A Brief War History of the United States
Dmitri August 3rd, 2007
This brief and to the point piece is dedicated to all those Americans who believe that their nation is out there for global peace, security, humanity and all those ideals which their government claims to strive for but acts differently. Don’t believe a word of this article till you have done a bit of search on facts and found out the details by yourself. Feel free to point out and mercilessly criticize (without insults and swearwords) if you find anything misleading or false in this brief history.
A cartoon made by an artist ~glogauer highlighting the ideological similarities that dictators like Saddam and US presidents like Bush have in common when it comes to genocidal wars.
The Rise of United States of America - From Independence to Hawaii to the World Wars
After the Declaration of Independence in 1772 as the foundation stone of modern United States, the US has been involved in dozens of acts of aggression in the American continent and Pacific Islands. The most notable among them were the mass massacre of Red Indians in the Indian Wars (1775), the subjugation of Mexico after the Mexican American War (1848), the annexation of Hawaii by backing an armed revolutionary coup against the rulers in 1893, the annexation of Philippines after the colonial US-Philippine War (1899), the Opium War against China for resisting Anglo-US smuggling of drugs into Chinese territory (1900) and the list is endless. Apart from these wars there were dozens of other conflicts, a few of them could be justified but a majority of them would have been war crimes in today’s world, even by fairly liberal standards. The US also participated World War I in support of it’s ally Britain and World War II against the Axis forces, after Japan attacked Hawaii. In conclusion of World War 2, US shocked the world by dropping two atomic bombs in Japan killing off over 300000 people despite the Japanese offer of conditional surrender.
The Post World War 2 era - Vietnam, Korea and beyond
With the end of World War 2, the United Nations was formed in hopes of peace and prevention of further massive conflicts which could lead to a World War or Nuclear Holocaust. But the hopes were shattered, when the US went to wars against Vietnam and North Korea (1950-1980), killing over 5,000,000 people and justifying the act of mass genocide as ‘fight against the evil of communism’. After these genocides where WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) were used, Vietnam and Cambodia were left in ruins and sanctions were passed to prevent recuperation, killing even more people in the process. These wars were however not the end as the US pushed Iraq into a decade long and bloody war against Iran (1980-1989). After the conclusion of this war, the US administration decided to dispose off its partner-in-crime Saddam with the First Gulf War against the weakened Iraqi forces. After defeating Iraq, several blockades and sanctions were passed against Iraq which ended up killing 1.2 million children.
The effects of Clinton Administration - Shock and Awe In Kosovo
The Clinton administration, widely acknowledged as the most anti-war among US governments, went into a bombing campaign at Kosovo (aided by NATO allies) in 1991 against Serb guerillas which resulted in over 60,000 civilian casualties and highlighted the defects in US military technologies after ’smart bombs’ missed targets and several combat aircrafts including at least one ’stealth’ F 117 was downed by ground based Serb guerillas. The Kosovo conflict was hardly resolved by the NATO carpet bombings and the place was left in ruins and destruction, now the land being a heaven for prostitution, driven by NATO forces.
The downfall of an old Partner in Crime: Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda
George Bush was voted the US president in January 2001 and barely 8 months into his Presidentship, the US faced a massive strike against its heartland (September 11). The twin towers of World Trade Centre on New York were hit by two hijacked Boeing 767 aircrafts, collapsing the building and killing over 3500 people. Two other planes were used to attack the Pentagon and the White House, one hit the Pentagon while the other crashed into a forest in Pennsylvania. In reaction to this attack George Bush launched an unending war named as War on Terrorism starting off with bombing Afghanistan to weed out Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda mercenaries (which ironically was made and trained by US to bring down the pro-USSR Afghan government and end the Soviet occupation of Northern Afghan territories). The war on Afghanistan had widespread global support because of atrocities and excesses of the Islamic Taliban regime which made Bush and his supporters very happy.
