US foreign policy a trail of devastation
I FEEL I must ask Mr Eels (Letters, March 11) what makes him state that Germany would have conquered Britain if the Americans hadn’t
‘come to our rescue’? They had failed in 1940, and had a massive eastern front, assassination attempts upon Hitler and some generals wanting peace talks. Is he certain the USA would have come at all, if not for Pearl Harbor?
I respect your perception of the good they have done but would wish for a definition.
For I see American foreign policy as a trail of devastation, destabilisation and pillage. Korea, Vietnam, Central and South
America, Afghanistan, Middle East, mineral rich African countries, to name a few, often dragging Britain into conflict with them.
The mentality of McCarthyism remains and is apparent here in Britain – an intense paranoia of anything remotely left wing. Then there is Rodney King, George Floyd, Guantanamo Bay and of course the historical genocide of its own indigenous people.
With Silicon Valley controlling much of the digital world, the largest propaganda machine that is Hollywood selling the American Dream as big suits, big cars, big everything, and the reality that much of America is poor and ignored, medical bankruptcy rife and machine guns sold over the counter.
I’m not anti-American, but really – people in glass houses, etc! I hardly think fast food junkies in Russia is tantamount to a ticker tape welcome.
It is the hypocrisy that scares me. We had a proud, hard-fought-for socialist tradition that only sought a fairer share for all. This died when Mrs Thatcher embraced all things American, and the free for all that resulted has left our utilities and infrastructure in tatters, with only shareholders benefitting. Forty years later, our politics, law, sport, media, business practices and increasingly our health system all run in the American style. I respect your right to believe in what you wish, Mr
Eels, I simply argue for context over generalisations and flag waving. I would prefer self-determination to being America’s lapdog.
Peter Lawrence Dursley, Gloucestershire