| by Shenali Waduge
( April 21, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The West has a history of invading nations, forcibly occupying them, plundering nations of their resources and saying thank you by designing systems that would keep people divided and dependent on them because they make the laws and they are the judges for the very crimes they have committed. For over 500 years nations were forcibly occupied and plundered – this was called colonialism. Country after country was forcibly invaded on the excuse of sheltering terrorists – this they called military intervention. The grounds for this have been subtly camouflaged in a theory approved by the UN called R2P. To add to their list of crimes has been the assassination of leaders who are a threat to them and replacing them with puppets. The “Status of Forces Agreement” has guaranteed that US cannot be held accountable for their crimes in any country that the US has bases in. Are we wrong to accuse the West and with all the evidence against the West for their crimes either direct or as covert operations while the UN is prepared to only hound the nations that the West are against and leaders that stand in the way of the West. Are we wrong to accuse the UN of being a puppet of the West and suggest an alternate organization for World Peace?
Not many countries can overthrow foreign governments and get away with it – the US can and they are masters at it.
Overt Military Interventions
· From 1798-2001 a total of 330 interventions (Congressional Research Service)
· From 1946-1975 a total 218 occasions where US used its armed forces “as a political instrument” (Force without war: US armed Forces as a Political Instrument – Blechman and Kaplan)
· From 1899 to 1990 – 60 Low Intensity Conflicts (LICs) – America’s Small Wars: Lessons for the Future, J M Collins.
· Since World War 2 the US has conventionally bombed 28 countries (William Blum – Rogue State)
· A total of 560 US covert military interventions have taken place between 1798-2008.
· 170 of these interventions was between 1798 to 1945.
· 390 military interventions between 1945 and 2008 – 391 with Libya.
· 20million civilian deaths by US interventions
· In the past 40 years itself 6million people are said to have been killed because of CIA secret wars. The 6million dead belong to the Third World.
· Over 200 US military interventions in the Third World by the US.
· In the past 40 years all the “WARS” the US is involved in has been in the Third World with millions killed
· 60 countries have been victim of at least ONE MAJOR WAR since 1945 where an estimated 20million people have died.
· There have been 200 proxy “undeclared wars” from World War 2 to 1980s in 80 countries with the involvement of armed forces of 90 states.
· Between 1869 and 1897 US sent warships into Latin American ports an unbelievable 5980 times
· From mid 19th century to 20th century US military had conquered all lands and original inhabitants to the western edge of its continent, stolen half of Mexico, invaded Korea, annexed Hawaii, conquered Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
· By 1930 US sent military gunboats to Latin America over 6000 times and invaded Cuba and Mexico once again, invaded Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Columbia and protracted wars in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Haiti – ALL these was to ensure US corporations and financial houses to dominate the economies of most of Mexico, Caribbean, Central America and much of South America.
US regime change – last 50 years
· 1963 – South Vietnam : CIA backs coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam paying USD40,000 to kill him
· 1964 – Brazil : Democratic Government of President Goulart overthrown in March 1964
· 1966 – Ghana : overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah by the CIA because of his non-aligned Marxist economic perspective.
· 1970-3 – Chile : Marxist President Salvador Allende overthrown and murder planned by US with President Nixon personally authorizing $700,000 for the covert operation. General Pinochet took over on 1973 – US installs a dictator!
· 1979-89 – Afghanistan : Carter Doctrine that the US would not allow any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf. US armed Afghan insurgents provided weapons and training to the Mujahideens (leader of whom was Osama bin Laden) to fight the Russians a covert operation costing over $3billion.
· 1980 – Turkey : 3000 US troops landed before the 12 September coup.
· 1980-81 – Poland : US supports Solidarity movement
· 1981-90 – Nicaragua : CIA overthrows Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega through a group tasked to sabotage ports, refineries, boats and bridges / arming contras despite Boland Amendment.
· 1980-95 – Cambodia : Reagan Doctrine of aiding anti-Soviet resistance movements abroad applied to Cambodia under Vietnam occupation following Khmer Rouge genocide.
· 1980s – Angola : Reagan administration helps anti-communist rebels led by Jonas Sayimbi who was supported by the Heritage Foundation. Savimbi was killed by Angolan military in February 2002.
· 1986 – Philippines : US pressurized President Marcos to step down and hand over power to Corazon Aquino
· 1992-1996 – Iraq : CIA indirectly supports sabotage campaigns between 1992 and 1995 but fails to topple Saddam Hussein.