The Bush War in Iraq and a can of International lies
Barely two years into the Afghan War, Bush went to a war against Iraq with claims that the CIA ‘discovered’ Saddam possessed WMDs and committed crimes against humanity with them. What was missed was the fact that most of these WMDs were provided by US and its allies to be used on Iranians and have been exhausted years ago. The CIA ‘report’ later turned out to be a verbatim copy of a Ph.D. student’s doctoral thesis and the WMD report was discredited leaving Bush red faced. To end the war in Iraq, Bush pushed the pro-US interim government to execute Saddam Hussein which was promptly done. However this hardly brought any change, the war rages on with massive casualties on Iraqi civilians and smaller casualties on US forces and a lot of rapes, plunder and murders in between. The war in Iraq is hardly the last war by US, history is a proof that the American people will soon forget it after it gets over and find some new nations where they can carry on their legacy…
More Information and Resources -
- American Military History - The History Guy
- The Oxford Companion to American Military History
- reference book by John Whiteclay Chambers
Possibly Related posts:
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I can imagine hell as a place with a lot of American flags waving around. You speak very rightly dimitri!
This article will be met with a yawn and disinterest among the people dedicated to. They are more interested in weight loss, Paris Hilton scandals and Britnet Spear’s flashes than any war America is at. It takes something violent near their homes to make them to take notice. 9/11 is already stale.
@ Muvo - “It takes something violent near their homes to make them to take notice. 9/11 is already stale.”
Using violent means as a tactic to make people take notice is terrorism and I would not recommend that. Creating a shock value and bloodshed, terrorism hardly helps any cause except may be a sense of revenge for the perpetrators (terrorists). Violence against humanity is the refuge of the scoundrel. Acts of terror against unarmed and innocent civilians in an act of cowardice.
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A 9/11 would cause nothing but kill people who have nothing to do with these wars. The problem with the American conflicts are not that people like these wars, but that these wars are often perpetuated by their government without public approval and knowledge.
You couldn’t have described hell more accurately Mr.Ivan becasue its real! I always know something bad is happening when I see the stripes waving in the air!
The two Atomic bombs over Japan during WWII saved the world. It killed off a generation of evil bastards responsible for millions of Chinese deaths, not to mention the destruction the Japanese caused to U.S. oil fields and massacres on the hawaiian Islands prior to Pearl Harbor.
Many look at the atomic bombs as evil and oh so horrible for the amount of lives it took; it was justifiable and neccessary to end a generation of brutal, blood-thirsty non-humans who hated their own Japanese people. Japan is better off today, not to mention free of dictatorship and torture, thanks to those two bombs.
As for th eso-called evil Christian Crusades so many liberals consider wrong and agree with Bill Clinton for apologizing for 1096–a date recorded by one, lone unknown eye-witness who never identified himself–Clinton was wrong to apologize; Pope John Paul II was asinine for apoligizing for wars Islam started in the 7th century and Europe refuse to fight off until 300 years later when millions of Christian Europeans were dead. The Crusades were right and just; the only problem is they stopped short of anihilating a race of evil sub-human scum who hate everyone non-Muslim and intend upon destroying the world.
My ancestors who fought in those Crusades did a lousy job by stopping short of killing every man, woman, and child Muslim which still exists today and are murdering the world for take-over of Islam.
Wake up; war is just when it’s fighting evil and enemies of mankind. You can’t fight evil with a bouquett of Daisies.
Oh so much truth! The evil US exposed for its folly and destructiveness. Of all things that have destroyed human life and progress, the US is the greatest and most evil one.
To Lisa Richards:
Who determines what is just? Leave it to the politicians to turn a black crow into a white dove to score political points or to get public support into an idea that the public is likely unknowledgeable in/about.
Looking at the logic in your argument, one can certainly argue that 9/11 was justified, given U.S. wars of aggression in the past, and especially against Muslims. We killed tens of thousands of people in wars that we had no business in. If retribution makes it all right, then the terrorists did justice by killing approximately 3000 unarmed civilians. But you don’t believe that any more than I do, because killing of innocent civilians no matter how you rationalize it is wrong. And that’s the key word — rationalize — because you can rationalize anything you want, but justifying it is a whole new ball game.
Crusades weren’t any more right than the Jihad is, but those who have a slight understanding of Islam know that Jihad is often interpreted outside its intended context. Jihad is a fight with self, to be a better person. Crusades were plain wars that also killed many innocent people. With your logic, much of what you say can be negated.
I would like to end off with this note, also derived from your logic, particularly the last line: “war is just when it’s fighting evil and enemies of mankind.”
Well, the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons to unleash horrors unspoken of onto numerous civilians is the United States of America. So if there is something evil, it’s the United States of America. Perhaps we all ought to fight the U.S., don’t ya think? Outside your nationalism, of course…
Do you realize that if the US hadn’t used nuclear weapons that many hundreds of thousands of US troops would have died, and MILLIONS of Japanese would have died. They were training even women and kids how to kill American soldiers as they advanced into the cities.
