Obama Ought to Look in Mirror Before Saying 'Large Countries Don't Bully'

MOSCOW, January 26 (Sputnik), Ekaterina Blinova – Addressing reporters in New Delhi on Sunday, US President Obama has once again repeated his famous mantra "large countries shouldn't bully smaller countries," prompting the question: Wouldn’t it be nice if the US President looked in the mirror before blaming others?

"We have a profound interest, as I believe every country does, in promoting a core principle, which is: Large countries don't bully smaller countries," Obama said, referring to the new round of American sanctions against Russia over its alleged involvement in Ukraine.

It looks like the US leadership is suffering from a peculiar form of amnesia. In March 2011, during a "humanitarian operation," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate attacked Libya with Tomahawk rockets, overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi's regime together with American NATO allies. Since then, the North

African state has been marred with endless turmoil. President Obama has obviously forgotten that it was him, who urged the US Congress in 2013, to start a "humanitarian" military campaign in the Middle East, this time against Assad's regime in Syria. The US President asked Congress to approve the use of military force "to deter, disrupt, prevent and degrade the potential for future uses of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction," although it had not been proved that Assad's military forces were behind notorious chemical attacks.

However, Barack Obama is not the first American president who has unleashed wars on distant shores. Since the end of the World War II almost 65 years of the US foreign policy have been overshadowed by interventions, proxy wars and regime change operations, initiated by Washington. Since 1945, US military forces have bombed Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Serbia, Somalia, Bosnia, the Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Yemen. Thus far, the United States has ultimately turned into a global "bully" according to Garry Wills, a prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning American author.

"The United States considered itself not only a legitimate leader but actually more legitimate than indigenous leaders who did not meet the US definition of freedom-loving behavior," Mr. Wills wrote in his article "Bully of the Free World" published in Foreign Affairs in 1999.
Not much has changed in the recent years.

"We're starting to look not so much like the world's policeman, but more like George Zimmerman: itching to use force and then pretending it's because we had no choice," emphasized Bill Maher, an American HBO's Real Time show host, in his article "The US: World's Policeman or Schoolyard Bully?" published by the Guardian in 2013.

"The last 65 years of US foreign policy has been based purely on bullying: 'You either do what we say, or we'll use proxy forces to invade or occupy your country,'" underscored Brian Becker from the ANSWER coalition in his interview with RT in 2014.

Currently, while lecturing Russia on foreign policy matters, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been expanding US military presence in Iraq and Syria under the pretext of an anti-terror campaign. At the same time, turning a blind eye to atrocities of Kiev regime and far-right National Guard militants in eastern Ukraine, Obama has sanctioned considerable military aid to Petro Poroshenko. The question remains, whether US leadership is able to assess the situation soberly or if the US president's actions are guided by the principle "Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi" ("What is permissible for Jupiter is not permissible for an ox").

Would not it be nice if US President Barack Obama looked in the mirror before blaming others for bullying smaller countries?