Secrets of US History

Read Time:7 Minute, 37 Second

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

US interventions taken for sole purpose of regime change since 1945:

1946 – Thailand (Pridi; conservative): success (Covert operation)
1946 – Argentina (Peron; military/centrist): failure (Subverted election)
1947 – France (communist): success (Subverted election)
1947 – Philippines (center-left): success (Subverted election)
1947 – Romania (Gheorghiu-Dej; stalinist): failure (Covert operation)
1948 – Italy (communist): success (Subverted election)
1948 – Colombia (Gaitan; populist/leftist): success (Subverted election)
1948 – Peru (Bustamante; left/centrist): success (Covert operation)
1949 – Syria (Kuwatli; neutralist/Pan-Arabist): success (Covert operation)
1949 – China (Mao; communist): failure (Covert operation)
1950 – Albania (Hoxha; communist): failure (Covert operation)
1951 – Bolivia (Paz; center/neutralist): success (Covert operation)
1951 – DPRK (Kim; stalinist): failure (Overt force)
1951 – Poland (Cyrankiewicz; stalinist): failure (Covert operation)
1951 – Thailand (Phibun; conservative): success (Covert operation)
1952 – Egypt (Farouk; monarchist): success (Covert operation)
1952 – Cuba (Prio; reform/populist): success (Covert operation)
1952 – Lebanon (left/populist): success: (Subverted election)
1953 – British Guyana (left/populist): success (Covert operation)
1953 – Iran (Mossadegh; liberal nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1953 – Costa Rica (Figueres; reform liberal): failure (Covert operation)
1953 – Philippines (center-left): success (Subverted election)
1954 – Guatemala (Arbenz; liberal nationalist): success (Overt force)
1955 – Costa Rica (Figueres; reform liberal): failure (Covert operation)
1955 – India (Nehru; neutralist/socialist): failure (Covert operation)
1955 – Argentina (Peron; military/centrist): success (Covert operation)
1955 – China (Zhou; communist): failure (Covert operation)
1955 – Vietnam (Ho; communist): success (Subverted election)
1956 – Hungary (Hegedus; communist): success (Covert operation)
1957 – Egypt (Nasser; military/nationalist): failure (Covert operation)
1957 – Haiti (Sylvain; left/populist): success (Covert operation)
1957 – Syria (Kuwatli; neutralist/Pan-Arabist): failure (Covert operation)
1958 – Japan (left-center): success (Subverted election)
1958 – Chile (leftists): success (Subverted election)
1958 – Iraq (Feisal; monarchist): success (Covert operation)
1958 – Laos (Phouma; nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1958 – Sudan (Sovereignty Council; nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1958 – Lebanon (leftist): success (Subverted election)
1958 – Syria (Kuwatli; neutralist/Pan-Arabist): failure (Covert operation)
1958 – Indonesia (Sukarno; militarist/neutralist): failure (Subverted election)
1959 – Laos (Phouma; nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1959 – Nepal (left-centrist): success (Subverted election)
1959 – Cambodia (Sihanouk; moderate/neutralist): failure (CO)
1960 – Ecuador (Ponce; left/populist): success (Covert operation)
1960 – Laos (Phouma; nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1960 – Iraq (Qassem; rightist /militarist): failure (Covert operation)
1960 – S. Korea (Syngman; rightist): success (Covert operation)
1960 – Turkey (Menderes; liberal): success (Covert operation)
1961 – Haiti (Duvalier; rightist/militarist): success (Covert operation)
1961 – Cuba (Castro; communist): failure (Covert operation)
1961 – Congo (Lumumba; leftist/pan-Africanist): success (Covert operation)
1961 – Dominican Republic (Trujillo; rightwing/military): success (Covert operation)
1962 – Brazil (Goulart; liberal/neutralist): failure (Subverted election)
1962 – Dominican Republic ( left/populist): success (Subverted election)
1962 – Indonesia (Sukarno; militarist/neutralist): failure (Covert operation)
1963 – Dominican Republic (Bosch; social democrat): success (Covert operation)
1963 – Honduras (Montes; left/populist): success (Covert operation)
1963 – Iraq (Qassem; militarist/rightist): success (Covert operation)
1963 – S. Vietnam (Diem; rightist): success (Covert operation)
1963 – Cambodia (Sihanouk; moderate/neutralist): failure (Covert operation)
1963 – Guatemala (Ygidoras; rightist/reform): success (Covert operation)
1963 – Ecuador (Velasco; reform militarist): success (Covert operation)
1964 – Guyana (Jagan; populist/reformist): success (Covert operation)
1964 – Bolivia (Paz; centrist/neutralist): success (Covert operation)
1964 – Brazil (Goulart; liberal/neutralist): success (Covert operation)
1964 – Chile (Allende; social democrat/marxist): success (Subverted election)
1965 – Indonesia (Sukarno; militarist/neutralist): success (Covert operation)
1966 – Ghana (Nkrumah; leftist/pan-Africanist): success (Covert operation)
1966 – Bolivia (leftist): success (Subverted election)
1966 – France (de Gaulle; centrist): failure (Covert operation)
1967 – Greece (Papandreou; social democrat): success (Covert operation)
1968 – Iraq (Arif; rightist): success (Covert operation)
1969 – Panama (Torrijos; military/reform populist): failure (Covert operation)
