LatinaLista — Today is the five-year anniversary of a war that when viewed through the lenses of history will not be kind to the people who perpetrated it. That’s a given.
But what is not a given is the future course of involvement, we as a nation, must pursue with regard to Iraq.
So far, in this war, 11% of American casualties have been identified as Latino/a soldiers. It is the second highest percentage after white soldiers at 74.73%. African Americans comprise 9.4% of casualties, Asian – 1.4%; American Indian or Alaskan Native stands at 1.02% and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander is at
1.12%.
In an unprecedented act of unity, several congressional candidates from eight states have joined with several retired high-ranking military officials to be the first signers to a document that has five goals:
1. Responsibly end American military engagement in Iraq.
2. Restore Constitutional checks and balances.
3. Utilize diplomatic power.
4. Address humanitarian concerns.
5. Restore military might and dignity.
6. Restore media independence.
7. Create a new U.S.-centered energy policy.
All of these components are tied into a document that debuted today as A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.
The “Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq” was unveiled today in Washington DC at the Take Back America conference.
Most of the congressional candidates, who are currently running for office in their respective states have decided the gamble to their professional aspirations by signing on to this document before the elections, is worth it if it means restoring the country’s national and international reputation and bringing the troops home without further loss — from either Americans or the Iraqi civilians.
The authors of this plan have done their homework and have uncovered the fact that the solution to responsibly leaving Iraq has been before the nation all along — just obscured by manipulative rhetoric.
We know what history will say about the leaders of this country during this time, but do we really want the same said of its people?
The American people do not need to wait for a new Congress and new administration to pursue this agenda: public pressure on our current elected officials to act can help us move in the right direction even before January 2009, when we hope a new presidential administration and a new Congress will avail themselves of the opportunity to addressthe great challenges we face as a nation. We are aware that facts on the ground will change moving forward, and the legislation is included just to show that a responsible end to the war is possible given the political will.
To monitor the growth of legislative and popular support this plan should attract, updates will be recorded at www.responsibleplan.com.
Though we may differ on who we want for President, what is to be done about illegal immigration, etc., I think we can all agree that one more young widow, one more young soldier, one more parent and one more child are all too high a price for a war that will have no end unless the people exercise the political will to change the course of this country’s destiny.
For that reason, Latina Lista pledges full support for this plan and asks readers to read the plan for yourself and make your own decision.
Comment(39)
Horace
Neither Billery or Obamarama will end this war with the honor and dignity of this country in tact. Neither understands the war’s context in the world view. The US will be seen as an easy mark, without resolve and will to make sacrifices in Global War on Terroism. It’ll be Vietnam all over again, with chaos and civil war. I hope the liberals will be happy.
Texano78704
The “global war on terrorism” is nothing more than a marketing tool by the BushCo regime.
BushCo’s holy crusade into Iraq has made things worse, not better. That is the real world view. Regardless of who wins the White House, it will be incumbent upon them to put an end to the quagmire.
EYE OF TEXAS
To this very day, when I meet someone from Vietnam, I apologize for the way the U.S. military abandoned them because of bad politics and bleeding heart whinny liberal protestors. I was there to see the aftermath and it was not pretty. Iraq will not be safe for any man, woman or child if the forces tuck tail and run away from a country that needs U.S. support. The U.S. needs to complete what it started by the over throw of Sadams reign of terror. If we don’t, we can only expect more attacks by radical Islamic factions that will make 9/11 pale by comparison. Iraq can be a democratic force in the Middle East that will be the beginning of democracy in the entire region.
Pulling out the troops now will result in a blood bath as never witnessed in modern times. It will be covered by the media so all the world can see what happens if you depend on the U.S. I’m sure all the anti-war liberals will be apologizing to Iraqis for the rest of their lives.
laura
Thank you Marisa for this.
Very very sadly, the honor and dignity of all of us were irrevocably besmirched five years ago today when the US invaded Iraq. Only tragedy and disaster have followed.
Chaos and civil war will certainly continue when the US leaves Iraq, as they have continued for the past five years.
The horrendous part of this is the destruction of human lives and of an entire country (what was left of it after dictatorship and sanctions). But the most cold basic fact at this moment is that the US does not possess another $3 trillion it could spend in Iraq in the next 5 years, as it has done in the first 5 years.
$3 trillion is difficult to imagine. If instead of spending it in Iraq, every man, woman and child (including “illegals”!) living in the US had received an equal part of this, everyone would have received $10,000.
Can you imagine what could have been done here in the US for this money ?
Or how for a fraction of it malaria could have been wiped out in the world, generating enormous amounts of goodwill for the US ?
Instead, what has been generated is enormous hatred for the US, the biggest training ground in the world for terrorists, broken bodies and broken spirits in Iraq and here. And many many orphans and widows. Many many bereaved parents.
