-U.S. Role in the World

A briefing on U.S. military Interventions
by Zoltan Grossman

….One of the most dangerous ideas of the 20th century was that “people like us” could not commit atrocities against civilians. German and Japanese citizens believed it, but their militaries slaughtered millions of people. British and French citizens believed it, but their militaries fought brutal colonial wars in Africa and Asia. Russian citizens believed it, but their armies murdered civilians in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and elsewhere. Israeli citizens believed it, but their army mowed down Palestinians and Lebanese. Arabs believed it, but suicide bombers and hijackers targeted U.S. and Israeli civilians. U.S. citizens believed it, but their military killed millions in Vietnam, Iraq, and elsewhere

Every country, every ethnicity, every religion, contains within it the capability for extreme violence. Every group contains a faction that is intolerant of other groups, and actively seeks to exclude or even kill them. War fever tends to encourage the intolerant faction, but the faction only succeeds in its goals if the rest of the group acquiesces or remains silent. The attacks of September 11 were not only a test for U.S. citizens attitudes’ toward minority ethnic/racial groups in their own country, but a test for our relationship with the rest of the world. We must begin not by lashing out at civilians in Muslim countries, but by taking responsibility for our own history and our own actions, and how they have fed the cycle of violence.

FULL ARTICLE
Killing Civilians to Show That Killing Civilians is Wrong: A Briefing on the History of U.S. Military Interventions.

or

A BRIEFING ON THE HISTORY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS
http://www.zmag.org/grossmanciv.htm

Some other readings that will help you understand why so many people around the world have less than warm feelings about the government of the United States. If you are in Japan, consider why many people feel helping the U.S. in Iraq is the same as getting into bed with the devil. All by Zoltan Grossman.

A CENTURY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS:
From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan
(revised 09/20/01)
http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/interventions.htm

History of bio-chemical warfare
http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1519

New US Military Bases: Side Effects Or Causes Of War?
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=1924