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Sunday, July 04, 2010

USA invasions (a list)

This list does not include:
  • mobilizations of the National Guard
  • offshore shows of naval strength
  • reinforcements of embassy personnel
  • the use of non-Defense Department personnel (such as the Drug Enforcement Administration)
  • military exercises
  • non-combat mobilizations (such as replacing postal strikers)
  • the permanent stationing of armed forces
  • covert actions where the U.S. did not play a command and control role
  • the use of small hostage rescue units
  • most uses of proxy troops
  • U.S. piloting of foreign warplanes
  • foreign or domestic disaster assistance
  • military training and advisory programs not involving direct combat
  • civic action programs

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ARGENTINA     1890     Troops     Buenos Aires interests protected.
CHILE     1891     Troops     Marines clash with nationalist rebels.
HAITI     1891     Troops     Black revolt on Navassa defeated.
HAWAII     1893 (-?)     Naval, troops     Independent kingdom overthrown, annexed.
CHICAGO     1894     Troops     Breaking of rail strike, 34 killed.
NICARAGUA     1894     Troops     Month-long occupation of Bluefields.
CHINA     1894-95     Naval, troops     Marines land in Sino-Japanese War
KOREA     1894-96     Troops     Marines kept in Seoul during war.
PANAMA     1895     Troops, naval     Marines land in Colombian province.
NICARAGUA     1896     Troops     Marines land in port of Corinto.
CHINA     1898-1900     Troops     Boxer Rebellion fought by foreign armies.
PHILIPPINES     1898-1910 (-?)     Naval, troops     Seized from Spain, killed 600,000 Filipinos
CUBA     1898-1902 (-?)     Naval, troops     Seized from Spain, still hold Navy base.
PUERTO RICO     1898 (-?)     Naval, troops     Seized from Spain, occupation continues.
GUAM     1898 (-?)     Naval, troops     Seized from Spain, still use as base.
MINNESOTA     1898 (-?)     Troops     Army battles Chippewa at Leech Lake.
NICARAGUA     1898     Troops     Marines land at port of San Juan del Sur.
SAMOA     1899 (-?)     Troops     Battle over succession to throne.
NICARAGUA     1899     Troops     Marines land at port of Bluefields.
IDAHO     1899-1901     Troops     Army occupies Coeur d'Alene mining region.
OKLAHOMA     1901     Troops     Army battles Creek Indian revolt.
PANAMA     1901-14     Naval, troops     Broke off from Colombia 1903, annexed Canal Zone 1914.
HONDURAS     1903     Troops     Marines intervene in revolution.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC     1903-04     Troops     U.S. interests protected in Revolution.
KOREA     1904-05     Troops     Marines land in Russo-Japanese War.
CUBA     1906-09     Troops     Marines land in democratic election.
NICARAGUA     1907     Troops     "Dollar Diplomacy" protectorate set up.
HONDURAS     1907     Troops     Marines land during war with Nicaragua
PANAMA     1908     Troops     Marines intervene in election contest.
NICARAGUA     1910     Troops     Marines land in Bluefields and Corinto.
HONDURAS     1911     Troops     U.S. interests protected in civil war.
CHINA     1911-41     Naval, troops     Continuous occupation with flare-ups.
CUBA     1912     Troops     U.S. interests protected in civil war.
PANAMA     1912     Troops     Marines land during heated election.
HONDURAS     1912     Troops     Marines protect U.S. economic interests.
NICARAGUA     1912-33     Troops, bombing     10-year occupation, fought guerillas
MEXICO     1913     Naval     Americans evacuated during revolution.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC     1914     Naval     Fight with rebels over Santo Domingo.
COLORADO     1914     Troops     Breaking of miners' strike by Army.
MEXICO     1914-18     Naval, troops     Series of interventions against nationalists.
HAITI     1914-34     Troops, bombing     19-year occupation after revolts.
TEXAS     1915     Troops     Federal soldiers crush "Plan of San Diego" Mexican-American rebellion
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC     1916-24     Troops     8-year Marine occupation.
CUBA     1917-33     Troops     Military occupation, economic protectorate.
WORLD WAR I     1917-18     Naval, troops     Ships sunk, fought Germany for 1 1/2 years.
RUSSIA     1918-22     Naval, troops     Five landings to fight Bolsheviks
PANAMA     1918-20     Troops     "Police duty" during unrest after elections.
HONDURAS     1919     Troops     Marines land during election campaign.
YUGOSLAVIA     1919     Troops/Marines     intervene for Italy against Serbs in Dalmatia.
GUATEMALA     1920     Troops     2-week intervention against unionists.
WEST VIRGINIA     1920-21     Troops, bombing     Army intervenes against mineworkers.
TURKEY     1922     Troops     Fought nationalists in Smyrna.
CHINA     1922-27     Naval, troops     Deployment during nationalist revolt.
