As ever, US puts its self-interest on top

If one thought that the US would be different under Joe Biden, the latter is proving it wrong. The US will never change. It will be the same always. It will always look into its interests and businesses first.

This is 'realpolitik', something that evolved under Kissinger, the kind of foreign policy – one based on practical, self-interested principles rather than moral or ideological concerns – is called "realpolitik". The US simply persists with it.

Biden says the US will not sanction the Saudi Government despite the damning report by his administration that indicts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman who "approved an operation to capture and kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi".

Biden won't do anything to displease the Saudis for two reasons: He does not want to do so because, he needs their cooperation in confronting Iran in the region which the US thinks is key to counter-terrorism measures. Earlier he used to criticise Saudi Arabia. He had declared during his election campaign, that he would work to make Saudi Arabia "a global pariah'.

But, in the mid-West, the US has not too many friends anyway. He used to call this a repressive kingdom. The problem here is not with Saudi Arabia or its Crown Prince. Or for that matter with any of the countries that the US denounces as undemocratic or autocratic. The flaw is in the US character itself.

The US is selective in its morality. This selective morality plays an important role in carving out its equations with the foreign countries. Saudi Arabia is just one aspect of this.

It is said that the Trump administration was reluctant to confront Saudi Arabia over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who lived in Virginia. Beyond revoking the visas of some Saudi officials implicated in Khashoggi's death, Trump did nothing to punish the kingdom for Khashoggi's torture, assassination and dismemberment.

When there was an uproar over its silence, Trump and other White House officials only cited the defence deals with Saudi Arabia to the tune of billions of dollars. Saudi had been crucial to the US's pressure campaign on Iran.

But, Saudi Arabia is not the only nation that gets a free pass from the US for its terrible wrongs. In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite.

A 00 (typically read "Double O") agent holds a licence to kill in the field, at his or her discretion, to complete the mission. This is something similar. If the US business interests are involved, then the buyer can do any wrong and get away with it. Be it under Trump or under Biden.

The US is never bothered about the world's worst human rights abusers. Like it cannot act against its own National Rifle Association (NRA) and curb the gun culture, it also cannot act against dictators.

Iran was a close ally of the US before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Syrian repressive regime was also a close friend of the US for long.

Take the case of China. Despite its gory record against Muslims, the US cannot really act against it. It would be better if the US stops lecturing the world on values and ethics.