One of the greatest contributions of the United States to our world is scaling up solutions, from industry to medical vaccines to technology startups and many other solutions.
On the other hand, recent events show that the US could be the source of scaling up toxic debates and violence.
For example, there is always an ongoing debate all around the world about individual and local rights versus Federal government sovereignty rights. We saw an extreme example of this at the beginning of 2024’s legal battle that reached the Supreme Court of the US, between the State of Texas and the US Government.
The outcome of this historic case reaffirmed the jurisdiction of the US Government’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in immigration and border control, comes before the jurisdiction of the State of Texas’s law enforcement agencies.
While this legal battle rages, 2024 being a Presidential Election Year adds more fuel to the debate’s fire.
Why does this matter to us? Rules-Based Order, promoted by the US, and the respect for human life it protects can be a true guarantor for a descent “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” worldwide.
What are the origins of violence the US?
On July 4, 1776, the 56 Founding Fathers of the US, after a long debate between the representatives of 13 States, announced the Declaration of Independence for the US from the United Kingdom.
By doing so, they have paved the way for one of the most solid socio-economic, and political documents in the world- the US Constitution, more than a decade later.
Since then, and for almost two centuries, the US kept evolving into today’s world superpower, impacting all our governments, financial transactions, and even our cultures. However, there are a few unresolved issues in the great history of the US that pose a risk to the rest of the world.
One of these global risks is the right to bear arms by the state’s ‘well-organised militias’, and by individual American citizens.
The ensuing resorting of American citizens to solve problems using gun violence wrecked havoc around the world, especially in the so-called Global South. From the tens of thousands of missing souls in South America to assassinated African and Asian revolutionary leaders, to our modern times war crimes of US mercenaries in Iraq and Palestine.
Scaling up violence
Because the US is the only advanced economy in the world where well-organized militias and armed potential vigilantes are legal, we are at risk of becoming innocent casualties of a global drive-by shooting.
In the first month of 2024 alone, and after a pro-peace and justice ruling by the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ), death, violence, and bombings escalated and destroyed many lives in Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, and Iraq.
Since what happens in any, global superpower does not stay within the border of that superpower. With the US Presidential Elections coming towards the end of 2024, there is a serious risk that the competing parties in the US and EU will use Global South communities as moving targets, just like shooters use targets in a firing range to win a competition.
There can be only one solution. Our world needs a rules-based order that scales up the respect for life and freedom struggles and ends the fascination with gun, violence, and genocide culture.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