HONDURAS     1924-25     Troops     Landed twice during election strife.
PANAMA     1925     Troops     Marines suppress general strike.
CHINA     1927-34     Troops     Marines stationed throughout the country.
EL SALVADOR     1932     Naval     Warships send during Marti revolt.
WASHINGTON DC     1932     Troops     Army stops WWI vet bonus protest.
WORLD WAR II     1941-45     Naval, troops, bombing, nuclear     Hawaii bombed, fought Japan, Italy and Germay for 3 years; first nuclear war.
DETROIT     1943     Troops     Army put down Black rebellion.
IRAN     1946     Nuclear threat     Soviet troops told to leave north.
YUGOSLAVIA     1946     Nuclear threat, naval     Response to shoot-down of US plane.
URUGUAY     1947     Nuclear threat     Bombers deployed as show of strength.
GREECE     1947-49     Command operation     U.S. directs extreme-right in civil war.
GERMANY     1948     Nuclear Threat     Atomic-capable bombers guard Berlin Airlift.
CHINA     1948-49     Troops/Marines     evacuate Americans before Communist victory.
PHILIPPINES     1948-54     Command operation     CIA directs war against Huk Rebellion.
PUERTO RICO     1950     Command operation     Independence rebellion crushed in Ponce.
KOREA     1951-53 (-?)     Troops, naval, bombing , nuclear threats     U.S./So. Korea fights China/No. Korea to stalemate; A-bomb threat in 1950, and against China in 1953. Still have bases.
IRAN     1953     Command Operation     CIA overthrows democracy, installs Shah.
VIETNAM     1954     Nuclear threat     French offered bombs to use against seige.
GUATEMALA     1954     Command operation, bombing, nuclear threat     CIA directs exile invasion after new gov't nationalized U.S. company lands; bombers based in Nicaragua.
EGYPT     1956     Nuclear threat, troops     Soviets told to keep out of Suez crisis; Marines evacuate foreigners.
LEBANON     l958     Troops, naval     Marine occupation against rebels.
IRAQ     1958     Nuclear threat     Iraq warned against invading Kuwait.
CHINA     l958     Nuclear threat     China told not to move on Taiwan isles.
PANAMA     1958     Troops     Flag protests erupt into confrontation.
VIETNAM     l960-75     Troops, naval, bombing, nuclear threats     Fought South Vietnam revolt & North Vietnam; one million killed in longest U.S. war; atomic bomb threats in l968 and l969.
CUBA     l961     Command operation     CIA-directed exile invasion fails.
GERMANY     l961     Nuclear threat     Alert during Berlin Wall crisis.
LAOS     1962     Command operation     Military buildup during guerrilla war.
 CUBA      l962      Nuclear threat, naval     Blockade during missile crisis; near-war with Soviet Union.
 IRAQ     1963     Command operation     CIA organizes coup that killed president, brings Ba'ath Party to power, and Saddam Hussein back from exile to be head of the secret service.
PANAMA     l964     Troops     Panamanians shot for urging canal's return.
INDONESIA     l965     Command operation     Million killed in CIA-assisted army coup.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC     1965-66     Troops, bombing     Marines land during election campaign.
GUATEMALA     l966-67     Command operation     Green Berets intervene against rebels.
DETROIT     l967     Troops     Army battles African Americans, 43 killed.
UNITED STATES     l968     Troops     After King is shot; over 21,000 soldiers in cities.
CAMBODIA     l969-75     Bombing, troops, naval     Up to 2 million killed in decade of bombing, starvation, and political chaos.
OMAN     l970     Command operation     U.S. directs Iranian marine invasion.
LAOS     l971-73     Command operation, bombing     U.S. directs South Vietnamese invasion; "carpet-bombs" countryside.
SOUTH DAKOTA     l973     Command operation     Army directs Wounded Knee siege of Lakotas.
MIDEAST     1973     Nuclear threat     World-wide alert during Mideast War.
CHILE     1973     Command operation     CIA-backed coup ousts elected marxist president.
CAMBODIA     l975     Troops, bombing     Gas captured ship, 28 die in copter crash.
ANGOLA     l976-92     Command operation     CIA assists South African-backed rebels.
IRAN     l980     Troops, nuclear threat, aborted bombing     Raid to rescue Embassy hostages; 8 troops die in copter-plane crash. Soviets warned not to get involved in revolution.
LIBYA     l981     Naval jets     Two Libyan jets shot down in maneuvers.
EL SALVADOR     l981-92     Command operation, troops     Advisors, overflights aid anti-rebel war, soldiers briefly involved in hostage clash.
NICARAGUA     l981-90     Command operation, naval     CIA directs exile (Contra) invasions, plants harbor mines against revolution.
LEBANON     l982-84     Naval, bombing, troops     Marines expel PLO and back Phalangists, Navy bombs and shells Muslim positions.
GRENADA     l983-84     Troops, bombing     Invasion four years after revolution.
