Kwam gisteren op het blog van Stan van Houcke een lijst met oorlogen tegen, die de VS sinds WOII heeft gevoerd. Voor velen geen nieuws maar het is schokkend om alles nog eens op een rij te zien, een gruwelijk naslagwerk over de daden van de grootste terreur entiteit op aarde: de VS.......
US
Has Killed More Than 20 Million In 37 Nations Since WWII
After
the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a
feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the
American psyche. A few people at that time attempted to promote a
balanced perspective by pointing out that the United States had also
been responsible for causing those same feelings in people in other
nations, but they produced hardly a ripple. Although
Americans
understand in the abstract the wisdom of people around the world
empathizing with the suffering of one another, such a reminder of
wrongs committed by our nation got little hearing and was soon
overshadowed by an accelerated “war on terrorism.”
But
we must continue our efforts to develop understanding and compassion
in the world. Hopefully, this article will assist in doing that by
addressing the question “How many September 11ths has the United
States caused in other nations since WWII?” This theme is developed
in this report which contains an estimated numbers of such deaths in
37 nations as well as brief explanations of why the U.S. is
considered culpable.
The
causes of wars are complex. In some instances nations other than the
U.S. may have been responsible for more deaths, but if the
involvement of our nation appeared to have been a necessary cause of
a war or conflict it was considered responsible for the deaths in it.
In other words they probably would not have taken place if the U.S.
had not used the heavy hand of its power. The military and economic
power of the United States was crucial.
This
study reveals that U.S. military forces were directly responsible for
about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and
the two Iraq Wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese deaths while
the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and Laos.
The
American public probably is not aware of these numbers and knows even
less about the proxy wars for which the United States is also
responsible. In the latter wars there were between nine and 14
million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan.
But
the victims are not just from big nations or one part of the world.
The remaining deaths were in smaller ones which constitute over half
the total number of nations. Virtually all parts of the world have
been the target of U.S. intervention.
The
overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely has
been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30
million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.
To
the families and friends of these victims it makes little difference
whether the causes were U.S. military action, proxy military forces,
the provision of U.S. military supplies or advisors, or other ways,
such as economic pressures applied by our nation. They had to make
decisions about other things such as finding lost loved ones, whether
to become refugees, and how to survive.
And
the pain and anger is spread even further. Some authorities estimate
that there are as many as 10 wounded for each person who dies in
wars. Their visible, continued suffering is a continuing reminder to
their fellow countrymen.
It
is essential that Americans learn more about this topic so that they
can begin to understand the pain that others feel. Someone once
observed that the Germans during WWII “chose not to know.” We
cannot allow history to say this about our country. The question
posed above was “How many September 11ths has the United States
caused in other nations since WWII?” The answer is: possibly
10,000.
Comments
on Gathering These Numbers
Generally
speaking, the much smaller number of Americans who have died is not
included in this study, not because they are not important, but
because this report focuses on the impact of U.S. actions on its
adversaries.
An
accurate count of the number of deaths is not easy to achieve, and
this collection of data was undertaken with full realization of this
fact. These estimates will probably be revised later either upward or
downward by the reader and the author. But undoubtedly the total will
remain in the millions.
The
difficulty of gathering reliable information is shown by two
estimates in this context. For several years I heard statements on
radio that three million Cambodians had been killed under the rule of
the Khmer Rouge. However, in recent years the figure I heard was one
million. Another example is that the number of persons estimated to
have died in Iraq due to sanctions after the first U.S. Iraq War was
over 1 million, but in more recent years, based on a more recent
study, a lower estimate of around a half a million has emerged.
Often
information about wars is revealed only much later when someone
decides to speak out, when more secret information is revealed due to
persistent efforts of a few, or after special congressional
committees make reports
Both
victorious and defeated nations may have their own reasons for
underreporting the number of deaths. Further, in recent wars
involving the United States it was not uncommon to hear statements
like “we do not do body counts” and references to “collateral
damage” as a euphemism for dead and wounded. Life is cheap for
some, especially those who manipulate people on the battlefield as if
it were a chessboard.
To
say that it is difficult to get exact figures is not to say that we
should not try. Effort was needed to arrive at the figures of 6six
million Jews killed during WWI, but knowledge of that number now is
widespread and it has fueled the determination to prevent future
holocausts. That struggle continues.
37
VICTIM NATIONS
Afghanistan
The
U.S. is responsible for between 1 and 1.8 million deaths during the
war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, by luring the Soviet
Union into invading that nation. (1,2,3,4)
The
Soviet Union had friendly relations its neighbor, Afghanistan, which
had a secular government. The Soviets feared that if that government
became fundamentalist this change could spill over into the Soviet
Union.
In
1998, in an interview with the Parisian publication Le Novel
Observateur, Zbigniew Brzezinski, adviser to President Carter,
admitted that he had been responsible for instigating aid to the
Mujahadeen in Afghanistan which caused the Soviets to invade. In his
own words:
“According
to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began
during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded
Afghanistan on 24 December 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded
until now, is completely otherwise. Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that
President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the
opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I
wrote a note to the President in which I explained to him that in my
opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.”