1969 – Libya (Idris; monarchist): success (Covert operation)
1970 – Bolivia (Ovando; reform nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1970 – Cambodia (Sihanouk; moderate/neutralist): success (Covert operation)
1970 – Chile (Allende; social democrat/Marxist): failure (Subverted election)
1971 – Bolivia (Torres; nationalist/neutralist): success (Covert operation)
1971 – Costa Rica (Figueres; reform liberal): failure (Covert operation)
1971 – Liberia (Tubman; rightist): success (Covert operation)
1971 – Turkey (Demirel; center-right): success (Covert operation)
1971 – Uruguay (Frente Amplio; leftist): success (Subverted election)
1972 – El Salvador (leftist): success (Subverted election)
1972 – Australia (Whitlam; liberal/labor): failure (Subverted election)
1973 – Chile (Allende; social democrat/Marxist): success (Covert operation)
1975 – Australia (Whitlam; liberal/labor): success (Covert operation)
1975 – Congo (Mobutu; military/rightist): failure (Covert operation)
1975 – Bangladesh (Mujib; nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1976 – Jamaica (Manley; social democrat): failure (Subverted election)
1976 – Portugal (JNS; military/leftist): success (Subverted election)
1976 – Nigeria (Mohammed; military/nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1976 – Thailand (rightist): success (Covert operation)
1976 – Uruguay (Bordaberry; center-right): success (Covert operation)
1977 – Pakistan (Bhutto: center/nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1978 – Dominican Republic (Balaguer; center): success (Subverted election)
1979 – S. Korea (Park; rightist): success (Covert operation)
1979 – Nicaragua (Sandinistas; leftist): failure (Covert operation)
1980 – Bolivia (Siles; centrist/reform): success (Covert operation)
1980 – Iran (Khomeini; Islamic nationalist): failure (Covert operation)
1980 – Italy (leftist): success (Covert operation)
1980 – Liberia (Tolbert; rightist): success (Covert operation)
1980 – Jamaica (Manley; social democrat): success (Subverted election)
1980 – Dominica (Seraphin; leftist): success (Subverted election)
1980 – Turkey (Demirel; center-right): success (Covert operation)
1981 – Seychelles (René; socialist): failure (Covert operation)
1981 – Spain (Suarez; rightist/neutralist): failure (Covert operation)
1981 – Panama (Torrijos; military/reform populist); success (Covert operation)
1981 – Zambia (Kaunda; reform nationalist): failure (Covert operation)
1982 – Mauritius (center-left): failure (Subverted election)
1982 – Spain (Suarez; rightist/neutralist): success (Subverted election)
1982 – Iran (Khomeini; Islamic nationalist): failure (Covert operation)
1982 – Chad (Oueddei; Islamic nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1983 – Mozambique (Machel; socialist): failure (Covert operation)
1983 – Grenada (Bishop; socialist): success (Overt force)
1984 – Panama (reform/centrist): success (Subverted election)
1984 – Nicaragua (Sandinistas; leftist): failure (Subverted election)
1984 – Surinam (Bouterse; left/reformist/neutralist): success (Covert operation)
1984 – India (Gandhi; nationalist): success (Covert operation)
1986 – Libya (Qaddafi; Islamic nationalist): failure (Overt force)
1987 – Fiji (Bavrada; liberal): success (Covert operation)
1989 – Panama (Noriega; military/reform populist): success (Overt force)
1990 – Haiti (Aristide; liberal reform): failure (Subverted election)
1990 – Nicaragua (Ortega; Christian socialist): success (Subverted election)
1991 – Albania (Alia; communist): success (Subverted election)
1991 – Haiti (Aristide; liberal reform): success (Covert operation)
1991 – Iraq (Hussein; military/rightist): failure (Overt force)
1991 – Bulgaria (BSP; communist): success (Subverted election)
1992 – Afghanistan (Najibullah; communist): success (Covert operation)
1993 – Somalia (Aidid; right/militarist): failure (Overt force)
1993 – Cambodia (Han Sen/CPP; leftist): failure (Subverted election)
1993 – Burundi (Ndadaye; conservative): success (Covert operation)
1994 – El Salvador (leftist): success (Subverted election)
1994 – Rwanda (Habyarimana; conservative): success (Covert operation)
1994 – Ukraine (Kravchuk; center-left): success (Subverted election)
1996 – Bosnia (Karadzic; centrist): success (Covert operation)
1996 – Congo (Mobutu; military/rightist): success (Covert operation)
1996 – Mongolia (center-left): success (Subverted election)
1998 – Congo (Kabila; rightist/military): success (Covert operation)
1998 – Indonesia (Suharto; military/rightist): success (Covert operation)
1999 – Yugoslavia (Milosevic; left/nationalist): success (Subverted election)
2000 – Ecuador (NSC; leftist): success: (Covert operation)
2001 – Afghanistan (Omar; rightist/Islamist): success (Overt force)
2001 – Belarus (Lukashenko; leftist): failure (Subverted election)
2001 – Nicaragua (Ortega; Christian socialist): success (Subverted election)
2001 – Nepal (Birendra; nationalist/monarchist): success (Covert operation)
2002 – Venezuela (Chavez; reform-populist): failure (Covert operation)
2002 – Bolivia (Morales; leftist/MAS): success (Subverted election)
2002 – Brazil (Lula; center-left): failure (Subverted election)

