Hindsight Anti-Imperialism: The Compatible Critics of U.S. Foreign Policy
Eddie L. Smith
Abstract
This article examines a recurring ideological phenomenon in Western political discourse whereby individuals, politicians, and even left-leaning commentators retroactively condemn imperialist wars and interventions only after their disastrous consequences have become undeniable. Coining the term “hindsight anti-imperialism,” the author critiques figures such as David Frum and Barack Obama who, while instrumental in manufacturing or supporting wars in Iraq and Libya, later disavow them to rehabilitate their public image or sustain credibility for future imperial ventures. Through a Marxist-Leninist framework, the paper situates this phenomenon within the economic logic of capitalism and imperialism, emphasizing that U.S. foreign policy — whether through regime-change wars, sanctions, or covert operations — serves the accumulation of capital and the superexploitation of the Global South. By revisiting Lenin’s Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, the author reaffirms that imperialist aggression is not a moral aberration but a structural necessity of monopoly capitalism. The article calls for a theoretically grounded, proactive anti-imperialism that resists regime-change narratives in real time, rather than condemning them only in hindsight. In doing so, it challenges both liberal and pseudo-left forms of moral opposition to empire and underscores the need for an educated, militant working-class movement capable of exposing the political economy underlying U.S. imperialism.
Keywords
hindsight anti-imperialism, U.S. foreign policy, Marxism–Leninism, imperialism, political economy of wa, Edward Liger Smith
