The Rule of Law and the Duplicity of the United States of America

In 1791 the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution were ratified; this is known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees important rights to the people, rights such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, equal treatment, equally enforced laws and due process of law.

This principle of equal rights and the need for an independent judiciary was deemed so important that only a Constitutional Amendment can change the pertinent amendments found in the Constitution.

The United States of America prides itself in abiding by the rule of law both at home and abroad, laws that are consistent with the international human rights norms and standards.

Fast forward 226 years and we find ourselves in a precarious situation where the rights of the people, at home or abroad are continually violated; the rule of law has become a tool that is utilised by the United States government whenever and however it sees fit. It does not hold itself to the same standards and principles to which it holds others.

Mainstream Media

The mainstream media is another tool that is used effectively to provide the appearance of the United States government upholding the rule of law yet its transgressions are ignored or euphemisms are used to camouflage or whitewash the severity of its violations thereby keeping the people in the dark.

One perfect example of this is in the case of the U.S. military actively supporting the Saudi siege of Yemen. The situation in Yemen is ongoing and it is absolutely devastating where millions of civilians are suffering, yet the mainstream media completely ignore the role the U.S. is playing in assisting the military operations of Saudi Arabia.

Here’s a story about Yemen by CBS News: “When food is used as a weapon”

Here’s a similar story published by The Washington Post: “Yemen is on the brink of a horrible famine”

There are many others. What you’ll notice is the lack of coverage with respect to the role the U.S. military has been playing, this isn’t by accident, it is purposeful.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted the support provided by the United States and released a statement saying “the United States may have become a party to the conflict [in Yemen], creating obligations under the laws of war”.

Military-Industrial-Media Complex

Eisenhower warned us in his farewell speech about the military-industrial complex; how the nation’s military allying with the arms industry, business and political leaders who are driven by mutual interests, who could then influence public policy and by extension flout the rule of law.

Add to this mix the big business of the mainstream media and you have yourself a perfect description of the real leaders of the world.

This idea of freedom of speech and freedom of the press is highly suspect. We are given the illusion of having freedom of speech, however it is always bound within certain legal perimeters that are influenced by this military-industrial-media complex.

Those who peacefully protest against the state and the injustices they may have suffered are immediately represented as a violent mob. This is especially true if the protesters are not “class-privileged”. The police who use force to break up peaceful protests, who douse civilians with chemical weapons like pepper spray are represented as maintaining peace and order, the police never engage in “violence”, which is a term that is exclusively used by the mainstream media for those who disrupt the established order of the society and state-power.

The mainstream media will not discuss anything that reveals what lies underneath the veneer of the United States narrative. For example the U.S. drone policy, which saw the deaths of innumerable Afghani, Pakistani and Yemeni civilians under the guise of targeting terrorists, don’t get much of a mention on our screens. Former CIA employees highlighted the travesty of this policy in one particular report:

One simple but heartbreaking example of this atrocious “secret process” which makes a mockery of the rule of law the United States government pretends to uphold is that of the 8-year-old American girl Nawar who was brutally murdered by an approved U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

Yet there’s been no accountability of any kind, there is never any accountability and the message conveyed is that “might is right”.

Overthrowing Sovereign States

The United States has been involved in many overt and covert operations abroad that are clearly in violation of the rule of law and human rights. I’d like to draw your attention to some of these.

By no means is this an exhaustive list, it is merely scratching the surface in exposing the duplicity of the United States of America as it invokes the rule of law when penalising regimes, states or individuals it is at odds with but it freely flouts the law whenever it’s in its baleful interest to do so.

What’s important to understand is that the United States government in each case has denied any involvement in these uprisings or coup d’états. It’s only through eyewitness accounts or the Freedom of Information Act when relevant documents are declassified after some time (when all is done and dusted) do we get to find out about some of these vicious and blood-curdling operations:

• March 1949 Syrian coup d’état
  • President Shukri al-Quwatli, who was democratically elected, was overthrown by the Syrian Army chief Husni al-Zaim. It is well established that Husni al-Zaim approved the Trans-Arabian oil pipeline construction just a month after the coup, thereby benefitting the United States greatly among other countries.

• 1953 Iranian coup d’état
  • Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was democratically elected, was overthrown by the United Kingdom and the United States governments, under the operations named “Operation Boot” and “TPAJAX Project” respectively.

• 1954 Guatemala
  • President Jacobo Arbenz, who was democratically elected, was overthrown by the CIA under the operation named Operation PBSUCCESS. This was known as the Guatemalan destabilisation program. President Arbenz was replaced by a right-wing dictator.

