According to America, the Cold War never ended. Throughout history, the US has pretended to be a paragon of morality. Over the past years, this unfounded self-righteousness has become American foreign policy, from deposing of elected national leaders to using false claims to invade foreign countries.

This hypocritical mentality that gives birth to America’s foreign policy is most evident in the US government’s reaction to Russia’s involvement to Ukraine. The American government claims that Russia is violating the sovereignty of Ukraine, being willingly blind to its own attacks on foreign soil.

Russia’s involvement in East Ukraine, as well as its annexation of Crimea, has been decried by the US as a power grab. What the US doesn’t take into account is that this Ukrainian region has significant pro-Russian support and that Russians constitute a majority in various provinces.

Another thing that America realize is that the Ukranian revolution was perpetuated by Ukrainian nationalists who wanted to eradicate foreign influence in the country. This means kicking out all non-Ukrainians and effectively uprooting and exiling 23% of the country’s population. The significant Russian minority called for the major power in the region to help stabilize Ukraine. Russia answered their call.

In essence Russia is protecting its sphere of influence. It saw that a neighboring country was becoming unstable and moved security forces in to remedy the issue. But we don’t support this, of course.

The United States invaded Panama in 1983 to protect its canal, Grenada in 1989. This was done at the alleged requests of its prime minister and Iraq in 2003 over non-existent weapons of mass destruction. With the US consistently displaying its disregard for international law and other nations’ sovereignty, it is very hypocritical for it to accuse Russia of being greedy.

The United States has been an important part of world history, helping stop and avert many international crimes. However, this does not excuse the US from violating foreign countries’ sovereignty in the name of “national security.” This display of self righteousness develops into pure hypocrisy when the US denounces another major power for crimes that it consistently commits.

If the United States truly wants peace in the world, it needs to stop its hypocritical actions and self-righteous foreign policies. It needs to stop perpetuating the Cold War. It needs to start being a true guardian of freedom, not just a guardian of oil.