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The Long-Planted Seeds of Anti-American Terrorism
 

Jack Dresser, Ph.D.

In his 1961 farewell address, 40 years before 9/11, Pres. Dwight Eisenhower warned of the “military-industrial complex”, stating that “The Potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.  We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic process.”  A clear connecting thread runs through those 40 years, and even before, during Ike’s administration.

Let me begin by suggesting that we listen to our enemy.  It is likely that Jesus would recommend this, having reportedly said,  “Love your enemies; do good to them which hate you.” (1)  Listening is the most basic expression of care without which good cannot be done.  Osama bin Laden attempted to explain to the American people shortly before our recent election that our foreign policies are the source of anti-American feelings and their most extreme form, terrorism.(2)   As he simply and clearly explained, 9/11 was both a retaliation for past American atrocities, specifically in Lebanon during the 1970s, and a warning.  We are not invulnerable and can assure our own safety only by respecting the safety and welfare of others throughout the world.  To be safe and respected, we must change our international policies of domination and exploitation, irrespective of our transient leadership.  If you don’t know what he was talking about, you’d better keep reading.

His words were treated perfunctorily and transmitted incompletely by our oblivious media, and were understood by few among the historically and politically uninformed American public.  We need to understand what our government has been doing, then decide whether the rage against us manifested by terrorism at its extreme end is perhaps understandable and not entirely unprovoked, and decide whether we believe as a nation in the international behaviors practiced for the past half-century in our name with our tax dollars by the CIA, the U.S. military, and American corporations in partnership with the U.S. Treasury through the World Bank and IMF.  We need to decide on questions of national identity, national purpose, and appropriate international behaviors by and for ourselves, irrespective of “terrorist” reactions to us.  I believe the latter are symptoms of a pathological relationship between America and much of the world.  When a teenager “acts out”, family therapy is demonstrably a much more effective remedy than parental assault. Our “enemies” may be people justifiably angry and desperate – unheard and disregarded through normal vehicles of communication – rather than crazy or inherently evil.

Toward this end, a timeline of crucial events is provided below, outlining U.S. actions in three critical areas of the world since World War II.  These U.S. actions are little-known and incompletely remembered by most American citizens but loom very large in the collective memories of those affected and are defining events in the world’s perception of America, its intentions, its policies, and its methods.

It should be added for background that our imperial foreign policy orientation did not begin after WWII, but is rooted in the early19th century.  The 1823 Monroe Doctrine declared our self-appointed right of paternalistic hegemony over formerly Spanish America.  Our fulfillment of this declaration has systematically undermined their fulfillment of the democratic systems envisioned by Simon Bolivar, their liberator from Spain, whose writings and concepts are nearly indistinguishable from those of Jefferson and Madison.  Following Monroe’s lead, the 1845 doctrine of Manifest Destiny was invoked to justify the systematic extermination and containment in “reservations” of North America’s indigenous peoples.  The same presumption has since been extended to other less “developed” societies throughout the world.

The Mexican and Spanish-American wars, both instigated by the U.S. on flimsy pretexts, wrested territory from Mexico and Spain. Theodore Roosevelt used the Monroe Doctrine to justify interventions in The Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and in 1903 invaded Panama – then a part of Colombia.  He declared it an independent nation, installed a puppet government, and signed the first Panama Canal Treaty.  We then assured our domination of the Canal Zone by maintaining a succession of right-wing dictators connected with Washington, the CIA, and American corporations such as Standard Oil and United Fruit (eventually purchased by George H. W. Bush).  The U.S. military intervened on some dozen occasions in Panama to protect these dictators from “leftist” uprisings between 1903 and 1968 when a popular and populist leader independent of Washington finally emerged, Omar Torrijos.

Although the U.S. proclaims its support for democracy, it has systematically eliminated – through coups and assassinations – numerous elected (examples highlighted in yellow below) leaders throughout the world who opposed American corporate interests.  All were socialists, attempting to nationalize the resources of their own countries for the benefit of their own peoples, which meant terminating control of these resources by powerful, extractive American companies.  All were denounced as Marxists by the U.S. government and cooperating media fueled by self-interested corporate funding, and were permanently deposed or died at American hands – directly or indirectly –  for their efforts.

