Winton Dong

dht0620@126.com

THE United States and its allies pre-emptively attacked three governmental locations in Syria by cruise missile before an international investigation into the suspected chemical weapons started. As a matter of fact, no evidence related to chemical weapons has been found in the ruins of the buildings that were destroyed by Tomahawks.

The United States bombed a sovereign country based only on its own unconvincing prejudgment, circumventing the United Nations. As we know, any military action bypassing the Security Council runs contrary to the purpose and principles of the U.N. Charter and violates the principles of international law.

After all, paralyzing the world body does not help international efforts diagnose and address the grave situation in Syria. Moreover, as the world’s sole superpower and a civilized nation, the United States should behave itself and set a good example for other countries to follow. However, the U.S. only shows the world an arrogant image: using its military power at any time it wants against any country it does not like.

Many times now, the prejudgments of the U.S. have proved to be totally wrong or based on fabricated evidence. We still remember what happened to Iraq in 2003 when the U.S. invaded the country, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Even after Saddam was killed and the U.S. occupied Iraq, no such weapons were found. In the 2011 Libyan case, in the name of supplying humanitarian aid to the Libyan people, the U.S. and its allies forced a resolution through the U.N. Security Council for a “no fly zone” in Libya. The whole world was later shocked to see a U.S.-led NATO military strike that eventually overthrew and killed Muammar Gaddhafi.

Since the 1990s, the United States has initiated or been involved in many wars all over the world, such as the Persian Gulf War (1990), the Somali War (1993), the Afghanistan War (2001), the Iraqi War (2003), the Libyan War (2011) and the Syrian War (2013). These wars have victimized people in targeted countries. According to statistics, 30,000 Afghan civilians and 200,000 Iraqi civilians died in the wars. And in Syria, the death toll was more than 10,000 in 2017.

Nonstop wars have also made U.S. people suffer a lot. Since 2001, about 7,000 American soldiers have been killed on the battlefields of other countries. Actually, American people also show disgust to wars. In the U.S. film “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” screened last year, Billy’s sister was desperate for him not to return to the Iraqi battlefield. She even consulted with doctors and persuaded Billy to stay at home with post-traumatic stress disorder as an excuse.

With the sacrifice of so many lives, are these attacked countries now better-off or more democratic as the U.S. once promised? The answer is “no.” All these countries have already been deeply mired in unceasing conflicts and social instability. For example, Somali is still a very dangerous country with the rampancy of pirates, while Iraq and Libya have turned out to be the hotbeds for extremist and terrorist organizations.

Different with previous wars, the U.S. and its allies are facing an archrival, Russia, this time in Syria. Since the Ukraine crisis and the independence of Crimea in 2014, the U.S. and Europe have been acting in quite an aggressive manner, containing and sanctioning Russia.

Suspecting Syria of using chemical weapons gives the U.S. an excuse to open fire and the tussle between the U.S. and Russia will intensify in the Middle East, especially in Syria where the U.S. supports the rebels and Russia bolsters the government forces. During the past seven years, Russia has successfully beefed up its influence in Syria by coordinating with local powers. However, the U.S. has gradually lost appeal in the Middle East because of some strategic mistakes such as failing to lead the fight against the Islamic State and offending its Arab allies by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

As a businessman, U.S. President Donald Trump now wants to maximize the interests of his country in Syria by military actions and frighten Russia back. Frankly speaking, Syria is the last pivotal spot of Russia in the region. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for Russia to withdraw especially at a time when the Syrian Government seems so close to defeating the rebels. Moreover, the U.S. should realize that military attacks will only take the situation from bad to worse and unjust wars with prejudged or fabricated reasoning are doomed to end in shame and vain.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)