• 1958 Lebanon crisis
  • Code named Operation Blue Bat, the United States intervened militarily to keep in power a government official that it deemed important for its interests.

• 1961 Cuba Bay of Pigs Invasion
  • The United States trained Cuban exiles and supported an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

• 1960s Operation MONGOOSE
  • Code named Operation Mongoose, the United States repeatedly tried to overthrow the Cuban government. It imposed economic sanctions trying to cripple the Cuban economy and also engaged in psychological operations to condition the people to rise up against the government.

• 1962 Operation Northwoods
  • Declassified documents show that Operation Northwoods was a false-flag operation planned by the United States government to overthrow the Cuban government. This was a real plan to commit acts of terrorism within the United States, murdering American civilians and blaming it on the Cuban government. The plan was rejected by John F Kennedy, however it’s worth highlighting the ruthless lengths the United States government would go to in an effort to overthrow a foreign government, in this case contemplating murdering its own civilians.

• 1965 Dominican Republic
  • The United States government intervened militarily in the Dominican Republic in an effort to control the direction the government was moving in, that is to say so that it didn’t become a communist regime.

• 1973 Chilean coup d’état
  • President Salvador Allende, who was democratically elected, was overthrown by the Chilean army. Code named Project FUBELT the CIA actively assisted with the coup, and used social engineering techniques to condition the people into rebelling against the government.

• Nicaragua 1982–1989
  • The United States attempted to overthrow the Nicaraguan government by arming, training and funding the Contras. The Republic of Nicaragua sued the United States of America.  The International Court of Justice ruled in favour of Nicaragua. The United States of America was found to have violated international law by supporting the Contras against the government of Nicaragua.
    The United States rejected the ruling, refused to pay reparations to the government of Nicaragua and conveniently blocked any type of enforcement by vetoing the resolution pertaining to the legal judgment, in the United Nations Security Council.  

• 1983 Grenada
  • Code named Operation Urgent Fury  the U.S. military overthrew the government of Grenada because it found its Marxist ideology objectionable. This military invasion was found to be “a flagrant violation of international law” according to the United Nations General Assembly, yet again the United States vetoed the pertinent resolution condemning its actions, in the United Nations Security Council.

• Iraq War
  • The United States began a psychological campaign of conditioning the world into believing that the Iraqi government possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs); that it posed an immediate threat to the United States and its allies; that Saddam Hussein was harbouring and supporting al-Qaida. Based on this premise the United States attacked and overthrew the Iraqi government, replacing it with a government of its making.
  • After the war no evidence was found to corroborate the claims that Saddam possessed WMDs, Iraq was not “an immediate threat” to the United States and Saddam was not harbouring or supporting al-Qaida.
  • The war was waged on a chain of lies which cost (according to some estimates) 1.5 million Iraqis their lives!
  • There were stories of torture by the United States military that should’ve been investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law based on the legally binding treaties, yet this did not eventuate.
  • Attacking Iraq in 2003 was deemed to be illegal by Kofi Annan, then UN Secretary General.

• 12 September 1980 Turkey coup d’état
  • The Turkish military headed by Kenan Evren overthrew the democratically elected Turkish government, murdering many during the process.
  • According to Mehmet Ali Birand, Paul Henze, then the CIA Ankara station chief acknowledged the American support for this coup, cabling Washington straight after the coup, saying “our boys did it”. Furthermore the U.S. Embassy in Ankara received word of the coup an hour in advance, proving that the U.S. had prior knowledge. The Turkish Air Forces general had travelled to the U.S. just before the coup.
  • The U.S. media celebrated the coup in no uncertain terms: 

Turkey suffered another brutal coup attempt on 15^th of July 2016. It would be of no surprise to anyone in Turkey if the United States was also assisting the rogue military elements who carried out this coup attempt. It is still too early to point the finger directly at the United States however similar to the previous coups, there were many signature steps that were taken by the perpetrators which implicate the United States.

The putschists involved travelled to the United States and communicated with officials just prior to the coup itself. The main culprits were caught at the Akinci Airbase, one of the military installations in Ankara allocated to the United States.

President Erdogan possibly hinted at the involvement of the U.S. at one stage by saying “if we revealed all that we know, there would be an international crisis”.

The Law of The Jungle

Based on the ruthless acts of the United States, violently enforcing its will on the people of the world, it’s no stretch of the imagination to claim that it in no way upholds the rule of law.

The United States deems itself above the law, ignoring the supremacy of the law, there has been no accountability to the law despite its numerous violations. It is thus the peak of hypocrisy for the United States to demand that people and sovereign states abide by the rule of law when it sees it only as a facilitator for the abuse of power.