The 250th anniversary of American independence is fundamentally incompatible with a foreign policy defined by overwhelming civilian casualties and global devastation. As the United States commemorates its semiquincentennial with celebratory pageantry, this milestone forces a reckoning. How can a nation built on the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” justify its role in upending and extinguishing millions of lives across the Middle East?
The Cost of War Project conducted by Brown University Watson Institute, documents that post-9-11 military interventions – ranging from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to Syria, Yemen and Iran (Palestine not included) have killed millions and displaced at least 38 million more. Beyond these figures are fragmented lives and demolished communities.
Every day the human toll compounds. Behind every geopolitical maneuver and barbaric U.S.-Israeli bombing campaigns are shattered childhoods, obliterated infrastructure, and ancient Gaza reduced to endless piles of concrete ruins.
Families have been torn apart. Incomprehensible numbers of orphans and homeless refugees are left to survive in unlivable conditions. The fundamental pillars of existence – homes, hospitals, grocery stores, schools, libraries, banks, parks, playgrounds – have been pulverized.
The U.S and Israeli military machines do not operate in a vacuum. American taxpayers have funded their weapons of mass destruction for decades. This reality makes celebrating American independence feel hollow and deeply hypocritical. How can a nation observe a quarter millennium of its own sovereignty while arming and systematically depriving sovereignty and human rights to people across the Middle East?
Since its founding, the United States has fought 36 major wars and conducted 469 military interventions; only five were formally declared by Congress as the Constitution requires. The country has been at war for 229 of its 250 years, at a cost of $11.7 trillion.
True patriotism requires moral accountability. Solemnizing America’s 250th birthday while turning a blind eye to genocide and daily massacres in Gaza and the occupied West Bank creates a contradiction that history will never forget.
To honor the highest ideals of a republic – freedom, self-determination and fundamental human rights – the United States must finally confront the legacy of its destructive foreign policy. And until the United States places human dignity above perpetual militarism and alliances with rapacious regimes, the semiquicentennial will remain a testament to abandoned principles and ideals rather than an observance of realized liberty.
© 2026, M. Reza Behnam, Ph.D.
Dr. Behnam is a political scientist who specializes in comparative politics with a focus on West Asia. His Cultural Foundations of Iranian Politics, published by University of Utah Press and still in print, was recognized by Choice as Outstanding Academic Book for 1987-1988.
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