Chronological list of US air warfare campaigns:

China (1945-49): conventional; biological
Korea (1950-53): conventional; biological; chemical; incendiary
China (1951-52): conventional; biological; chemical
Guatemala (1954): conventional
Indonesia (1958): conventional
Cuba (1959-61): conventional; (biochemical attacks in other years)
Guatemala (1960): conventional
Vietnam (1961-73): conventional; chemical; biological; cluster
Congo (1964): conventional
Peru (1965): conventional
Laos (1964-73): conventional; chemical; biological; cluster
Guatemala (1967-69): conventional
Cambodia (1969-70): conventional; chemical; biological
Cambodia (1975): conventional
El Salvador (1980-89): conventional
Nicaragua (1980-89): conventional
Grenada (1983): conventional
Lebanon (1983-4): conventional
Syria (1984): conventional
Libya (1986): conventional
Iran (1987): conventional
Panama (1989): conventional; chemical; biological
Iraq (1991): conventional; chemical; biological; cluster; DU
Kuwait (1991): conventional; chemical; biological; cluster; DU
Somalia (1993): conventional
Bosnia (1993-95): conventional; cluster; DU
Sudan (1998): conventional; biological
Afghanistan (1998): conventional
Yugoslavia (1999): conventional; chemical; biological; cluster; DU
Afghanistan (2001-present): conventional; chemical; biological; cluster; DU
Iraq (2003-present): conventional; chemical; biological; cluster; DU

Estimated causalities from direct interventions or indirect/proxy/low intensity conflicts

China (1945-60): 200K
Greece (1947-49): 100K
Korea (1951-53): 2M
Guatemala (1954-2002): 300K
Vietnam (1960-75): 2M
Laos (1965-73): 500K
Cambodia (1969-75): 1M
Indonesia (1965): 500K
Colombia (1966-2002): 500K
Oman (1970): 10K
Bangladesh (1971): 2M
Uganda (1971-1979): 200K
Chile (1973-1990): 20K
East Timor (1975): 200K
Angola (1975-2002): 1.5M
Argentina (1976-1979): 30K
El Salvador (1980-95): 100K
Nicaragua (1980-90): 100K
Mozambique (1981-1988): 1M
Turkey (1984-2002): 50K
Rwanda (1990-1996): 1M
Iraq (1991): 98k
Somalia (1991-1994): 300K
Yugoslavia (1991-2002): 300K
Liberia (1992-2002): 150K
Burundi (1993-1999): 200K
Sudan (1998): 100K
Congo (1998-2002): 3M
Iraq (1993-present): 653k Lancet study
Afghanistan (2001-present): 19.8k

This is why we need an independent news media. This is why WikiLeaks is relevant and crucial.