Though John McCain says he is willing to continue this war for another 100 years, he would not have the money to continue it, if he were elected.
We are now in a recession which will be the worst since world war 2. The Bush Republicans caused it.They permitted fraudulent and predatory mortgage lending and fraudulent financial practices. This has caused panic about the defaulting loans that are spread throughout the financial system. The second factor that caused it is the enormous debt caused by spending on the Iraq war/occupation. In a recession, the country has even less money to spend. There won’t be money for Iraq for the 100 years that John McCain wants to stay there.
In my heart, I am most saddened by the incredible pain , multiplied millionfold, we brought to Iraq. In my head, I know this will not continue, because it simply can’t. The issue now is only: how many less people will die for every day earlier that we leave Iraq ? And how many billions of dollars will be saved for every week earlier that we leave Iraq ?
EYES OF TEXAS
You seem so concerned about the people of Iraq, yet you want their only protectors to pull out and leave them defenseless. There will be no safe place for any Iraqi man, woman or child from radical Islamic forces. You can’t have it both ways. We stay and finish what we started by protecting as many human lives as possible or we tuck tail and run so the blood bath can begin. My vote is to create the democracy in the Middle East for the Iraqi people which will spread through the entire region in time. Your vote to tuck tail and run at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and a message to the world that the U.S. is no longer the mighty power it once was. You, the whinny, bleeding heart, anti-war liberals, will forever feel the sorrow of abandoning people that believed in and needed the protection of the U.S.A.
Marisa Treviño
EYT, The sad fact is that there will never be an end to what we started, and while it sounds cruel to leave, over the long-term it’s worst to stay. Do we want to create a society dependent on the US so that they never feel the need to defend themselves or work out their own problems? There are countless examples in the Latino community where that very thing happened and made many low-income Latinos dependent on social services to the point, that for some, it’s a vicious cycle that they can’t get off.
It’s time to take the training wheels off.
EYES OF TEXAS
Marisa, does your crystal ball that predicts an endless war also show you lotto numbers. The media only covers the negative side of things and never mentions all the positive advances that have taken place over the past year in Iraq. There are fewer attacks, there is a mass effort of rebuilding, the people are opening businesses, kids going back to school, the Iraqi Army is accepting more responsibilities as a protection force and the Iraqi democracy is in place and functional. People continue to listen to the Cindy Shehans of the world instead of seeing the progress and freedoms of a people that once lived in fear under the tyrant dictatorship of Sadam. Stop looking at the Iragi struggle as a glass half empty instead of a glass half full.
Democracy did not come to America easily. It took time, a war and individuals willing to never surrender just because things got difficult. Only time will tell, but from all indications the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq will soon be reduced to bare minimum staffs of advisors and some stand-by troops. No, I don’t have a crystal ball either, but I do look at all the positive reports available and put my trust in the abilities of the greatest military forces in the world, that of the United States of America.
Alessandra
Any president of the U.S. is going to want to take the course of action in Iraq which will be in the best interests of the U.S. and also Iraq and the greater Middle East.
This is a very complicated situation as are most geopolitical issues. Many factors must be taken into account to ensure the maxiumum stability of the entire area as that is vital to U.S. interests. Iran is a big consideration.
I really feel that no matter who is elected president, that person will be compelled to take into consideration the recommendations from the military and intelligence communities. No matter what seems politically expedient, when it comes crunch time, I doubt there will be any precipitous withdrawal by either a Democratic or Republican president once they are in possession of all of the facts on the ground in Iraq and have full access to intelligence information.
jax
That sounds very nice, Maria, but things don’t work that way. You should know by now that experience explodes theory. The realistic way to think about this is simple—we will be there for many years. Those training wheels are not coming off any time in the new future.
George Bush2 broke it and we will have to fix it.
laura
Dear Alessandra, it will depend on what their goals are. Bush was in possesson of all the intelligence, including that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al Qaeda.
But he and his friends wanted to invade for various reasons – of which the most important was, and is to this day, control of the oil.
Dear Alessandra, the relations between nations and betwen peoples are actually not that hard for everyone to understand. The basic issues are the same as between kindergartners: if I treat you well, you will want to be my friend. If I try to take away what belongs to you, you will be angry at me. If I take it by force, you will be more angry. If I am stronger than you, you will submit for the moment but you will not forget. Once I am weaker, or once you join up with some others to whom I was nasty, you will get back at me.
The greatest difference is that kindergartners do not kill thousands of people. They will hit each other at the most.
We have killed hundreds of thousands of people, and have tortured thousands more. This will not be forgotten as long as we are in Iraq, and long after.
Horace
I love the way you think, Alessandra. Evelyn, I’m afraid our love-hate relationship has to end in the latter column, as Alessandra is my new pursuit.