(5,1,6)
Brzezinski
justified laying this trap, since he said it gave the Soviet Union
its Vietnam and caused the breakup of the Soviet Union. “Regret
what?” he said. “That secret operation was an excellent idea. It
had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you
want me to regret it?” (7)
The
CIA spent 5 to 6 billion dollars on its operation in Afghanistan in
order to bleed the Soviet Union. (1,2,3) When that 10-year war ended
over a million people were dead and Afghan heroin had captured 60% of
the U.S. market. (4)
The
U.S. has been responsible directly for about 12,000 deaths in
Afghanistan many of which resulted from bombing in retaliation for
the attacks on U.S. property on September 11, 2001. Subsequently U.S.
troops invaded that country. (4)
Angola
An
indigenous armed struggle against Portuguese rule in Angola began in
1961. In 1977 an Angolan government was recognized by the U.N.,
although the U.S. was one of the few nations that opposed this
action. In 1986 Uncle Sam approved material assistance to UNITA, a
group that was trying to overthrow the government. Even today this
struggle, which has involved many nations at times, continues.
U.S.
intervention was justified to the U.S. public as a reaction to the
intervention of 50,000 Cuban troops in Angola. However, according to
Piero Gleijeses, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University the
reverse was true. The Cuban intervention came as a result of a CIA –
financed covert invasion via neighboring Zaire and a drive on the
Angolan capital by the U.S. ally, South Africa1,2,3). (Three
estimates of deaths range from 300,000 to 750,000 (4,5,6)
Argentina:
See South America: Operation Condor
Bangladesh:
See Pakistan
Bolivia
Hugo
Banzer was the leader of a repressive regime in Bolivia in the 1970s.
The U.S. had been disturbed when a previous leader nationalized the
tin mines and distributed land to Indian peasants. Later that action
to benefit the poor was reversed.
Banzer,
who was trained at the U.S.-operated School of the Americas in Panama
and later at Fort Hood, Texas, came back from exile frequently to
confer with U.S. Air Force Major Robert Lundin. In 1971 he staged a
successful coup with the help of the U.S. Air Force radio system. In
the first years of his dictatorship he received twice as military
assistance from the U.S. as in the previous dozen years together.
A
few years later the Catholic Church denounced an army massacre of
striking tin workers in 1975, Banzer, assisted by information
provided by the CIA, was able to target and locate leftist priests
and nuns. His anti-clergy strategy, known as the Banzer Plan, was
adopted by nine other Latin American dictatorships in 1977. (2) He
has been accused of being responsible for 400 deaths during his
tenure. (1)
Also
see: See South America: Operation Condor
Brazil:
See South America: Operation Condor
Cambodia
U.S.
bombing of Cambodia had already been underway for several years in
secret under the Johnson and Nixon administrations, but when
President Nixon openly began bombing in preparation for a land
assault on Cambodia it caused major protests in the U.S. against the
Vietnam War.
There
is little awareness today of the scope of these bombings and the
human suffering involved.
Immense
damage was done to the villages and cities of Cambodia, causing
refugees and internal displacement of the population. This unstable
situation enabled the Khmer Rouge, a small political party led by Pol
Pot, to assume power. Over the years we have repeatedly heard about
the Khmer Rouge’s role in the deaths of millions in Cambodia
without any acknowledgement being made this mass killing was made
possible by the the U.S. bombing of that nation which destabilized it
by death , injuries, hunger and dislocation of its people.
So
the U.S. bears responsibility not only for the deaths from the
bombings but also for those resulting from the activities of the
Khmer Rouge – a total of about 2.5 million people. Even when
Vietnam latrer invaded Cambodia in 1979 the CIA was still supporting
the Khmer Rouge. (1,2,3)
Also
see Vietnam
Chad
An
estimated 40,000 people in Chad were killed and as many as 200,000
tortured by a government, headed by Hissen Habre who was brought to
power in June, 1982 with the help of CIA money and arms. He remained
in power for eight years. (1,2)
Human
Rights Watch claimed that Habre was responsible for thousands of
killings. In 2001, while living in Senegal, he was almost tried for
crimes committed by him in Chad. However, a court there blocked these
proceedings. Then human rights people decided to pursue the case in
Belgium, because some of
Habre’s torture victims lived there. The
U.S., in June 2003, told Belgium that it risked losing its status as
host to NATO’s headquarters if it allowed such a legal proceeding
to happen. So the result was that the law that allowed victims to
file complaints in Belgium for atrocities committed abroad was
repealed.
However, two months later a new law was passed which made
special provision for the continuation of the case against Habre.
Chile
The
CIA intervened in Chile’s 1958 and 1964 elections. In 1970 a
socialist candidate, Salvador Allende, was elected president. The CIA
wanted to incite a military coup to prevent his inauguration, but the
Chilean army’s chief of staff, General Rene Schneider, opposed this
action. The CIA then planned, along with some people in the Chilean
military, to assassinate Schneider. This plot failed and Allende took
office. President Nixon was not to be dissuaded and he ordered the
CIA to create a coup climate: “Make the economy scream,” he
said.
What followed were guerilla warfare, arson, bombing,
sabotage and terror. ITT and other U.S. corporations with Chilean
holdings sponsored demonstrations and strikes. Finally, on September
11, 1973 Allende died either by suicide or by assassination. At that
time Henry Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, said the following
regarding Chile: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a
country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own
people.” (1)
During
17 years of terror under Allende’s successor, General Augusto
Pinochet, an estimated 3,000 Chileans were killed and many others
were tortured or “disappeared.” (2,3,4,5)
Also
see South America: Operation Condor
China
An estimated 900,000 Chinese died during the Korean War. For more
information, See: Korea.
