Cuba, Iran, and Sunni Islam’s lack of democracy each pose a serious issue: taken together, these issues can result in America’s losses in influence and security.
Cuba limits freedom of expression, abusing its citizens’ right to elect, criticize, and change their government, which is urgently emphasized by America’s Human Rights Watch (“US/Cuba” n.pag.). The embargo between Cuba and the U.S. is said to rather isolate the latter than controlling the former. The U.S. lacks the opportunity to communicate with the Cuban government, which keeps abusing its citizens’ freedoms, despite the economic limitation.
Despite America’s best efforts, the democratic situation in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2001 and 2003 conflicts remains complicated. By and large, the U.S.’s attempts at establishing democracy in Iraq resulted in an increased level of corruption of the latter (Kadhim par. 8). America’s policy is more concerned with not letting Iraq fall into factions, which is why administrative and political corruption is overlooked. Such lenience does not put any obstacles to the potential sponsoring of terrorist organizations by corrupt politicians, making it a major threat to America’s national security.
Sunni Islam is most widespread in Iraq and Syria; ISIS is an organization practicing Sunni as well. In the aftermath of Iraqi democracy and Syrian crisis failures, the U.S. has reduced its involvement in the region (Forsythe and Monshipouri par. 5). Such a move results in increasing agitation and insecurity, which might lead to Russia and Iran’s shift of power with the total exclusion of the U.S.
Thus, the U.S. has conducted some attempts to establish democracy in each of the regions and failed at that. The failures present a nagging problem to the nation’s power.
Works Cited
Forsythe, David P., and Mahmood Monshipouri. “ISIS and the Civil War in Syria: The Challenge for U.S. Foreign Policy.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. GJIA. 2015. Web.
Kadhim, Abbas. “A decade of democratic transition in Iraq.” Foreign Policy. The FP Group. 2013. Web.
“US/Cuba: Obama’s New Approach to Cuba.” Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. 2014. Web.