Allessandra
Laura, with all due respect, you world view is very naive. You think that if only we are “nice” that all the dictators and megalomaniacs in the world will play by the “Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” rules. That is simply faulty thinking. Geopolitics IS very complicated. For every action there is a reaction and possible blowback.
I personally was not in favor of the Iraq invasion; however, we are there now and like I said there are many factors which must be considered.
Whatever decisions the next president makes will be predicated on current facts on the ground and current intelligence. Remember that gathering intelligence in a tightly controlled police state was very difficult. Even Saddam’s generals thought that he had WMDs because that is what he wanted everyone to believe. He never thought we’d be crazy enough to invade as long as (we thought) he had WMDs. My point is that we now have military and people inside Iraq who can offer a more accurate assessment. And you can be sure that whoever is president will be taking all of the facts presented to them under advisement. To do otherwise would be gross negligence.
As to the oil: we BUY oil from other countries and at a very hefty price–up over $100/barrel. The Iraqis are controlling their oil. That is actually one of the sticking points: sharing the oil revenues between the various ethnic groups.
One last thing to keep in mind: the entire world’s economy runs on oil, not just the U.S. If you think our economy is struggling now, you haven’t seen anything yet if radical Islamists or the Iranians get control of the oil. They will then be able to blackmail the world using oil. Think things are bad now with $100/barrel? Try $200/barrel. It would throw the entire world’s economy into a tailspin. That’s what I mean about blowback and geopolitics being complicated.
I would like to see us out of Iraq; I lost a relative there and also some friends. But I am also aware enough to know that we must be very careful and weigh all of the possible consequences. One of the reasons why al Qaeda was able to use Afghanistan as a base is that the country descended into lawlessness and chaos after the Soviets withdrew in 1989. We cannot afford to allow such a vaccum to develop in Iraq.
laura
Alessandra, my friend, you are overlooking a key point. Many of the cruel dictatorships in the world today exist because of actions of past US administrations. Those administrations were pursuing what you call “American interests”. I think of it as the short-term interests of the largest American corporations.
Two cases in point: Saddam Hussein, and the present Iranian regime.
Saddam Hussein was supported for many years by the CIA. In the 1980s, when he was waging war against Iran, he was supported by the Reagan administration, with huge loans, and with military “intelligence.” If you search on the web, you can find a picture of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein (after Saddam gassed Kurdish towns – the very atrocity George W. Bush cited when Saddam Hussein was caught and executed) in the mid-1980s. Reagan and his people thought Saddam would be their man to protect the interests of US oil companies against Iran. They stopped supporting him only when he stopped being their compliant puppet.
Second case: Iran. That country had a democratically elected president, Mossadegh, for the last time in 1953. He was overthrown in a CIA-sponsored coup because US oil companies felt he would not do their bidding. The US installed the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, in his stead, who ruled by torture and imprisonment. The atrocities committed by the Shah led directly to the huge popular support for the “Islamic revolution” in 1980, of Khomeini and his ilk, whose successors still rule today.
My friend Alessandra, we will soon be seeing $200 per barrel oil. The simple reason for this is that the amount of oil in the ground of this planet is finite.
It sounds like you want to entrust our nation’s response to this fact to people who proclaim that we are entitled to control the oil in the ground below other people’s nations. I personally do not want to do that. I want to proceed with an approach that respects all people, and all nations, as equally entitled to control their own natural resources. Just like in kindergarten, all children are entitled to the snack they brought.
If you look beyond what is being said in the US media, you will find that the vast majority of people on earth believe in the simple principles of justice and equality we learned in kindergarten. Maybe you think you don’t need those people, in China and in Nigeria and in Brazil and in Pakistan, in France and in Sudan, in Poland and in Turkey and in Korea. Maybe you think our military is there to be used to fight any of them to protect our “American interests.”
I suggest that actually, you do need them, as do I. We need their good will and collaboration in the most urgent tasks of humanity.
I suggest to you that “geopolitically,” we must apply the principles of fairness and respect for others we learned in kindergarten. Starting with the people of Iraq, whose country we invaded without justification, whose lands we devastated, whose people we have killed and tortured by the tens of thousands, and where our government is building bases whose purpose is to control the oil of that nation.
One last suggestion: I see you like the word “blowback.” I suggest you read the book of that title by Chalmers Johnson, an eminent political scientist and former analyst for the CIA. If you have no time to read the whole book (the first of a trilogy), read some of his essays. You will find him to be a very sharp analyst of the exact subject we are discussing.
Alessandra
Laura, I understand what you are saying. But, I still think where you are going wrong is in believing that everything negative that happens is due to American foreign policy. Other countries also have their own agenda and work towards achieving it.