References:
Killing hope: US military and CIA interventions since World War II By William Blum
American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance
American Military Intervention: A Useful Tool Or A Curse? GlobalSecurity.org
Democracy by Force US Military Intervention in the Post-Cold War World
www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/

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12 years ago

[…] that is similar to the long list in Gore Vidal's little book Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. https://madmikesamerica.com/2010/08/s…of-us-history/ Last edited by Tom Palven; 13 Minutes Ago at 04:46 […]

Greg Bart
12 years ago

Isn’t the evidence for US biological warfare in Korea in serious dispute?

Reply to  Greg Bart
12 years ago

Yes. As a matter of fact, much of what is listed here is in serious dispute.

lazersedge
Reply to  Professor Mike
12 years ago

Damn Mike, what brought all this up again.

13 years ago

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by matthew, Michael Scott. Michael Scott said: RT @madmike1 Secrets of US History http://bit.ly/cdI45U […]

13 years ago

Nobody really thinks we are at war with Iraq because we are ideologically against the fact that the women there live hellish repressed lives do they?

I can think of a half dozen other countries (NOT sitting on any oil or in close proximity to Israel) who treat their women just as bad if not worse, but we do nothing.

Collateral damage is a fact of war. But hopefully in the overall plan, the war in Iraq will work out for the best. That is what I cling to, because I hate killing and war no matter whose kids are dying.

This “leak” might turn out to be a good thing if it exposes lies and deceit. There might be collateral damage (some operatives might be compromised), but it too serves a greater good.

Had the material been leaked by a hacker instead of a soldier, would anyone be clamoring for his head on a platter?

Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

Well if “some operatives might be compromised” I guess that’s OK. Unless of course you are the husband or the wife, or the father, the son the daughter the brother or the sister, or even all the people that might like you be devastated by the fact that you lost your head, literally. Hey what the hell!!

As to the “hacker” I can guarantee everyone would be clamoring for his head, except for the fact that as a “hacker” he didn’t swear an oath to not f*ck America.

Funny world we live in….

13 years ago

All hail the grand empire! [sound of bottle rocket whizzing into the air and exploding].

Reply to  C.H. McDermott
13 years ago

Bottle rockets? Hey I can do better than that 🙂

Admin
13 years ago

Man I am lovin’ this!!! It’s like Thanskgiving with the family 🙂

osori
Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

throwing mashed potatos and gravy at your in-laws ??

BTW check your email man.

Reply to  osori
13 years ago

Did you do that too?? Man! I hated when the pumpkin pie went flyin’. I LOVE pumpkin pie!!

osori
Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

I’m the only one likes sweet potatoes in my family, my ex mother in law used to make them for me, and have sweet potato pie too. everybody else was disgusted.

Reply to  osori
13 years ago

I used to hate sweet potatoes until this girl friend I had showed me a different way to fix them. So when I did…well never mind. I love sweet potatoes now. Love ’em!!

Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

Sweet potato pie is almost indistinguishable from pumpkin if spiced the same. Likewise carrot, which has an even more delicate texture. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows and maple syrup on it just looks like an Oompa Loompa with a yeast infection to me. Never could eat it.

osori
Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

Marshmallows suck on sweet potatos.

Admin
13 years ago

The enemy is us….

So OK let’s give him a medal. Let’s encourage all of those who serve in the Armed Forces to betray their country. I think that’s a great idea. Perhaps a campaign on MMA? That’s a better idea let’s encourage all who serve in the armed forces to do everything they can to hurt their country.

How about this:

ALL WHO SERVE IN THE MILITARY! UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU TO GIVE UP YOUR SECRETS AND LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS! YOUR COUNTRY IS EVIL. YOU ARE EVIL. ALL OF YOUR WARS ARE EVIL. JOIN US. THE GOOD ENEMY!

Peace to all wide eyed liberals everywhere. What happened on 9/11 was a big conspiracy engineered by George W. Bush. There is no enemy. We love everyone….

I hate war and I “been” there. I remember this same sort of crap. Comin’ home with the wide eyed libs throwing literal shit at us and spitting and calling us baby killers. Never again. Never again. So now tell me how much you support the troops while supporting those who betray those same troops. Yeah. Let’s give him a medal. Great idea. Incentive pay for all of those who betray their country because they think their war is a bad war.

