LAHORE: The American history of overt and covert foreign interventions dates back to 1811, when it had invaded Chile, just a year after this South American country had gained independence from Spain. Research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” reveals that the United States has been at war for about 225 of the 243 years since its inception in 1776.

While the number of US foreign military interventions had stood at 188 till 2017, the world super power was found involved in 117 “partisan electoral interventions” between 1946 and 2000 or around one of every nine ballot exercises held since Second World War.

This means that the United States has been at war for more than 92 per cent of the time since its birth, making critics view that the rulers of the land found by Christopher Columbus have been addicted to the use of military might and intoxicated with their successes against weaker nations that could not defend themselves for one reason or the other. Or in other words, the United States has only been at peace for less than 20 years.

In one of its November 23, 2017 reports, a known British media house “Channel 4 News” had carried a research undertaken by the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University, a private research university based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State.

The researcher had calculated the vast scale of election interventions by both the US and Russia.

The media outlet had stated: “According to his research, there were 117 “partisan electoral interventions” between 1946 and 2000. That’s around one of every nine competitive elections held since Second World War. The majority of these – almost 70 per cent – were cases of US interference. And these are not all from the Cold War era; 21 such interventions took place between 1990 and 2000, of which 18 were by the United States, and 60 different independent countries have been the targets of such interventions.”

The researcher interviewed by “Channel News 4” had maintained: “But almost two thirds of interventions were done in secret, with voters having no idea that foreign powers were actively trying to influence the results. According to Levin’s research, those countries where secret tactics have been deployed by the US include: Guatemala, Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti, Panama, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Greece, Italy, Malta, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, South Vietnam and Japan.”

He had asserted: “For Russia, the list of covert interventions includes: France, Denmark, Italy, Greece, West Germany, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Congo, Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, and the US.”

By the way, the United States also has a long history of rigging polls, supporting military coups, channelling funds and spreading political propaganda in other countries. The United States has been involved in a number of foreign interventions throughout its history. It was engaged in 46 military interventions from 1948–1991.

“The National Interest”, an American bimonthly international affairs magazine, had carried a report in 2017, which had held: “The United States engaged in 46 military interventions from 1948–1991. From 1992–2017, this number had increased four-fold to 188. These statistics introduce two important puzzles. First, why would military interventions rise at the same time success in military interventions has been declining? Second, why would military interventions increase after the Cold War?”

The journal had added: “In other words, if the United States only intervenes with armed force when its vital interests are at stake, why intervene more often when there are arguably fewer vital interests at stake? The answer is that Washington too often intervenes militarily when it should not - and US security and prosperity have both suffered as a result.”

According to the prestigious “The Washington Post”, till December 2016, the United States had tried to change other countries’ governments 72 times during the Cold War.

The widely-read and quoted American media house had written: “Between 1947 and 1989, the United States tried to change other nations’ governments 72 times. That’s a remarkable number. It includes 66 covert operations and six overt ones. Of course, that doesn’t excuse Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. These 72 US operations were during the Cold War - meaning that, in most cases, the Soviet Union was covertly supporting anti - US forces.”

“The Washington Post” had asserted: “We examined unclassified Central Intelligence Agency documents and historical academic research on US interventions to identify 27 US clandestine operations carried out between 1949 and 2000. Most US “secret wars” were against other democratic states.”

The report continued: “Unclassified documents published by the US national security archive at George Washington University show that the British government helped the United States overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, a democratically elected prime minister of Iran, and tried to block the release of information about its involvement in the coup.”

The 143-year old ace American newspaper had gone on to write: “But that’s just one example. In 1954, an anti-Communist “army” trained and armed by the CIA deposed democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala - leading to years of violent civil war and rightist rule. Fifty-seven years later, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, on behalf of the state, asked Guzman’s family for forgiveness. And in 1981, President Ronald Reagan authorized the funding for the CIA-led “secret wars” against the democratically elected Sandinista government in Nicaragua. These are but a few examples of the US covert operations abroad.”