I do understand that some of our past policies have been counterproductive and that is why I say that we have to be careful before deciding upon which direction we wish to take. The law of unintended consequences come into play. We had to take many actions back during the Cold War when we were opposing the Soviet Union. Some of those actions did have unintended consequences as when we were supporting the mujahadeen in Afghanistan fighting against the Soviet invasion. We supported bin Laden without completely understanding the nature of radical Islam and the future consequences it would bring upon our nation. In the same way, Clinton’s bombing Serbia back to the Stone Age (and killing many civilians in the process) seemed like the right course of action at the time, but now it has served to strengthen radical Islam in Europe.
EVERY country looks out after its own best interests. EVERY ONE. If you don’t think that China, Russia, Iran take actions which are in their best interests, even if it hurts OUR interests, you are very much mistaken. For example, the U.S. has been pressuring the U.N. for some time now to get more involved in Darfur. However, many things which the U.S. has tried to do has been blocked by China because China has oil interests in Darfur as well as does France. See what I mean about every country taking actions which suit their best interests. It is not only the U.S. There are no friends amongst countries, only countries whose interests coincide with each other and some of us who share the same basic values. Those whose values and interests most closely match ours are our closest allies.
I agree that we should work with other countries as much as possible and I know that on many issues we do. But the difference between your thinking and mine is that I believe the U.S. is mostly a positive influence in the world, whereas you seem to believe it is the big problem in the world. We are coming from two different perspectives.
For example, while there were certainly people killed by U.S. forces in Iraq, our military goes out of its way to avoid collateral damage whereas the terrorists HIDE behind civilians in order to maximize civilian casualties. These extremists also intentionally target civilians in barbaric terrorist attacks. Our soldiers have put themselves in harm’s way in order to avoid killing civilians.
I do not believe that we should involve ourselves militarily all over the world. I believe we are stretched too thin. But if you are ok with radical Islamists gaining control of the world’s oil supply, then I hope you plan on taking up residence in a grass hut in Botswana because, as I stated, our entire economy is oil based as well as that of the rest of the developed AND developing world. I do think that we should have been working on alternative energy sources for the past three decades at least.
Best regards.
Alessandra
Laura, just one more point: while the oil lies beneath the ground in the Middle Eastern countries and they have the right to their handsome profits from it, you must also remember that it was the U.S. and other Western countries who possessed the technology and expertise to get the oil out of the ground. Without that expertise and technology, that oil would have remained in the ground for a very long time. Also, it is professionals and technical people from the U.S. and a few mostly European countries which mostly maintain (keep up) these facilities.
It is not that we want to “control” the oil and hoard it for ourselves. The Middle Eastern countries all control their oil resources. It is that we want to prevent moderate, reasonable governments from being toppled by radical Islamists who seek our destruction mostly by bringing down our economy. Oil is a fungible commodity and stability in the Middle East and keeping it out of the control of extremists insures a flow to the developing world also.
Again, I support developing alternative energy sources so that we can become more energy independent.
BTW, thank you for the book recommendation.
Horace
“Two cases in point: Saddam Hussein, and the present Iranian regime.”
Actually, Saddam Hussein was not solely supported by the US. France and Russia and Germany were strong supporters of Hussein, moreso than the US.
You blame the US for everything, Laura, when its not as simple as you portray it to be. And there were far more players in the game, in every instance you cite.
“If you look beyond what is being said in the US media, you will find that the vast majority of people on earth believe in the simple principles of justice and equality we learned in kindergarten.”
You’re nuts Laura. The world is full of beligerents. Moreover, these people have their own sense of what justice is. Sunnis fighting Shiites, Hindus fighting Moslems, Basques fighting Spanish, Turks fighting Greeks, Turks fighting Khurds, North Korean fighting South Koreans, etc. each believe that they’re the victim of some affront to their national sovereignty. I agree with Alessandra’s assessment that you have a sophomoric view of the world. It makes me gag.
Evelyn
Why do US Americans not know why they are so hated?
Since 2001-9-11, US citizens have been asking Why do they hate us so much? For most US citizens, this is a rhetorical question. They don’t really want to know why. They just want to voice their belief that they are the best country in the world and have never done anything wrong. On the contrary, so they believe, they have been the most generous and helpful country in the world. Unfortunately, the facts are quite different. The USA is very good at media manipulation. Their propaganda techniques would have made Goebbels faint with delight. The USA has helped the world, but just as often, they have helped themselves — to the resources and well-being of the world. US foreign policy is openly based completely on national self-interest, not international cooperation. The only kind of cooperation the USA understands is one-way cooperation where other countries cooperate with the USA. Other countries must do what the USA requires or be punished by what is euphemistically called linkage, which means punishment for disobeying orders.
