The US was prepared to bomb the Middle East into shape. In Ukraine, it seems no less self-serving | Randeep Ramesh

Washington split with old allies in order to pursue its own interests in Iraq. Its support for Kyiv is equally conditional

In the two decades since the second Iraq war, the United States appears like the Bourbon kings who had learned nothing and forgotten nothing. The illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq was a story of geopolitical failure and domestic political disaster. To understand the foolhardy decision to launch the war, one must first understand the US grand strategy of global hegemony, which Washington has pursued since 1945.

The “war on terror” provided political cover for the further pursuit of supremacy, despite threatening democratic government with lies, fraud and violence. George W Bush’s rash actions did provoke some murmurs of concern about the damage being inflicted but these faded from the corridors of power. Instead the US has refused to move on, believing that countries are “either with us or against us”.

Randeep Ramesh is chief leader writer for the Guardian and author of The War We Could Not Stop: The real story of the battle for Iraq

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