The mentality of these American power brokers and propagandists is one arising from the “strict father” model of childhood family experience described by George Lakoff (3)  and documented by an extensive body of psychological research (4).  To them, lack of empathy is a manly virtue.  The predator is weakened by identification with its victim.  We live in a threatening world dominated by the strong, and our only safety resides in our own superior strength and its ruthless application.  Ironically, this ultimately Darwinian worldview is widely supported by those denying the theory of evolution.  It is also the “I’m OK, you’re not OK” (collectively, “We’re OK, they’re not OK) worldview identified in transactional analysis as the “criminal position” – the same moral outlook reflected in the Johnny Cash song line, “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die” that predictably evoked hoots of admiring recognition in his prison concerts.  Is this the national worldview Americans wish to follow in their foreign policy?

A final comment about “left” and “right”.  There are no longer any visible leftists in America.  Lenin was a leftist.  Castro is a leftist.  But factual reporters and historians are now described as "leftist".  We believe that facts are dead center.  That must be the starting point.  Interpretation of those facts and conclusions drawn from them may lean left or right, but we must start with the facts, and you're not getting them unless you bypass U.S. mainstream sources.  If you think you’re getting all or even the most important news from broadcast or cable TV, or your local papers, think again.  You’re not.  Not even close.  Follow their ownership links and you will find big defense contractors such as GE and Westinghouse and major Republican campaign contributors with conspicuous financial stakes in what Americans know and think.  The only major English speaking broadcast network that remains free of corporate influence is the BBC.  Mainstream media-dependent Americans have been provided with complimentary rose tinted glasses with their sitcoms, soaps and sports, then had heavy wool pulled securely over their heads down to the shoulders to prevent any hint of light from penetrating, complete with built in, carefully programmed headphones to block any ambient sound of reality that might be screaming somewhere to be heard.

What follows is a chronology of key foreign policy actions of the United States government following WWII.  These data are verifiable from any college-level American history text or contemporary news sources of the times available in library archives.  References are provided for some of the less well-known events or their details.  What we desperately need is public willingness to look the facts in the eye, followed by a national debate about conclusions from those facts and the future direction of our ever-emerging history.  Unfortunately, our media-mediated political campaigns invariably fail to provide this.  Only campaign advertising dollars matter, and the sacred duty of a free press in the preservation of democracy has been forgotten.
 
 

U.S. Administration: Eisenhower 1953-61

Middle East

Iran, 1953: In 1951, popular, elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq nationalizes Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. (later BP) that was taking 85% of Iranian oil profits.  UK appeals to US for help.  Iran’s local CIA chief Kermit Roosevelt (TR’s grandson) orchestrates coup in 1953.  Mossadeq imprisoned.  Riza Shah Pahlavi restored to power, renegotiates oil contracts to assure 40% of Iranian oil to U.S. companies.(5)   Shah remains a repressive dictator until overthrown in 1979.

Latin America

Guatemala, 1954: President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman elected in 1950, encourages trade unions and implements land reform programs to help the poor and middle classes, and threatens to nationalize hundreds of thousands of uncultivated acres owned by United Fruit,(6) a U.S. corporation with extensive plantation holdings in eight Latin American countries.  United Fruit lobbies vigorously for intervention.  Arbenz is labeled a communist and overthrown by a CIA-orchestrated invasion including the bombing of Guatemala City, and is replaced by Col. Carlos Castillo Armas, a ruthless right-wing dictator who abolishes the land reforms, the secret ballot, taxes on foreign investments, and civil rights.  Four decades of violence and terrorism between dictators and peasant guerillas result, killing some 200,000 civilians (7)  with numerous U.S. military interventions to support the dictators.

Cuba, 1959: Throughout the 1950s, American business owned all Cuba’s oil production, 90% of its mines, half its railroads, and half its sugar and cattle industries. U.S. crime syndicates shared control of Havana’s gambling, prostitution and drug trade with dictator Fulgencio Batista.(8)   A peasant revolt led by Fidel Castro and welcomed by most Cubans seized power on Jan. 1, 1959 and initiated land reforms.  Castro was not then a communist but was forced into alliance with the Soviet Union when the U.S. established an economic boycott and severed diplomatic relations in 1960.  Castro began trading with the Soviets and nationalized their oil industry.  A U.S. invasion plan was drafted and passed along to the new president, John Kennedy.

