Criticism of the United States government encompasses a wide range of sentiments about the actions and policies of the United States.
Foreign policy
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, a special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983. Rumsfeld came to discuss an aid program.
The U.S. has been criticized for making statements supporting peace
and respecting national sovereignty, but while carrying out military
actions such as in Grenada, fomenting a civil war in Colombia to break off Panama, and Iraq. The U.S. has been criticized for advocating free trade but while protecting local industries with import tariffs on foreign goods such as lumber and agricultural products. The U.S. has also been criticized for advocating concern for human rights while refusing to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The U.S. has publicly stated that it is opposed to torture, but has been criticized for condoning it in the School of the Americas.
The U.S. has advocated a respect for national sovereignty but has
supported internal guerrilla movements and paramilitary organizations,
such as the Contras in Nicaragua. The U.S. has been criticized for voicing concern about narcotics production in countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela but doesn't follow through on cutting certain bilateral aid programs.
However, some defenders argue that a policy of rhetoric while doing
things counter to the rhetoric was necessary in the sense of realpolitik and helped secure victory against the dangers of tyranny and totalitarianism.
The U.S. has been criticized for supporting dictatorships with economic assistance and military hardware.
The U.S. has been criticized by Noam Chomsky for opposing nationalist movements in foreign countries, including social reform.
President Bush has been criticized for neglecting democracy and human rights by focusing exclusively on an effort to fight terrorism. The U.S. was criticized for alleged prisoner abuse at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and secret CIA prisons in eastern Europe, according to Amnesty International. In response, the U.S. government claimed incidents of abuse were isolated incidents which did not reflect U.S. policy.
Some critics charge that U.S. government aid should be higher given the high levels of gross domestic product. The U.S. pledged 0.7% of GDP at a global conference in Mexico. However, since the U.S. grants tax breaks to nonprofits, it subsidizes relief efforts abroad, although other nations also subsidize charitable activity abroad.
Most foreign aid (79%) came not from government sources but from
private foundations, corporations, voluntary organizations,
universities, religious organizations and individuals. According to the
Index of Global Philanthropy, the United States is the top donor in absolute amounts.
Kyoto, Japan in 2008. The Kyoto Protocol
treaty was an effort by many nations to tackle environmental problems,
but the U.S. was criticized for failing to support this effort in 1997.
The U.S. has also been criticized for failure to support the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
In 1930–1940 the US collaborated with Stalin regime by building
around 1500 factories in the USSR using a slave labor of political
prisoners. The USA also covered up genocide of East Ukraine in 1932–1933, that killed between 4 and 6 millions of Ukrainians and in the midst of it established a diplomatic relationship with the USSR.
There has been sharp criticism about the U.S. response to the Holocaust: That it failed to admit Jews fleeing persecution from Europe at the beginning of World War II, and that it did not act decisively enough to prevent or stop the Holocaust.
Critic Robert McMahon thinks Congress has been excluded from foreign policy decision making, and that this is detrimental. Other writers suggest a need for greater Congressional participation.
Jim Webb, former Democratic senator from Virginia and former Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration,
believes that Congress has an ever-decreasing role in U.S. foreign
policy making. September 11, 2001 precipitated this change, where
"powers quickly shifted quickly to the Presidency as the call went up
for centralized decision making in a traumatized nation where, quick,
decisive action was considered necessary. It was considered politically
dangerous and even unpatriotic to question this shift, lest one be
accused of impeding national safety during a time of war."
Since that time, Webb thinks Congress has become largely
irrelevant in shaping and executing of U.S. foreign policy. He cites the
Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA), the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement, and the 2011 military intervention in Libya
as examples of growing legislative irrelevance. Regarding the SFA,
"Congress was not consulted in any meaningful way. Once the document was
finalized, Congress was not given the opportunity to debate the merits
of the agreement, which was specifically designed to shape the structure
of our long-term relations in Iraq". "Congress did not debate or
vote on this agreement, which set U.S. policy toward an unstable regime
in an unstable region of the world." The Iraqi Parliament,
by contrast, voted on the measure twice. The U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic
Partnership Agreement is described by the Obama Administration has a
"legally binding executive agreement" that outlines the future of
U.S.-Afghan relations and designated Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally.
