U.S. President Joe Biden’s two-day “summit for democracy” was a farce even before it began this week. Now it has turned into a vile circus for Cold War hostility that greatly threatens world democracy, human rights and peace—the very antithesis of what the hubristic Americans claim.
On the second day of this video conference hosted by Biden, news emerged of the British High Court ruling in favor of the U.S. government that Julian Assange is to be extradited to the United States to face trumped-up charges of espionage which could result in a death sentence. Assange is being persecuted for exposing massive U.S. war crimes, crimes against humanity, global espionage felonies and corruption. His case is a hideous warning that free speech and independent journalism are under ruthless attack by the U.S. authorities. In other words, the biggest enemy of the most basic of democratic rights is the United States government—and yet at the same time, we have this grotesque conference hosted by Biden declaring support for democracy.
Our own journal, Strategic Culture Foundation, is also coming under sustained attack from Washington. Several of our American contributors have been banned from writing for this journal under the threat of massive financial penalties. This is because the U.S. government makes the slanderous claim that SCF is directed by Russian state intelligence. See this recent interview by one of our former contributors Daniel Lazare who has denounced what he calls a move to censor free speech and critical thinking.
It, therefore, is truly absurd—and nauseating—for American leaders to pontificate on such rights. From the video conference hosted by Biden, one image said it all. Biden was seen addressing a blur of T.V. screens each displaying the face of leaders of nations invited by Washington to the “summit for democracy”. It resembled more a scene from a satirical movie. The self-appointed leader of the free world warned about the “backsliding of democracy” caused by “autocrats” (meaning China and Russia). Biden called for the protection of voting rights and free speech. This while his administration is seeking to incarcerate Julian Assange for the rest of his life because he dared to exercise his inalienable right of free speech. Assange should be honored by the world for his exposing of massive U.S. crimes and for his heroic contribution to truth. He revealed to the world the real and brute nature of Washington’s pursuit of global power. And for that, he is being viciously, mercilessly persecuted. It is outrageous that the leader of such a criminal government should be lecturing the world about the supposed virtues of democracy and human rights. It is deeply disturbing that such an insult to morals and intelligence seems to be even tolerated as if normal. Biden or any other U.S. leader should be scorned, not indulged.
The list of participants invited to Biden’s circus is shot through with inconsistencies and double standards. Even the normally dutiful U.S. media were obliged to note the incongruities and lack of principle in the virtual gathering of 110 countries. Some of those attending were classified as less democratic than some of those excluded noted the U.S.-based Freedom House.
It is blatant that the convocation by Biden was aimed at self-serving geopolitical power-play. The territory of Taiwan was invited as a representative of democracy while China was excluded. Under U.S. law, the One China policy deems Beijing as having sovereignty over Taiwan. So, the pointed invitation of Taipei over Beijing is an astounding provocation to China by the U.S.
Ukraine was invited to attend while Russia was also excluded. Since the U.S.-backed coup d’état in Kiev in 2014 against an elected government, Ukraine has become a byword for corruption and the killing of journalists. The farcical invite by Biden is another geopolitical provocation that will embolden the Kiev regime to escalate further its hostilities towards Russia.
What Biden’s jamboree is all about is a flagrant attempt to divide the world into a Cold War demarcation. Russia and China have rebuked the initiative for harming international cooperation and increasing conflict.
There is not a scintilla of substance in what the Biden administration is attempting. The meaning and purpose of the “summit for democracy” is the opposite. It is about creating tensions, conflict, undermining democracy and fomenting war.
But it really shows the absolutely dangerous hubris of Washington. It somehow is deluded in thinking that it is uniquely endowed to host a conference on democracy when it fact it has no shame about being a ringmaster for conflict and war.
The United States’ history of genocide against native Americans, its decades of illegal foreign wars of aggression and destruction of nations, its relentless subversion of foreign governments—all of this and more are glaring proof that Washington is the center of global criminality. In order to manipulate the world under its hegemony, we have the risible attempt to corral nations into enemy camps of supposed democracy and autocracy.
Ultimately, however, this charade is doomed to fail. The objective reality is of a changing world, whereby U.S. capitalist, hyper-militarized power is failing amid the emergence of a multipolar international order. That fundamental historic development cannot be countered by futile machinations.
Of immense importance, too, the spectacle of hypocrisy seen this week also fatally undermines the authority of the U.S. governing system in the eyes of its own people. Biden offering blandishments about democracy comes across as crass Marie-Antoinette stuff when so many American citizens are dying from a pandemic that their government won’t spend money on to properly eradicate; when so many citizens are struggling with poverty and trying to feed their families; when Congress passes an annual military budget of $770 billion; and when millions of Americans are being barred from voting by new racist election laws. Biden’s summit for democracy is disgusting in its fraudulence, not just towards the wider world but towards his own nation. This is not just about Joe Biden and the Democrats. The Republican Party is even more unhinged from the realities of U.S. citizens and the world. The entire political class in the United States is bankrupt: morally, politically and economically.
This vile circus of Cold War theatrics that Biden oversaw this week is really a Swansong of failed American “democracy”.
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