HONDURAS     l983-89     Troops     Maneuvers help build bases near borders.
IRAN     l984     Jets     Two Iranian jets shot down over Persian Gulf.
LIBYA     l986     Bombing, naval     Air strikes to topple nationalist gov't.
BOLIVIA     1986     Troops     Army assists raids on cocaine region.
IRAN     l987-88     Naval, bombing     US intervenes on side of Iraq in war.
LIBYA     1989     Naval jets     Two Libyan jets shot down.
VIRGIN ISLANDS     1989     Troops     St. Croix Black unrest after storm.
PHILIPPINES     1989     Jets     Air cover provided for government against coup.
PANAMA     1989 (-?)     Troops, bombing     Nationalist government ousted by 27,000 soldiers, leaders arrested, 2000+ killed.
LIBERIA     1990     Troops     Foreigners evacuated during civil war.
SAUDI ARABIA     1990-91     Troops, jets     Iraq countered after invading Kuwait. 540,000 troops also stationed in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Israel.
IRAQ     1990-91     Bombing, troops, naval     Blockade of Iraqi and Jordanian ports, air strikes; 200,000+ killed in invasion of Iraq and Kuwait; large-scale destruction of Iraqi military.
KUWAIT     1991     Naval, bombing, troops     Kuwait royal family returned to throne.
 IRAQ     1991-2003     Bombing, naval     No-fly zone over Kurdish north, Shiite south; constant air strikes and naval-enforced economic sanctions
LOS ANGELES     1992     Troops     Army, Marines deployed against anti-police uprising.
SOMALIA     1992-94     Troops, naval, bombing     U.S.-led United Nations occupation during civil war; raids against one Mogadishu faction.
YUGOSLAVIA     1992-94     Naval     NATO blockade of Serbia and Montenegro.
BOSNIA     1993-?     Jets, bombing     No-fly zone patrolled in civil war; downed jets, bombed Serbs.
HAITI     1994     Troops, naval     Blockade against military government; troops restore President Aristide to office three years after coup.
ZAIRE (CONGO)     1996-97     Troops     Marines at Rwandan Hutu refugee camps, in area where Congo revolution begins.
LIBERIA     1997     Troops     Soldiers under fire during evacuation of foreigners.
ALBANIA     1997     Troops     Soldiers under fire during evacuation of foreigners.
SUDAN     1998     Missiles     Attack on pharmaceutical plant alleged to be "terrorist" nerve gas plant.
AFGHANISTAN     1998     Missiles     Attack on former CIA training camps used by Islamic fundamentalist groups alleged to have attacked embassies.
IRAQ     1998     Bombing, Missiles     Four days of intensive air strikes after weapons inspectors allege Iraqi obstructions.
YUGOSLAVIA     1999     Bombing, Missiles     Heavy NATO air strikes after Serbia declines to withdraw from Kosovo. NATO occupation of Kosovo.
YEMEN     2000     Naval     USS Cole, docked in Aden, bombed.
MACEDONIA     2001     Troops     NATO forces deployed to move and disarm Albanian rebels.
UNITED STATES     2001     Jets, naval     Reaction to hijacker attacks on New York, DC
AFGHANISTAN     2001-?     Troops, bombing, missiles     Massive U.S. mobilization to overthrow Taliban, hunt Al Qaeda fighters, install Karzai regime, and battle Taliban insurgency. More than 30,000 U.S. troops and numerous private security contractors carry our occupation.
YEMEN     2002     Missiles     Predator drone missile attack on Al Qaeda, including a US citizen.
PHILIPPINES     2002-?     Troops, naval     Training mission for Philippine military fighting Abu Sayyaf rebels evolves into combat missions in Sulu Archipelago, west of Mindanao.
COLOMBIA     2003-?     Troops     US special forces sent to rebel zone to back up Colombian military protecting oil pipeline.
IRAQ     2003-?     Troops, naval, bombing, missiles     Saddam regime toppled in Baghdad. More than 250,000 U.S. personnel participate in invasion. US and UK forces occupy country and battle Sunni and Shi'ite insurgencies. More than 160,000 troops and numerous private contractors carry out occupation and build large permanent bases.
LIBERIA     2003     Troops     Brief involvement in peacekeeping force as rebels drove out leader.
HAITI     2004-05     Troops, naval       Marines land after right-wing rebels oust elected President Aristide, who was advised to leave by Washington.
PAKISTAN     2005-?     Missiles, bombing, covert operation     CIA missile and air strikes and Special Forces raids on alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban refuge villages kill multiple civilians. Drone attacks also on Pakistani Mehsud network.
SOMALIA     2006-?     Missiles, naval, covert operation     Special Forces advise Ethiopian invasion that topples Islamist government; AC-130 strikes and Cruise missile attacks against Islamist rebels; naval blockade against "pirates" and insurgents.
SYRIA     2008     Troops     Special Forces in helicopter raid 5 miles from Iraq kill 8 Syrian civilians
YEMEN     2009     Missiles     Cruise missile attack on Al Qaeda kills 49 civilians.