@ ericoak - The claim that Operation Downfall would have killed over 0.5 million US force is still unverfiable and analysis over the years have proved it is a weak moral justification without any factual backup. No sovereign country in the world gave any credence to US justification because of the shaky and political propaganda nature of the claim. I doubt anyone logical would believe such propaganda you provided unless you provide some solid evidence.
So do you really believe that hundreds of thousands of US and troops wouldn’t have died. They were stock piling of chemical weapons(which they used on the Chinese in the very beginning of the war) and Japanese people didn’t surrender. Many more Japanese would have died if an invasion had taken place.
the us only invade countries that are weak and recovering from hard wars e.g iran iraq war targets iraq aghanistan soviet invasion.IVAN you r too rite two states in hell the osama side evil and knows it and bush evil and does’nt know about it and both so dark that one of them has a god bless hitler written on it.
American methods of settling international disputes is through the method of war because of their geographic advantage. They can wage a war with any country away from the American continent with very little cost on their own country. What they are unable to notice is that if they were to take their blood soaked fingers off the next unfortunate soul, they would have realised that one cannot win peace by keeping up a history of ceaseless wars. The United States wages continuous wars to ensure its security and still remains the most vulnerable country on the earth. There will be many many more attacks on American soil if they keep up the way they do. It will create a cycle where one will keep attacking the other in uncivilised methods of eliciting revenge. In reality using war as revenge is the same as terrorism, it depends all on which side on is on. The pro-war American public is too immature to believe that blowing a place back to stone age will stop all further attacks on their homeland. If they understood a tenth of how the world works and why America is the cause of resentments there would be an enormous outcry against any of the above mentioned wars.
@ ericoak - “Do you realize that if the US hadn’t used nuclear weapons that many hundreds of thousands of US troops would have died, and MILLIONS of Japanese would have died.”
Typical. Do you have anything, any small thing to prove this point that it would have happened? I doubt you do, most of American reason rely on emotional justifications rather than sense. But then it is the land where children learn ‘intelligent creation’ instead of proven theories of evolution.
@ ericoak - “They were training even women and kids how to kill American soldiers as they advanced into the cities.”
There is nothing wrong with that. The women and kids need to defend themselves from advancing enemy troops, you would be silly to think that the Japanese let their women and kids to be raped and slaughtered by enemy troops. Is the right to self protection from enemies an American monopoly?
Hahaha they could surrender moron! You act like the US attacked the Japanese, when in fact the Japanese first attacked and killed millions of Chinese, then ambushed and slaughtered the US Navy.
And if you understood a thing about Japanese culture before the surrender, it was fight to the death. The emperor surrending had NO PRECEDENT ever in Japanese history, and was only caused by the sobering effect the 2 atomic bombs had. Any sane rational person at that point knew there was no chance of winning. (Although there was an attempted coup by some fanatical Japanese officers who were intent on destroying the surrender message and overthrowing the emperor to continue fighting.)
Wow I can’t really prove it since you can’t prove a prediction of any type when dealing with modified history, however if you understand Japanese culture you would realize they would have fought to the death. But why would they surrender, since the bad US attacked them first right? But oh I haven’t seen you condemn Japan for Pearl Harbor once!
If you can point to ANY military action, by any nation throughout history that isn’t characterized by extreme violence, changing alliances, or acting in what at the time was believed to be in the nation’s own self-interest, then I would be interested in your listing of American actions.
And the cartoon itself is quite misleading as Saddam was only a nominal Muslim prior to his imprisonment. He quite often played upon the theological divide between Sunnis and Shites to control the population of the Iraq and targeted other minorities within his nation. When he targeted other nations, he did it for non-religious reasons. He invaded Kuwait because of his need for oil. During the first Gulf War, he launched missiles at Israel in a political attempt to turn the fight into a Arab-Israeli conflict.
I’m certainly not apologizing for American actions, but I do think that trying to say we are any worse than any other country is disingenuous. You could make the valid point that we aren’t as high and mighty as we try to make ourselves out to be, but the educated people on both sides of the political spectrum already know that. The ignorant on both sides can’t be taught otherwise.
@ greg - “If you can point to ANY military action, by any nation throughout history that isn’t characterized by extreme violence, changing alliances, or acting in what at the time was believed to be in the nation’s own self-interest, then I would be interested in your listing of American actions.”
