John Kerry Becomes Hypocritical

John Kerry Becomes Hypocritical
By: jamesbaxley

According to the United States Secretary of State John Kerry, it's “inappropriate” for Donald Trump to be meddling in the “politics of other countries.” John Kerry continues, "The U.S. shouldn’t be upfront about their criticisms of the policies of other countries." 

In an interview with the Bild newspaper and the Times of London, Trump “criticized her [Merkel’s] stance on refugees, which allowed a wave of more than 1 million refugees into Germany.” Trump went on to praise the United Kingdom’s "smart" decision to "get out" of the European Union.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

I can’t believe Kerry would say something like this. The Obama administration did exactly what Kerry is preaching against in 2016. Obama said, the Brexit could cause the strong trade links between the U.S. and the U.K. to start "unravelling" and could put the U.K. at the "back of the queue" for trade talks.

Pot, say hello to kettle. John Kerry’s remarks is nothing short of hypocritical. I don’t want to call Kerry a hypocrite, after all we both served in the Navy so he can’t be that bad, but if the shoe fits. What can I say? 

Even though we're only 16 years into the 21th century, the U.S. had a hand in Ukraine’s regime change. The U.S. government is a self-appointed spokesperson (?) for democracy and likes to show off how successful democracy can be, yet they just overthrew a democratically elected president of Ukraine: Viktor Yanukovych.

Overthrowing governments is nothing new though. Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University says the U.S. has either overthrown or influenced the outcome of elections more than 80 times worldwide between 1946 and 2000. This doesn’t include covert coup d'etats such as the ones in Iran in 1953 or in Guatemala in 1954.

The beginning of America’s history, President George Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796, he opined "to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world." Washington's words continued over into Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. In Jefferson's inaugural pledge of 1801 he spoke of "peace, commerce, and honest friendship” which should be granted to all nations, he added “entangling alliances with none."

1st President of the United States George Washington

Despite Washington’s words to be neutral and isolationists [militarily, not economically], he knew the world wasn’t perfect and he struggled between idealism and realism. Washington admitted that there would be “extraordinary emergencies” and therefore a time for “alliances.” He wrote, “Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture.”

The U.S. has meddled in the affairs of other countries as far back as 1901, if not further. When Theodore Roosevelt, an ardent imperialist came to office, he inherited an empire-in-the-making. The U.S. had emerged as a world power after defeating Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1899. Being a new world power, Roosevelt was busy looking for ways to assert America's newly-eminent position abroad.

Theodore Roosevelt gutted and practically rewrote the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. It “opposed European colonialism in the Americas” and stated that the U.S. would “recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries.”

Imperialism seemed to be a taste Roosevelt could never be quenched. When Roosevelt came to power, he amended the Monroe Doctrine; he added, what became known as the Roosevelt Corollary which stated that the U.S. had the right to “exercise military force in Latin American countries to keep European countries out.”

The country of Panama was a product of the Roosevelt Corollary. The Republic of New Granada consisted of Columbia, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela; Ecuador and Venezuela already gained their independence and now Panama was looking for theirs. The French’s failure at completing the Panama Canal gave Roosevelt a chance to complete the canal. He offered Colombia a treaty, the Panamanian alternative, but the Colombian government turned it down.

So Roosevelt backed the rebellious Panamanians in their quest for freedom. Roosevelt and the Panamanians won and the canal was eventually completed.

26th President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt

The Roosevelt Corollary, along with President William Howard Taft's Dollar Diplomacy were the major influences which shaped U.S. Foreign Policy throughout the twentieth-century.

Just shy of 150 years, the U.S. erased its doctrine of neutrality from its foreign policy and became the world's policeman with the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The U.S. could now metaphorically perform no-knock raids on governments which posed no threat economically or militarily. In short, the Truman Doctrine pledged hostility toward any nation that didn't accept the U.S.'s political structure: Democracy.

In 1821, John Quincy Adams declared that America "goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."