Biden bombed Syria: he started a president’s legacy with the same ‘smell of sulfur’ as Trump

The United States government bombed Syria on Thursday, February 25. The target was alleged pro-Iranian militia positions. This is the first attack ordered by President Joe Biden since he came to power. This happened only 36 days after taking over from Donald Trump as president of the first warlike power on the planet. So much ‘war’ was launched by both characters in their run for the presidency, but in the end, after seeing the attack on Syria, only one question remains: how different is Biden from Trump?

«The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know«, a very popular phrase used by Americans. That is the dilemma Americans faced in November. They had to choose between the supremacist Donald Trump and the bellicose Joe Biden as ‘supreme leader’ for the period 2021-2025.

Which was the known devil and which was the unknown devil?

Trump was advancing in his last year in office, after a life full of luxury and excess. Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years (2009–2017) and a senator for 36 years (1973–2009). The first had explosive rhetoric, the second a war record. One is a nationalist, the other one is a globalist.

One is a Republican and the other a Democrat, the most obvious fact, but it is that fact that generates suspicion. Are there really differences between the presidents of one party and the other? Bipartisanship in that country has reigned uninterruptedly since time immemorial, specifically since 1853 with the Democrat Franklin Pierce. But, in practice, changes in state policy always point to the same goal: expansionism.

This responds to the Monroe Doctrine that pulls the strings of everyone who sits at the desk in the Oval Office of the White House since 1823. That year, the fifth president, James Monroe, decreed that the inspiration of the plans and policies should always be the expansionism of the United States. He relied on an infamous statement: «America for the Americans», which in practice means «America for Americans.»

Political bipartisanship

In an exclusive interview, Francisco González, Venezuelan lawyer, researcher, international analyst and with a master’s degree in Latin American Integration from the National University of Tres de Febrero in Argentina, recalled that both parties have exchanged roles for more than a century.

“In the period 1856–1896 the Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, were the abolitionists. They fought against slavery, supported the civil war, and promulgated a kind of progressivism”, said Gónzalez. From there, the situation would change after the Great Depression of 1929, when the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933.

“The Democrats emerged stronger from the crisis of 1929, supporting the idea of a more interventionist State, with greater social spending that would allow the rescue of the average American from the crisis. Now they were the nationalists”, said González.

Thus, he explained that between one president and another, roles have been exchanged up to the current situation. Democrats were closer to African Americans, Hispanics, and social movements during the Obama-Biden administration; and the more conservative Republicans with Trump, whose hard base is the central states, where nationalists, landowners and agro-industrialists reside.

Today, in the North American country the struggle of Obama’s «Change We Can Believe In» is being experienced. It is committed to a western globalized world to solve the country’s problems, against Trump’s “America First” (USA First), which uses the term “patriot” but with an ultra-nationalist and xenophobic meaning.

Biden receives an outdated political system

Precisely because of this exchange of roles for over a century, the Lebanese-Venezuelan international lawyer and analyst, Raimundo Kabchi, commented that regardless of the promises of whoever comes to power, Democrats and Republicans make the same mistakes.

“The mindset of American politics has not changed in 200 years. The system is made for the rich, who make up 1% of society. That other class, that is moderately benefited without being a multimillionaire, works only as a wild card for the wealthy of that 1%”, he argued in an exclusive interview.

At that point, Trump can be compared to Biden. The tycoon was the only president in 40 years who did not start a military war. Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama did.

Trump threatened, but Biden will attack

Although his rhetoric was aggressive, Trump always opted to suffocate with sanctions anyone who interfered with his plans. He just wanted to run the world economy at will and share the wealth with friends.

Hence their «models» of conflicts: Trump with trade wars with China, Russia, Europe, India, Mexico and Canada; financial blockades on Iran, Cuba and Venezuela; economic boycott of the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, (Unesco) the United Nations Children’s Fund or UNICEF, the Human Rights Council, the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization (WHO); in addition to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement because it does not benefit his pockets.

