The US is involved in regime change worldwide - from Venezuela in South America, to Ukraine in Eastern Europe, to Syria in the Middle East, to Afghanistan in Central Asia.
But these headline-grabbing wars, coups, color revolutions, and interventions are far from the full extend of US interference.
The US is also engaged in regime change efforts all along China's peripheries. This includes across Southeast Asia and in particular, the nation of Thailand.
Hard Times for US Proxies
Recent elections held earlier this year validated public support for a 2014 coup ousting US-backed proxy Thaksin Shinwatra, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, and their Pheu Thai political party (PTP).
The military-linked Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) won the popular vote and built a coalition with a majority in parliament. PPRP's head, Prayuth Chan-O-Cha easily won a parliamentary vote for Thailand's next prime minister.
Part of Shinawatra's strategy during the last election was dividing his political party into multiple parties so that if one or two were disbanded, there would still be several others left to run for seats in parliament.
One of these parties is Future Forward (FFP) led by billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. His party's founding members include leaders and activists drawn from US and European-funded fronts posing as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
Since wading into politics, Thanathorn himself has received an inordinate amount of support from not only the Western media as seen during events organized by The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) but also from Western embassies based in Bangkok.
FFP faired poorly in the elections coming in distant third with several million fewer votes than PPRP. Despite coming in third, and despite Thanathorn claiming he was not Shinawatra's proxy - Thaksin Shinawatra's PTP nominated him as their candidate for prime minister, but fell far short of winning.
Panhandling Overseas for Support
Thanathorn now has criminal cases mounting against him owed to serial violations of election laws as well as charges related to sedition. Perhaps in hopes of being overseas if a guilty verdict is reached and escaping jail - Thanathorn now finds himself "touring" the US and Europe asking - and receiving - support in Washington, Brussels, and London.
During an arranged interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell, Thanathorn bemoaned Thailand's history of frequent military coups and the lack of "democracy." He claimed the impetus of setting up FFP was to "end the culture of coup d'etat in Thailand."
Absent from either Mitchell's questioning or Thanathorn's rehearsed answers was any mention of what preceded the most recent coup in 2014.
No mention was made of the ousted government being openly and illegally run by Thaksin Shinawatra despite living in Dubai, UAE as a fugitive. No mention was made of the ousted government's robbery of nearly one million rice farmers and the crippling of Thailand's rice industry. And no mention was made of the protests the ousted government used deadly violence in an attempt to quell.
The military's intervention was welcomed by Thais, a fact vindicated by recent elections which saw the military-linked PPRP win the popular vote. The Western media - however - has gone through great lengths to portray it as a power grab rather than the restoration of strability it actually was.
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