The Demise of the United States

Text & Photographs By Norbert Schiller

Today, 4 July marks the 249th birthday of the United States and I am not filled with patriotic glee but rather anger and immense sadness. We have gone from a country that use to work together to solve problems, to a country that makes decisions on a whim because it looks good for the constituency. Instead of focusing on “We the people…” the political elite focus their attention on powerful interest groups, rich donors and big business, not for the betterment of the country, but for their own pollical gain. It’s not about patriotism, though the trimmings are all there; it’s all about keeping the donkey and the elephant fed.

When it comes to foreign policy, we are an absolute disgrace. Nearly every conflict the U.S. has engaged in since WWII (and I have accompanied the U.S. military on number of their missions) has ended in failure. During WWII the United States was seen as a beacon for its leadership role in the world. Since then, the U.S. has fallen from grace with each conflict it has either initiated or failed to resolve. To date the U.S. has bombed nearly 30 countries, since WWII, believing that might is always right. Besides overt military intervention the U.S. has removed a dozen foreign leaders in covert operations because they didn’t agree with the U.S. role in their country. By comparison, during the same period, our arch nemeses China never bombed another country into submission. Granted the Chinese have waged war within their own country against different ethnic groups, most recently the Muslem Uyghurs. However, the way things look, the U.S. is beginning to attack its own citizens using the military, a tactic right out of the Chinese playbook.

One of the first covert operation the U.S. did after WWII, was to overthrow the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddegh in 1953 because he wanted to nationalize the petroleum industry rather than give the concession to the U.S. and Britian. What followed was Mohammed Reza Pahlavi or Reza Shah, the West’s “yes” man in Tehran, a tyrant who repressed his people and opened the door for Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. Nearly 75 years later we are still suffering the consequences of that blunder.

Lastly, I want to bring up this sick, almost incestuous relationship the United States has with the Zionist state of Israel. And mind you, there is almost no difference between republicans or democrats as both parties treat the Jewish state as their master. Israel along with their Christian-Zionist support and powerful lobby AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) dictate America’s Middle east policy, not from Washington D.C. as one would believe, but from Jerusalem. What I cannot understand is how a country, which once prided itself for its democratic and humanitarian values continually supports and arms Israel especially now when they have used those very weapons to kill over 60,000innocent Palestinians, mostly children. UNICEF estimates that more than 50,000 children have been either killed or wounded in the Gaza strip since the conflict began on 7 October 2023.