To the Journal editor:

Wasted American Resources (W.A.R.) is what American Foreign Policy is all about. It was true in Vietnam, and it proving true in Afghanistan. Paraphrasing others, the U.S. war in Afghanistan was always an excuse for imperialism, 20 years of occupation, misguided nationalism, and corporate greed. It has been a “smashing success for corporations.” What purpose did this war, Vietnam, et al, serve to advance national security and national interests? What we have had for some time is intervention, wars in support of just about any kind of government, other than that of real democracy, free of U.S. intervention, power, dominance and control of the national affairs of other nations and people. This policy or these policies are advanced with sanctions, embargos, boycotts, covert and overt actions against many nations, but name me one that we have really intervened in support of democracy and its people who want democratic freedom and democracy we profess to have and believe in?

Afghanistan was and is an American made fiasco! Over $2 trillion went to 5 weapons companies, during the Afghanistan War, so who gained anything but the arms industry? Don’t blame President Biden, for he is just a member of the establishment, the polity, the military, industrial, congressional-complex that funds these endless wars, for this has been ongoing since WW II if not prior to, and has accelerated ever since, with maybe brief periods of respite. It is neither a Democratic thing, nor a Republican thing, but it is a national thing, in the guise of patriotism, manifest destiny and exceptional. It is the belief that right, as we see it, makes right. Is that really the truth of it? So, let’s stop attacking democracy in Venezuela, accusing it of being something it is not, stop the war on Cuba, and Nicaragua, and others just because they are not under of dominance, influence and control. Stop the lies, propaganda, and stop wasting time and money better used and more important to fight global warming and climate change, and extreme weather events, much in evidence, but much ignored by policy makers.

U.S. foreign policy has inspired militarism, imperialism, at the cost of too many lives, civilian and military, a failing infrastructure, the public sector, with private industry and business the only ones gaining from it.

Sincerely,

FRED JAKOBCIC

Marquette