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Fallujah Iraq

A BRIEFING ON THE HISTORY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS

By Zoltán Grossman, October 2001

    Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, most people in the world agree that the perpetrators need to be brought to justice, without killing many thousands of civilians in the process. But unfortunately, the U.S. military has always accepted massive civilian deaths as part of the cost of war. The military is now poised to kill thousands of foreign civilians, in order to prove that killing U.S. civilians is wrong.

    The media has told us repeatedly that some Middle Easterners hate the U.S. only because of our "freedom" and "prosperity." Missing from this explanation is the historical context of the U.S. role in the Middle East, and for that matter in the rest of the world. This basic primer is an attempt to brief readers who have not closely followed the history of U.S. foreign or military affairs, and are perhaps unaware of the background of U.S. military interventions abroad, but are concerned about the direction of our country toward a new war in the name of "freedom" and "protecting civilians."

    The United States military has been intervening in other countries for a long time. In 1898, it seized the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico from Spain, and in 1917-18 became embroiled in World War I in Europe. In the first half of the 20th century it repeatedly sent Marines to "protectorates" such as Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. All these interventions directly served corporate interests, and many resulted in massive losses of civilians, rebels, and soldiers. Many of the uses of U.S. combat forces are documented in A History of U.S. Military Interventions since 1890: http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html

    U.S. involvement in World War II (1941-45) was sparked by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and fear of an Axis invasion of North America. Allied bombers attacked fascist military targets, but also fire-bombed German and Japanese cities such as Dresden and Tokyo, party under the assumption that destroying civilian neighborhoods would weaken the resolve of the survivors and turn them against their regimes. Many historians agree that fire- bombing's effect was precisely the opposite--increasing Axis civilian support for homeland defense, and discouraging potential coup attempts. The atomic bombing of Japan at the end of the war was carried out without any kind of advance demonstration or warning that may have prevented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

    The war in Korea (1950-53) was marked by widespread atrocities, both by North Korean/Chinese forces, and South Korean/U.S. forces. U.S. troops fired on civilian refugees headed into South Korea, apparently fearing they were northern infiltrators. Bombers attacked North Korean cities, and the U.S. twice threatened to use nuclear weapons. North Korea is under the same Communist government today as when the war began.

