美国该向谁甩锅（到处充斥矛盾对抗）

美国该向谁甩锅（到处充斥矛盾对抗）政府任性肆意妄为，正在透支美国信用。6月7日，美领导人在针对美国前国务卿鲍威尔的“口水战”中，出人意料地拆穿了17年前美国发动伊拉克战争的谎言，他在推特上直言：“难道不是鲍威尔说伊拉克有大规模杀伤性武器吗？其实伊拉克根本就没有，但他依然让我们为一个谎言打了一仗！”这些年，美国政府为了达成目的不择手段撒谎欺骗、逃避责任，已经不是什么新鲜事。特别是本届政府奉行“美国优先”，在国际事务上不讲诚信、不讲道义、肆意妄为，一言不合就“退群”毁约。2017年1月退出《跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》、6月退出《巴黎协定》、10月退出联合国教科文组织、12月退出《全球移民协议》，2018年退出《伊核协议》、联合国人权理事会、《维也纳外交关系公约》、万国邮政联盟，2019年又退出《中导条约》、《武器贸易条约》。今年在新冠肺炎疫情蔓延之下，美国政府非但不全力保护民众生命安全和身体健康，反而肆意向世卫组织和中国“甩锅”推

“四问美国少数政客”系列评论之④：

到处充斥矛盾对抗，美国这是怎么了？

■红山客

插图作者：王云苗

近日，美国四任前总统奥巴马、小布什、克林顿、卡特先后就“弗洛伊德之死”事件发声，表达对种族歧视的谴责和对受害人及其家人的同情，呼吁反思国家的“悲剧性失败”，找回美国的“国家正义”。这四位前总统分属民主、共和两党，但没有人为本届政府开脱声援。多位前任总统集体发声批评现任政府的做法，这在美国历史上是很少见的，也从另一个侧面揭开了美国社会矛盾冲突的“伤疤”。到处充斥抗议示威、暴力冲突、两极分化、排外浪潮，令人不禁怀疑美国这是怎么了？这是世界唯一超级大国该有的样子吗？显然不是。

种族歧视根深蒂固，正在腐蚀美国根基。连日来，由美国白人警察跪杀非裔美国人乔治·弗洛伊德引发的抗议示威活动仍在持续，已经席卷全美650多个城市，并蔓延到英国、德国、法国、加拿大等数十个国家，成为美国历史上范围最广的一次抗议活动。抗议示威者高举“我无法呼吸”、“黑人的命也是命”、“没有正义，没有和平”等标语牌走上街头，将美国种族歧视痼疾一览无余地展示在世人面前。经过400多年的抗议斗争，表面上黑人享有同白人一样的政治权利，但实际上由于教育水平、经济实力等巨大差异，黑人始终享受不到公正待遇。美智库布鲁金斯学会今年2月发布一份报告称，2016年一个典型黑人家庭的净资产为1.72万美元，而一个典型白人家庭的净资产为17.1万美元，是前者的10倍。根据美国疾病预防与控制中心统计信息，美国报告的新冠肺炎死亡者中有近23%是非裔美国人，而黑人在美国总人口中仅占13%。《纽约时报》5月28日公布数据显示，从2013年到2019年，美国每年都有至少1000人死于警察暴力执法，其中黑人占多数。需要注意的是，美国种族歧视不仅存在于白人和黑人之间，亚裔、拉丁裔等其他有色人种更是处于这条“歧视链”的底端。种族歧视已成为美国社会不可触碰的“剜心之痛”，由此引发的一系列矛盾冲突正在一点点蚕食美国的立国之本。

政治对立愈演愈烈，正在消耗美国能量。近年来，政治极化现象已经成为美国政治生活的一个突出特点，各党派内部正日益走向同质化，在意识形态上越来越极端：共和党愈加趋向保守，民主党愈加趋向自由主义，而两党中的温和派身影逐渐消失。政治极化现象还渗透到了普通民众的生活中，调查显示，不少支持其中一党的美国人对另一党越来越不能容忍，不愿意成为对方党派支持者的亲属或伴侣，对于政见不同的熟人也会毫不犹豫在推特上取消关注。政治极化现象正在日益加剧美国社会对立，增添了更多矛盾冲突。

