Allying with America means ~Defeat, Death, and Devastation: That is the American Record after 1945
War is part of man's psyche and the history of the world is the history of warfare. This is documented by Field Marshal Barnard Montgomery in his History of Warfare. This is a chronological history of warfare from the time of the Ancient Greeks through World War II with chapters on military thinking and the ethics of war.
One unalienable fact that emerges after reading this book is that in war the paramount aim is to achieve victory but there will always be collateral damage like death and destruction. As a military historian, I will like to further add that after 1945 the United States emerged as the world’s superpower and intervened in wars thousands of miles from home, and All of them suffered defeat or a pyrrhic victory. More important the association of the nations with America led to their destruction and doom along with complete devastation. Maybe if the Field Marshal had lived longer he would have analyzed this aspect of the American military’s involvement.
After the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Japan in 1945 on a defenseless person and causing 200,000 deaths the American leadership firmly believed that they were invincible and continued in the same vein. The Atomic bombing was a criminal act that qualified as a war crime. This was brought out by Justice Radhabinod Pal an Indian jurist. He was one of three Asian judges appointed to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the “Tokyo Trials” to try Japanese war crimes criminals. In his dissenting judgment, Justice Pal stated that the American generals who had dropped the Atmo bombs on Japan needed to be tried as war criminals and should be in the dock along with the Japanese leadership.
General MacArthur banned the publication of the judgment but it is worth quoting today. It also had a euphoric effect on the American leadership in the years to come as the thought process commenced that America was invincible and whatever they did was right and no war crime could ever be associated with America and war crimes if any were committed were only by the opponents of America.
With this background, America went into wars after 1945and sadly history documents that they were defeated in each and every war. Their intervention brought in resultant death and destruction. This thought process has led to their intervention in Ukraine and as is well known the war has led to over 5 million refugees, the destruction of Ukraine as the granary of Europe, and the devastation of its cities.
To discuss all the military campaigns of the United States after 1945 would be beyond the scope of this article but I will make a cursory mention of all the important ones and leave the reader to make the Judgement.
The first American intervention came in China when they backed General Chiang Kai Shek against the communists led by Mao Tse Tung. In a Civil War lasting four years(1945–49) Chiang fled to Formosa and America suffered its first defeat. Later during the time of Richard Nixon, the Americans dumped Chiang Kai Shek as they mollycoddled China for the purpose of trade and commerce.
The ink had hardly dried on records of the Chinese Communists' takeover of the mainland that the Americans got involved in the Korean War. This lasted for three years( 1950–53) and saw through two Presidents Truman and Eisenhower but the net result was defeat. Americans had to settle for a face-saving ceasefire that exists today and the Korean peninsula is absolutely tense and at any stage can lead to a nuclear conflagration.
The Americans were next involved as the main protagonist in various campaigns in Cuba, Iran, Indo- China, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, and now Ukraine.
All these campaigns have been discussed by various writers and historians and one fact emerges that in all of them the Americans failed and in some cases like Iraq, Iran, and Libya they are persona non grata. No American dares to walk the streets alone and unescorted in Baghdad, Tehran, Kabul, and Tripoli.
Afghanistan was the mother of all retreats and much has been written about it. Close by is Iran, where the American protege Reza Pahlavi also known as the Shah of Iran had no place to take refuge( even Jimmy Carter refused to let him in) and he spent his last days in Cairo, curtsey Anwar Sadat. The Americans fought for close to nine years in Indo-China, and 20 years in Afghanistan, and the net result of these military campaigns is zero. They also brought death and destruction in the region which lingered on after they left as can be seen in Afghanistan and the pyrrhic victory in Iraq. They got 2 leaders Saddam and Gaddafi executed in dubious trials and actions and destroyed the men who were opposed to Islamic extremism.
Much has been written about these invasions by various writers and one can only write about the conclusions. The conclusion is chilling and shows that the American intervention ravaged these lands, they were destroyed and destabilized. Can anybody argue on that?
Now the Americans have instigated the conflict in Ukraine: a conflict that should never have taken place but the American think tank needed something to keep the war machine and military-industrial complex alive and running. They instigated Ukraine to provoke the Russian invasion. The Americans are wiser now and have not positioned boots on the ground in Ukraine but all the same, Ukraine is destroyed. A large swathe of the territory is captured by Russia and the Donbas region is subdued and Maripaul is captured. There are also 5 million refugees and America sits back and watches the devastation and is fuelling it further by supplying more weapons. America has a large economy and gives weapons to Ukraine but they must bear in mind that there is a limit to everything and even the coffers of the Kuber, the Hindu god of wealth emptied at one stage.
There is a possibility that this could be the last American intervention because now they're confronted by an extremely determined and very powerful country Russia. The present conflict has all the portents for a nuclear exchange and it could be history repeating itself with World War III on the anvil. The epicenter of the earlier two World Wars was Europe and there's a possibility of the same happening again.