Southeast Asia

Vietnam, 1954–: After WWII Japanese occupation, Ho Chi Minh leads revolt against France which was attempting to re-establish its pre-war colonial rule.  U.S. provides France with massive military and CIA aid, but France is nevertheless decisively defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and withdraws.  U.N. negotiates temporary North-South division and schedules reunification and national election for 1956.  “Domino” theory is formulated that Vietnam, if lost, will become the first in a series of southeast Asian countries falling in sequence to communism.  Fearing communist Ho who is heavy favorite, U.S. cancels election and supports corrupt, repressive ex-Japanese collaborator Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam that escalates into 19 years of civil war.

U.S. Administration: Kennedy/Johnson 1961-69

Middle East

Arab/Israel conflict, 1967: U.S. supports Israel in 6-day war.  Although little-noticed during the height of American casualties in Vietnam and the growing size and energy of the anti-war movement, this contributed substantially to festering Arab and Islamic resentment of the U.S.

Latin America

Latin American Policy, 1960: Recognizing poverty and popular discontent as the force behind Castro, Kennedy establishes Alliance for Progress to aid Latin America, which unfortunately failed to achieve intended improvements for the poor and middle classes due to corruption of the anti-communist ruling classes that the U.S. was reluctant to challenge.

Cuba, 1961:  Kennedy authorizes an unsuccessful CIA effort to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, following an Eisenhower administration plan.

Cuba, 1962: U.S. belligerence alarms Castro, who requests protection from the USSR.  The Soviet Union attempts to install missile sites in Cuba, which also represents an understandable attempt to counter-balance the long arc of missiles confronting them from nearby Western Europe and Turkey with their own ally near us.  They are confronted by Kennedy who orders a naval blockade.  Khruschev agrees to withdraw in exchange for U.S. pledge to respect the sovereignty of Cuba.

Southeast Asia

Vietnam, 1961-69: Involvement in Vietnam’s political affairs increases.  Kennedy is convinced by advisors to see Vietnam as a link in the Cold War.  Diem is Catholic in a 90% Buddhist country, and Buddhist monks publicly immolate themselves in protest. The Viet Cong rebellion grows and by 1963 Kennedy has sent 16,000 combat and support troops as “advisors” to the embattled Diem.

Following Kennedy assassination, Johnson assumes presidency and falsely reports in 1964 that an American naval vessel has been attacked by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, which justifies formal engagement of U.S. forces although war is never declared by Congress.  Escalation continues in a “measured” response to Viet Cong initiatives, with a significant Viet Cong incursion into the south during their 1968 Tet (their New Year, in which escalation was unanticipated) offensive.  Casualties are heavy, victory for the south appears increasingly unlikely, and opposition to the war among U.S. citizens increases precipitously.

U.S. Administration Nixon/Ford 1969-1977 (+ Kissinger)

Middle East

Saudi Arabia, 1973: Egypt and Syria simultaneously attack Israel (the Yom Kippur War).  The 5 Arab Gulf states retaliate against U.S. support of Israel by increasing oil prices by 70%.  Some advocate nationalizing American businesses in the Arab world, imposing an oil embargo on the U.S. and other Israel-friendly countries, and withdrawing all Arab funds from U.S. banks.  Nixon proposes $2.2 billion in aid to Israel, and the next day Saudi Arabia and other OPEC producers announce a complete oil embargo on the U.S., which lasts six months.  These actions alarm the U.S. and lead to courting of the Saudis, offering them technical support, military hardware and training, and infrastructure development in exchange for oil guarantees and return of petrodollars to U.S. banks, companies and defense contractors doing the work and providing arms.  The Saudis primarily need security for their vulnerable borders, and we need their oil and money.  In the last quarter of the 20th century Saudis invest $860 billion in U.S. companies.  They come especially to Texas, the heart of America’s oil industry, and there become associated with the Bush family. (9)

This establishes the model of economic imperialism in the Middle East, where IMF/USAID/World Bank dollars are loaned as “foreign aid” but go largely to U.S. multinational corporations which provide development projects that primarily benefit only the rulers and indebt the countries heavily to the U.S. –  debts used for future leverage as needed following the “Godfather” model.

