Human rights; An instrument serving the national interests of the United States

Defending human rights only in words and statements and violating them in practice has turned human rights into an instrument that serves and guarantees the national interests of the United States. The United States has always proclaimed itself as a defender of human rights in its foreign policy.

At the same time, the country's actions in various parts of the world, including its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the imposition of long-term sanctions against countries that oppose Washington's imperialist policies, have led to serious human rights violations, and in some cases, have led to the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

An examination of US actions, both domestically and in foreign policy, shows that Washington views human rights as a tool and a means to achieve its interests. This raises the question of what place human rights have in the US foreign policy framework? To answer this question, we must say that the United States is one of the few countries that has an ideological foreign policy. The difference is that, often, such as in protecting human rights, promoting democracy, and maintaining peace, ideological foreign policy is used as a tool to protect US national interests.

For example, the United States justified its massive military attacks on Afghanistan and its long-term occupation of the country under the pretext of promoting democracy. However, more than two decades after occupying the country and later leaving in disgrace or rather "fleeing" Afghanistan in 2021, it shows that rhetoric and words such as promoting democracy are things used to embellish the country's foreign policies.

In recent decades, human rights have also become a tool for pressure against countries that are rivals or oppose the US's authoritarian and colonial policies and politics. During the Cold War, "human rights" were used by the US and its allies as a tool and weapon to penetrate and cross the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union and put their arch-rival on the defensive rather than on the offensive. 

The US and its Western allies have continued to use human rights as a tool and weapon against their rivals or competitors in the post-Cold War era. Yes, in their words and statements, US government officials present themselves as defenders of morality and human rights, but in practice, they are not content to trample on and slaughter those human rights, but they also establish close ties with countries that violate human rights, and even protect cruel and evil people like Netanyahu who have been named by international courts as perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and are wanted for crimes of genocide.