Biden bolsters the American empire in Syria

The Biden administration proved last week that they intend to continue the legacy of American imperialism that Biden’s predecessors engaged in. This is a legacy of blatant disregard for human rights, military adventurism, and support for reactionary regimes around the world.

On Feb. 25, Biden spoke over the phone with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. The decision to speak with the king rather than Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was reported on as a significant political pivot since the Trump administration had cultivated close ties with MBS despite his many crimes.

“Biden’s move to deal with the king marks a diplomatic slight to the crown prince,” John Haltiwanger reported for Business Insider.

Recently, Biden has received praise in the media for this new approach to Saudi Arabia. Author Max Boot positively characterized Biden’s political posturing in the Washington Post.

“Biden is now acting to bring MBS under control,” Boot said.

On Feb. 26, the CIA declassified a report that found Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman had direct involvement in the killing.

“[MBS] approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamaal Khashoggi,” at the time a columnist for the Washington Post. The report cites as evidence the involvement of several officials who answer directly to MBS’ close advisor Saud al-Qahtani and others.

“Seven members of [MBS’] elite personal protective detail, known as the Rapid Intervention Force… exists to defend the Crown Prince, answers only to him, and had directly participated in earlier dissident suppression operations in the Kingdom and abroad at the Crown Prince’s direction,” the report said. 

This begs the question: why did the Biden Administration decide to wait until after the phone conversation between Biden and Salman to release the report? Could the answer be that Biden has no interest in holding MBS accountable? Notably missing in the White House readout of the call between Biden and Salman was any actual mention of MBS. Following the call, the Biden administration announced a list of sanctions and visa bans on Saudi nationals who were implicated in the killing of Jamaal Khashoggi. MBS was not among them. Like Trump before him, Biden will likely continue to allow MBS to bypass any and all accountability.

On April 6, 2017, Donald Trump launched 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base, killing 16 people, according to the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria. The move ever more so entangled the U.S. in the bloody conflict in Syria, which has served as a proxy war between Russia and Iran on one side and the U.S. and its allies on the other. On Feb. 25 of this year, the U.S. carried out airstrikes in Syria, according to the Pentagon, against Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah, alleged to be responsible for three attacks against American and American allied personnel that have taken place in Iraq since Biden has taken office, resulting in one death. Though the American response killed as many as 22 people, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby called the attack “proportionate” and a “defense.”

The move has played a part in ever-increasing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. As the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, U.S. actions and the actions of American allies in the region became increasingly antagonistic towards Iran. In Feb. 2018, Israel shot down an Iranian drone that allegedly flew into Israeli airspace. Iran denied the allegation. Immediately after, the Israeli Air Force attacked Iranian targets in Syria. One year later, an American drone was shot down flying over Iranian air space. Of course, in Jan. 2020, these tensions boiled over with the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Quds Force in Iraq.

Despite the Iran Nuclear Deal being one of the great achievements of Biden’s Democratic predecessor, Biden has refused to rejoin the deal. In an effort to pressure Iran into capitulation rather than meeting a mutually beneficial agreement, Biden has decided Iran has to make the first move and stop enriching uranium before the U.S. will do anything. The strike in Syria against Iranian-backed forces resembles all too closely the beginning of rising tensions that we saw during the Trump administration.

The Israeli military, however, have voiced their support for the strike.

“The Iranians didn’t realize that Biden is not Obama, and if they continue down this road of miscalculation they will eventually get hit,” an Israeli official said. It was reported that Washington notified Israel ahead of the strike.

Particularly when it comes to Israel, Biden’s foreign policy, despite the claim of the Israeli official, is actually remarkably similar to Barak Obama’s, in that both presidents have allowed for genocide to take place in the Palestinian territories. In 2014, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, a two-month military assault on the Gaza Strip that resulted in the murder of more than 500 children. Infrastructure destroyed by the air campaign could not be rebuilt afterwards as Israel and Egypt have upheld a blockade on Gaza since 2007. Two years after the invasion, Obama signed a 38-billion-dollar military aid package for Israel, to be distributed over the next ten years.

The Biden Administration has continued to look away from the Israeli government’s genocidal policies. The Palestinian territories have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967, effectively making Israel/Palestine an apartheid state. While more than half of Israelis living within Israel proper have received a COVID-19 vaccine, no Palestinians living within the occupied territories have been vaccinated. In fact, Israel has prevented 1,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine from being distributed to Palestinian front-line workers in Gaza.

Israel has instead sent vaccines to allies on different continents before vaccinating occupied Palestinians. Here we see American imperial foreign policy in the Middle East coincide with its Western Hemisphere imperial venture.

In 2005, Manuel Zelaya was democratically elected to serve as president of Honduras. Under Zelaya, children received free lunch in schools, the minimum wage was increased, student scholarships were expanded and public services and infrastructure were rebuilt. While he was president, the murder rate fell, along with poverty.

In 2009, acting under Article 5 of the 2006 Honduran Civil Participation Act, Zelaya called for a non-binding referendum on whether or not the Honduran constitution should be amended. The constitution in question had been written in 1982 while the U.S. backed military still ruled the country. 

On June 28 of that year, the Honduran Supreme Court ordered the army oust Zeleya on account of the referendum.

“We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras,” President Obama said.

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton disagreed.

“Legislature in Honduras and the national judiciary actually followed the law in removing President Zelaya,” she said. “ [I] didn’t like the way it looked or the way they did it.”

Following Zelaya’s ousting, the U.S. continued funding the Honduran military while deeming obviously fraudulent elections to be free and fair. In 2015, Honduras’ National Party pushed successfully for the Supreme Court to change the constitution, removing all presidential term limits, something Zelaya was ousted for six years earlier. Two years later, after an election plagued by irregularities, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal deemed Juan Olando Hernández the winner, making him the first man in Honduras to serve two presidential terms. The Organization of American States called for new elections while the Trump administration praised the process. Honduran soldiers, many trained by the U.S., wounded and killed multiple people protesting the results in the capital.  

In 2019, Honduras, Israel, and the United States entered into a joint military partnership. On Feb. 25 2020, Honduras received their first shipment of vaccines from Israel. Guatemala, Hungary, and the Czech Republic are all set to receive vaccines before Palestinians as well. Each of these countries has followed the U.S.’ lead in acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It should be noted that Biden has not moved to reverse the Trump Administration’s decision to move the embassy.

On Feb. 5, the International Criminal Court ruled that it has jurisdiction over the occupied Palestinian territories. The U.S. responded saying it had “serious concerns” over the decision. It is likely that Trump-era sanctions against the ICC will remain in place at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More than 3 billion dollars in military aid is set to be sent to Israel in 2021.

It has been just over a month since Biden has taken office and the trajectory of his foreign policy is clear. There are many differences between the Trump and Biden presidencies— foreign policy is not one of them.