"It is difficult to understand how any international agreement
negotiated, signed, and authored only by our executive branch of
government can be construed as legally binding in our constitutional
system," Webb argues.
Finally, Webb identifies the U.S. intervention in Libya as a
troubling historical precedent. "The issue in play in Libya was not
simply whether the president should ask Congress for a declaration of
war. Nor was it wholly about whether Obama violated the edicts of the War Powers Act,
which in this writer's view he clearly did. The issue that remains to
be resolved is whether a president can unilaterally begin, and continue,
a military campaign for reasons that he alone defines as meeting the
demanding standards of a vital national interest worth of risking
American lives and expending billions of dollars of taxpayer money." When the military campaign lasted months, President Barack Obama did not seek approval of Congress to continue military activity.
Domestic policy
Critics charge that the U.S. supported brutal dictators such as Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Richard Nixon with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1971.
Critics charge that savvy dictators such as Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni have manipulated U.S. foreign policy by appealing to its need to fight terrorism. Others suggest U.S. should adopt a policy of realpolitik and work with any type of government who can be helpful.
The Vietnam War is viewed by many as a mistake
Spying and surveillance
Government structure
Executive branch
Presidential incompetency
One
difficulty of the American government is that the lack of oversight for
Presidents offers no safeguards for presidential incompetency. For
example, Barack Obama
has been increasingly criticized for his expansive views on executive
powers and mismanaging of several situation, including the Syrian Civil War. In addition, George W. Bush, who was criticized as entering the Iraq War too hastily, had no reproach for his advocacy of the war.
George H. W. Bush was criticized for stopping the first Iraq War too soon without finishing the task of capturing Saddam Hussein. Foreign policy expert Henry Kissinger criticized Jimmy Carter for numerous foreign policy mistakes including a decision to admit the ailing Shah of Iran into the United States for medical treatment, as well as a bungled military mission to try to rescue the hostages in Tehran.
Virtually every President in modern history has been criticized
for incompetency in some fashion. However, there are little to no
mechanisms in place to provide accountability. Since the only way to
remove an incompetent president is with the rather difficult policy of impeachment,
it is possible for a marginally competent or incompetent president to
stay in office for four to eight years and cause great mischief.
Over-burdened presidency
Presidents
have not only foreign policy responsibilities, but sizable domestic
duties too. In addition, the presidency is the head of a political party.
As a result, it is tough for one person to manage disparate tasks, in
one view. Many believe that this overburdened duty of presidents allows
for incompetency in government.
Presidents may lack experience
Since
the constitution requires no prior experience in diplomacy, government,
or military service, it is possible to elect presidents with scant
foreign policy experience. Clearly the record of past presidents
confirms this, and that presidents who have had extensive diplomatic,
military, and foreign policy experience have been the exception, not the
rule. In recent years, presidents had relatively more experience in
such tasks as peanut farming, acting and governing governorships
than in international affairs. It has been debated whether voters are
sufficiently skillful to assess the foreign policy potential of
presidential candidates, since foreign policy experience is only one of a
long list of attributes in which voters tend to select candidates.
President Obama has been widely criticized as too inexperienced for the
job, having only served in government for three years before his
presidential election. However, party leadership and donors were adamant
in their advocacy due his broad appeal, leading to a nominee with
little experience.
In addition, an increasing difficulty for providing well-versed
Presidents is that the American people in recent years are, in
increasing numbers, more distrustful of their government and longterm,
career politicians. As such, inexperienced candidates often perform
better.
Excessive authority of the presidency
In contrast to criticisms that presidential attention is divided into competing tasks, some critics charge that presidents have too much power, and that there is the potential for tyranny or authoritarianism.
Many presidents have circumvented the national security decision-making
process, including Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Reagan, as well as others
historically. Many critics see a danger in too much executive authority.