Having good advertising/propaganda technique is not in itself a bad thing, but it does mean that US citizens can’t see the world clearly from within their own environment. The USA is in many ways an excellent country. The problem is that this is so often at cost to the rest of the world, both in wealth and lives. State-of-the-art media manipulation ensures that most US citizens don’t know what is being done in their name. US Americans are given the mushroom treatment by their government and media, but this does not exonerate them from the responsibility to seek the facts for themselves.
As the saying goes, whoever discovered water wasn’t a fish. It is impossible for most US residents to be aware of what is going on at a global scale. You have to get out of the pond to see the water. You have to get out of the palace to understand the feelings on the street.
Starting on 2001-12-21, I’ll start writing out the reasons why most people in the world hate the USA. (I wrote down 42 reasons in the first 2 hours of writing.) These reasons will not be in order of strength of hate. Please ignore the order. I’m just numbering them so that I can count the reasons easily. The thing that made me realise that US Americans aren’t aware of the USA’s misdeeds was a sound-byte in which their president said he couldn’t think of a single reason why anyone would hate the USA. (I hope his staff have given him some clues since then. If not, he can read this web page.) US Americans genuinely don’t understand how much evil they do because they have a blind spot for their own country’s evil.
The United States sees world issues with one eye closed. US citizens see only what is good about themselves and their client states and what is bad in others. But they should open the other eye too – and see the evil in themselves and the good in others.
About 3000 innocent civilians were killed on 2001-9-11. This is a tiny token compared the suffering inflicted on the world by the USA. (Perhaps I should mention that the murder rate by guns in the USA is about 110 per million per annum, or about 30,000 per annum for the whole country. So the deaths on 2001-9-11 equalled a typical 5 weeks of murders in the USA.) [PS. 2005-1-7: The USA has killed about 150,000 people in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001-9-11. That’s a 50-to-1 revenge ratio.]
In the USA, it is said that the terrorists hate the democracy and freedom of the USA and the West. This is complete garbage. Anyone with more than 5 neurons working in their brain knows that this is garbage. People worldwide admire the good things of the USA and hate the bad things. US citizens must do some homework to find out what crimes, barbarism and atrocities are committed in their name. It’s the same old story – the people are good, but the government is bad. The difference in a democracy is that the people choose their government (at least in theory). So in a democracy, the people are responsible for the crimes and evil of their government. People who trumpet the virtues of their democracy should remember that they are responsible for the crimes of their government. There are so many good people in the USA, isn’t it a shame they’re not running the country.
The USA has built up a deep reservoir of hate against it. The reservoir of hate has become much deeper since 2001-9-11. Sometimes the dam wall breaks a little. But if the USA does not open its eyes soon, the dam wall will burst wide open and unleash the entire reservoir. The suicide hijackings are just the first in a series of anti-USA actions which are sure to continue. If you whip an angry lion, it does not lie down and roll over. A country which has a shoot’em up approach to world politics should not be surprised when some of their victims take the same attitude. Since the USA has been terrorizing the world for the last 100 years, they can’t be surprised if a little terror blows back at them. If the USA continues to treat other countries of the world as provinces which need to be suppressed, they could soon find that no US citizen will be safe without bodyguards in almost any part of the world.
�Massive war crimes in Vietnam War: The mass murder of well over 1 million (some say about 3 million) innocent Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam war was an act of mass state terrorism. (The USA also used chemical weapons such as dioxins in this aggressive war.) The USA should have been forced to pay hundreds of billions of dollars of reparations for their war crimes. But instead, the USA imposed horrendous trade sanctions on Vietnam which led to mass starvation for many years. At the same time, the USA forced the Vietnamese to put a humiliating amount of effort into finding decades-old corpses of American war criminals. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian Vietnamese died without their bodies being recovered. But US citizens are capable of feeling no sympathy for any people other than their own. They think that one American is worth a thousand foreigners. There are many people in the USA even now who are proud of their participation in the mass murder and war crimes in Vietnam.
Destruction of democracy in Chile: The removal of the freely elected democratic government of Chile by the CIA, including the bombing of the presidential palace (on another September 11), followed by the murder of thousands of innocent civilians. This proves that the USA is not in favor of democracy.
Embargo of Cuba but not China or Saudi Arabia: Decades of embargo of the popular government of Cuba, while the USA gives most favored nation status to China. The support for China and Saudi Arabia is purely in the US self-interest. The dislike of Cuba by the USA is really due to the fact that Cuba does not bow to the USA.