I am glad you appreciate the destructive nature of wars. As someone already pointed out above, the US foreign policy is primarily based on application of force (including wars to achieve self-fulfilling ends). There is no period in the last 50 years in the US history where the nation wasn’t at war.
@ greg - “And the cartoon itself is quite misleading as Saddam was only a nominal Muslim prior to his imprisonment.”
The cartoon does not explicitly say that Saddam or Bush go to war for their ‘godly’ ideals. Saddam is as much Muslim as Bush is Christian and both know that religious sentiments of the fools can be easily exploited to goad warriors. Both these leaders exploit what they can.
@ greg - “He invaded Kuwait because of his need for oil. During the first Gulf War, he launched missiles at Israel in a political attempt to turn the fight into a Arab-Israeli conflict.”
I am afraid, Saddam is no longer alive to confirm or deny your claims, however true from your point of view it may seem. Perhaps he did it for oil or perhaps it was just to impress his wives, we can never know for sure unless we ask the real person.
@ greg - “I’m certainly not apologizing for American actions, but I do think that trying to say we are any worse than any other country is disingenuous.”
It is unfortunate that you think so. A country which is continuously engaged in serial wars, mass massacres, ethnic cleansing and genocides is worse than a country which is not doing any of these. It is even worse when moral justifications are made for all these crimes against humanity. We cannot have one set of standards for Americans and a seperate biased one for Nazis, Arabs or the other ‘un-American’ groups.
I agree with Greg we can’t have all Americans smart and educated. We have people like bush and Cheney but we also have Obama and McCain. Who are educated and know what they are talking about. besides it took half a million lives taking over a piece of rock called Iwo Jima. so taking the Japenese mainland wouldn’t be easy. Plus the women and children would have died that used weapons.
Bush is stupid but, Americans like Obama and McCain can fix the problems. You are very right irish chicago.
Aby said: “The problem with the American conflicts are not that people like these wars, but that these wars are often perpetuated by their government without public approval and knowledge.”
Aby, I disagree on the approval part. Two of the USA’s most tragic and idiotic blunders had the approval of the majority of its citizens- the latest Iraq attack and each escalation in VietNam/Cambodia/Laos.
As for knowledge- I agree. A big part of the reason is that most americans are shockingly under-informed and often misinformed. Although much of the ignorance is due to the decline in journalism in the US main stream media, americans’ blindly believing what their politicians say and their MSM publishes are more than small factors. Alas, methinks that even if the majority grasped the important relevant facts, they’d probably still support similar stupid conflicts since jingoism is somehow embedded in the nation’s DNA.
@ericoak
Didn’t you read Aby’s story? Japan has already offered conditional surrender, yet you arse still bombed them TWICE and occupy the archipelago for decades!
They want to die on the battlefield? Let them choose, they do not need Americans to think for them and killed them with Atomic bombs!
According to your statement, Japan deserve it because it attacked and killed millions of Chinese, then I think USA would deserve several nuclear attacks since it killed tens of millions after the second world war!!
Japanese have their pride and they were ready to fight for their country. They even wrote letters with their blood to beg the criminal court not to excecute their emperors! Let them die with honour in the battlefield not killing them while they were unprepared. FIGHT LIKE A MAN USA!!
The Allies in WWII had already agreed to a program of forcing the Axis powers to unconditional surrender as of Spring 1942. As of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki several actions had occurred and must be taken into account:
I.The Bombings over German Skies that caused far more casualties. These being a joint venture between all Allied Air powers provides global precedence for such actions.
II. The USSR was massing forces in the Kamchatka Peninsula, and had declared war upon The Empire of Japan. The possibility of a Soviet dominated Pacific would have forced Anglo/American ground forces on the main islands without the program of unconditional surrender in place already. American, French, and British interests in the area would have been affected in ways that would have shaped the future in a much different way.
III. The loss of human life was calculated at the time of the war by men who were in the position to have the best information to that task at any time past or present. Their estimates cannot be shrugged off and cannot be taken lightly.
Also as to American colonialism:
The current American Conflicts are not unlike the European wars against indigenous tribes in the except for the fact that they are backed by International Coalitions, though not in any way a large force, these show support from many forces. From Europe to Asia.
The Opium War? That was a British and later British and French enterprise.
@Ian
The second opium war was conducted by a coalition of western forces which also consisted of American soldiers too.