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Japan was next on Obama’s marketing list. He even dared stop at Hiroshima where he didn’t apologize either. He simply said that “artefacts tell us that violent conflict appeared with the very first man.”
The Man began his speech thusly:
“Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed. A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.”
“We come to mourn the dead, including over 100,000 Japanese men, women and children, thousands of Koreans, a dozen Americans held prisoner.”
“We remember all the innocents killed across the arc of that
terrible war and the wars that came before and the wars that would follow.”
“Mere words cannot give voice to such suffering. But we have a
shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask
what we must do differently to curb such suffering again.”
“We must change our mind-set about war itself. To prevent conflict
through diplomacy and strive to end conflicts after they’ve begun.”
Go Tell It On The Mountain! On the mountains of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya,
Russia….
Then The Man took the historic step of becoming the first sitting US
president to visit Laos. Hallelujah! He didn’t apologize here
either but he made concessive remarks, something like there were “sufferings
and sacrifices on all sides of the conflict.”
“Conflict”! That is to say, the giant invaded the little land of Laos, 2.6 million people at the time, because the US had already invaded its larger neighbour, Vietnam, 35 million at the time. Americans had to do this, because Vietnam’s politics and social welfare-based economy was subversive and “regime change” was necessary.
The US dropped more bombs on this small country than it did on the Axis countries during WW11—270 million tons (many of them “mother”/ cluster bombs). The slim man in the white house came offering funds to help remove some of the unexploded bombs in Laos’ earth that 40 years later still kill thousands of people, especially playful children.
While on his mission, the elegant spokesperson for peace spoke of US containment concerning Asian “regional issues”, and had the felicitous gall to challenge China with this egalitarian message:
“Every nation matters. Bigger nations should not dictate to smaller ones, and all nations should play by the same rules.”
No lie. The graceful hypocrite said THAT while announcing that the United States of America will increase its military presence in the geographical area where lay China.
Remember!
Grenada—1983, population 100,000—Invaded.
Dominican Republic—1954, 2.6 million—Coup for Regime Change.
Cuba—1961, 7.2 million—Invaded.
Cambodia—1972, 7.3 million—Bombed incessantly.
Chile—1973, 7.7 million—Coup for Regime Change.
Nicaragua—1980, 3.2 million—Invasion by proxy.
More recently and on-going: Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya…
In 1823, the congress legalized, the “Monroe Doctrine” as part of Manifest Destiny: hands off the US’s backyard, Latin America.
Of the thousands of times that US military force has been used against
scores of countries, many have been subjected several times. Cuba has
been attacked 12 times since 1814; Nicaragua 12 times since 1853; Panama
on 13 occasions since 1856. Although Latin America has been the most
targeted, China has been attacked 30 times, from 1843 “gunboat
diplomacy” to 1999 when the US bombed its embassy in Yugoslavia.
In 1933, the pensioner Marine Corp Major-General Smedley Butler explained
how war is a racket.
“I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps... And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”
“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.”
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