贫富差距快速加大，正在撕裂美国社会。美国社会经济不平等现象由来已久，上世纪中后期为对抗社会主义阵营，美国统治阶级不得不对底层民众作出一些让步，因而贫富差距有所减小。然而，近年来贫富差距再次呈现两极分化趋势。美联储资料显示，2009年至2012年，居于美国社会前1%的家庭收入增长了31.4%，而其他99%的家庭收入仅增长了0.4%。目前，美国最富有的1%家庭控制着美国上市公司和私营企业一半以上股权，拥有约35.4万亿美元资产，几乎是中产和中上阶层的总和。这次新冠肺炎疫情，进一步加大了美国社会的贫富差距。美国政策研究所6月4日发布一份调查报告称，美国亿万富翁财富总和达到惊人的3.5万亿美元，比3月18日数据增长了5650亿美元。其中，亚马逊公司首席执行官杰夫·贝索斯个人资产增加362亿美元，脸书创始人马克·扎克伯格个人资产增加301亿美元，特斯拉汽车公司老板埃隆·马斯克、谷歌创始人谢尔盖·布林等个人资产相比三个月前增幅均超过130亿美元。而同时期美国有将近4300万人首次申请失业救济。快速扩大的贫富差距，进一步加剧了美国社会内部“爆雷”的风险，正在无情戳破美国“繁荣”、“富裕”的神话。

政府任性肆意妄为，正在透支美国信用。6月7日，美领导人在针对美国前国务卿鲍威尔的“口水战”中，出人意料地拆穿了17年前美国发动伊拉克战争的谎言，他在推特上直言：“难道不是鲍威尔说伊拉克有大规模杀伤性武器吗？其实伊拉克根本就没有，但他依然让我们为一个谎言打了一仗！”这些年，美国政府为了达成目的不择手段撒谎欺骗、逃避责任，已经不是什么新鲜事。特别是本届政府奉行“美国优先”，在国际事务上不讲诚信、不讲道义、肆意妄为，一言不合就“退群”毁约。2017年1月退出《跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》、6月退出《巴黎协定》、10月退出联合国教科文组织、12月退出《全球移民协议》，2018年退出《伊核协议》、联合国人权理事会、《维也纳外交关系公约》、万国邮政联盟，2019年又退出《中导条约》、《武器贸易条约》。今年在新冠肺炎疫情蔓延之下，美国政府非但不全力保护民众生命安全和身体健康，反而肆意向世卫组织和中国“甩锅”推责，还到处“秀肌肉”刷存在感，任意破坏全球安全稳定大局，终止与世界卫生组织的关系，宣布退出《开放天空条约》。美国是一个基于契约精神建立的国家，但这些年美国的做法却与契约精神背道而驰，致使美国信誉扫地，美国形象正在陈年灰尘中日渐晦暗。

Protests Violence Polarization… What’s wrong with the U.S.?

Recently four former presidents of the U.S. including Barack Obama George W. Bush Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter successively made statements about the death of George Floyd expressing their denouncement of racial discrimination and sympathy for the victim and his family and calling for examining “our tragic failures” and restoring the “justice of the country”. None of those four former presidents no matter the democrats or republicans made excuse for or support the Trump administration.

It is rare in American history that several former presidents criticize a current administration at the same time and this reveals the contradictions and conflicts of American society a society full of protests demonstrations violent conflicts polarization and xenophobia. What is wrong with the U.S.? Is this supposed to be the status of the only superpower in the world? Definitely not.

The deep-rooted racial discrimination is undermining the foundation of the U.S. Recent months saw the ongoing protests and demonstration triggered by the death of George Floyd an African American who died after a white police officer held a knee against his neck which have spread to more than 650 cities in America and even dozens of countries across the world including Britain Germany France and Canada. This wave of protests has become the most widespread one in the world. Protestors on the streets hold high signs saying “I can’t breathe” “Black lives matter” “No justice no peace” and so on making explicit the chronic problem of the U.S. — racial discrimination — to the whole world.

