I was piddling about the internet today and read Stephen Walt’s piece, Taking it to the Taliban. After worrying that the massive costs involved in Pakistan’s fight against the Taliban may actually feed it in the long run, he asks, “And given that we helped egg the Pakistani government into this, are we likely to get blamed for it down the road?”
Part of being the hegemon is getting blamed for everything that goes wrong in every country regardless of the truth of it. Because of our position in the world, many people around the world see international affairs as us vs. them, with the U.S. naturally being the “them.”
The first time I became aware of this phenomenon, I was living in Paraguay, working for a non-profit. As an American, I was accused (on multiple occasions) of being CIA, simply because I was an American doing charity work in Paraguay.
In the Know
Since I’ve joined the diplomatic community, I’ve seen things from the other side. About once a quarter while serving overseas, you’ll sit in a country team meeting, with the Ambassador and all the section heads, and someone (usually either the political counselor or the public affairs officer) will hold up a newspaper and say, “we’re getting blamed for…” and everyone rolls their eyes.
On one occasion, I remember when a local political party wanted to create the impression that the U.S. supported its recent initiative, and staged a stunt while leaking some false info. Despite the entire embassy doing everything we could to dispel the allegations, the more we denied it the more the press ate it up. We ended up losing in the whole affair—the party that planned the whole thing knew we hadn’t supported them, and their opposition was sure we had. We got no friends and made a few enemies.
While that’s only one example (sorry to be so sketchy on details, but I like to think it’s part of this blog’s mystique), I imagine the U.S. gets quite a bit of wrongful credit and blame. When you have a few minutes, take a look at the Foreign Relations of the United States created by State’s historians. I’ve been as surprised by what we didn’t know as by what we did.
Venezuela
This is another situation for which the U.S. is frequently blamed. In 2002, there was a coup, and Chavez was briefly ousted. The U.S. quickly recognized the coup government. Take a look at the OIG report for the official explanation. Anyway, everyone I’ve talked to from the embassy has confidentially told me that nobody had any idea what was going on, that, in the “fog of coup” we were as confused as everyone else. Now, it could be that I’m just talking to the wrong people, but I’d wager this another falsity. (Take a look at this site for a bunch of documents that supposedly incriminate the U.S. My favorite part is her description of State as “not exactly spies, rather, analysts and brainy specialists.”)
Pakistan
Which brings us back around to Walt’s question that started this post, will the U.S. be blamed for Pakistan’s failures? Yes, almost certainly. I’d wager that the tactics and strategies are being formulated with minimal input from and somewhat more output to the U.S.
I suppose that’s just one more cost of American primacy…
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