Latin America

Chile, 1973 (September 11): Upon election as President of Chile in1970, Salvador Allende initiated a socialist model to nationalize all mineral resources, foreign banks, and monopolistic industries including communications, and to accelerate land reform. He was, of course, despised by U.S.-based multinationals Anaconda Copper and ITT (that funded his opposition), and predictably vilified as “Marxist” by the Nixon administration.  On 9/11/73 he was assassinated by a CIA-orchestrated coup, and was replaced by Gen. Augusto Pinochet who led a 17-year reign of terror including abolition of their constitution, Congress and political parties, the murder or “disappearance” of 4,200 people, the torture of thousands, press censorship, and control of the universities.  (This coup was dramatized with historical accuracy in the great, multiple Oscar-nominated 1982 Jack Lemmon film, Missing.)

Argentina, 1976: Beginning in 1975 and continuing for eight years, the Argentine military “disappeared” some 30,000 Argentine dissidents. In 1976, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger advised an Argentine Navy admiral, “The quicker you succeed, the better.” (10)  (These events and the public fear and denial that makes such political atrocities possible were dramatized in the Oscar-winning 1985 Argentine film, The Official Story.)

Southeast Asia

Cambodia, 1970: Nixon orders invasion without congressional approval to cut North Vietnamese supply lines and eliminate enemy “sanctuaries”.  The following year, he orders an aborted invasion of Laos as well.

Vietnam, 1972-73: Attempting to intimidate North Vietnam into surrender, Nixon orders the mining of North Vietnamese harbors and unleashes massive bombing campaigns against North Vietnam and Cambodia.  In 1973 Nixon negotiates the same settlement he could have had in 1969, hundreds of thousands of deaths earlier.  In addition to the loss of 58,000 American lives, 850,000 Viet Cong are killed and 2-3 million Vietnamese die in this war.

Indonesia, 1971, 1976: Having displaced the communist-leaning President Sukarno in a 1967 anti-communist counter-coup that killed some half-million people, General Suharto had become president of this OPEC nation and cooperated more fully with western business interests, becoming wealthy in the process.  In 1971 a popular anti-American politician in Bandung, Java meets an “accidental” hit-and-run death.  In 1976, East Timor is violently annexed following its independence from Portugal despite its declaration of independence.  Indonesians have long believed that CIA involvement enforces the will of US economic interests as needed in their country. (11)

 U.S. Administration Carter 1977-1981

Middle East

Israel & Egypt, 1978-79: Carter meets privately with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and brings Begin and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat together for a 13-day retreat at Camp David.  Egypt becomes the first Arab country to recognize Israel, in exchange for return of the Sinai Peninsula.  However, the Palestine issue remains unresolved although Begin formally recognizes “the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

Iran, 1979:  Shiite fundamentalist Ayatollah Komehni ousts the U.S.-friendly Shah and seizes 40 U.S. embassy hostages.  Carter negotiates for their release.  Reagan campaign secretly agrees to provide Iran with arms if they will delay release of hostages until after the 1980 election.  Carter’s failure to win release of the hostages probably costs him re-election. The hostages are released on the day of Reagan’s inauguration.

Afghanistan, 1979: Two coups in the 1970s arouse fears in the Soviet Union of alliance with the U.S., creating yet another missile threat near their border.  They invade, and Carter declares the right of the U.S. to protect its interests anywhere in the world, halts grain and high-tech exports to the Soviets, and cancels American participation in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

Carter also initiates a CIA program to train mujahideen fighters resisting the Soviets that is actively continued by the Reagan administration.

Latin America

Panama, 1978: Carter signs Panama Canal treaty returning canal to Panama, and agrees to closure of CIA terrorist training school in the Canal Zone.

Chile, Argentina and Brazil: Carter, who despises U.S. policies supporting “right-wing monarchs and military dictators” in the name of anti-communism, imposes sanctions for human rights violations. (12)

Nicaragua, 1979: The Sandinistas overthrow their brutal dictator, Somoza, and request U.S. aid.  Carter’s $75 million aid request is refused by Congress. The Sandinistas turn to Cuba and the Soviet Union for help, and begin to assist the revolutionary movement in El Salvador against its repressive regime and ultraright, CIA-trained military.