Colombia
One
estimate is that 67,000 deaths have occurred from the 1960s to recent
years due to support by the U.S. of Colombian state terrorism. (1)
According
to a 1994 Amnesty International report, more than 20,000 people were
killed for political reasons in Colombia since 1986, mainly by the
military and its paramilitary allies. Amnesty alleged that “U.S.-
supplied military equipment, ostensibly delivered for use against
narcotics traffickers, was being used by the Colombian military to
commit abuses in the name of “counter-insurgency.” (2) In 2002
another estimate was made that 3,500 people die each year in a U.S.
funded civilian war in Colombia. (3)
In
1996 Human Rights Watch issued a report “Assassination Squads in
Colombia” which revealed that
CIA agents went to Colombia in 1991
to help the military to train undercover agents in anti-subversive
activity. (4,5)
In
recent years the U.S. government has provided assistance under Plan
Colombia. The Colombian government has been charged with using most
of the funds for destruction of crops and support of the paramilitary
group.
Cuba
In
the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba on April 18, 1961 which ended after
3 days, 114 of the invading force were killed, 1,189 were taken
prisoners and a few escaped to waiting U.S. ships. (1) The captured
exiles were quickly tried, a few executed and the rest sentenced to
thirty years in prison for treason. These exiles were released after
20 months in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine.
Some
people estimate that the number of Cuban forces killed range from
2,000, to 4,000. Another estimate is that 1,800 Cuban forces were
killed on an open highway by napalm. This appears to have been a
precursor of the Highway of Death in Iraq in 1991 when U.S. forces
mercilessly annihilated large numbers of Iraqis on a highway. (2)
Democratic
Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire)
The
beginning of massive violence was instigated in this country in 1879
by its colonizer King Leopold of Belgium. The Congo’s population
was reduced by 10 million people over a period of 20 years which some
have referred to as “Leopold’s Genocide.” (1) The U.S. has been
responsible for about a third of t
hat many deaths in that nation in
the more recent past. (2)
In
1960 the Congo became an independent state with Patrice Lumumba being
its first prime minister. He was assassinated with the CIA being
implicated, although some say that his murder was actually the
responsibility of Belgium. (3) But nevertheless, the CIA was planning
to kill him. (4) Before his assassination the CIA sent one of its
scientists, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, to the Congo carrying “lethal
biological material” intended for use in Lumumba’s assassination.
This virus would have been able to produce a fatal disease indigenous
to the Congo area of Africa and was transported in a diplomatic
pouch.
Much
of the time in recent years there has been a civil war within the
Democratic Republic of Congo, fomented often by the U.S. and other
nations, including neighboring nations. (5)
In
April 1977, Newsday reported that the CIA was secretly supporting
efforts to recruit several hundred mercenaries in the U.S. and Great
Britain to serve alongside Zaire’s army. In that same year the U.S.
provided $15 million of military supplies to the Zairian President
Mobutu to fend off an invasion by a rival group operating in Angola.
(6)
In
May 1979, the U.S. sent several million dollars of aid to Mobutu who
had been condemned 3 months earlier by the U.S. State Department for
human rights violations. (7) During the Cold War the U.S. funneled
over 300 million dollars in weapons into Zaire (8,9) $100 million in
military training was provided to him. (2) In 2001 it was reported to
a U.S. congressional committee that American companies, including one
linked to former President George Bush Sr., were stoking the Congo
for monetary gains. There is an international battle over resources
in that country with over 125 companies and individuals being
implicated. One of these substances is coltan, which is used in the
manufacture of cell phones. (2)
Dominican
Republic
In
1962, Juan Bosch became president of the Dominican Republic. He
advocated such programs as land reform and public works programs.
This did not bode well for his future relationship with the U.S., and
after only 7 months in office, he was deposed by a CIA coup. In 1965
when a group was trying to reinstall him to his office President
Johnson said, “This Bosch is no good.” Assistant Secretary of
State Thomas Mann replied “He’s no good at all. If we don’t get
a decent government in there, Mr. President, we get another Bosch.
It’s just going to be another sinkhole.” Two days later a U.S.
invasion started and 22,000 soldiers and marines entered the
Dominican Republic and about 3,000 Dominicans died during the
fighting. The cover excuse for doing this was that this was done to
protect foreigners there. (1,2,3,4)
East
Timor
In
December 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor. This incursion was
launched the day after U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger had left Indonesia where they had given
President Suharto permission to use American arms, which under U.S.
law, could not be used for aggression. Daniel Moynihan, U.S.
ambassador to the UN. said that the U.S. wanted “things to turn out
as they did.” (1,2) The result was an estimated 200,000 dead out of
a population of 700,000. (1,2)
Sixteen
years later, on November 12, 1991, two hundred and seventeen East
Timorese protesters in Dili, many of them children, marching from a
memorial service, were gunned down by Indonesian Kopassus shock
troops who were headed by U.S.- trained commanders Prabowo Subianto
(son in law of General Suharto) and Kiki Syahnakri. Trucks were seen
dumping bodies into the sea. (5)
El
Salvador
The
civil war from 1981 to1992 in El Salvador was financed by $6 billion
in U.S. aid given to support the government in its efforts to crush a
movement to bring social justice to the people in that nation of
about 8 million people. (1)
During that time U.S. military
advisers demonstrated methods of torture on teenage prisoners,
according to an interview with a deserter from the Salvadoran army
published in the New York Times. This former member of the Salvadoran
National Guard testified that he was a member of a squad of twelve
who found people who they were told were guerillas and tortured them.