Civilian casualties? Of course there are going to be civilian casualties but who caused them? The United States or the enemy?

Civilian casualties? What happens if we leave? Do you remember the way it was when the Taliban ruled? I bet the poor women who live in that horrible place remember. Do you care or are so you so busy beating your own self-righteous breasts that you really don’t give a shit?

So quit whining and remember that war is hell, but sometimes, despite how we want the world to be, it might be better with it than without it. I mean does anyone remember how we came to be?

Great discussion by the way… I love an excuse to rant 🙂

osori
Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

Ultimately the civilian casualties were caused by the US.We destabilized the Taraki regime which led to the Russian invasion and our current mess. Had we allowed them to flourish Afghanistan might be a democracy now.

Along with Saudi intelligence we funded those who became Al Qaeda. 9/11 was planned in Hamburg and the training was done here. Iran, India and Russia stood ready to work with us to mop up any remaining AQ elements in Afghanistan. It was only Bush’s hubris which led to the invasion. The Taliban have nothing to do with AQ.

We both know the US doesn’t care about womens rights. If we did as I stated in the first paragraph we wouldn’t have brought down the Taraki regime. For the first time women entered the work force and pursued higher education. We destroyed that by our support of Jihadists and drug dealers.

Women are horribly mistreated there now – our troops continuing to blow women up in drone attacks and shoot them when we attack weddings is no small factor.

We no more care about Afghan women than we cared about Vietnamese women or Korean women or any other group our wars of choice kill.

Reply to  osori
13 years ago

So you are saying that America is always the enemy? I must confess, and upon reflection, that almost everything you write is anti-American.

Then again, perhaps I am too pro-American. There is always a balance my friend…….

Peace 🙂

osori
Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

When we attack those who do us no harm, yes we are the enemy. There is a long list of those we’ve attacked or destabilized.

Reply to  osori
12 years ago

This is a load of nonsense. I’m beginning to think you hate America as much as you hate Obama.

Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

“Civilian casualties? What happens if we leave? Do you remember the way it was when the Taliban ruled? I bet the poor women who live in that horrible place remember.”

War can be a powerful agent for change, but rarely if ever will it be an agent of peace. You don’t make friends by blowing up their sh*t, or by killing their loved ones; you do feed escalation. Attacks on people’s nationhood, culture or religion and violations of their sense of personal safety provide powerful fuel for hatred. Social change through force will always be a more dangerous road (in several senses) than change through other forms of coercion or influence, and even when successful will rarely be truly just.

I do think you have a point in that once a conflict has begun, withdrawal in itself has potentially harmful consequences that need to be considered. I also have the utmost respect for soldiers and veterans, and I agree that any information leak that places them in danger is contemptible; failing to value their lives is the equivalent of “shooting the messenger.”

In all honesty, I’m not sure where this leaves me in regard to the obligations of the media–power corrupts and checks and balances are important, but surely there are better ways…

Reply to  Greenlight
13 years ago

One would think there would be better ways, but if there are no one seems to have found them. Since the dawn no time it seems man has been at war. Yes. It is about power. It corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

13 years ago

Great nations though the ages have been a myriad of contradictions and the USA is no different. The big difference today is we are finding out about covert operations while they are happening. What doesn’t change is we can’t seem to stop them. Fear is the main reason why politicians can get away with appropriating funds for small operations and sometimes pretty big wars. Fear and money that comes from the military industrial complex. Eisenhower knew it, things happened on his watch, but he couldn’t stop it. He warned us when he left office, but all sorts of crap happened while he was president. Who exactly is running this country?

Reply to  Holte Ender
13 years ago

Exactly Holte! The time spread between the incidence and the knowledge of it has dropped to days or hours when before it was years or never.

I know that most of those operations occurred during the Cold War and there was an enormous amount of commie paranoia, (some probably legit), going on. BUT there is a good portion of those operations that happened because of corporate interests and maintaining monopolies of resources. Is it proper to try to overthrow a government because AT&T requests it? No

Eisenhower did percieve this and talked about it in that famous speech. But he still couldn’t do anything about it.

Kennedy knew the same thing. He was spending most of the time during the Cuban Missile crisis trying to prevent the military (Lemay and Powers) from launching everything anyway no matter what.

Who is running the country? Just who??

osori
13 years ago

I’d like to hope that if more people knew about this, as a nation we’d be less prone to believe in American exceptionalism and instead in human rights.