Total support for Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians: The USA continues to protect, encourage and finance Israel’s 6 decades of ethnic cleansing in Palestine. The USA thwarts every humane gesture by the United Nations. The USA encourages and financially supports the slaughter of several hundred innocent people in Palestine every year by the Israeli death squads seeking Lebensraum. It is clear that the USA’s ruling class is in love with Israel. They are blinded by love. [If the Palestinians all converted to Christianity, the scales would fall from the eyes of the US Americans. Then they would realize that the Palestinians are human beings.] The occupied West Bank of Jordan resembles the Warsaw Ghetto of World War II. The occupied West Bank is a slave prison of the Jewish Israelis. But deeds which were evil when the Germans did them in WW2 are now encouraged every day by the USA when the Israeli land thieves do them. Seeing the enthusiastic US American support for Israelis turning innocent Palestinians into mincemeat is the principal cause of worldwide Muslim anger against the USA.
Colonization of Hawaii: The USA colonized and annexed Hawaii. The USA should decolonize this independent nation. This proves that the USA is not anti-colonization.
Funding, weapons and training for Nicaraguan terrorists: The USA gave huge amounts of funding to terrorists in Nicaragua who killed hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans in the 1980s with guns and mines on farmland. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians lost their legs or were maimed in other ways. When there was finally an election along US-approved lines, the USA said the vote was not fair and would not be recognized – until it emerged that the USA’s puppet won, and then they immediately announced that the election was completely fair. (The previous election which brought the Sandinistas to power was recognized by official European observers and everyone else as free and fair. But the people didn’t elect a a pro-mega-capitalist government. So the US rejected that election as flawed. This is because US governments think that democracy and pro-US-capitalism are the same thing. The USA was happy with the previous puppet dictator Somoza.)
Arrogant, conceited nationalism: US citizens have a general attitude that they are rich because they are superior. This is totally explicitly stated, especially on ceremonial occasions. The reason the USA is rich is for many reasons, including very successful exploitation of other countries, the fact that they came into World Wars I and II very late when other countries were exhausted, the geographical isolation of the USA, the fertile land which they took from the indigenous people (whom they largely exterminated), and their homogeneous language and culture.
Theft of Spanish lands in America: The USA stole vast areas of land from the Spanish empire to create California, Texas etc.
Support for Indonesian massacre of Chinese: The USA approved the Suharto government’s killing of about 500,000 Chinese Indonesians who were suspected of being communist sympathizers.
Invasion of Haiti: Occupation of Haiti in 1994 to install US choice of r�gime. (See also 2004 overthrow of democracy in Haiti by USA.) The USA also invaded and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.
Invasion of Panama: Invasion of Panama to get just one guy, Noriega, who happened to be a CIA employee who was conducting most of the cocaine trade from South America into the USA. US forces killed many innocent people.
Invasion of Grenada: Invasion of Grenada in 1983 to install pro-US government. This was part of Reagan’s foreign actions to make US citizens feel proud again. (The USA really should find ways of feeling good that don’t involve making foreigners into mincemeat. People who study these things say that the USA has invaded 67 countries from 1945 to 2004 and has killed some tens of millions of people in military conflicts in that time.)
Attempted invasion of Cuba: Unsuccessful invasion of Cuba (1961) to install pro-US-capitalist government. Large numbers of people pointlessly killed for ideological/economic reasons, with no apology. In 2007, the US government still hates Cuba more than any country. The USA takes a very, very long time to forgive countries which successfully resist (and thereby humiliate) the US Empire. (Others include Iran and Vietnam.).
Killing thousands of innocent poor Afghans: In the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the USA, looking for a small group of bandits, has shot up the whole country, causing a massive increase in starvation and other suffering. When several hundred (about 350) Taliban surrendered in one city, the USA used aerial bombing to kill every one of them, even though they were unarmed and had surrendered. This is a very serious war crime under the Geneva Convention. Combatants are required to give quarter, but the USA has operated an explicit policy of taking no prisoners. They stated that they intended all al Qaida and Taliban to be killed. The USA should be brought before war crimes tribunals for these crimes, but the USA will refuse to even think about this possibility. In fact, the US government has passed a law to impose sanctions on any country which cooperates with the International Criminal Court, and they have passed a law to indemnify all US war criminals from any legal action. Thus the USA has declared that it is free to commit war crimes with impunity. (2002-12-19: It has emerged that the USA was responsible for the murder of about 8000 Taliban who had surrendered. This is why the USA is so afraid of the International Criminal Court. They are as bad as the Serbs were in the 1990s.)
(2003-3-24: The US government says that the Iraqis must abide by the Geneva convention in the treatment of US prisoners. But the USA denied Geneva Convention rights to thousands of Afghan prisoners from 2001. After more than a year, these prisoners are still being maltreated in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. This shows once again that all countries in the world must obey international conventions – all countries except the USA.) After tearing up the Geneva Convention in regard to Afghanistan, the USA complained loudly about extremely minor matters in their illegal war of aggression against Iraq in 2003, for example when photos of prisoners were shown on TV, which is not actually against the Geneva Convention. The USA insists that other countries must very precisely obey international conventions, but the USA never accepts that international law applies to them.