Part of the training he received was in torture at a U.S. location
somewhere in Panama. (2)
About
900 villagers were massacred in the village of El Mozote in 1981. Ten
of the twelve El Salvadoran government soldiers cited as
participating in this act were graduates of the School of the
Americas operated by the U.S. (2) They were only a small part of
about 75,000 people killed during that civil war. (1)
According
to a 1993 United Nations’ Truth Commission report, over 96 % of the
human rights violations carried out during the war were committed by
the Salvadoran army or the paramilitary deaths squads associated with
the Salvadoran army. (3)
That
commission linked graduates of the School of the Americas to many
notorious killings. The New York Times and the Washington Post
followed with scathing articles. In 1996, the White House Oversight
Board issued a report that supported many of the charges against that
school made by Rev. Roy Bourgeois, head of the School of the Americas
Watch. That same year the Pentagon released formerly classified
reports indicating that graduates were trained in killing, extortion,
and physical abuse for interrogations, false imprisonment and other
methods of control. (4)
Grenada
The
CIA began to destabilize Grenada in 1979 after Maurice Bishop became
president, partially because he refused to join the quarantine of
Cuba. The campaign against him resulted in his overthrow and the
invasion by the U.S. of Grenada on October 25, 1983, with about 277
people dying. (1,2) It was fallaciously charged that an airport was
being built in Grenada that could be used to attack the U.S. and it
was also erroneously claimed that the lives of American medical
students on that island were in danger.
Guatemala
In
1951 Jacobo Arbenz was elected president of Guatemala. He
appropriated some unused land operated by the United Fruit Company
and compensated the company. (1,2) That company then started a
campaign to paint Arbenz as a tool of an international conspiracy and
hired about 300 mercenaries who sabotaged oil supplies and trains.
(3) In 1954 a CIA-orchestrated coup put him out of office and he left
the country. During the next 40 years various regimes killed
thousands of people.
In
1999 the Washington Post reported that an Historical Clarification
Commission concluded that over 200,000 people had been killed during
the civil war and that there had been 42,000 individual human rights
violations, 29,000 of them fatal, 92% of which were committed by the
army. The commission further reported that the U.S. government and
the CIA had pressured the Guatemalan government into suppressing the
guerilla movement by ruthless means. (4,5)
According
to the Commission between 1981 and 1983 the military government of
Guatemala – financed and supported by the U.S. government –
destroyed some four hundred Mayan villages in a campaign of genocide.
(4)
One of the documents made available to the commission was a
1966 memo from a U.S. State Department official, which described how
a “safe house” was set up in the palace for use by Guatemalan
security agents and their U.S. contacts. This was the headquarters
for the Guatemalan “dirty war” against leftist insurgents and
suspected allies. (2)
Haiti
From
1957 to 1986 Haiti was ruled by Papa Doc Duvalier and later by his
son. During that time their private terrorist force killed between
30,000 and 100,000 people. (1) Millions of dollars in CIA subsidies
flowed into Haiti during that time, mainly to suppress popular
movements, (2) although most American military aid to the country,
according to William Blum, was covertly channeled through Israel.
Reportedly,
governments after the second Duvalier reign were responsible for an
even larger number of fatalities, and the influence on Haiti by the
U.S., particularly through the CIA, has continued. The U.S. later
forced out of the presidential office a black Catholic priest, Jean
Bertrand Aristide, even though he was elected with 67% of the vote in
the early 1990s. The wealthy white class in Haiti opposed him in this
predominantly black nation, because of his social programs designed
to help the poor and end corruption. (3) Later he returned to office,
but that did not last long. He was forced by the U.S. to leave office
and now lives in South Africa.
Honduras
In
the 1980s the CIA supported Battalion 316 in Honduras, which
kidnapped, tortured and killed hundreds of its citizens. Torture
equipment and manuals were provided by CIA Argentinean personnel who
worked with U.S. agents in the training of the Hondurans.
Approximately 400 people lost their lives. (1,2) This is another
instance of torture in the world sponsored by the U.S. (3)
Battalion
316 used shock and suffocation devices in interrogations in the
1980s. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful,
killed and buried in unmarked graves. Declassified documents and
other sources show that the CIA and the U.S. Embassy knew of numerous
crimes, including murder and torture, yet continued to support
Battalion 316 and collaborate with its leaders.” (4)
Honduras
was a staging ground in the early 1980s for the Contras who were
trying to overthrow the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
John D. Negroponte, currently Deputy Secretary of State, was our
embassador when our military aid to Honduras rose from $4 million to
$77.4 million per year. Negroponte denies having had any knowledge of
these atrocities during his tenure. However, his predecessor in that
position, Jack R. Binns, had reported in 1981 that he was deeply
concerned at increasing evidence of officially sponsored/sanctioned
assassinations. (5)
Hungary
In
1956 Hungary, a Soviet satellite nation, revolted against the Soviet
Union. During the uprising broadcasts by the U.S. Radio Free Europe
into Hungary sometimes took on an aggressive tone, encouraging the
rebels to believe that Western support was imminent, and even giving
tactical advice on how to fight the Soviets. Their hopes were raised
then dashed by these broadcasts which cast an even darker shadow over
the Hungarian tragedy.“ (1) The Hungarian and Soviet death toll was
about 3,000 and the revolution was crushed. (2)
Indonesia
In
1965, in Indonesia, a coup replaced General Sukarno with General
Suharto as leader. The U.S. played a role in that change of
government. Robert Martens,a former officer in the U.S. embassy in
Indonesia, described how U.S. diplomats and CIA officers provided up
to 5,000 names to Indonesian Army death squads in 1965 and checked
them off as they were killed or captured. Martens admitted that “I
probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that’s not all bad.
There’s a time when you have to strike hard at a decisive moment.”