    During the Middle East crisis of 1958, Marines were deployed to quell a rebellion in Lebanon, and Iraq was threatened with nuclear attack if it invaded Kuwait. This little-known crisis helped set U.S. foreign policy on a collision course with Arab nationalists, often in support of the region's monarchies.

    In the early 1960s, the U.S. returned to its pre-World War II interventionary role in the Caribbean, directing the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs exile invasion of Cuba, and the 1965 bombing and Marine invasion of the Dominican Republic during an election campaign. The CIA trained and harbored Cuban exile groups in Miami, which launched terrorist attacks on Cuba, including the 1976 downing of a Cuban civilian jetliner near Barbados. During the Cold War, the CIA would also help to support or install pro-U.S. dictatorships in Iran, Chile, Guatemala, Indonesia, and many other countries around the world.

    The U.S. war in Indochina (1960-75) pit U.S. forces against North Vietnam, and Communist rebels fighting to overthrow pro-U.S. dictatorships in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. U.S. war planners made little or no distinction between attacking civilians and guerrillas in rebel-held zones, and U.S. "carpet-bombing" of the countryside and cities swelled the ranks of the ultimately victorious revolutionaries. Over two million people were killed in the war, including 55,000 U.S. troops. Less than a dozen U.S. citizens were killed on U.S. soil, in National Guard shootings or antiwar bombings. In Cambodia, the bombings drove the Khmer Rouge rebels toward fanatical leaders, who launched a murderous rampage when they took power in 1975.

    Echoes of Vietnam reverberated in Central America during the 1980s, when the Reagan administration strongly backed the pro-U.S. regime in El Salvador, and right-wing exile forces fighting the new leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Rightist death squads slaughtered Salvadoran civilians who questioned the concentration of power and wealth in a few hands. CIA-trained Nicaraguan Contra rebels launched terrorist attacks against civilian clinics and schools run by the Sandinista government, and mined Nicaraguan harbors. U.S. troops also invaded the island nation of Grenada in 1983, to oust a new military regime, attacking Cuban civilian workers (even though Cuba had backed the leftist government deposed in the coup), and accidentally bombing a hospital.

    The U.S. returned in force to the Middle East in 1980, after the Shi'ite Muslim revolution in Iran against Shah Pahlevi's pro-U.S. dictatorship. A troop and bombing raid to free U.S. Embassy hostages held in downtown Tehran had to be aborted in the Iranian desert. After the 1982 Israeli occupation of Lebanon, U.S. Marines were deployed in a neutral "peacekeeping" operation. They instead took the side of Lebanon's pro-Israel Christian government against Muslim rebels, and U.S. Navy ships rained enormous shells on Muslim civilian villages. Embittered Shi'ite Muslim rebels responded with a suicide bomb attack on Marine barracks, and for years seized U.S. hostages in the country. In retaliation, the CIA set off car bombs to assassinate Shi'ite Muslim leaders. Syria and the Muslim rebels emerged victorious in Lebanon.

    Elsewhere in the Middle East, the U.S. launched a 1986 bombing raid on Libya, which it accused of sponsoring a terrorist bombing later tied to Syria. The bombing raid killed civilians, and may have led to the later revenge bombing of a U.S. jet over Scotland. Libya's Arab nationalist leader Muammar Qaddafi remained in power. The U.S. Navy also intervened against Iran during its war against Iraq in 1987-88, sinking Iranian ships and "accidentally" shooting down an Iranian civilian jetliner.

    U.S. forces invaded Panama in 1989 to oust the nationalist regime of Manuel Noriega. The U.S. accused its former ally of allowing drug-running in the country, though the drug trade actually increased after his capture. U.S. bombing raids on Panama City ignited a conflagration in a civilian neighborhood, fed by stove gas tanks. Over 2,000 Panamanians were killed in the invasion to capture one leader.

