Commentary: Washington: The world's biggest bully

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Washington dumbfounded the world again earlier this week after it had the brass to pitch itself as the one standing "on the side of the rules-based order" on the Ukraine issue and accuse others of violating "the basic tenet that big countries cannot bully small countries."

Apparently, it never crossed Washington's mind to look in the mirror before speaking out. The reflection would be appalling: a bellicose history of overseas military intrusions and covert subversions.

Washington's bullying has long been evident on the world stage. The primal American culture of piracy that advocates pillage and conquest has been sharpened by Washington into a hegemonic foreign policy to flex its muscles wherever possible, bully others whenever it sees fit and dictate the world's rules of the road as a matter of course.

As former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower said in his farewell address, "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist" in the country.

Indeed, Washington's reckless interference has pushed countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Eastern Europe into war and strife, leaving behind death and destruction.

The U.S.-led NATO forces carried out continuous airstrikes for 78 days against Yugoslavia, leaving more than 8,000 civilians dead or injured and nearly 1 million displaced.

The U.S.-launched war in Afghanistan killed around 50,000 Afghan civilians from 2001 to mid-April 2020 and reduced some 11 million to refugees. The scenes of terrified Afghan civilians trying to scale airport fences and chase airplanes in Kabul was a chilling echo of what happened in 1975 when U.S. Army helicopters lifted evacuees from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon.

Furthermore, years of bloodshed have left more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians dead and dragged Libya into greater turmoil.

Last year, the anti-war group CODEPINK revealed that an average of 46 bombs have been dropped on other countries per day by Washington and its allies since 2001. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said in 2019 that his country has only enjoyed 16 years of peace in its 242-year history, making it "the most warlike nation in the history of the world."

Textbook cases of Washington bullying small countries with sanctions also abound. Washington's sanctions have increased tenfold in the past 20 years. It has long put Cuba, Venezuela, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Syria and others on its blacklist, wantonly disrupting their economies and damaging people's livelihoods even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

To eliminate what it sees as a threat to its technological hegemony, Washington has used nearly every available means, including blacklisting tech companies, imposing chip trading sanctions and impeding cooperation and exchanges between countries.

"It is the age-old 'with us or against us' strategy, and delivers all the consequences that a hegemon can inflict upon non-compliant states," read an op-ed published early December in the South China Morning Post.

The op-ed made a good point of Washington's arbitrary mentality. The arrogant minds of the White House have long undermined international rules, coerced others to pick sides and retaliated against whoever refused to comply.

This perverse logic was laid bare once again when Washington earlier in the week threatened "every country" to "make very clear where it stands" on Ukraine.

Against Washington's will, many people have realized that the fundamental way to resolve the Ukraine crisis lies in a ceasefire, followed by dialogue and negotiation. And just as Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday, most countries agree that "the world needs peace, not war; it calls for justice, not hegemony; it aspires for cooperation, not confrontation."

If Washington truly cares about easing the situation in Ukraine, it should learn to stand on the right side of peace and justice. Pondering its past misdeeds could be a good start.