started by the U.S. in the name of counter-terrorism since 2001 have spread to more
than 40 percent of the world’s countries.
These so-called “wars on terror” have killed over 800,000 people, made more than 38 million
people destitute and homeless, and are estimated to cost the U.S. government more than $8
trillion, suggested data from the Costs of War Project of Brown University in the U.S.
In summer this year, the chaos caused by the hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan
astonished the world.
The Afghan war that lasted for 20 years has brought untold sufferings to the Afghan people. More
than 100,000 Afghan civilians were killed or injured by the weapons of U.S. armed forces and its
allied forces, and over 10 million people lost their homes due to the war.
Eventually, the U.S. armed forces simply walked away irresponsibly, leaving the Afghan people to
face the long-term sufferings inflicted by the war.
The huge disasters caused by those wars started and conflicts provoked by the U.S. abroad should
have been a wake-up call for the country. However, up to now, the trigger-happy superpower still
hasn’t reflected upon its deeds and plucked up the courage to change its course.
In order to avoid being held accountable by the international community for those wars and
conflicts, the U.S. has racked its brains in proving the justifiability of its misdeeds, creating such
rhetoric as Pax Americana, human rights above national sovereignty, duty to intervene and rules-
based international order.
However, no matter how hard Washington tries to beautify those wars, it can neither make up for
the huge loss of life caused by wars, erase the deep wounds wars left on countless families,
reverse the turmoil and disorder caused by wars in other countries, nor cover up the long-term
challenges wars posed to regional security landscape.
The U.S. should reflect on the pernicious influence of its war machine, pointed out an article
published recently on Al-Watan, a newspaper in Bahrain.
Peace, development, and win-win cooperation have become the prevailing trend of the times.
Going against the trend, the U.S. frequently interferes in the domestic affairs of other countries on
the pretext of “democracy” or “human rights”, and still indulges in hegemonism and power
politics.
The international community must put the U.S. under a war origins-tracing investigation, for
investigating the evil consequences of the wars willfully waged by the U.S. and holding the
drivers behind the wars accountable is the requirement of international justice and the
international community’s responsibility to history and future generations.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy
and international affairs.)