    The following year, the U.S. deployed forces in the Persian Gulf after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which turned Washington against its former Iraqi ally Saddam Hussein. U.S. supported the Kuwaiti monarchy and the Muslim fundamentalist monarchy in neighboring Saudi Arabia against the secular nationalist Iraq regime. In January 1991, the U.S..and its allies unleashed a massive bombing assault against Iraqi government and military targets, in an intensity beyond the raids of World War II and Vietnam. Up to 200,000 Iraqis were killed in the war and its imemdiate aftermath of rebellion and disease, including many civilians who died in their villages, neighborhoods, and bomb shelters. The U.S. continued economic sanctions that denied health and energy to Iraqi civilians, who died by the hundreds of thousands, according to United Nations agencies. The U.S. also instituted "no-fly zones" and virtually continuous bombing raids, yet Saddam was politically bolstered as he was militarily weakened.

    In the 1990s, the U.S. military led a series of what it termed "humanitarian interventions" it claimed would safeguard civilians. Foremost among them was the 1992 deployment in the African nation of Somalia, torn by famine and a civil war between clan warlords. Instead of remaining neutral, U.S. forces took the side of one faction against another faction, and bombed a Mogadishu neighborhood. Enraged crowds, backed by foreign Arab mercenaries, killed 18 U.S. soldiers, forcing a withdrawal from the country.

    Other so-called "humanitarian interventions" were centered in the Balkan region of Europe, after the 1992 breakup of the multiethnic federation of Yugoslavia. The U.S. watched for three years as Serb forces killed Muslim civilians in Bosnia, before its launched decisive bombing raids in 1995. Even then, it never intervened to stop atrocities by Croatian forces against Muslim and Serb civilians, because those forces were aided by the U.S. In 1999, the U.S. bombed Serbia to force President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw forces from the ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo, which was torn a brutal ethnic war. The bombing intensified Serbian expulsions and killings of Albanian civilians from Kosovo, and caused the deaths of thousands of Serbian civilians, even in cities that had voted strongly against Milosevic. When a NATO occupation force enabled Albanians to move back, U.S. forces did little or nothing to prevent similar atrocities against Serb and other non-Albanian civilians. The U.S. was viewed as a biased player, even by the Serbian democratic opposition that overthrew Milosevic the following year.

    Even when the U.S. military had apparently defensive motives, it ended up attacking the wrong targets. After the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, the U.S. "retaliated" not only against Osama Bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan, but a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that was mistakenly said to be a chemical warfare installation. Bin Laden retaliated by attacking a U.S. Navy ship docked in Yemen in 2000. After the 2001 terror attacks on the United States, the U.S. military is poised to again bomb Afghanistan, and possibly move against other states it accuses of promoting anti-U.S. "terrorism," such as Iraq and Sudan. Such a campaign will certainly ratchet up the cycle of violence, in an escalating series of retaliations that is the hallmark of Middle East conflicts. Afghanistan, like Yugoslavia, is a multiethnic state that could easily break apart in a new catastrophic regional war. Almost certainly more civilians would lose their lives in this tit-for-tat war on "terrorism" than the 3,000 civilians who died on September 11.

    COMMON THEMES

    Some common themes can be seen in many of these U.S. military interventions.

    First, they were explained to the U.S. public as defending the lives and rights of civilian populations. Yet the military tactics employed often left behind massive civilian "collateral damage." War planners made little distinction between rebels and the civilians who lived in rebel zones of control, or between military assets and civilian infrastructure, such as train lines, water plants, agricultural factories, medicine supplies, etc. The U.S. public always believe that in the next war, new military technologies will avoid civilian casualties on the other side. Yet when the inevitable civilian deaths occur, they are always explained away as "accidental" or "unavoidable."

    Second, although nearly all the post-World War II interventions were carried out in the name of "freedom" and "democracy," nearly all of them in fact defended dictatorships controlled by pro-U.S. elites. Whether in Vietnam, Central America, or the Persian Gulf, the U.S. was not defending "freedom" but an ideological agenda (such as defending capitalism) or an economic agenda (such as protecting oil company investments). In the few cases when U.S. military forces toppled a dictatorship--such as in Grenada or Panama--they did so in a way that prevented the country's people from overthrowing their own dictator first, and installing a new democratic government more to their liking.

