Biden Is Not Ending The Forever Wars

Western mainstream media is painting Joe Biden as some sort of anti-war President, a man seeking to end the American empire’s “forever wars,” as Biden himself puts it. The US media are even working to paint drawdowns and troop withdrawals as a negative, however, there is no evidence for what they are actually asserting.

US President Joe Biden, to the great distaste of Western corporate press, announced his September 11 deadline for withdrawal from Afghanistan earlier this year. The sudden evacuation of troops from Bagram air field earlier this month jump-started the process, yet despite the withdrawal seemingly coming along as promised, the US is still launching airstrikes inside the country.

Some questions remain unanswered as to whether there will be a full withdrawal from Afghanistan; like whether the some 650 US troops that will remain to guard American assets in the country will end up coordinating with paid contractors, which still number into the thousands as of now. Although there are arguments that the US will still be there, in one way or another, Afghanistan is actually a significant withdrawal.

Yet, in almost all other cases, the Biden administration is just as hawkish as his predecessor’s government. This is despite the rhetoric of President Biden, which has led some to believe he is actually moving towards ending the wars. In fact, even the corporate media are behaving as if Biden is actually ending the wars and are publishing articles painting Biden as being a candidate which seeks to stop most foreign intervention. These arguments are simply laughable.

Biden’s first ever speech on foreign policy, delivered as President, focused partly on the issue of the Saudi-led coalition’s war on Yemen. This was the first foreign war that he claimed to seek a solution for. At the time, the Western media painted Biden’s speech as an indicator that he had stopped support for Saudi Arabia and its war efforts, but that was again untrue. At the time, I and other journalists pointed out that Biden had actually stated that he would end support for Saudi “offensive” action, but would continue to aid Saudi “defensive” action.

As expected, it all came down to what the US government defined as “defensive” action and the escalation of warfare by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has until now gone completely unpunished. Since the announcement back in February, the war has not ended, there has been no significant steps taken by the US to end the fighting, and instead the US has been repeatedly accused of launching its own strikes on Yemen, or at least operating its drones there. In fact, allegations even spread that US forces had entered the biggest airfield in Yemen. Far from ending the war, it has only expanded under the Biden administration, keeping in mind that the war had started in 2015 with the support of the former Obama administration, on which Joe Biden served as Vice President.

Then we come to the question of Iraq. Again in the Western press we’ve heard the reports of an apparent drawdown in US forces in the country and the ending of the US combat missions there by the end of 2021. Yet the only real change to be made is that of job names given to military personnel, in fact, due to the expansion of the NATO mission announced earlier this February, there will more than likely be an increase of US military personnel entering Iraq. The Biden government has also launched airstrikes in the country, without congressional approval, which targeted groups belonging to the official Iraq security apparatus in the country, as part of the PMU (Popular Mobilisation Forces).

Then we have the recent airstrikes launched against the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia, although the President himself was not notified until afterwards. Somalia is a country that the Trump administration announced a full withdrawal from, so there is not even a justification of having been protecting US forces.

On top of all of this, we have the ongoing illegal occupation of a third of Syrian territory and two separate airstrikes having been launched in Syria so far against allies of the Syrian government. This US government has also maintained its sanctions against Syria, which are crippling its economy and sending its civilian population into extreme poverty. This is why the US prevents Syria from accessing 90% of its oil resources and its most fertile agricultural lands. The knock-on effect here is that Lebanon, currently suffering from an economic collapse, has no lifeline.

Then we have the continuation of the Trump era sanctions on Venezuela, Iran and against Cuba. The policies of the current US government, in almost all aspects of foreign policy, are near to inseparable. Yet, we are still hearing of the so-called progressive nature of Joe Biden. It’s a joke that any of this needs to be explained, but unfortunately it does because the corporate media for the most part will never put the pieces together for the general public.

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