On the other hand, Biden had a leading role in at least five war conflicts on his resume. In the 1990s, he influenced Bill Clinton’s decision to militarily enter the Yugoslav wars. At the turn of the century, while chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he voted in favor of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. As Obama’s Vice President he was one of the strategists who led the war in Syria and Libya. And let’s remember that Biden is the democrat, the liberal, the one «close» to the clamor of the people.

The racial and health crises were decisive

For Francisco González, part of the struggle between the two characters was Biden’s ‘connection’ with the average American – because of his relationship with Obama – against Trump’s populism, whose base remains strong and solvent, even after losing the elections and the presidency.

In that sense, he explained that in January 2020 Trump seemed unbeatable for two elements. First, because of the economic boom that had benefited his huge electoral base. And secondly, due to the failure of the impeachment, from which he emerged successfully and reinforced with almost 50% popular support.

Then, González commented: “The pandemic arrived and the favorite became Biden, due to Trump’s terrible management against the coronavirus. The United States did not have – nor does it have – a health system that ensures the health of poor states. Even racial segregation has caused more deaths in the African American and Hispanic sectors». That is a problem that Obamacare tried to solve, albeit with timid efforts.

Biden also took advantage of George Floyd’s murder and even went to his wake. That tragedy fueled the discontent of those unprotected and forgotten by Trump, whose supremacist policy caused a kind of covert civil war, with one sector armed and another not armed.

In this regard, Kabchi defended the following thesis: “For the first time, the political, social and economic system in the United States was questioned in its entirety, the one that has hurt and made the peoples of the world cry, that violates international laws and the constitutions of other countries to impose its law. It is not Trump, it is the North American society”, the one that makes up the one percent.

On this, González added that just as Trump came to condemn the crisis of the globalized world and encouraged nationalist movements in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Brazil; After his failure and that of other similar governments (such as Brazil) to deal with the pandemic, Biden may return the ‘slap’ and take advantage of the crisis generated by COVID-19 to resume the neoliberal and globalized path that has dominated the world in the last decades.

International politics will change (?)

At an international level, González recalled that “the United States has lost influence in the world and presence in Latin America, while Russia and China have gained ground. In the end, everything turns to geopolitics and Biden will use other methods” but with the same purpose: the dominance of the West.

On this last point, Lenin Maury, journalist and political analyst with a specialization in Public Policies for Equality in Latin America of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (Clacso), agreed, and indicated Venezuela as an example.

“Regarding Venezuela, with Biden, some crude attacks may be suspended, but the objective will not change, because it is the same since Hugo Chávez took power in 1999: to end the Bolivarian Revolution”, he emphasized in an exclusive interview.

In this sense, Maury defended the thesis that the form of aggression will change, but not the substance. “In the Obama-Biden era, the infamous executive decree that declares Venezuela as an unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States was born. Let’s not forget that this is the legal basis for all financial, military and economic operations that have been developed and have been escalating against the Venezuelan people”, he said.

In addition, Maury recalled that during the Democratic party campaign, Biden always referred to Venezuela «as a dictatorship that should be eliminated by the United States».

Decades ago, Democrats were betting on Joseph Nye’s ‘soft power’ theory, which proposes putting down the hammer and looking for other means to influence the world. With Obama, that concept was put aside, as war actions were consummated, only that he always had the press on his side. Now, with Biden, a good part of that team would return”, he explained.

However, he warned that only one thing was certain: “With Trump, you could only expect the worst, he is the political father of the ‘Frankenstein’ named Juan Guaidó, and thanks to that support he continues to loot Venezuela’s resources openly and confidently. Now, in a second term, without a reelection at stake, he could have done worse”.

So, in the end, it didn’t matter what decision American voters made, as history will continue on its current course. Americans who mourn George Floyd will continue to be part of the other 99%. In international relations, the «law of the jungle», the «back yard» law, the «dollar law» will be deepened. Not even the post-COVID-19 crisis will be able to change that policy. At least, not while the corridors of the White House continue to ‘smell of sulfur’.

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