    Third, the U.S. always attacked violence by its opponents as "terrorism," "atrocities against civilians," or "ethnic cleansing," but minimized or defended the same actions by the U.S. or its allies. If a country has the right to "end" a state that trains or harbors terrorists, would Cuba or Nicaragua have had the right to launch defensive bombing raids on U.S. targets to take out exile terrorists? Washington's double standard maintains that an U.S. ally's action by definition "defensive," but that an enemy's retaliation is by definition "offensive."

    Fourth, the U.S. often portrays itself as a neutral peacekeeper, with nothing but the purest humanitarian motives. After deploying forces in a country, however, it quickly divides the country or region into "friends" and "foes," and takes one side against another. This strategy tends to enflame rather than dampen a war or civil conflict, as shown in the cases of Somalia and Bosnia, and deepens resentment of the U.S. role.

    Fifth, U.S. military intervention is often counterproductive even if one accepts U.S. goals and rationales. Rather than solving the root political or economic roots of the conflict, it tends to polarize factions and further destabilize the country. The same countries tend to reappear again and again on the list of 20th century interventions.

    Sixth, U.S. demonization of an enemy leader, or military action against him, tends to strengthen rather than weaken his hold on power. Take the list of current regimes most singled out for U.S. attack, and put it alongside of the list of regimes that have had the longest hold on power, and you will find they have the same names. Qaddafi, Castro, Saddam, Kim, and others may have faced greater internal criticism if they could not portray themselves as Davids standing up to the American Goliath, and (accurately) blaming many of their countries' internal problems on U.S. economic sanctions.

    One of the most dangerous ideas of the 20th century was that "people like us" could not commit atrocities against civilians.

        * German and Japanese citizens believed it, but their militaries slaughtered millions of people.
        * British and French citizens believed it, but their militaries fought brutal colonial wars in Africa and Asia.
        * Russian citizens believed it, but their armies murdered civilians in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and elsewhere.
        * Israeli citizens believed it, but their army mowed down Palestinians and Lebanese.
        * Arabs believed it, but suicide bombers and hijackers targeted U.S. and Israeli civilians.
        * U.S. citizens believed it, but their military killed hundreds of thousands in Vietnam, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Every country, every ethnicity, every religion, contains within it the capability for extreme violence. Every group contains a faction that is intolerant of other groups, and actively seeks to exclude or even kill them. War fever tends to encourage the intolerant faction, but the faction only succeeds in its goals if the rest of the group acquiesces or remains silent. The attacks of September 11 were not only a test for U.S. citizens attitudes' toward minority ethnic/racial groups in their own country, but a test for our relationship with the rest of the world. We must begin not by lashing out at civilians in Muslim countries, but by taking responsibility for our own history and our own actions, and how they have fed the cycle of violence.


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Depleted Uranium Weapons: The Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No Joke

by Dave Lindorff

The horrors of the US Agent Orange defoliation campaign in Vietnam could ultimately be dwarfed by the horrors caused by the depleted uranium weapons which the US began using in the 1991 Gulf War (300 tons), and which it has used much more extensively--and in more urban, populated areas--in the Iraq War and the now intensifying Afghanistan War.

