Issue 8

 Babak Layeghi
 Student of Middle Eastern Studies at University of Toronto

More then two hundred years ago, the founding fathers of the United States of America sat down to write the American Constitution, with one thing on their minds, capitalism. The writers of the constitution were from a bourgeoisie background, and before they began to create the laws of an orderly society and the rights that the citizens of this new nation would enjoy, they were concerned with one thing only, profit maximization. The founding fathers were large estate owners, they owned hundreds of slaves, and they were merchants, in other words they were businessmen. The government, which they wished to instill upon this new land, was that of which, would protect their interests. Therefore the government was established to be responsive to the needs of commerce. This principle remained at the core of the American government, and continues to the present day.

Due to this reason alone, one can begin to understand the aggressive foreign policy that American diplomats constructed. The lifeline of a prosperous commercial class depended on the amount of trade it profited from. Whether that trading process benefits both the United States and country X, continues to be up for debate. However, in order for American commercial necessities to be met global and domestic markets must remain stable at all times. Hence, waterways and other transportation routes must be kept open, for products to be exported and imported. All markets must allow the United States to penetrate deeply into their economies, and if any one regime in whichever country opposes American philosophy it will be met with force…  

China 1945-1946
Korea 1950-1953
China 1950-1953
Cuba 1951-1961
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Guatemala 1960
Vietnam 1961-1973
Congo 1964
Laos 1964-1973
Peru 1965
Guatemala 1967-1969
Cambodia 1969-1970
El Salvador 1980’s
Nicaragua 1980’s
Grenada 1983
Lebanon 1983-1984
Bosnia 1985
Libya 1986
Panama 1989
Sudan 1998
The Former Yugoslavia 1991
Iraq 1991-Present
Afghanistan 1998, 2001-Present

Since the end of World War II the United States has taken upon itself to uphold liberal and democratic ideals throughout the world. Without a doubt, economic gains made in the process of bombing and killing thousands upon thousand of innocent civilians, by this capitalistic-centric regime are only second in safeguarding the ‘Free World’ from the evil that lurks outside of the borders of the United States of America.

Long Live Democracy and its Protector!