Southeast Asia

CIA Redirection: Carter appoints Admiral Stanfield Turner as CIA Director with instructions to purge the agency of “rogue elephants” who had conducted covert operations in southeast Asia that contributed to the Vietnam war, and to end interventions in the affairs of foreign governments. (13)

 U.S. Administration Reagan/Bush 1981-1989

Middle East

Lebanon, 1981: Reagan rejects Carter’s support for an independent Palestinian state and signs a “mutual security” agreement with Israel.  In 1982 Ariel Sharon then invades Lebanon to eradicate the PLO. The U.S. marines are sent to intervene and become involved in the conflict. The American embassy in Beirut is bombed, killing 63, followed by bombing of the marine barracks, killing 241. Within 6 months, the marines withdraw.  These events inspire and encourage the new radical Islamic movements, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and others, which now perceive the U.S. as an ally of Israel opposed to their interests but one vulnerable to terrorist tactics.

Afghanistan, 1981-88: The CIA invests $2.1 billion and trains the Mujahideen opposition led by Osama bin Laden in terrorist tactics against Soviet invaders. (14)

Iraq, 1984-88: The Reagan administration supports Saddam in his 8-year war with Iran, hoping to dislodge or weaken the Shia fundamentalist Ayatollah regime which had ousted the U.S.-friendly Shah in 1979. Special Envoy Donald Rumsfeld negotiates arms dealings with Saddam. The U.S. subsidy is $500 million/year before Saddam’s legendary poison gassing of about 5,000 Kurds in 1988. This is largely ignored by the administration and the media, and his subsidy is doubled the following year.

Iran, 1985-86: Congress passes legislation prohibiting arms sales to Iran due to their seizure of American embassy hostages in 1979.  However, arms had been promised Iran for release of hostages following Reagan’s election, and a secret deal is made to illegally sell arms to Iran with funds from these sales deposited in account for Nicaraguan Contras, to which Congress had also prohibited support due to their egregious human rights violations.  This is implemented by Lt. Col. Oliver North and leads to the “Iran/Contra” scandal.  After public discovery, Reagan claims ignorance but North subsequently testifies that Reagan ordered the operation.  Thus, the U.S. arms both sides in the Iran/Iraq war that kills over 300,000 people and produces over a million casualties. (15)

Latin America

Panama, 1981: Populist president Omar Torrijos forces closure of the U.S. training facilities for covert operations, right-wing death squads and state-sponsored terrorism located in the Canal Zone, facilities used for decades to assist business-friendly Latin American dictators maintain their power against populist opposition.  This, along with the canal transfer, had been negotiated with Pres. Carter.  In addition, Torrijos is considering a Japanese company for a construction of a new canal rather than Bechtel, America’s foremost engineering firm tightly connected with the Republican Party.  He dies in a 1981 plane crash recognized as a CIA assassination only months after Reagan assumes office.  He is replaced with Manuel Noriega, who largely cooperates with U.S. companies and the CIA, acquiring a reputation for corruption.

Ecuador, 1981: Oil had been discovered in their Amazonian basin in the 1960s, and had been vigorously exploited by the big oil companies, notably Texaco.  Populist president Jaime Roldós had been elected in 1979 (after a long succession of dictators) on a “Hydrocarbons Policy” platform promising that Ecuador’s petroleum resources would be used to benefit its people.  The Carter administration had not interfered.  In early 1981 Roldós presents his new model  hydrocarbon legislation to the Ecuadorian congress.  The oil companies react with massive propaganda and lobbying, painting him as a new Castro.  In May 1981, Roldós delivers a speech warning foreign companies that they will be expelled unless implementing plans to help Ecuador’s people.  Immediately thereafter, he dies in a helicopter crash recognized as a CIA assassination. (17)

Nicaragua, 1981-86: Reagan approves a $19 million CIA plan to arm Nicaraguan exiles known as Contras to fight the Sandinista government.  In 1984 Congress passes the Boland Amendment prohibiting government agencies from supporting “directly or indirectly military or paramilitary operations” in Nicaragua, which have involved massive human rights abuses.  Reagan evades this for the next two years through the Iran/Contra and other manipulations, raising $37 million for the Contras from (officially) non-government sources.

