It all began with lies and now it seems that it's going to end with lies. You're at this very moment paying for your forefather's sins. (There is no such thing as sin yet it sounds quizzically deep)
So when was America great?
It couldn't have been when Christoper Columbus landed in the "Carribean Islands". It also couldn't have been when Leif Ericson landed somewhere in Newfoundland yet let's get to the point.
Could it have been when the "new" Americans slaughtered women and children while the males were out hunting?
So when was America great?
It couldn't have been when Christoper Columbus landed in the "Carribean Islands". It also couldn't have been when Leif Ericson landed somewhere in Newfoundland yet let's get to the point.
Could it have been when the "new" Americans slaughtered women and children while the males were out hunting?
Maybe it was great during slavery?
Maybe it was great when the bankers formulated a plan to "fake" the Great Depression?
*One thing about me, I live by "cause & effect", I am firm in what I am doing "now" because it ushers in my next!
This big list of atrocities the US government is responsible for should be kept in the back of our heads while reading any news story involving the American government.
The United States supported – and in many cases engendered – every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to :
- Napalm bombing, [Agent Orange] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange#Vietnamese_victims_class_action_lawsuit_in_U.S._courts) and civilians slaughtered in Vietnam (declassified Docs prove that the Gulf of Tokin, the reason the US went into the Vietnam war, did not happen)
- The Bay of Pigs incident (failed military invasion of Cuba). The United States supported the Batista dictatorship as it created the repressive conditions that led to the Cuban Revolution, killing up to 20,000 of its own people. Former U.S. Ambassador Earl Smith testified to Congress that, “the U.S. was so overwhelmingly influential in Cuba that the American Ambassador was the second most important man, sometimes even more important than the Cuban president.” This is besides several attempted assassinations of Fidel Castro and successful assassinations of other officials; several bombing raids in 1960 (three Americans killed and two captured) and terrorist bombings targeting tourists as recently as 1997; the apparent bombing of a French ship in Havana harbor (at least 75 killed); a biological swine flu attack that killed half a million pigs; and the terrorist bombing of a Cuban airliner (78 killed) planned by Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, who remain free in America despite the U.S. pretense of waging a war against terrorism. Bosch was granted a presidential pardon by the first President Bush.
- Destabilizing Iran which used to be a democratic country, by supporting and arming radical terrorist groups (still happening). In 1953, the CIA and the U.K.’s MI6 overthrew the popular, elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh. Iran had nationalized its oil industry by a unanimous vote of parliament, ending a BP monopoly that only paid Iran a 16% royalty on its oil. For two years, Iran resisted a British naval blockade and international economic sanctions. After President Eisenhower took office in 1953, the CIA agreed to a British request to intervene. After the initial coup failed and the Shah and his family fled to Italy, the CIA payed millions of dollars to bribe military officers and pay gangsters to unleash violence in the streets of Tehran. Mossadegh was finally removed and the Shah returned to rule as a brutal Western puppet until the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
- Destabilizing/invading Iraq under false pretenses which led to a power vacuum and the creation of ISIS rule over large swathes of it. In 1958, after the British-backed monarchy was overthrown by General Abdul Qasim, the CIA hired a 22-year-old Iraqi named Saddam Hussein to assassinate the new president. Hussein and his gang botched the job and he fled to Lebanon, wounded in the leg by one of his companions. The CIA rented him an apartment in Beirut and then moved him to Cairo, where he was paid as an agent of Egyptian intelligence and was a frequent visitor at the U.S. Embassy. Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials welcomed him as an ally against Iran. Only after Iraq invaded Kuwait and Hussein became more useful as an enemy did U.S. propaganda brand him as “a new Hitler.”
- Destruction/destabilization of Libya which led it being taken over by Islamists and the current refugee crisis. NATO’s bombing campaign was fraudulently justified to the UN Security Council as an effort to protect civilians, and the instrumental role of Western and other foreign special forces on the ground was well-disguised, even when Qatari special forces (including ex-ISI Pakistani mercenaries) led the final assault on the Bab Al-Aziziya HQ in Tripoli. NATO conducted 7,700 air strikes, 30,000 -100,000 people were killed, loyalist towns were bombed to rubble and ethnically cleansed, and the country is in chaos as Western-trained and -armed Islamist militias seize territory and oil facilities and vie for power.
- [Indonesia] (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/01/indonesia.comment), where U.S. diplomats admitted providing lists of 5,000 Communist Party members to be killed, In an orgy of terror between 1965 and 1966, millions that were killed, millions were raped, tens of millions beaten and tortured.
- Greece (the liberal Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup in 1967, leading to 7 years of military rule),
- Brazil(which was democratic before a US supported a coup that sparked 20 years of brutal military dictatorship),
- Haiti (where their first democratic President was overthrown by a U.S.-backed military coup),
- Cambodia(Nixon ordered the secret and illegal bombing of Cambodia in 1969, American pilots were ordered to falsify their logs to conceal their crimes. They killed at least half a million Cambodians, dropping more bombs than on Germany and Japan combined in World War II.
