As China and the U.S. intensify their criticisms of the other’s human right records, CGTN has revealed the horrific realities of American misadventures overseas and injustices at home in a compelling new eight-part series.
The series “America: War by another name” spells out in sharp detail how the U.S. war machine has left millions in anguish around the world, with ambitious rhetoric and lofty promises offering hope that has all too often been extinguished in a sea of abuse, suffering and profit-grabbing.
America’s rise is “full of lies, betrayal, blood and tears,” the series concludes. “Through the Spanish-American War fought under the cloak of ‘liberating Cuba,’ the U.S. secured its colonial control over Cuba and the Philippines through contractual transfer and purchase,” one article reads, noting that the U.S., taking Cuba as a springboard, gained control over the Caribbean, and, using the Philippines as a transit, started its expansion towards East Asia.
Since its establishment, the U.S. has been preaching protection of human rights. It insists the wars that it launches are for freedom and independence. As a key player in the writing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.S. has been seeking to assert its leadership in the fight for human rights around the world.
But the CGTN series offers a totally different story. It mulls the forces behind America’s human rights abuses and social inequalities, from an opioid crisis that has left millions in despair and institutional racism that shows no sign of abating to rampant gun violence and mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis that has led to an ever-rising death toll.
To divert public attention from domestic problems, the U.S., the CGTN series shows, resorted to wars overseas, with the trigger often pulled thousands of kilometers away, leaving innocent lives and communities as collateral damage in their wake. U.S. General J. Franklin Bell estimated that Americans had killed about 600,000 Filipinos in Luzon alone, which accounted for one-sixth of the Philippine population.
Those wars have also had a deep impact domestically, not only diverting workers’ tax dollars away from vital investment in education, health and infrastructure but also deepening racist attitudes within the United States and contributing to a sharp rise in homegrown terrorism committed by far-right extremists.
So why does the U.S. knowingly and willingly slide down the hole of war?
The CGTN series asserts that the U.S. was born out of wars, rose through wars and actively pursues wars. The country has increased the size and capacity of its military forces, bolstered the structure and dimensions of the state apparatus, and expanded the scope and boundaries of state governance through different forms of wars.
In addition, the American economy is tied to the super chariot of the military-industrial complex. The colossal military industry is a driving force behind America’s economic growth, with its upstream and downstream industries contributing nearly 40 percent to the country’s national GDP.
The United States speaks of freedom, democracy and human rights but delivers broken promises, appalling abuses and systemic failings at home and abroad, the CGTN series concludes.
