War
And USA
By David Truskoff
30 December, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Recently
someone commented on a piece of mine by asking if I could document the
statements I made about how many times the US has been at war and the
invasion of Russia in 1918.
I have always been aware
of how little most Americans know about their own History, but I think
that is true of young folks everywhere.
In 1790 Alexander Hamilton
had probably saved the economy of the new American nation. A nation
that was practically bankrupt after the Revolution. By the creation
of the national bank and other Hamilton economic plans he set the course
for what he believed would be a prosperous and peaceful nation.
"Blessed are the peacemakers,"
Jesus said, but his naivete must have been the same as Hamilton's. In
the short span of seventy years that followed Hamilton’s plan,
residents of the new country saw the slaughter of the natives. and the
most idiotic, bloodiest, war of young Americans against other young
Americans in a civil war that was supposed to free the slaves. The real
reason for the war, however was to gain control of king cotton and save
the north’s textile industry which was second only to agriculture
in the nation’s economy. The northern carpet baggers that invaded
the South after the war showed everyone what the war was really about.
Neither Hamilton Nor the
wandering Carpenter from Nazareth recognized the pandemic infection
of greed that was to bring the entire planet to the brink of destruction.
33 years after the depravity of the abominable Civil war the empire
building began; the US invaded and occupied the Philippines, Cuba and
Puerto Rico. Two years later US marines invaded China to putdown the
Boxer rebellion.
In my book REBIRTH OF A REALIST
I ask the question when has the American economy not functioned as a
war economy and the answer is never.
In a list compiled by Eastern
Connecticut State University we see a general view of the military adventures
that have kept the American economy growing.
1898
Hawaii: annexed by force
1898-1902
Cuba: US occupation following Spanish-American War
1898-1902
Philippines: 70,000 US troops fought insurrectionists led by Emilio
Aguinaldo and occupied the islands until 1946, when Philippine independence
granted
1900
China: troops from the US and other nations put down the Boxer Rebellion
1904-1906
Morocco: US Marine interventions
1904-1999
Panama: permanent US military bases protected US-controlled Panama Canal
Zone
1907-1941
Dominican Republic: US military occupations 1905 to 1907; 1912; 1914;
and 1916 to 1924; US controlled government finances 1905 to 1941
1906-1922
Cuba: US military ran the government from 1906 to 1909; occupied by
US troops in 1912, and 1917 to 1922
1912-1925
Nicaragua: US military occupation 1909 to 1933, and controlled government
finances from 1910 to 1924
1914-1917
Mexico: US military intervention during revolutionary turmoil; Marines
sent to Tampico and Vera Cruz in 1914; from 1916 to 1917, 6,000 US cavalry
under Gen John Pershing clashed with troops of Caranza’s Mexican
army
1915-1934
Haiti: US Marine occupation and US control of government finances
1917-1918
WORLD WAR I
1918-1920
Russia: US sent 15,000 troops to Murmansk, Archangel, and Vladivostok
as part of an Allied force in opposition to the Bolsheviks
1941-1945
WORLD WAR II
1945-1949
Korea: post-War II US occupation
1945-1954
Germany: post-War II US occupation
1945-1957
Japan: post-War II US occupation
1950-1953
KOREAN WAR (undeclared): US major contributor to the United Nations
armed forces which pushed out Chinese and north Korean troops from south
Korea
1954
Guatemala: CIA-trained exiles overthrew the socialist government
1958
Lebanon: 5,000 US Marines sent to aid President Chamoun government
1961
Cuba: 1,400 CIA-trained exiles landed at Bay and Pigs and were defeated
1964-1973
VIETNAM WAR (undeclared): US troops sent to Vietnam and Cambodia in
support of South Vietnam
1965
Dominican Republic: 20,000 US Marines occupied the country and installed
a pro-American government
1975
Cambodia: US Marines assaulted Tang Island to free the US merchant ship
Mayaguez
1982-1984
Lebanon: US contributed troops to UN peace keeping force
1983
Grenada: 1,900 US Marines invaded and deposed the existing government
1984
Nicaragua: CIA secretly mined Nicaraguan harbors
1986
Libya: US bombed the capital at Tripoli
1989-1990
Panama: US invasion force of 24,000 overthrew President Manuel Noriega
1991
GULF WAR (undeclared): US-led invasion of Iraq with 425,00 US troops
freed Kuwait from Iraqi occupation
1994-1995
Somalia: US contributed troops to UN peace keeping force
1994--
Haiti: US occupation and subsequent contribution of 2,400 troops to
a UN peace keeping force
1995--
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia: US contributed 20,000 troops to UN
peace keeping force
1999--
Yugoslavia: US participated in NATO actions in Yugoslavia
1999--
East Timor: US contriubuted a small number of support personel to the
UN peace-keeping force
2001--
WAR IN AFGHANISTAN (undeclared):
US led a multi-national NATO force to oust the Taliban and capture al-Queda
leader Osama bin Laden; neither goal has been achieved and US troops
remain in the country
2003--
IRAQ WAR (undeclared): US
invasion and subseqent occupation overthrew government of Saddam Hussein
These figures do not illustrate
the use of napalm, nuclear weapons, Agent Orange and other weapons of
mass destruction. It does not include the air strikes and the bombardments
from the sea. It does not include the assassinations like Alende in
Chile, ML King, John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and the many attempts to
kill Castro of Cuba.
One could say the so-called
Christian Americans are the most war like people this planet has ever
produced.
It boggles the mind to see
the film "Jesus of Nazareth" on television during the Christmas
holiday and at the same time see church going Americans support the
carnage in Iraq.
www.erols.com/suttonbear
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