Depleted uranium, despite its rather benign-sounding name, is not depleted of radioactivity or toxicity. The term "depleted" refers only to its being depleted of the U-235 isotope needed for fission reactions in nuclear reactors. The nuclear waste material from nuclear power plants, DU as it is known, is what is removed from the power plants' spent fuel rods and is essentially composed of the uranium isotope U-238 as well as U-236 (a product of nuclear reactor fission, not found in nature), as well as other trace radioactive elements. Once simply a nuisance for the industry, that still has no permanent way to dispose of the dangerous stuff, it turns out to be an ideal metal for a number of weapons uses, and has been capitalized on by the Pentagon. 1.7 times heavier than lead, and much harder than steel, and with the added property of burning at a super-hot temperature, DU has proven to be an ideal penetrator for warheads that need to pierce thick armor or dense concrete bunkers made of reinforced concrete and steel. Once through the defenses, it burns at a temperature that incinerates anyone inside (which is why we see the carbonized bodies of bodies in the wreckage of Iraqi tanks hit by US fire). Accordingly it has found its way into 30 mm machine gun ammunition, especially that used by the A-10 Warthog ground-attack fighter planes used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as Kosovo). It is also the warhead of choice for Abrams tanks and is also reportedly used in GBU-28 and the later GBU-37 bunker buster bombs, each of which can have 1-2 tons of the stuff in its warhead. DU is also used as ballast in cruise missiles, and this burns up when a missile detonates its conventional explosive. Some cruise missiles are also designed to hit hardened targets and reportedly feature DU warheads, as does the AGM-130 air-to-ground missile, which carries a one-ton penetrating warhead. In addition, depleted uranium is used in large quantities in the armor of tanks and other equipment. This material becomes a toxic source of CU pollution when these vehicles are attacked and burned.


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While the Pentagon has continued to claim, against all scientific evidence, that there is no hazard posed by depleted uranium, US troops in Iraq have reportedly been instructed to avoid any sites where these weapons have been used—destroyed Iraqi tanks, exploded bunkers, etc.—and to wear masks if they do have to approach. Many torched vehicles have been brought back to the US, where they have been buried in special sites reserved for dangerously contaminated nuclear materials. (Thousands of tons of DU-contaminated sand from Kuwait, polluted with DU during the US destruction of Iraq's tank forces in the 1991 war, were removed and shipped to a waste site in Idaho last year with little fanfare.) Suspiciously, international health officials have been prevented or obstructed from doing medical studies of DU sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. But an excellent series of articles several years ago by the Christian Science Monitor described how reporters from that newspaper had visited such sites in Iraq with Geiger-counters and had found them to be extremely "hot" with radioactivity.

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The big danger with DU is not as a pure metal, but after it has exploded and burned, when the particles of uranium oxide, which are just as radioactive as the pure isotopes, can be inhaled or ingested. Even the smallest particle of uranium in the body is both deadly poisonous as a chemical, and over time can cause cancer—particularly in the lungs, but also the kidneys, testes and ovaries.

There are reports of a dramatic increase in the incidence of deformed babies being born in the city of Fallujah, where DU weapons were in wide use during the November 2004 assault on that city by US Marines. The British TV station SKY UK, in a report last month that has received no mention in any mainstream American news organization, found a marked increase in birth defects at local hospitals. Birth defects have also been high for years in the Basra area in the south of Iraq, where DU was used not just during America's 2003 "shock and awe" attack on Iraq, but also in the 1991 Gulf War.

DU baby
Deformed baby born in post-US Invasion Iraq: DU's legacy?

Further, a report sent to the UN General Assembly by Dr Nawal Majeed Al-Sammarai, Iraq's Minister of Women's Affairs since 2006, stated that in September 2009, Fallujah General Hospital had 170 babies born, 24% of which died within their first week of life. Worse yet, fully 75% of the babies born that month were deformed. This compares to August 2002, six months before the US invasion, when 530 live births were reported with only six dying in the first week, and only one deformity. Clearly something terrible is happening in Fallujah, and many doctors suspect it's the depleted uranium dust that is permeating the city.

But the real impact of the first heavy use of depleted uranium weaponry in populous urban environments (DU was used widely especially in 2003 in Baghdad, Samara, Mosul and other big Iraqi cities), will come over the years, as the toxic legacy of this latest American war crime begins to show up in rising numbers of cancers, birth defects and other genetic disorders in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of course, as in the case of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the toxic effects of this latest battlefield use of toxic materials by the US military will also be felt for years to come by the men and women who were sent over to fight America's latest wars. As with Agent Orange, the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department have been assiduously denying the problem, and have been just as assiduously denying claims by veterans of the Gulf War and the two current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who claim their cancers and other diseases have anything to do with their exposure to DU.

The record on Agent Orange should lead us to be suspicious of the government's claims.

The deformed and dead babies in Iraq should make us demand a cleanup of Iraq and Afghanistan, medical aid for the victims, and a ban on all depleted uranium weapons.


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