The Declaration is believed to be the first formal pronouncement by an organised political community of its right to choose its government. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson (later the third President in 1801), the Declaration consisted of two parts. First, it contained seven stirring principles of the inalienable rights of human beings. Second, it included a specific list of 27 grievances against King George III of England.
The Declaration summed up several ideals that animated American political theory in its early decades.
It also inspired political movements throughout the world in the centuries that followed. Among the ideals were the inalienable rights of human beings, the right to political participation and to limited government.
The Declaration sought to be transformative of American society. Of course, there was much in it that was inconsistent with the sordid realities of American life. Slavery, for example, flourished in the US till 1865 despite the noble statement in 1776 that “all men are created equal”. Ironically, Thomas Jefferson himself was a slave owner!
Despite these contradictions, it can be said that well into the 20th century, the US was regarded as a sentinel of democracy, rule of law and human rights.
It was one of the main architects of the UN Charter. On many issues, it played a constructive role in world affairs and earned the respect of the Third World.
It favoured de-colonisation. After some initial reluctance, it came around to opposing apartheid in South Africa.
US President Dwight Eisenhower condemned the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of the Suez Canal in 1956. The US gave Marshall Aid to a Europe shattered by the ravages of World War II. The US also provided aid to many Third World countries though on less favourable terms than to Europe.
However, regrettably, the Jekyll and Hyde character of the US manifested itself now and then in hegemonic and brutal policies abroad.
> The US dropped atomic bombs on the innocent population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing about 135,000 and maiming thousands of others. This was despite the fact that the Japanese Army was on the verge of collapse.
> Its military-industrial complex is addicted to war. Between 1945 and 2025, it unleashed bombs on 29 countries in the Third World and four in Europe. These countries are Afghanistan, Belgian Congo, Bosnia, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Grenada, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kampuchea, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Mali, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Vietnam, Yemen and Yugoslavia.
> It caused the death of two million innocent people in the Vietnam war.
> In the post 9-11 invasion by the US of Iraq, and military actions in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Pakistan, it killed nearly 940,000 people.
When asked about the loss of half a million children in Iraq, Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State, made a frank but despicable statement that the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children as a result of US-led sanctions after the first Gulf War were “worth it”.
> Since the forties, war has become an instrument of America’s interventionist foreign policy. Though the US has no serious enemies, its defence budget is nearly 70% of the rest of the world’s defence spending. It maintains 750 military bases in more than 80 countries around the world. It has military and intelligence alliances like Nato with many nations of the global North.
> If not waging direct war, its clandestine organisations like the CIA work to destabilise or overthrow any regime that resists its hyper-imperial policies. Available data in Foreign Policy indicates that the CIA directly assisted in overthrowing democratically elected governments in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Congo (1960), Dominican Republic (1961), South Vietnam (1963), Brazil (1964), Chile (1973) and Ukraine (2013).
> The Ukraine government’s overthrow was in response to elected President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision not to sign a political and free trade agreement with the European Union.
> Besides attempts at regime change, the CIA runs drone assassination programmes to eliminate Third World leaders the US does not like.
> There are strong economic motives in America’s interventionist foreign policy. The purpose seems to be to replace traditional colonialism with economic colonialism over resources like minerals, oil and oilfields.
> For geopolitical as well as racist reasons, the US supports genocide and apartheid in the occupied territories of Palestine. It tells brazen lies about its non-participation in the ongoing monstrosity of genocide in Gaza despite massive arms shipments to Israel from October 2023 through mid-2025, including at least US$18bil to US$20bil in military aid, more than 600 separate arms shipments, a Senate package of US$14bil and a Trump-approved US$3bil sale in February 2025.
> It ignores UN and Human Rights Watch warnings of complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It is reported that nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and infrastructure (hospitals, schools, water and electricity) have been systematically destroyed. Gaza has been under total blockade by Israel. Aid agencies have been stopped from delivering the most basic of supplies, leaving 2.3 million people thirsty and starving.
> The US practices exceptionalism and unilateralism when it comes to international law. In July 1988, the US shot down Iranian civilian Flight 655 over the Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 on board.
> It has walked away from treaty after treaty, e.g. the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the World Health Organisation. It opposed the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICJ). It is imposing sanctions against judges of the ICJ who issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli PM for crimes in Gaza.
It is clear to most Third World nations that despite its oratory of noble, universal values, the US is adept at playing the card of “values”, “democracy” and “human rights” to consolidate an international order based on its own hegemonic geopolitical and economic interests.
Many of its policies and decisions, like its unbridled support for Israel’s atrocities from 1948 till today, are partly influenced by race and religion and partly by its desire to maintain a European bastion in the Middle East.
Third World nations must unite against such hegemony and hypocrisy.
This hypocrisy is most evident in Israel and America’s allegation that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. The legal and military reality is that:
> The US has 5,177 nuclear warheads. Israel has 90-400 and Iran has none whatsoever. However, Iran is pursuing high-grade enriched uranium (it says) for civilian purposes. Those armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons are preaching non-armament to “lesser” people.
> The US and Iran are members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but Israel is not even a member.
> If a signatory to the NPT violates its obligations, no nation has the unilateral right to bomb the violator. Israel and the US are not the world’s policemen.
The sanctions provided by international law are enquiry and warning by the International Atomic Energy Agency, reference to the UN Security Council (UNSC), and UNSC economic, diplomatic or military sanctions. Iran was subjected to economic sanctions, which led to the peaceful Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. In 2018, the US withdrew from the JCPOA.
> The unilateral bombing of Iran’s sites is a gross violation of international law and an attack on the legitimacy of the UNSC and of international law.
> The US President is also violating his own Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which empowers the American Congress to regulate the President’s war powers.
As Americans celebrate their 249th anniversary of independence, many well-wishers across the globe feel disappointed that the US has turned away from the international standards it helped to create.
The dissonance between its principled professions and its hypocritical and murderous practices is too evident.
To “Make America Great Again”, it is necessary to recognise that greatness is not in brute power but in fidelity to civilisational values.
President Trump, instead of behaving like a Tyrannosaurus rex, please revive the ideals of your Declaration of Independence. “Happy Birthday” to your once great nation.
Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi is principal research fellow at UM. The views expressed here are entirely the author’s own.
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