- Guatemala(removed the elected liberal government of Jacobo Arbenz leading reign of terror that followed which led to 40 years of civil war, in which at least 200,000 were killed under US support),
- El Salvador (70,000 people were killed and thousands more were disappeared in a civil war where government forces which was responsible for this one-sided slaughter were almost entirely established, trained, armed and supervised by the CIA, U.S. special forces and the U.S. School of the Americas), supported
- Apartheid S.Africa (Despite a growing international movement to topple apartheid in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan maintained a close alliance with a South African government that was showing no signs of serious reform. And the Reagan administration demonized opponents of apartheid, most notably the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela, as dangerous terrorists . Reagan even vetoed a bill to impose sanctions on South Africa, only to be overruled by Congress.
- Chile, the US-sponsored military coup against Chile’s legally elected socialist president, Dr. Salvador Allende, at the hands of the brutal Gen. Augusto Pinochet. For the next three years CIA-backed terrorist groups bombed and destroyed state railroads, power plants and key highway arteries to create chaos and stop the country from functioning. In the midst of this struggle for control of Chile, Allende insisted, almost stubbornly, on maintaining the country’s democratic institutions. He enjoyed immense popular support from his people.
- Illegally detaining innocent people and conducting illegal torture without trial in Guntanamo/Abu Gharib. Approximately 116 inmates still remain in Guantánamo, some of whom have now been detained for over a decade. Of those still being held approximately 56 individuals have actually been cleared for transfer but the United States have refused to return them to their country of origin.
- Regarding "surgical drone strikes", more than 90% of the were found to be not the intended targets, as of Nov, 2014, 41 men were targeted but 1,147 people were killed. "Double tap drone strikes" in which they wait for rescuers to arrive before bombing them again. The Kundus hospital strikes which ironically was an instance when one Nobel Peace Prize winner (Obama) bombed another (Doctors without borders).
- In the past 12 years, U.S. military aid to Pakistan has totaled $18.6 billion, the United States obligated nearly $75 billion to Pakistan between 1948 and 2014. The U.S. in 2010 the largest arms deal in history with Saudi Arabia worth $60 billion. And Turkey is a long-standing member of NATO. All three major state sponsors of terrorism in the world today are U.S. allies.
- Since 1966, the U.S. has used its Security Council veto 83 times, more than the other four Permanent Members combined, and 42 of those vetoes have been on resolutions related to Israel and/or Palestine. Just last week, Amnesty International published a report that, “Israeli forces have displayed a callous disregard for human life by killing dozens of Palestinian civilians, including children, in the occupied West Bank over the past three years with near total impunity.” Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Territories condemned the 2008 assault on Gaza as a “massive violation of international law,” adding that nations like the U.S. “that have supplied weapons and supported the siege are complicit in the crimes.” The Leahy Law requires the U.S. to cut off military aid to forces that violate human rights, but it has never been enforced against Israel. Israel continues to build settlements in occupied territory in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention, making it harder to comply with Security Council resolutions that require it to withdraw from occupied territory. But Israel remains beyond the rule of law, shielded from accountability by its powerful patron, the United States.
- They are largest contributor to global climate change in history and regularly have sabotaged international efforts to curb greenhouse emissions and take no real meaningful action to reverse the trajectory, putting billions of people across the world at severe risk. Toward the end of this century, if current trends are not reversed, large parts of Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt and Vietnam, among other countries, will be under water. Some small island nations, such as Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, will be close to disappearing entirely. Swaths of Africa from Sierra Leone to Ethiopia will be turning into desert. Glaciers in the Himalayas and the Andes, on which entire regions depend for drinking water, will be melting away. Many habitable parts of the world will no longer be able to support agriculture or produce clean water. They go so far as to undermine India's growing Solar industry to protect their own rich US corporations. Maybe the idea of assigning refugees to the nations that caused the climate to change would spur them into action.
Some claim that the United States most likely has been directly/indirectly responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.
Watch this Chomsky video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pfcW0_sSuw As you will see in the y video, Eisenhower Administration had a report prepared, which asked "Why do Arab people hate us". The report found out that the Arab people thought US was installing and backing radical and repressive regimes in their countries in order to control their oil, and they thought this was preventing their sovereignty, democracy and independent development.
The report appallingly concluded that YES, this is what the US is doing, and US should be doing EXACTLY that in the future to keep control of the oil. It seems all subsequent US administrations took this recommendation to heart...
Saudi Arabia, the #1 source for radical islamist groups in the world, which not only provides a lot of their manpower and funding, but also houses a lot of their leadership and the organizations backing them, is a country with NO kind of democratic representation, maintaining laws from 600AD (yes, you read right), repressing a population to such an extent that it is estimated that they jailed ~150,000 people since arab spring for demanding democracy or criticizing government.