EYES OF TEXAS
Theft of Spanish lands in America: The US stold vast areas of land from the Spanish empire to create California, Texas etc.
That one statement alone discredits this entire anti-American piece of crap. If you have such hate for America, no one is forcing you to stay here. Like always, love it or leave it.
Frank
How funny to state that the U.S. stole land from the Spanish. Uh, the Spaniards were from Spain. They weren’t indigenous to this country.
Evelyn
The author of the article has the same problem you do. He calls Mexicans, Spanish. He forgets the Spanish are European, therefore also here invading and illegally. Now, if the only objection you have is the Mexican American war of 1848, and you want to deny it happened, that’s fine.
What about aaallll the rest of the atrocities shown in this article, are you also in denial about those? GO AHEAD, DON’T BE SHY ABOUT SHOWING YOUR IGNORANCE!
Liquidmicro
Using someone else’s work again I see, Evelyn. Plagiarism is a bad thing without giving credit to its author.
http://www.isometry.com/usahate.html
EYES OF TEXAS
Where does Ms. Copy & Paste get these long ass anti-American articles from? Must be some far left socialist website known only to the scum that feels they can live on all the benefits offered by our nation but at the same time they can try to degrade it. Same as before, but this time with emphases, AMERICA, LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT.
Texano78704
Too many questions are unanswered here.
The invasion of Iraq began with a lie, that there was an imminent threat from Weapons of Mass Destruction. That along should be sufficient to call for an end of the occupation. Now I have no doubt that there are many will try to misdirect, but let’s press on.
The occupation of Iraq continues to be promoted by BushCo as being “central to the War on Terror.†More B.S. Al Qaeda was never in Iraq until after BushCo invaded. What we have now is a civil war, mainly between two factions vying for control of Iraq and its oil, with the US caught in the middle. Very little of the current violence stems from “terrorists.†And the assertion that Iraq will collapse is just that, an unproven assertion.
And how about a couple of those other canards?
Saddam was a dictator and an all around bad guy, needed to be taken out: Indeed. However, so are the twenty or so dictators that the Sunday magazine “Parade†lists every year, what about them? And who appointed the US the world’s policeman? Saddam was so bad that the US under Reagan and Bush Sr. supported him for twelve years, years that he was at his worst. Whatever the Reagan/Bush could not sell Saddam legally, they twisted the arms of our European trading partners to sell to him those items.
We brought democracy to the Middle East: The BushCo policy seems to be, in a nutshell, “democratize or I’ll shoot you.†Sorry, I find it hard to subscribe to a foreign policy that brings democracy at the barrel of a gun.
For those of you that think we should assure a steady source of oil to keep our petroleum based economy going, how exactly are you justifying that? Put another way, you want to be able to go in remove the sovereignty of another nation just so you run around town in a Hummer all day long.
For those of you who think we need to “stay the course,†how are you going to pay for this war? The costs are rapidly closing in on a trillion dollars, yet not a dime of it has been paid for. Estimates are that costs will reach three trillion dollars. Before you advocate for more war, explain how it will be expensed and how that cost can be justified, particularly since we are in the midst of what promises to be a deep, protracted recession.
Staying the course means having to do something about our military, which is at the breaking point. No one from the Bush clan is willing to sacrifice for this “noble cause.†Are you really willing to stay the course and start a draft to preserve military readiness?
Frank
Someone of Irish ancestry accusing the rest of us of European ancestry of being here illegally. That would almost be funny if it weren’t so hypocritical.
Evelyn
Liquid states what I had already stated to make it look like he stated it first.(you are not fooling anyone liquid) I clearly stated the article wasn’t mine, I even included the heading.
Trying to re-focus from the issue by attacking me shows you lost the debate on this issue and laura won! LOL!
The reason I started using cut and paste is so you can see there are many other people who think like I do. You haven’t been past the edge of your town, that makes you scared and ignorant which is why you are racist.
If you are exposed to other people who think like most Americans who advocate justice and equality, you might be able to shed the fear and ignorance.
Eyes also choose immature behavior of name calling when he was left without a viable argument. That means he is in the same boat as liquid. LOST! LOL!
The other one in the same boat brings up my Irish ancestry because I refuse to be a bigot, racist. In fact the majority of Americans are not bigot, racist. Just a few of you are. Same boat again. Start sailing toward some education so you guys can stop embarrassing America.
Frank
I would certainly like to see some proof that those of us who respect our immigration laws and want them enforced, are racists and/or bigots. Based on what? I am not giving up or giving away the country that I was born in because of something that happened hundreds of years ago and had nothing to do with me to prove that I am not a bigot.
If one is of European ancestry and claims that the Europeans stole indigenous land and therefore Americans who were born here since then have no right to be here or no right to immigration laws, be the first to leave and go back to Europe to prove their point. I hear they have a good airline rate right now to Ireland…one way.