(1,2,3) Estimates of the number of deaths range from 500,000 to 3
million. (4,5,6)
From 1993 to 1997 the U.S. provided Jakarta with
almost $400 million in economic aid and sold tens of million of
dollars of weaponry to that nation. U.S. Green Berets provided
training for the Indonesia’s elite force which was responsible for
many of atrocities in East Timor. (3)
Iran
Iran
lost about 262,000 people in the war against Iraq from 1980 to 1988.
(1) See Iraq for more information about that war.
On
July 3, 1988 the U.S. Navy ship, the Vincennes, was operating withing
Iranian waters providing military support for Iraq during the
Iran-Iraq war. During a battle against Iranian gunboats it fired two
missiles at an Iranian Airbus, which was on a routine civilian
flight. All 290 civilian on board were killed. (2,3)
Iraq
A.
The Iraq-Iran War lasted from 1980 to 1988 and during that time there
were about 105,000 Iraqi deaths according to the Washington Post.
(1,2)
According
to Howard Teicher, a former National Security Council official, the
U.S. provided the Iraqis with billions of dollars in credits and
helped Iraq in other ways such as making sure that Iraq had military
equipment including biological agents This surge of help for Iraq
came as Iran seemed to be winning the war and was close to Basra. (1)
The U.S. was not adverse to both countries weakening themselves as a
result of the war, but it did not appear to want either side to win.
B:
The U.S.-Iraq War and the Sanctions Against Iraq extended from 1990
to 2003.
Iraq
invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 and the U.S. responded by demanding
that Iraq withdraw, and four days later the U.N. levied international
sanctions.
Iraq
had reason to believe that the U.S. would not object to its invasion
of Kuwait, since U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, had told
Saddam Hussein that the U.S. had no position on the dispute that his
country had with Kuwait. So the green light was given, but it seemed
to be more of a trap.
As
a part of the public relations strategy to energize the American
public into supporting an attack against Iraq the daughter of the
Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S. falsely testified before Congress that
Iraqi troops were pulling the plugs on incubators in Iraqi hospitals.
(1) This contributed to a war frenzy in the U.S.
The
U.S. air assault started on January 17, 1991 and it lasted for 42
days. On February 23 President H.W. Bush ordered the U.S. ground
assault to begin. The invasion took place with much needless killing
of Iraqi military personnel. Only about 150 American military
personnel died compared to about 200,000 Iraqis. Some of the Iraqis
were mercilessly killed on the Highway of Death and about 400 tons of
depleted uranium were left in that nation by the U.S. (2,3)
Other
deaths later were from delayed deaths due to wounds, civilians
killed, those killed by effects of damage of the Iraqi water
treatment facilities and other aspects of its damaged infrastructure
and by the sanctions.
In
1995 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. reported that
U.N sanctions against on Iraq had been responsible for the deaths of
more than 560,000 children since 1990. (5)
Leslie
Stahl on the TV Program 60 Minutes in 1996 mentioned to Madeleine
Albright, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. “We have heard that a half
million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died
in Hiroshima. And – and you know, is the price worth it?”
Albright replied “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price
– we think is worth it.” (4)
In
1999 UNICEF reported that 5,000 children died each month as a result
of the sanction and the War with the U.S. (6)
Richard
Garfield later estimated that the more likely number of excess deaths
among children under five years of age from 1990 through March 1998
to be 227,000 – double those of the previous decade. Garfield
estimated that the numbers to be 350,000 through 2000 (based in part
on result of another study). (7)
However,
there are limitations to his study. His figures were not updated for
the remaining three years of the sanctions. Also, two other somewhat
vulnerable age groups were not studied: young children above the age
of five and the elderly.
All
of these reports were considerable indicators of massive numbers of
deaths which the U.S. was aware of and which was a part of its
strategy to cause enough pain and terror among Iraqis to cause them
to revolt against their government.
C:
Iraq-U.S. War started in 2003 and has not been concluded
Just
as the end of the Cold War emboldened the U.S. to attack Iraq in 1991
so the attacks of September 11, 2001 laid the groundwork for the U.S.
to launch the current war against Iraq. While in some other wars we
learned much later about the lies that were used to deceive us, some
of the deceptions that were used to get us into this war became known
almost as soon as they were uttered. There were no weapons of mass
destruction, we were not trying to promote democracy, we were not
trying to save the Iraqi people from a dictator.
The
total number of Iraqi deaths that are a result of our current Iraq
against Iraq War is 654,000, of which 600,000 are attributed to acts
of violence, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. (1,2)
Since
these deaths are a result of the U.S. invasion, our leaders must
accept responsibility for them.
Israeli-Palestinian
War
About
100,000 to 200,000 Israelis and Palestinians, but mostly the latter,
have been killed in the struggle between those two groups. The U.S.
has been a strong supporter of Israel, providing billions of dollars
in aid and supporting its possession of nuclear weapons. (1,2)
Korea,
North and South
The
Korean War started in 1950 when, according to the Truman
administration, North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25th.
However, since then another explanation has emerged which maintains
that the attack by North Korea came during a time of many border
incursions by both sides. South Korea initiated most of the border
clashes with North Korea beginning in 1948. The North Korea
government claimed that by 1949 the South Korean army committed 2,617
armed incursions. It was a myth that the Soviet Union ordered North
Korea to attack South Korea. (1,2)
The
U.S. started its attack before a U.N. resolution was passed
supporting our nation’s intervention, and our military forces added
to the mayhem in the war by introducing the use of napalm. (1)
During
the war the bulk of the deaths were South Koreans, North Koreans and
Chinese. Four sources give deaths counts ranging from 1.8 to 4.5
million. (3,4,5,6) Another source gives a total of 4 million but does
not identify to which nation they belonged. (7)
John
H. Kim, a U.S. Army veteran and the Chair of the Korea Committee of
Veterans for Peace, stated in an article that during the Korean War
“the U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy were directly involved in the
killing of about three million civilians – both South and North
Koreans – at many locations throughout Korea…It is reported that
the U.S. dropped some 650,000 tons of bombs, including 43,000 tons of
napalm bombs, during the Korean War.” It is presumed that this
total does not include Chinese casualties.