· 2001 – Afghanistan : Plan to invade Afghanistan developed by CIA Special Activities Division on pretext of 9/11
· 2002-3 – Iraq : CIA Special Activities Division enter Iraq in July 2002 before the main invasion and prepare ground for the arrival of US special forces. Turkey bans use of US forces across its territory.
· 2002 – Venezuela : Coup and installing Pedro Carmona as President
· 2006 to present – Palestinian authority : Hamas and Fatah win 2006 election and form Palestinian Authority National Unity Government in 2007 headed by Ismail Haniya and takes control of Gaza Strip. Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization.
· 2006-2007 – Somalia : CIA funds coalition of anti-Islamic warlords
· 2005 to present – Iran : CIA authorized to undertake black operations against Iran $400m was authorized as covert operation to create unrest in Iran in 2007.
· 2011 – Libya : following Arab Spring overthrowing of rulers in Tunisia and Egypt, Libya was next target with US/NATO airstrikes, arming of rebels/mercenaries and killing of Gaddafi
· 2012 – Syria : President Obama authorizes to support regime change in Syria and overthrow Government of President Assad – rebels and mercenaries again being armed and trained.
Installing Puppet States – is when sovereign states become controlled by foreign powers though externally it looks independent and acts independent the decisions that these leaders take are almost always taken on the instructions of the foreign powers ruling it from behind the scenes.
Origins of CIA
· On 18 June 1948, US President Harry Truman signed the National Security Directive 10/2 (NSC-10/2) defining covert operations
· CIA – Central Intelligence Agency was created prior to this directive, answerable to the President through a National Security Council to carry out covert operations
· Their scope covers assassination attempts, government overthrows, paramilitary operations, concerted propaganda efforts, interference in free elections, economic desatabalization campaigns,
· 1976 Church Committee Report on CIA activities published by US Sen. Frank Church stated from 1961 to 1974, 900 major and 3000 minor operations had been undertaken by CIA (President’s Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations from World War 2 through the Persian Guf – Prados)
· Former CIA officer John Stockwell extrapolated in 1990 that the CIA had initiated and overseen about 3000 major and over 10,000 minor covert operations
· Pentagon acknowledges that there are Special Operations Forces deployed in missions across 200 plus nations. At virtually all these foreign missions are assigned CIA case officers working under the State Department cover.
· US Government has provided both military and economic aid to more than 150 countries and protects the assets and operations of thousands of transnational corporations because it is their trillions of dollar investments that the US Government are looking after.
· CIA’s 10,000 covert operations of which 3000 are major and has killed 6million people has made the entire world unstable.
US and UN
· In 2002 when the International Criminal Court was launched the US Government did not take part nor did they ratify it.
· US has also refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming.
· US has withdrawn from 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
· US walked out of the 1972 biological and toxic weapons Convention
· US refused to comply with the Land Mine Treaty,
· US has withdrawn from the International Conference on Racism
· When Jose Bustami Director General of Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons offered membership to Iraq in the– the Bush administration ousted him.
The former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in an interview in 1998 summed up exactly what the US thinks of the UN : “The UN plays a very important role. But if we don’t like it, we always have the option of following our own national security interests, which I assure you we will do if we don’t like what’s going on” – That’s how the Gulf War happened in 1991, Iraq was invaded, US/NATO bombing Serbia in 1999 and Afghanistan invaded in 2001.
Western Bases in Foreign Nations
· US is said to have over 1000 foreign military bases in over 120 nations and territories
· US has 293 bases in Germany – why is it necessary for the US and UK to have bases in Germany or Japan 65 years after World War with over 70,000 US troops currently in Germany, more than 45,000 US soldiers in Japan and close to 30,000 US troops in South Korea?
· UK and France have a further 200 in their former colonies.
· US personnel currently stationed number over 160,000 and excludes US personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico and Kwajalein Atoll. All bases functions as storage facilities for weapons including nuclear arms, training, intelligence gathering, “echelon” bases monitor all email, phone and data communication traffic, extra-judiciary transport, imprisonment and torture of which Guantanamo Bay is the best example.
· US bases in Iraq (505) revealed only after US troops prepared to leave Iraq. Officially, we are told that the US has removed troops from Iraq but does this not include the Dept of Defense staff currently in Iraq? The bases in Afghanistan is over 1500 counting all the forward operating bases, checkpoints, mega-bases, military installations and other logistical support facilities. The number of US troops stands at over 100,000 if not more.
