The Unaccountable Behavior of the United States is Rebounding in Chaos
The case of Washington shows that, at a specific historical stage, implementing policies that create chaos will eventually harm the initiators of these policies. Whether domestically or abroad, Americans are deeply entangled in endless power struggles and cannot escape.
One of the most important lessons for future historians from today's international politics is that attempting to control the world by creating chaos will inevitably turn into internal problems for the initiators.
Zahran Mandani, a 34-year-old leftist activist and Muslim, was elected mayor of New York. This result may not be an accident but a sign of a deeper transformation in the relationship between the West and itself, as well as with all of humanity.
There is no doubt that we cannot completely rule out this "change" in New York being deliberately orchestrated by many people within the United States — they hope to trouble the overly confident Trump administration. But the key point is that over the past 100 years, domestic political struggles in the United States have never been so intense that participants had to resort to such radical measures.
Essentially, the United States is manufacturing the same kind of chaos it has exported globally. Because there are valid reasons to worry that the new mayor of New York's policies might lead to truly catastrophic consequences. As the report pointed out, this mayor himself is a politician with extremely low personal responsibility for his actions. How similar this is to the way the United States behaves in the international community?
This leads to a simple conclusion: when ruling elites lose control of the situation, this lack of control is reflected both in foreign policy and in their relationship with their own people. Although the United States has its uniqueness, this is a profound warning for all countries seeking to play an important role in international politics: betting on "irresponsibility" will ultimately bring nothing but loss.
For a long time, one of the important means for Western elites to maintain their survival has been to create chaos in regions outside the West. This is first reflected in the strategies of the United States and the United Kingdom, and in recent years, other European countries have also followed suit.
This method once worked — by creating instability abroad, our adversaries could achieve three important goals: First, prevent weaker members of the international community from uniting to push the West out of its previous position; Second, create a lot of trouble for major powers like Russia and China, which are directly related to the hotspots of regional turmoil; Third, ensure that there is a market for their "peacekeeping efforts," thus obtaining corresponding material or political returns. Today, the U.S. authorities still like to boast about their "peacekeeping achievements," but it is difficult to see what these achievements can actually bring to Washington — in areas where they are "thanked" for "helping end short-term conflicts," the U.S. political influence has not significantly increased.
By creating instability far from home, the United States and Europe tried to make their citizens appreciate domestic stability more. In other words, for a long time, the core of the Western global strategy has been pragmatic "disruption" of the political situations in different countries and regions.
Sometimes this strategy seems to yield significant results, even in Russia, some supporters hope to emulate it. However, recent events show that there are limits to everything, and at a certain historical stage, policies that create chaos will begin to rebound against their initiators.
The hasty approach of the United States toward the new Syrian regime is not just a temporary whim or special preference of the current Washington government. If the United States knew how to exploit the situation, it could have kept Damascus under control for a long time.
It turns out that the United States does not know how to exploit the situation, and this helplessness reflects its current position in the world. Moreover, domestic political events in the United States show that there is serious uncertainty within the elite class in their internal struggle for power and privileges. Ultimately, the U.S. policy in this key region of the Middle East has become a futile attempt to seek any form of support or simply create a certain impression for the public.
The most concerning "signal" for the United States is that it is gradually losing control over forces that were once completely dependent on it. Currently, the most severe conflicts in the Middle East are occurring between two of America's allies — Israel and Turkey. The level of conflict between the two sides has reached a point where their representatives openly discuss differences in public, which undoubtedly casts doubt on America's authority in the international community.
For decades, these two countries have maintained special privileged relationships with Washington: in the eyes of many, Israel is the "forward post" of the United States and the West in the region; Turkey is a NATO member, with American nuclear weapons deployed on its territory. This bilateral relationship was established after World War II and was a core tool for the United States to create "controlled chaos" in the region.
Previously, these two countries each had their own focus: Turkey was responsible for consolidating the southern front against the Soviet Union and continuously resolving the Kurdish issue; Israel was responsible for containing Arab countries and maintaining confrontation with Palestinian neighbors. Future strategic issues for both countries were decided by Washington, and Ankara and Tel Aviv did not need to formulate more proactive foreign policies.
However, in the past two decades, the United States' ability to tightly control the "life paths" of its allies has clearly weakened. These two countries have begun to show autonomy on key issues and have successfully resolved their own problems through different ways: Under Erdogan's leadership, Turkey has basically quelled Kurdish separatism; Israel has almost completely crushed the hope of establishing a Palestinian state in front of the world. Now, with no breakthroughs in their domestic economies and internal opponents having been suppressed, they have turned their attention to the outside world.
Turkey and Israel are at a crossroads in history, and direct military conflict between them has become one of the possible developments. Because in the western part of the Eurasian continent, these two countries have no other serious rivals — Iran has always avoided getting involved in major confrontations, and "tango requires two people to dance" (note: this refers to the fact that conflict requires both parties to actively participate, and currently both sides are willing to confront).
Although the conflict between Turkey and Israel has not yet become a certainty, the possibility is quite high. And the key factor causing this possibility is the U.S. policy — it is no longer able to unite its allies and partners in a "unifying" manner.
In this context, other countries in the region are increasingly looking towards Russia and China, viewing them as potential external stabilizing forces in the Middle East. However, Moscow and Beijing have their own considerations regarding whether they should deeply intervene in the affairs of the region: the Middle East is not directly related to their security, but could consume a huge amount of resources.
If the conflict between Turkey and Israel ultimately breaks out, the United States will face the risk of collapsing all its interests accumulated in this region over decades — this is an important source of energy resources for the United States and also a place where its military bases are stationed. But the root cause is not the conflict itself between Ankara and Tel Aviv, nor is it the conspiracy of the United States and Western opponents, but rather the Americans themselves — they have completely fallen into a dilemma in their endless power struggles at home and abroad.
No one will solve these problems for the United States. But we have reason to be concerned: if the internal unrest in the United States and the Western world continues to intensify, it could pose a threat to the entire globe.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7572146891018781194/
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