Another
source states a total of about 500,000 who were Koreans and
presumably only military. (8,9)
Laos
From
1965 to 1973 during the Vietnam War the U.S. dropped over two million
tons of bombs on Laos – more than was dropped in WWII by both
sides. Over a quarter of the population became refugees. This was
later called a “secret war,” since it occurred at the same time
as the Vietnam War, but got little press. Hundreds of thousands were
killed. Branfman make the only estimate that I am aware of , stating
that hundreds of thousands died. This can be interpeted to mean that
at least 200,000 died. (1,2,3)
U.S.
military intervention in Laos actually began much earlier. A civil
war started in the 1950s when the U.S. recruited a force of 40,000
Laotians to oppose the Pathet Lao, a leftist political party that
ultimately took power in 1975.
Also
See Vietnam
Nepal
Between
8,000 and 12,000 Nepalese have died since a civil war broke out in
1996. The death rate, according to Foreign Policy in Focus, sharply
increased with the arrival of almost 8,400 American M-16 submachine
guns (950 rpm) and U.S. advisers. Nepal is 85 percent rural and badly
in need of land reform. Not surprisingly 42 % of its people live
below the poverty level. (1,2)
In
2002, after another civil war erupted, President George W. Bush
pushed a bill through Congress authorizing $20 million in military
aid to the Nepalese government. (3)
Nicaragua
In
1981 the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza government in Nicaragua,
(1) and until 1990 about 25,000 Nicaraguans were killed in an armed
struggle between the Sandinista government and Contra rebels who were
formed from the remnants of Somoza’s national government. The use
of assassination manuals by the Contras surfaced in 1984. (2,3)
The
U.S. supported the victorious government regime by providing covert
military aid to the Contras (anti-communist guerillas) starting in
November, 1981. But when Congress discovered that the CIA had
supervised acts of sabotage in Nicaragua without notifying Congress,
it passed the Boland Amendment in 1983 which prohibited the CIA,
Defense Department and any other government agency from providing any
further covert military assistance. (4)
But
ways were found to get around this prohibition. The National Security
Council, which was not explicitly covered by the law, raised private
and foreign funds for the Contras. In addition, arms were sold to
Iran and the proceeds were diverted from those sales to the Contras
engaged in the insurgency against the Sandinista government. (5)
Finally, the Sandinistas were voted out of office in 1990 by voters
who thought that a change in leadership would placate the U.S., which
was causing misery to Nicaragua’s citizenry by it support of the
Contras.
Pakistan
In
1971 West Pakistan, an authoritarian state supported by the U.S.,
brutally invaded East Pakistan. The war ended after India, whose
economy was staggering after admitting about 10 million refugees,
invaded East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and defeated the West
Pakistani forces. (1)
Millions
of people died during that brutal struggle, referred to by some as
genocide committed by West Pakistan. That country had long been an
ally of the U.S., starting with $411 million provided to establish
its armed forces which spent 80% of its budget on its military. $15
million in arms flowed into W. Pakistan during the war. (2,3,4)
Three
sources estimate that 3 million people died and (5,2,6) one source
estimates 1.5 million. (3)
Panama
In
December, 1989 U.S. troops invaded Panama, ostensibly to arrest
Manuel Noriega, that nation’s president. This was an example of the
U.S. view that it is the master of the world and can arrest anyone it
wants to. For a number of years before that he had worked for the
CIA, but fell out of favor partially because he was not an opponent
of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. (1) It has been estimated that
between 500 and 4,000 people died. (2,3,4)
Paraguay:
See South America: Operation Condor
Philippines
The
Philippines were under the control of the U.S. for over a hundred
years. In about the last 50 to 60 years the U.S. has funded and
otherwise helped various Philippine governments which sought to
suppress the activities of groups working for the welfare of its
people. In 1969 the Symington Committee in the U.S. Congress revealed
how war material was sent there for a counter-insurgency campaign.
U.S. Special Forces and Marines were active in some combat
operations. The estimated number of persons that were executed and
disappeared under President Fernando Marcos was over 100,000. (1,2)
South
America: Operation Condor
This
was a joint operation of 6 despotic South American governments
(Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) to share
information about their political opponents. An estimated 13,000
people were killed under this plan. (1)
It
was established on November 25, 1975 in Chile by an act of the
Interamerican Reunion on Military Intelligence. According to U.S.
embassy political officer, John Tipton, the CIA and the Chilean
Secret Police were working together, although the CIA did not set up
the operation to make this collaboration work. Reportedly, it ended
in 1983. (2)
On
March 6, 2001 the New York Times reported the existence of a recently
declassified State Department document revealing that the United
States facilitated communications for Operation Condor. (3)
Sudan
Since
1955, when it gained its independence, Sudan has been involved most
of the time in a civil war. Until about 2003 approximately 2 million
people had been killed. It not known if the death toll in Darfur is
part of that total.
Human
rights groups have complained that U.S. policies have helped to
prolong the Sudanese civil war by supporting efforts to overthrow the
central government in Khartoum. In 1999 U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright met with the leader of the Sudan People’s
Liberation Army (SPLA) who said that she offered him food supplies if
he would reject a peace plan sponsored by Egypt and Libya.
