Revolution #232, May 15, 2011
Selected Crimes of a Global Terrorist
The following list of terrorist crimes is only a short selection from the history of the United States and its acts around the world. The fact that this history is not taught in schools, or acknowledged in acceptable discourse, does not mean these things didn’t really happen. Readers are challenged to look these up for themselves.
Genocide of Native Americans: From the time the founders of the United States arrived in North America to the present. Genocide of Native Americans and the theft of their land, including the “Trail of Tears” where tens of thousands were driven off their lands in the Southeastern U.S. and forced to march to Oklahoma—of 15,000 relocated Cherokee, 4,000 died on the march.
Invasion of Mexico 1846-1848: U.S. forces invaded Mexico, blockaded Mexican ports and occupied Mexico City, forcing Mexico to turn over much of its territory to the U.S. including what is now New Mexico, California, and parts of what is currently northern Mexico.
Spanish-American War, 1898: Under the pretext of supporting Cuban independence from Spain, the U.S. attacked and defeated Spanish forces in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, seizing and dominating Spanish colonies—Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.
Invasion of Philippines, 1899: U.S. troops brutally crushed Philippine anti-colonial forces. In the words of Mark Twain, the U.S. “buried them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining tens of millions…” Among torture techniques the U.S. used against the Filipinos: waterboarding.
Invasion of Haiti, 1915: The U.S. invaded and occupied Haiti. U.S. Marines went straight to the Haitian National Bank and removed its gold reserves to New York City. The U.S. military ruthlessly crushed resistance, murdering leaders, burning villages to the ground and killing 15-30,000 Haitians.
Tulsa Massacre, 1921: Tulsa police, KKK, and racist mobs rampaged through the Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing hundreds and looting. Law enforcement agencies dropped bombs from six airplanes on the Black community which was burned to the ground.
Atomic Bomb Attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Firebombing of Tokyo, 1945: 200,000 civilians died, some burned to death on the spot, others of radiation poisoning.
Korea, 1950-1953: Of the U.S. invasion of Korea, U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay boasted that U.S. planes “burned down every town in North Korea.” The U.S. used more bombs and artillery shells in Korea than in all of World War 2, and used napalm against military and civilian targets. An estimated 5 million people were killed in the war, 3 million of them civilians.
Vietnam, 1965-1975: The U.S. dropped more than seven million tons of bombs on Vietnam and the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos before being driven out in 1975, killing an estimated 3 million Vietnamese.
Dominican Republic, 1965: 20,000 U.S. Marines invaded to suppress a revolutionary uprising. An estimated 6-10,000 Dominicans were killed.
Guatemala, 1978-1984: The U.S. sponsored death-squad regime in Guatemala destroyed 400 Mayan villages carrying out the most depraved torture and brutality, killing tens of thousands of villagers.
Panama, 1989: Panamanians estimate between 2,000 and 6,000 people were killed in a U.S. invasion, with much of the death toll in poor and working class neighborhoods. Many of the dead were dumped into mass graves.
Operation Desert Storm, 1991: The first U.S. invasion of Iraq killed or injured hundreds of thousands—over 25,000 civilians and fleeing soldiers were killed in 48 hours on the “Highway of Death.”
Somalia, 1993: U.S. Army missiles fired into a crowd from a helicopter killed 100 unarmed people. Villagers’ huts and crops were burned, their livestock killed, bodies of the dead mutilated.
Shooting Down Iranian Airliner, 1988: The United States military shot down an Iranian civilian airplane over Iranian territory (Flight 655), killing all 290 people on board, including 66 children. The U.S. government never apologized for the incident—George H. W. Bush said, “I’ll never apologize for the United States of America. Ever, I don’t care what the facts are.”
Afghanistan, 2001-present: Thousands of civilians have been killed directly by U.S.-led invasion and occupation forces who have bombed wedding parties, humiliated Afghans with house-to-house searches, and locked people up in U.S.-controlled dungeons where many are tortured.
Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, 2003-present: Iraq Body Count estimates over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the 2nd Iraq war and occupation. Over 4 million were driven from their homes.
Haiti, 2004: On February 29, 2004, the U.S. military kidnapped elected Haitian President Aristide and his family and put him on a plane to the Central African Republic. By March 1, hundreds of U.S. Marines controlled the Haitian capital.
Torture Chambers: People around the world are kidnapped, tortured, raped, and killed without trial at U.S. torture chambers at Abu Ghraib (Iraq); Guantánamo (Cuba); Bagram (Afghanistan); secret prisons in Europe, and “renditioning” sites in the Middle East and elsewhere (outsourced torture).
Drone Attacks: In the three years leading up to and during 2009, U.S. drone attacks—from unmanned planes—killed over 700 people, overwhelmingly civilians killed when targets were missed or as “collateral damage.” The attacks continue in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.
Selected U.S. invasions including via CIA-armed and trained proxies or at the “invitation” of client regimes: Argentina 1890; Chile 1891; Haiti 1891; Hawaii 1893; Bluefields, Nicaragua 1894 & 1899; China 1894-95; Korea 1894-96; Corinto, Nicaragua 1896; China 1898-1900; Philippines 1898-1910; Cuba and Puerto Rico 1898-1902; San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua 1898; Samoa 1899; Panama 1901-14; Panama Canal Zone 1914; Honduras 1903; Dominican Republic 1903-04; Korea 1904-05; Cuba 1906-09; Nicaragua 1907; Honduras 1907; Panama 1908; Nicaragua 1910; Cuba 1912; Panama 1912; Honduras 1912; Nicaragua 1912; Mexico (Veracruz)1914; Dominican Republic 1914; Mexico 1914-18; Haiti 1914-34; Dominican Republic 1916-24; Cuba 1917; Soviet Union 1918; Panama 1918; Honduras 1919; Guatemala 1920; Turkey 1922; China 1922; Honduras 1924; Panama 1925; El Salvador 1932; Puerto Rico 1950; Guatemala 1954; Egypt 1956; Lebanon 1958; Panama 1958; Cuba 1962; Dominican Republic 1965; Guatemala 1967; Oman 1970; Iran 1980; El Salvador 1981; Nicaragua 1981; Grenada 1982; Lebanon 1982; Honduras 1983; Bolivia 1986; Panama 1989; Yugoslavia 1992; Haiti 1994; Liberia 1996; Sudan 1998; Afghanistan 1998…
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