From The Middle East, All American Presidents Look The Same

-OpEd-

On the eve of the U.S. elections, after months of blatant lies and empty promises, the whole world is anxiously waiting and wanting to know who will be the American president for the next four years. It’s the same old farce.

Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, if she wins, will continue her party’s policies that have supported genocide in Gaza. Or if he wins, Republican candidate Donald Trump will return to the White House to continue his destructive policies that he began in his previous term.

For months, both candidates talked repeatedly about freedom and democracy as if they were expensive perfumes in luxury stores, while in other parts of the world, blood is shed and lives are lost under the weight of these empty promises.

Ultimately, we will all be affected by this race, and for those who live in poverty and tragedy, new chapters of our history will be written in blood and tears. For decades, the Middle East has suffered from being the object of American policy, as a chess piece in a power game not about freedom or democracy, but about domination, exploitation, and, above all, hypocrisy.

It is a grotesque theater of the absurd where from one administration to the next, whether Democratic or Republican, the tone remains the same: unwavering support for authoritarian regimes, military interventions disguised as humanitarian efforts, and unwavering loyalty to the Israeli occupation.

Having witnessed this horrific display unfold over the years, I have come to one inescapable truth: I hate all American presidents.

Let me explain; I do not speak from a position of blind hatred or simplistic anti-Americanism. It is a hatred rooted in decades of broken promises, destroyed lives, and endless bloodshed at the hands of leaders claiming to support human rights while systematically denying them to millions of people in the Middle East.

​Same game, different players

Whether it is Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, or any other name to occupy the Oval Office, their foreign policy toward the Middle East follows the same cynical script.

Democrats adorn their empire with the language of diplomacy, human rights, and multilateralism, feign “sorrow” for civilian victims of drone strikes, and offer vague signs of “concern” when Israel destroys Gaza. But behind this carefully crafted image lies the machine of war and occupation, providing weapons, money, and moral cover to oppressive regimes.

Republicans don’t even bother to hide their intentions.

Republicans, instead, don’t even bother to hide their intentions. Under the slogan “America First,” their brand of militarism is even more pronounced, exchanging diplomacy for brutal force. Trump’s infamous recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the annexation of the Golan Heights were the latest in a series of betrayals of the Palestinian people.

While Republicans may portray their aggression as necessary for American security, the recipients of this aggression — Yemenis, Iraqis, and Palestinians — know it is about one thing: dominance.

Successive American presidents have been complicit in enabling Israel’s apartheid policies, from the occupation of the West Bank to the repeated massacres in Gaza. Year after year, administration after administration, the United States continues to pump billions in military aid to Israel, while turning a blind eye to Palestinian suffering, whether through direct complicity or passive silence.

For generations, American presidents have failed to confront the fundamental injustice at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They talk about the “two-state solution” until their talk itself is sapped of all meaning and purpose. For they know that it is just a broken record to perpetuate the status quo.

How can there be peace when one side is armed to the teeth and supported by the world’s No. 1 superpower, while the other is occupied, displaced and disintegrated?

Not a chessboard

Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen: these are the graveyards of American foreign policy. Promises of liberation were merely a pretext for chaos, endless wars, and excessive profit.

American presidents — with their speeches about “freedom” and “democracy” — left these countries shattered, with millions dead and displaced who live in a state of constant insecurity.

The miserable legacy continues.

The repercussions of U.S. interventions extend far beyond the countries bombed or invaded. Such interventions have fueled terrorism, displacement, and instability throughout the region.

Do you remember George W. Bush’s “Freedom Agenda”? It was a symbol of occupation and conquest; a regime change project disguised under lofty ideologies. Barack Obama, who was seen as the “peace president,” expanded the drone program, using assassinations as foreign policy.

And the miserable legacy continues with Biden Administration.

For every one of these presidents, the Middle East is just a geopolitical chessboard. The region’s people are mere pawns, who could be easily sacrificed for the sake of America’s bigger “interests”whether it’s related to oil, military deployment or countering terrorism. The lives of the people are barely even considered.

American leaders may deliver speeches about democracy or human rights, but when it comes to the Middle East, their actions speak louder: Support to dictators, kings, and war dealers. These are their real priorities.

Even the Arab Spring was met with American hesitation, opportunism, and, in many cases, complicity to restore the status quo. When it comes to the Middle East, the United States prefers stability over justice — even when that stability is built on the shoulders of tyrants and oppressors.

Washington faces

We are often told that elections in the United States are important, and that choices between candidates have consequences for the rest of the world. But when it comes to the Middle East, nothing ever changes.

Whether the president is Republican or Democrat, the American policy of exploitation and violence continues in the Middle East.

People are suffering, no matter who occupies the Oval Office.

American presidents, regardless of their rhetoric or party affiliation, ultimately serve imperial interests.

Some may argue that the United States has made mistakes, but is still a force for good. But the truth is: for the people of the Middle East, bombs are still falling on them; dictators are still propped up, and people are suffering, no matter who occupies the Oval Office.

So, yes, I hate all American presidents: because they represent the same thing to us in the Middle East: power wielded without accountability, violence justified in the name of progress, and complete indifference to the lives of people deemed less valuable.

The faces in Washington may change every four years, but for those who bear the brunt of American imperialism, the pain remains.