In
1978 the vastness of Sudan’s oil reservers was discovered and
within two years it became the sixth largest recipient of U.S,
military aid. It’s reasonable to assume that if the U.S. aid a
government to come to power it will feel obligated to give the U.S.
part of the oil pie.
A
British group, Christian Aid, has accused foreign oil companies of
complicity in the depopulation of villages. These companies – not
American – receive government protection and in turn allow the
government use of its airstrips and roads.
In
August 1998 the U.S. bombed Khartoum, Sudan with 75 cruise míssiles.
Our government said that the target was a chemical weapons factory
owned by Osama bin Laden. Actually, bin Laden was no longer the
owner, and the plant had been the sole supplier of pharmaceutical
supplies for that poor nation. As a result of the bombing tens of
thousands may have died because of the lack of medicines to treat
malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases. The U.S. settled a lawsuit
filed by the factory’s owner. (1,2)
Uruguay:
See South America: Operation Condor
Vietnam
In
Vietnam, under an agreement several decades ago, there was supposed
to be an election for a unified North and South Vietnam. The U.S.
opposed this and supported the Diem government in South Vietnam. In
August, 1964 the CIA and others helped fabricate a phony Vietnamese
attack on a U.S. ship in the Gulf of Tonkin and this was used as a
pretext for greater U.S. involvement in Vietnam. (1)
During
that war an American assassination operation,called Operation
Phoenix, terrorized the South
Vietnamese people, and during the war
American troops were responsible in 1968 for the mass slaughter of
the people in the village of My Lai.
According
to a Vietnamese government statement in 1995 the number of deaths of
civilians and military personnel during the Vietnam War was 5.1
million. (2)
Since
deaths in Cambodia and Laos were about 2.7 million (See Cambodia and
Laos) the estimated total for the Vietnam War is 7.8 million.
The
Virtual Truth Commission provides a total for the war of 5 million,
(3) and Robert McNamara, former Secretary Defense, according to the
New York Times Magazine says that the number of Vietnamese dead is
3.4 million. (4,5)
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
was a socialist federation of several republics. Since it refused to
be closely tied to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, it gained
some suport from the U.S. But when the Soviet Union dissolved,
Yugoslavia’s usefulness to the U.S. ended, and the U.S and Germany
worked to convert its socialist economy to a capitalist one by a
process primarily of dividing and conquering. There were ethnic and
religious differences between various parts of Yugoslavia which were
manipulated by the U.S. to cause several wars which resulted in the
dissolution of that country.
From
the early 1990s until now Yugoslavia split into several independent
nations whose lowered income, along with CIA connivance, has made it
a pawn in the hands of capitalist countries. (1) The dissolution of
Yugoslavia was caused primarily by the U.S. (2)
Here
are estimates of some, if not all, of the internal wars in
Yugoslavia. All wars: 107,000; (3,4)
Bosnia
and Krajina: 250,000; (5) Bosnia: 20,000 to 30,000; (5) Croatia:
15,000; (6) and
Kosovo:
500 to 5,000. (7)
NOTES
Afghanistan
1.Mark
Zepezauer, Boomerang (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2003),
p.135.
4.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994), p.76
7.William
Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p.5
Angola
1.Howard
W. French “From Old Files, a New Story of the U.S. Role in the
Angolan War” New York Times 3/31/02
2.Angolan
Update, American Friends Service Committee FS, 11/1/99 flyer.
3.Norman
Solomon, War Made Easy, (John Wiley & Sons, 2005) p. 82-83.
4.Lance
Selfa, U.S. Imperialism, A Century of Slaughter, International
Socialist Review Issue 7, Spring 1999 (as appears in Third world
Traveler www.
thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/Century_Imperialism.html)
5.
Jeffress Ramsay, Africa , (Dushkin/McGraw Hill Guilford Connecticut),
1997, p. 144-145.
6.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994), p.54.
Argentina
: See South America: Operation Condor
Bolivia
Brazil
See South America: Operation Condor
Cambodia
Chad
1.William
Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p.
151-152 .
Chile
1.Parenti,
Michael, The Sword and the Dollar (New York, St. Martin’s Press,
1989) p. 56.
2.William
Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p.
142-143.
3.Moreorless:
Heroes and Killers of the 20th Century, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte,
4.Associated
Press,Pincohet on 91st Birthday, Takes Responsibility for Regimes’s
Abuses, Dayton Daily News 11/26/06
5.Chalmers
Johnson, Blowback, The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 2000), p. 18.
China:
See Korea
Colombia
1.Chronology
of American State Terrorism, p.2
2.William
Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p.
163.
5.Virtual
Truth Commission, 1991
Human
Rights Watch Report: Colombia’s Killer Networks–The
Military-Paramilitary Partnership).
Cuba
Democratic
Republic of Congo (Formerly Zaire)
1.F.
Jeffress Ramsey, Africa (Guilford Connecticut, 1997), p. 85
4.William
Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p
158-159.
5.Ibid.,p.
260
6.Ibid.,p.
259
7.Ibid.,p.262
Dominican
Republic
3.William
Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p.
175.
4.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994), p.26-27.
East
Timor
2.Matthew
Jardine, Unraveling Indonesia, Nonviolent Activist, 1997)
4.William
Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p.
197.
El
Salvador
1.Robert
T. Buckman, Latin America 2003, (Stryker-Post Publications Baltimore
2003) p. 152-153.
2.William
Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p.
54-55.
Grenada
1.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994), p. 66-67.
