The USA was founded in war.War with France 1798-1800, the Barbary wars against North Africa 1801-05 , the genocidal Indian wars 1775-1898, the War of 1812 against the British, the 1836 war for Texan independence, the war against Mexico, the Civil War, war in Hawaii in 1893 , the Spanish-American War, the war against the Philippines (some 200,000 Philippine civilians killed, one of history's great forgotten massacres), a quarter-century of military intervention in Central America from 1909-1933, the First World War, Mexico 1916-17, part of the allied intervention in the USSR 1919-21, the Second World War, Korea, Lebanon, Cuba, Haiti, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia ,Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Grenada (Ronald Reagan ordered 7,000 soldiers to invade handed out 8,612 medals), Panama, the 1st Iraq War under Bush the 1st , Somalia. (1,000 Somalis were killed.) Then Bush the 2nd's and Obama's two on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The USA found it necessary to be complicit in enormous massacres by its allies whom it funded, armed and trained, including Indonesia (half a million dead), Pakistan ( against Bangladeshis), Chile , Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Greece , Zaire/Congo, Angola and Mozambique.
The USA maintains about 1,000 military bases in 130 countries on every continent save Antarctica.
Obama will continue military aid to four countries who are known to use child soldiers in their armies, despite America's Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008. Clearly it must be vital that the US continue to arm the Congo, Sudan, Chad and Yemen
Of course, none of these interventions constituted aggression. All were just wars.
- None was to expand the American empire, which doesn't exist.
- None was to control the wealth of others, including natural resources, especially oil.
- None was to make the world safe for American corporations.
- None was promoted by the American arms industry.
- None was promoted by special interest constituencies in the US.
- None was to spread American hegemony.
- None was initiated by the US. All were in self-defence.
For the past 235 years the case for American foreign policy rests on the coincidence of the general interest of humanity and the particular interest of the United States.
- None was to expand the American empire, which doesn't exist.
- None was to control the wealth of others, including natural resources, especially oil.
- None was to make the world safe for American corporations.
- None was promoted by the American arms industry.
- None was promoted by special interest constituencies in the US.
- None was to spread American hegemony.
- None was initiated by the US. All were in self-defence.
For the past 235 years the case for American foreign policy rests on the coincidence of the general interest of humanity and the particular interest of the United States.
Amazing , isn't it !!
Adapted from a Gerald Caplan article
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