In fact the US controlled an oil company in Saudi called Aramco (Arabian-American Oil Company) which controlled the world's largest crude reserves and largest daily production, which is currently purported to be the world's most valuable company (US$10 trillion). It was in American hands until the 80's, why they lost it without their typical CIA style intervention is anyone's guess.
Saudi is #1 US arms buyer in the region. It can buy nearly any weapon it wants without limits. US backs them politically in any way they can. Radical islam had been a good tool to control the oil in middle east until now. US did not hesitate from using any tool available in any region for control. In regards to Iraq, US had defacto control over their oil production once they invaded. Western oil firms remained as US exits Iraq, in hindsight Bush and his stooges horribly "misunderestimated" the huge costs and the potential outcome of their war for control.
Each of those countries above have suffered a lot more under American intervention than what is written here, so much so that a post this big can be made on each of them. If you want to explore them in detail - this should be a good starting point - [A handy history guide of 35 "victim nations of the US"] (https://www.salon.com/2014/03/08/35_countries_the_u_s_has_backed_international_crime_partner/) -- from A (Argentina) to Z (Zaire).
Recently declassified 'Documents on South Asia, 1969-1972' contain a wealth of information on what the then American President Richard Nixon and his assistant for NSA Henry Kissinger thought of India. In the transcripts they say:
Indira Gandhi Is A Bitch.
The Indians are bastards anyway, They are the most aggressive goddamn people around there.
I don’t know why the hell anybody would reproduce in that damn country but they do.
We really slobbered over the old witch (referring to Indra Gandhi).
Indians are slippery, treacherous people.
Quotes from the multiple award winning book "Blood Telegram" by Gary J. Bass.
These sort of statements will not surprise the experts, but what is telling is what they reveal about Nixon and Kissinger's strategic intelligence. At every step of the crisis, the two men appear to have been driven as much by their loathing of India as by any cool calculations of power. By failing to restrain Pakistan, they allowed a blood bath to unfold, and then a regional war, which began when Gandhi finally decided that the only way to stop the tide of refugees was to stop the killing across the border. That prompted Pakistan to attack India.
At this point the recklessness of Nixon and Kissenger got worse. They dispatched ships from the 7th fleet into Bay of Bengal and even encouraged China to move troops to the Indian border, possibly for an attack in a maneuver that could have provoked the Soviet Union. Fortunately the leaders of the two Communist countries proved more sober than those in the White house. The war endedd quickly, when India crushed Pakistan's army and Bangladesh declared independence.
Despite all this, According to a Wikileaks cable, Indra Gandhi at the time didn't even believe the US was supporting Pakistan. It is impossible to say how many of those famous "CIA interventions" were attempted in India. I can't find the source right now but I remember reading an expose which revealed that Americans believed that every stage of the Indian governing framework could be bought. Not at all surprising considering that even our Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was implicated in getting kickbacks in the Bofors scandal.
Kissinger is a war criminal who won a controversial Nobel peace prize (comedian Tom Lehrer famously said the award made political satire obsolete) and is still admired by many powerful figures in American politics, including current Presidential front runner Hillary Clinton. The Clintons and the Kissingers regularly spend holidays together at a beachfront villa, Hillary Clinton has a close association with him, she even recently said she sometimes seeks advice from him on policy matters and even wrote a fawning review of his book. She later defended her association with Kissengerwhen Sanders commented negatively about it in a presidential debate. Again remember Hillary Clinton is the most likely person to become the next US president.
Have no illusions about the US relationship with India in current times, even under "friendly" US presidents such as Obama, the Snowden files revealed that India was among the top targets of spying by NSA, In the overall list of countries spied on by NSA programs, India stands at fifth place, with billions of pieces of information plucked from its telephone and internet networks above the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iraq etc, much above their "rivals" such as China or Russia.
“It is not actually snooping.” This was the Indian foreign minister’s response to the U.S. mass surveillance programs that also targeted India. Why such a lax response? Because India’s new surveillance network itself will make the NSA green with envy. In this game of chess between governments it us ordinary people who suffer in the end.
The stock response of U.S. officials to the exposure of the systematic crimes described is that such things may have occurred at certain times in the past but that they in no way reflect long-term or ongoing U.S. policy. A huge amount of human suffering could be alleviated and global problems solved if the United States would make a genuine commitment to human rights and the rule of law.
I felt this is worth reminding my fellow randians who tend to idolize the American government and look upon them as a force of good. Most American people themselves are clueless and are as ignorant about their government as we are of theirs. Their inept CIA "interventions" are often the root cause behind most of the international problems/disputes/crisis we see today. Whenever you see a story about the American government or its partnership agreements, trade deals etc, keep in mind its history, the American government only (tries to) serves itself .
