How America is throwing it all away

There is much to admire about America, and quite a lot to dislike. The thing to admire most is how it is both able to attract many of the world’s most talented people, and is open to having them over.

Some 15 per cent of the US population is foreign-born, including 50 lakh Indians, and this is actually a great asset. A nation, say India, spends resources in raising and educating a child, feeding them, sheltering them, clothing them. The child goes to the best state institutions, subsidised by Indians, only to then, in their 20s, move permanently to the United States.

American corporations like Microsoft, Google and Tesla and its universities benefit from the value added by such individuals from abroad to their workforce. The investment was all made here; the return on investment in fulfilled there.

This ability of America’s is to some extent replicated in Europe, but it does not exist in nations like China or India. We neither attract external talent, nor do we want it. If we are honest, almost all of us who can move abroad do so and the numbers prove it. Today, America is putting an end to this and is so intent that it is okay with the murdering of its own citizens by the ICE militia hunting immigrants. This was not expected by those who admired the US.

On the other hand, those who are aware of the United States’ conduct in the world, particularly after World War II, have always found much to dislike. Its endless interventions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and even Europe have harmed hundreds of millions of people. This has always been the case right from the Korean War in the 1950s to Serbia in the 1990s and then of course the post 9/11 adventurism.

To my mind, this is the first time that America is pursuing a course where it is undoing the thing that is to be admired, and doubling down on that which is disliked.

By closing America off to immigration, the US is harming itself. India is the nation with the most number of H1B visa beneficiaries, some two-third of the total. It is true that these individuals do not want to live in India and want to move to the US if allowed, but they add a quality to the workforce that is not easy to replicate.

Similarly, even those who are undocumented and come to America, do so because they want to be more productive. Getting rid of them and discouraging others from coming, as is happening now, has and will continue to impact America negatively. Unemployment in the US has worsened over the last year as attacks on immigration have mounted. This is because the larger economy has been harmed by the actions against labour. What was to be admired has been undone.

Looking over to the other side of the ledger, the United States is pursuing a course which continues with its imperialist tendencies when it comes to violence abroad, but now with an added edge.

The imperialism we can see in the invasion of Venezuela, the kidnapping of its leader and his wife, and the naked demand for handing over its oil reserves. Dozens were murdered in this event, but find little mention and no sympathy in the US press. The bombing of Iran and the assistance to Israel to attack all of its neighbours is also part of the general post-World War II trend.

The new element added by Trump is the ferocity with which he has turned on allies. He wants Canada, he wants Greenland, he wants the Panama Canal.

The poor Europeans, long accustomed to assuming fraternity with America on the basis of race alone, are terrified and do not know how to react. They have made a show of closing ranks, but if Trump sends his Marines to Greenland, there is little they can do.

Japan and Korea, nations which volunteered to be US partners in security and trade and have been allies for decades, find themselves blackmailed into trade deals. India, which wanted to be close to America, especially under the last two prime ministers, and whose leader asked Indians in America to vote for Trump, is also in shock.

We can discuss the incompetence and total naivete with which our government approached Trump, but that we can leave for another day. Today, we are examining the US and what it is doing to itself.

Great empires of the past usually faded over long periods of time. It took Rome centuries to wither away. In the modern era, this has been happening faster. The British fell from the heights of Delhi in 1911 to severe crisis in 1945 after the war. The Soviet Union vanished in a matter of weeks. But none of these great powers were damaging themselves as gratuitously as the US is doing today.

Trump is dismissing with contempt the external talent that has added so much to the US, and is taking down the system — the ‘rules-based order’ — which America itself devised to dominate the world.

What he has done and is doing has damaged the US in the short and the long term. This is as sad to those who have long admired the US as it is satisfying to those who have disliked its actions.

Views are personal. More of Aakar Patel’s writing may be read here