After more than 400 years of struggle it seems that black people now enjoy the same political rights as white people. However due to the huge gap in terms of education and wealth black people have always been treated unfairly. According to a report of the Brookings Institution released in February this year at $171 000 the net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a black family ($17 150) in 2016. According to the statistics of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention nearly 23% of reported Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. are African American as of May 20 even though black people make up roughly 13% of the U.S. population. According to the data released by the New York Times on May 28 from 2013 through 2019 at least one thousand people died of police violence each year among which black people account for the majority.

It is worthy of notice that racial discrimination is not only against black people since Asian Americans Latinos and other people of color are at the end of the pecking order. Racial discrimination has become the serious wound in American society leading to a series of contradictions and conflicts that is gradually undermining the foundation of the U.S. as a nation.

The intensifying political rivalry is depleting the energy of the U.S. In recent years political polarization has become a prominent feature of the U.S. politics. Either party be it the Republic Party or the Democratic Party is becoming increasingly homogenized increasingly extreme on the spectrum of ideology. The Republican Party is increasingly conservative while the Democratic Party is increasingly liberal with the moderate Republicans or Democrats dwindling away.

However political polarization has penetrated the life of ordinary people. Surveys showed that supporters of one party increasingly intolerant of members of the other party. People are unwilling to be family members or partners of supporters of the other party and acquaintance with different political views will not hesitate to unfollow each other on twitter. Political polarization is intensifying social tensions and creating more conflicts.

The widening gap between the poor and the rich is rearing apart the American society. There's a long history of economic inequality in American society. In the mid and late 20th century in order to confront the Socialist camp the ruling class of the U.S. had to make some concessions to the underclass narrowing the gap between the rich and poor to some extent. However in recent years the rich-poor gap is widening displaying the trend of polarization.

According to the data of the U.S. Federal Reserve from 2009 to 2012 the incomes of the top 1% Americans grew by 31.4% while those of the bottom 99% grew by 0.4%. At present the top 1% Americans control more than half of the shares of the listed companies and private companies in the U.S. and their assets amount to about $ 35.4 billion almost equivalent to the total assets owned by the middle class and upper-middle class.

The COVID-19 epidemic has widened the rich-poor gap further. According to a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies of the U.S. on June 4 the combined wealth of America’s billionaires reached an astonishing amount of $ 3.5 trillion surged by over $565 billion during the 11 weeks from March 18. Among them Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos saw his wealth soar by about $36.2 billion while Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune surged by about $30.1 billion. The net worth of Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk Co-founder of Google Sergey Brin and others also rose by more than $13 billion over the same period while nearly 43 million workers filed for unemployment. The quickly widening rich-poor gap is increasing the risk of social “explosion” in the U.S. and dispelling the myth of “prosperity” and “wealth” of the U.S.

The reckless government is squandering the credibility of the U.S. On June 7 during his quarrel with Colin Powell Former Secretary of State the U.S. leader surprisingly exposed the lie used to justify the U.S. war against Iraq 17 years ago. He tweeted frankly that “Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ They didn’t but off we went to WAR!”

In those years it is not rare that the unscrupulous U.S. government cheated to achieve its goal or evade its responsibility. In particular the current U.S. administration has been upholding the principle of “America First” discarding credibility and morality in international affairs acting recklessly and withdrawing from international organizations or treaties at whim. The U.S. withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in January 2017 from the Paris Climate Change Agreement in June 2017 from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in October 2017 from the Global Compact for Migration in December 2017 from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 2018 and from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia and the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in 2019.

While the COVID-19 is raging this year the U.S. government instead of making all-out efforts to protect the live and health of its people shifted blame to the World Health Organization (WHO) and China even demonstrated its military power across the world willfully disrupting the global security and stability. It also terminated its relations with the WHO and withdrew from the Treaty on Open Skies.

The U.S. is a country founded on the honoring of a contract but in recent years the practices of U.S. are deviating from its founding principle damaging its credibility and tarnishing its image.

来源：解放军报客户端