Liquidmicro
Evelyn says:
“Liquid states what I had already stated to make it look like he stated it first.(you are not fooling anyone liquid) I clearly stated the article wasn’t mine, I even included the heading.”
Your post shows NO heading, NO quotation marks,NO bold lettering, NOTHING, only a viable question. At NO point do you clearly state the article is not yours. The entire post is a copy, word for word, none of them YOURS, all from a Socialist in Australia.
If its a win or lose for you or me, does it really matter, especially when you can’t even think for yourself and have to copy others opinions, and pretend them to be your own.
Liquidmicro
Evelyn says:
“You haven’t been past the edge of your town, that makes you scared and ignorant which is why you are racist.”
I am assuming this to be towards me, since my name was in your initial sentence. Your ignorance of assumption befuttles the mind, since you have no idea of where I have lived, or for that matter of which continents I have lived upon, nor do you have any idea of where I have family members of whom I visit, or within the countries they live. I am far from being limited to just the edge of town, your name calling of me as a Racist is nothing more than your ignorance of comprehension.
Now at no point was I debating Laura, but merely pointing out that your cut and paste is plagiarism without being in quotes and/or without giving a link to the author or the page, a citation, if you will.
Evelyn
The fact that you are trying to repeat the history of your ancestors is reason enough for you to have to hear the story of how people were murdered, and pushed off their land over and over and over and over until you give up the notion to have history repeat itself.
Americans who are patriotic and follow the constution that advocates justice and equality for all will remind you of this again and again and again.
Frank
What history is being repeated? Who is being murdered and pushed off their land?
Yes, I believe in justice. Justice means punishing anyone who commits a crime. The Constitution does not grant the same equal rights to illegal aliens as it does citizens.
Evelyn
Liquid
You show your ignorance with almost every post. Maby you are educated, but your ignorance still shows. Racism is born of fear and ignorance.
Evelyn
The fact that all you racists attack me, instead of focusing on the issues, is the way you show everyone you have lost the debate and have nothing of substance left to debate the issues with. LOL!
That also shows your ignorance. Do you think people dont see what you do?
Frank
We anti’s have been attacked with vile names such as being called racists and bigots, etc. way before we ever felt the need to defend ourselves in like manner. Amazing how some people twist the truth around about what really goes on in this blog.
When we try to discuss the issues, we get called racists for holding the views that we do. My God, I have never seen such deceit and outright dishonesty in my life.
When someone uses the word racist 4 times in one post who is the attacker and who is the attacked?
Frank
Does this sound familiar posted in the Hispanic Business Forum?
“O my, you have already started…….to make a fool of yourself, that is. Name calling shows you are about as mature as a five to nine year old. LOL! It also shows you have nothing left to debate with.”
This very same person who says that name calling is immature and is akin to a 5 year old minset with nothing left to debate,(of which I agree) is the very same person in here that was the first to call those of us for the rule of law, racists, bigots, etc. in this blog.
Hypocricy anyone?
Liquidmicro
Sorry, Evelyn, you have yet to even attempt to make me look anything other than educated to you. I have not attacked you at all, I simply pointed out something that would help you, buy you not being considered a plagerist, then you attacked me for it. You then claim me to be “not fooling anybody”, then your comments about “not being past the edge of your town”, whether they were directed at me or not, it seems that you can only attack others, instead of arguing the points.
Now, I have made many posts against your cut & paste opinions, you have yet to refute any of them. You have yet to even show anything that would make my posts un-credible. If you still want to talk about ignorance and use “hate words”, you will keep showing your true colors. Maybe ignorance is your color!
Liquidmicro
Here is a quick note for you, Evelyn. Posts don’t show up immediately, It seems that a few times per day they are all posted at once. Therefor, I had made the post of your plagiarism prior to your post being posted, meaning during the same time you posted “Liquid states what I had already stated to make it look like he stated it first.(you are not fooling anyone liquid) I clearly stated the article wasn’t mine, I even included the heading.”
So, as long as you understand that, maybe then you can make, create, prove points instead of all the trigger words of “hate” you so enjoy using. Now, prove any of my points wrong, if you can.
Evelyn
That is a lie, every time you look in the mirror you look deceit and outright dishonesty in the face. Every day you point out your racist views and dont want to be called a racist.
Evelyn
I can see you guys have the white washing machine stuck on SPIN again. I know you are not very smart, but I cannot spend my time explaining each and every little detail to you, If you cant figure it out on your own….too bad!
Liquidmicro
I see you are picking up your marbles and going home. Maybe next time you will come a little more prepared to argue points instead of trying to draw attention to your yelling “RACIST” at everybody.
I’ll give you your marbles back if you want a second chance;-(.
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