Why US occupies Afghanistan
· Not because of 9/11 or Osama – the hijackers were mostly Saudis
· US occupies Afghanistan because it is a strategic hub in Central Asia (Afghanistan borders Soviet Union, China and Iran).
· US is building a 1900km long $8billion oil and gas pipeline through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
· The entirety of US bases in Afghanistan are all located along the route of the gas/oil pipeline
· Afghanistan has over 1400 mineral outcroppings and 70 viable deposits worth over $1trilion (including iron, Hajigak iron, coal, copper, cobalt, gold, lithium – raw material to make batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys).
· The US Government and business elites were well aware of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth and energy resources as far back as 1979 when it supported the Mujahideen “freedom fighters” we know today as the Al Qaeda and Osama.
· In 2001 before US occupation opium production was 200 tons by 2009 opium production has reached 6900 tons generating cash earnings of more than $200billion annually
· opium production has increased by a staggering 3100% (from 185tons before arrival of US in 2001 and now 5800tons in 2011)
· Afghanistan accounts for 90% of opium and cannabis supplies to the world. Opium, morphine, cannabis, heroin, codeine, thebaine are all sought after by pharmaceutical companies.
Why US invaded Iraq
The 9/11 attackers were not Iraqi’s nor had they links to Al Qaeda, neither did Iraq have WMDs but Iraq was attacked.
US attacked Iraq to secure 115billion barrels of oil reserves! US spends $900billion per year on destruction when 49m Americans live in poverty and 46million depend on food stamps to survive and 4m are homeless.
Collateral Damage
New York Times reported in 2003 that US Secretary Rumsfeld personally approved over 50 US airstrikes in Iraq which killed many innocent Iraqi civilians.
Pentagon policy informed to the media was that any strikes that result in 50 or more civilian deaths was “unavoidable collateral damage”. That means the US administration is well aware of targets and given its policy it simply excuses all civilian deaths above 50 as “collateral damage” – it is classified information as to whether this policy still continues. By virtue of this authorization the US is committing a crime and that crime is murder?
Sanctions
Former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright said on the deaths of Iraqi children (quoted as 500,000) and her response was “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it”
Use of Nuclear / Chemical Weapons
US used Depleted Uranium bombs on Iraq towns where no tanks and no armored Iraqi vehicles existed. ”They changed the rules of engagement, and we went in and we shot everything that moved…that was an order given from our high command and in direct violation of the Geneva Convention” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5DfCS11hy4&feature=related
In 1998 a John Hopkins University study estimated that if cancers continued on the current curve, 44% of the population would develop it by 2000. The US has since dropped a further 2000-3000 more tons of depleted uranium (DU) which will mean a future generation of children born with birth defects.
Reconciliation
The buzzword is today “reconciliation” the theme is “accountability” and the pressure is on Sri Lanka from all corners – cooked up reports, books quoting from terrorist sources, funding of NGO spokesmen, former UN heads reversing and contradicting themselves yet not a hum when Winston Churchill in 1979 declared “We should never allow ourselves to apologize for what we did to Germany.” !
International justice simply does not exist – justice is when the perpetrator become the jury and judge as we see happening and the targets are the Third World nations and their leaders. But some of these leaders are not helping the cause in the least. Though not puppet leaders, by virtue of the mismanagement and corrupt policies that they uphold they help these international criminals to bully the nations.
Leaders that defy the status quo end up assassinated like Patrice Lumumba and there are many such assassinations – the perpetrators have the audacity to talk human rights and freedoms and we listen and applaud them. Perhaps people remain still ignorant of the US and the West’s record.
If a foreign leader is branded or labeled – he is definitely on the list of being ousted but then some of these leaders deserve whats coming but the tragedy is that they are pulling the innocent people of the country down with them and they have only themselves to blame.
Like it or not what post-colonial Governments are guilty of is not following the indigenous pattern of culture that was reason for the colonials to arrive and divide the people. So why did these native leaders turn away from what was good to adopt the Western style of rule that see hallmarks of divides everywhere we turn. The rich-poor gap is widening, the debt of these Third World nations are rocketing, the rich are leading ultra-rich lives and the politicians care two hoots about people’s suffering while the public servants meekly say “yes, sir” and does not even make any effort to think of ways that people’s burdens can be relieved.
The people do not get much in return for the people they vote into power and then the eagles await for the correct opportunity to take over.
The hour-glass appears to be fast closing in on us.
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