13 years ago

“Mahatma Gandhi US interventions taken for sole purpose of regime change since 1945: 1946”

Ghandi was running the show??? Fuck me!!!!….;-)

13 years ago

Krell
May I link to this in my writing. I’m doing something on False Flags.

Tim

Reply to  Tim Waters
13 years ago

The more that read it the better. False Flags huh? Sure you will have Operation NorthWoods in there somewhere…

Reply to  Krell
13 years ago

Krell
Yeah it started with Pirates actually. Changing the flags they were flying to get advantage in battle.
Hitler improved on it, the invasion of Poland was based on it.
I’m either going to do a post or a book on it.Ha!
I’m gathering a lot of info.more than I thought.

Admin
13 years ago

In the alternative Wikileaks may well be responsible for sentencing to death dozens of indigenous people working with the United States. I’m just sayin”…..As to “secrets” of US history. If they were secrets I doubt you could be writing about them. I’m just sayin…..

osori
Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

I would say the US bears responsibility if that happens, not Wikileaks since they are US operations. I also suspect indigenous people exposed would be in the nature of collaborators too, rather than resistance.

Reply to  osori
13 years ago

My friend..

..in the nature of collaborators? I would think they would be collaborating with the United States as a means to resist the enemy. What does that even mean “in the nature of collaborators?” Without the brave men and women who worked with the Allies in WW II we may still be fighting that war.

As to Wikileaks it is a private company that makes money from extraordinary publicity. A specialist 4th class intelligence analyst (a secretary to the intelligence agents) faxed all of this information to an entrepreneur (Wikileaks), no doubt for some financial consideration.

This is about treason. This young man disclosed information that was classified. It was classified to protect those who were/are in harms way. This is nothing about a wide eyed liberal view of whether the war is right or wrong. This is about strategy, troop strength and location, as well as those who help them accomplish their mission.

This action was irresponsible no matter how you feel about the war. People, innocent people; both civilians and troopers who may die because of what this guy did. Do you want your son or daughter there and named in these leaked transcriptions? I think not. This man, and those who helped him, are not heroes.

I don’t believe in the death penalty except in the case of treason. This soldier should be executed along with all of those who engaged him in this reckless adventure. They are traitors to their country. Because of their actions people will die.

Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

Your comments surprised me Mike.

With that argument, the torture at Abu Ghraib would never had been known, the CIA extraordinary rendition flights would have never been discovered,the GITMO waterboarding would still be in the shadows. They all came from or was collaborated by military or intelligence leaks.

The post was not about my wide eyed liberal view of the war being wrong or right at all. This is about checks and balances of the Military and US policy. WHO IS IN CHARGE???

I didn’t realize that the US civilians are supposed to just pay for everything by paying taxes and not ever voice an opinion or demand accountability of their government.

How are we supposed to know what is really going on if the sources of information are controlled so tightly and planned out so well that it is barely above a PR campaign?

I have seen and read a lot of anger over this WikiLeaks thing, but I have seen squat about any kind of apology for covering up those civilian casualties. Still business as usual. Those numbers are mounting up into the thousands.

Were is the concern about their lives? Are those families somehow less deserving to live just because they’re in the wrong place and time?

osori
Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

Mike, people are dying because of our illegal invasions of countries. Our troops are volunteers, the civilians they kill are not and they have no choice in the matter.

There is no valid comparison between the resistance working with us in world war 2 (french/polish/norwegian underground) and those working with us now. In WW2 Germany was the aggressor, in Iraq and Afghanistan the aggressor is the US.So from the indigenous point of view those working with the foreign invader are collaborators.

Those fighting against us are often as brutal as those they attempt to displace, this doesn’t make them any less legitimate but instead reflects blowback from years of flawed foreign policy, as detailed in the post.

The guy is not a traitor, he’s a hero. The present and previous administration try to block the truth from coming out-how else would we know of this? He deserves a medal and a parade.

Reply to  osori
13 years ago

Oso you don’t really think this kid did this out of a sense of duty do you? Certainly you don’t believe that he thought this was an “illegal invasion?” He wanted to get paid or he wanted out of there. There is no ideological foundation for what he did. None.

Anonymous
Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

Has this kid ever seen real action? Even if he has not, some people are so torn apart by their actions to support their side in these fictitious wars, they may see many differing ways of trying to make up for it. Who is to blame for more than a million innocent Iraqi deaths? The war machine, of which our troops are a part of, so some of them do strange things to make amends. Human Nature.

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