US media: "The US government creates its own 'anti American alliance'" US | Cuba | US government
On July 4th, the website of The New York Times published an article titled "The US Government Created Its Own" Anti American Alliance ", written by veteran American journalist and commentator Peter Bennett. The full text is excerpted as follows:
The enemies of the United States are uniting. According to recent statements from the New American Security Center, they now constitute a new "authoritarian axis" that threatens American interests from East Asia to the Caribbean, and from Eastern Europe to the Persian Gulf. This name implies that what binds Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba together is their common aversion to so-called democracy. For Washington's foreign policy class, which often portrays the geopolitical struggle in the United States as a struggle between freedom and tyranny, this is an attractive narrative.
But there's a problem here. Just a few years ago, both Cuba and Iran sought to establish closer relations with Washington. Both countries had the same political system back then and now, and they did not turn to Russia and China just because they realized they disliked so-called democracy. First under the leadership of Trump, and then under the leadership of Biden, the US government participated in creating the anti American partnership it now laments, which was exactly what the US government did during the Cold War.
Taking Cuba as an example. The Cuban government's strategy for most of the post Cold War period was quite clear: to maintain a closed political system while opening up the economy to foreign investment. This strategy requires Cuba to establish better relations with the United States. William Leogrand, a Latin American expert at American University, said that "all major components of Cuba's economic strategy over the past 20 years have been based on long-term expectations of improving relations with the United States.".
In 2014, this expectation began to pay off. The Obama administration announced the end of decades long hostility between the United States and Cuba. As Michael Bustamante, an expert on Cuban issues at the University of Miami, pointed out at the time, "the American flag has even become the most fashionable national flag, appearing on Cuban T-shirts, leggings, and vests.".
After Trump took office in the White House, all of this shattered. In 2019, the United States imposed the strictest economic sanctions on Cuba in over half a century. Evan Ellis, a Latin American analyst at the US Army Military Academy, said, "China has provided Cuba with much-needed funding.". Cuba still needed Chinese funding later on, partly because the Biden administration retained the main sanctions measures of the Trump era.
The relationship between the United States and Iran also follows a similar pattern. When the two countries signed the nuclear agreement in 2015, the then Iranian Foreign Minister called the agreement "a solid foundation. We must now continue to develop on this foundation.".
But the result is not so. Trump cancelled the nuclear agreement and re implemented severe sanctions. At the beginning of taking office, the Biden administration did not restore the agreement, but instead made additional demands, hindering efforts to restore the nuclear agreement. As the prospect of Iran receiving significant investments from the United States and Europe disappears, Washington's influence on Iran Moscow relations has also disappeared. Now, for Iran, establishing what the spokesperson for the US National Security Council recently called a "comprehensive defense partnership" with Russia will hardly lose anything.
This is not the first time the United States has pushed small countries into the arms of its superpower rivals. There is no reason to believe that authoritarianism can now become a binding adhesive. There is no necessary ideological connection between the growing relationship between Havana and Beijing, or between Tehran and Moscow. This is largely due to Washington's attempt to starve Cuba and make Iran submit, rather than establishing working relationships with regimes with political systems and foreign policy orientations that we do not like.
Nowadays, although sanctions have made it difficult for ordinary people in Iran and Cuba to access food and medicine, hawks in Washington still say that the United States cannot lift the widespread sanctions against Iran and Cuba because these two countries are cooperating with their enemies. Perhaps hawks should consider this issue before promoting an anti American partnership in the first place.