Guatemala
2.Ibid.
3.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994), p.2-13.
4.Robert
T. Buckman, Latin America 2003 (Stryker-Post Publications Baltimore
2003) p. 162.
5.Douglas
Farah, Papers Show U.S. Role in Guatemalan Abuses, Washington Post
Foreign Service, March 11, 1999, A 26
Haiti
2.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994), p 87.
Honduras
1.William
Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p. 55.
3.James
A. Lucas, Torture Gets The Silence Treatment, Countercurrents, July
26, 2004.
4.Gary
Cohn and Ginger Thompson, Unearthed: Fatal Secrets, Baltimore Sun,
reprint of a series that appeared June 11-18, 1995 in Jack
Nelson-Pallmeyer, School of Assassins, p. 46 Orbis Books 2001.
5.Michael
Dobbs, Negroponte’s Time in Honduras at Issue, Washington Post,
March 21, 2005
Hungary
Indonesia
2.Editorial,
Indonesia’s Killers, The Nation, March 30, 1998.
3.Matthew
Jardine, Indonesia Unraveling, Non Violent Activist Sept–Oct, 1997
(Amnesty) 2/7/07.
6.Peter
Dale Scott, The United States and the Overthrow of Sukarno,
1965-1967, Pacific Affairs, 58, Summer 1985, pages
239-264.http://www.namebase.org/scott.
7.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994), p.30.
Iran
1.Geoff
Simons, Iraq from Sumer to Saddam, 1996, St. Martins Press, NY p.
317.
Iraq
Iran-Iraq
War
U.S.
Iraq War and Sanctions
1.Ramsey
Clark, The Fire This Time (New York, Thunder’s Mouth), 1994,
p.31-32
2.Ibid.,
p. 52-54
3.Ibid.,
p. 43
4.Anthony
Arnove, Iraq Under Siege, (South End Press Cambridge MA 2000). p.
175.
5.Food
and Agricultural Organizaiton, The Children are Dying, 1995 World
View Forum, Internationa Action Center, International Relief
Association, p. 78
6.Anthony
Arnove, Iraq Under Siege, South End Press Cambridge MA 2000. p. 61.
7.David
Cortright, A Hard Look at Iraq Sanctions December 3, 2001, The
Nation.
U.S-Iraq
War 2003-?
1.Jonathan
Bor 654,000 Deaths Tied to Iraq War Baltimore Sun , October 11,2006
Israeli-Palestinian
War
2.Chronology
of American State Terrorism
Korea
2.William
Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p. 46
4.John
G. Stroessinger, Why Nations go to War, (New York; St. Martin’s
Press), p. 99)
8.Korean
War Casualty Statistics www.century
china.com/history/krwarcost.html)
Laos
1.William
Blum Rogue State (Maine, Common Cause Press) p. 136
3.Fred
Branfman, War Crimes in Indochina and our Troubled National Soul
Nepal
1.Conn
Hallinan, Nepal & the Bush Administration: Into Thin Air,
February 3, 2004
2.Human
Rights Watch, Nepal’s Civil War: the Conflict Resumes, March 2006 )
Nicaragua
4.William
Blum, Nicaragua 1981-1990 Destabilization in Slow Motion
Pakistan
1.John
G. Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, (New York: St. Martin’s
Press), 1974 pp 157-172.
3.Mark
Zepezauer, Boomerang (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2003),
p.123, 124.
4.Arjum
Niaz ,When America Look the Other Way by,
5.Leo
Kuper, Genocide (Yale University Press, 1981), p. 79.
Panama
1.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’s Greatest Hits, (Odonian Press 1998) p. 83.
2.William
Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p.154.
4.Mark
Zepezauer, CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994), p.83.
Paraguay
See South America: Operation Condor
Philippines
2.Roland
B. Simbulan The CIA in Manila – Covert Operations and the CIA’s
Hidden Hisotry in the Philippines Equipo Nizkor Information –
Derechos, derechos.org/nizkor/filipinas/doc/cia.
South
America: Operation Condor
1.John
Dinges, Pulling Back the Veil on Condor, The Nation, July 24, 2000.
Sudan
1.Mark
Zepezauer, Boomerang, (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2003), p.
30, 32,34,36.
Uruguay
See South America: Operation Condor
Vietnam
1.Mark
Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine:Common Courage
Press,1994), p 24
4.Fred
Branfman, U.S. War Crimes in Indochiona and our Duty to Truth August
26, 2004
Yugoslavia
1.Sara
Flounders, Bosnia Tragedy:The Unknown Role of the Pentagon in NATO in
the Balkans (New York: International Action Center) p. 47-75
2.James
A. Lucas, Media Disinformation on the War in Yugoslavia: The Dayton
Peace Accords Revisited, Global Research, September 7, 2005
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=
viewArticle&code=LUC20050907&articleId=899
4.George
Kenney, The Bosnia Calculation: How Many Have Died? Not nearly as
many as some would have you think., NY Times Magazine, April 23, 1995
5.Chronology
of American State Terrorism
7.Human
Rights Watch, New Figures on Civilian Deaths in Kosovo War, (February
7, 2000) http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/02/nato207.htm.
Related Posts:
Voor meer berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande, klik op één van de labels, die u onder dit bericht aantreft. Helaas kan ik daar maar 140 tekens kwijt en kan dus niet eens alle landen opnemen, die hier werden genoemd (het label illegale oorlog' duidt op de illegale oorlog tegen Irak).
Na kritiek de tekst in de kop aangepast op 24 november 2016. (toegevoegd: sinds 'het einde van' WOII........)
