Domestic policies aside, America has often billed itself as a promoter of freedom globally. But what is its foreign policy record in recent years?

On January 3, 2020, a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport killed Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani. Nine others were killed, including the deputy chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces. The killings sent shockwaves throughout the region.

"This assassination could be called an international terror attack at the hands of the biggest international terrorist. It was very hard for both the Iranian government and people. But it showed that the U.S. will leave no stone unturned to damage Iran," said Seyed Hamid Reza Sayedi, an Iranian professor of social policy at Shahed University. 

"So, you can see that it took place in a third country. Qassim Soleimani was there at the invitation of that third country. You can see people's reaction to the attack in his funeral." he added.

Although the White House promised to cut military intervention abroad as of early 2020, the U.S. still maintained a military presence in many countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq.

Speaking in June 2019, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said America has only enjoyed 16 years of peace with other nations in its 242-year history. This, in his own words, made the U.S. "the most warlike nation in the history of the world.”

A Brown University study published in late 2019 said fighting in four countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, has cost American taxpayers 6.4 trillion U.S. dollars since 2001. That figure is two trillion U.S. dollars more than all federal spending in 2019. More than 801,000 people in the Middle East and Asia have died as a direct result of armed conflicts waged by the U.S. since 2001, it also revealed.

Coupled with these wars are Washington's economic sanctions.

Critics say sanctions as "economic warfare" have caused destruction and suffering, in many cases leading to malnutrition and a shortage of medicine.

Official data show U.S. sanctions in place against more than 30 countries, including Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Syria and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. More than 7,000 companies, groups and individuals are also targeted. Some have been reported to have led to deadly consequences.

The U.S. has unilaterally withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated sanctions, even as the UN said Iran was keeping its commitments under the deal. America's decades-long sanctions have crippled Iran's economy.

Despite doubts about its effectiveness, America's more than six-decade-long embargo against Cuba has also kept the Cuban economy in a constant state of struggle.

Adding a new dimension to all this is the "America First" doctrine.

"The America First policy is against multilateralism. It's against actually international cooperation. It is based on nationalistic policies and approaches," Hamid Reza Gholamzadeh, the president and co-founder of Peace Spirit Foundation, said.

Since 2017, the U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, the UN Human Rights Council, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and the list goes on.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said the country has regressed in that area both at home and abroad. It's true that Americans still enjoy many freedoms. But as our stories show, America doesn't always practice what it preaches when it comes to freedom and equality, and if anyone in Washington thinks the country's human rights standards should be indiscriminately promoted, they should perhaps think again.