El Salvador, 1981–: A coalition of rebel groups opposes the repressive regime controlled by wealthy land owners and the military.  U.S. aid to the regime increases from $6 million in 1980 to $82 million in 1982, more than any other Latin American country.  The Salvadoran military receives U.S. training. Right-wing death squads inflict torture and assassinations, and some 53,000 Salvadorans are killed.  (This violence and chaos was dramatized effectively in the powerful, Oscar-nominated 1986 James Woods film, Salvador.)

Grenada, 1983: Marxist leader Bernard Coard, supported by the military, seizes the Grenadian government.  Fearing their potential alignment with Castro and to “send a message” to other Latin leftists, the U.S. marines invade 12 days later and quickly restore a pro-American government.

U.S. Administration: George H. W. Bush 1989-1993

Middle East

Iraq, 1991: Following many years of U.S. support, Saddam expects our indulgence of his intention to annex Kuwait and puts out diplomatic feelers testing this expectation through our then-ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie.  Misreading her signals (that were perhaps deliberately ambiguous to set him up), he proceeds to invade, precipitating the Gulf War.  A massive toll among innocent Iraqis goes unreported in the U.S. media.  Following the war, mass atrocities are committed against the Shias who rebel under promises of support by Bush that is never provided.  Hence their suspicion of the U.S.

Latin America

Panama, 1989: Despite his corruption, Noriega is unwilling to renegotiate the Canal Treaty or restore the right-wing military training schools in the Canal Zone, and continues to consider using a Japanese company to construct a new canal.  In December 1989, Panama is suddenly and brutally invaded on the pretext that Noriega must be removed as a drug smuggler.  It is the most destructive airborne assault on a city since WWII, an unprovoked attack on a civilian population that kills between 3,000 and 5,000 Panamanians and leaves 25,000 homeless. (18)(See documentary film, The Panama Deception.)

U.S. Administration Clinton 1993-2001

Middle East

Israel, 1993: Israel and the PLO meet in Washington and sign Oslo Accord negotiated earlier in Norway. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and PLO leader Yasser Arafat uneasily shake hands on the White House lawn; Clinton stands in between them with an arm around each man’s shoulders.  Following setbacks due to Rabin’s 1995 assassination and election of right-wing Prime Minister Netanyahu in 1996, Clinton-brokered negotiations resume at the Wye Plantation in Maryland, leading to the Wye Accord that specifies a land-for-peace exchange, and again at Camp David in 2000.

Iraq: No-fly zones are maintained by US and UK aircraft protecting the Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north.  Saddam’s aggression is contained, restricted UN arms inspectors remain until 1998 and destroy all Saddam’s WMDs and WMD production capability.  Chief UN inspector Scott Ritter declares that nothing is left and that a nuclear program could not be reconstituted under the sanctions regime, however imperfect, and without detection.  Saddam’s military expenditures during this period are only 10% of his pre-Gulf War expenditures. (19)Clinton ends the inspections.

Afghanistan, 1995–2000: Extensive, largely quiet counterterrorism efforts are made to eliminate bin Laden and to identify and disrupt al-Qaeda operations, including executive order to freeze bin Laden and al-Qaeda assets.

Other broad  counterterrorism programs are implemented, shaped by a 1995 Presidential Decision Directive establishing a federal counterterrorism policy, coordinating, integrating, and expanding agency activities, and nearly doubling the counterterrorism budget by 2001 to $11.3 billion, with infrastructure protection then receiving $3.6 billion. (20)

Latin America

Haiti, 1994: Threat of U.S. invasion induces military junta to restore deposed President Aristide to power.  U.S. provides armed protection and turns over rescue function to UN in 1995.

Southeast Asia

Pakistan, 1999: Clinton makes first presidential visit to Pakistan, India, and southeast Asia in 20 years, presses Pres. Musharraf of Pakistan to use their influence with the Taliban to deliver bin Laden, and negotiates reduced tension between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

Other

The Balkans:  Ends ongoing genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo with no loss of American life.  However, regrettably fails to intervene similarly in Rwanda.

U.S. Administration G. W. Bush 2001-2005

Middle East

Afghanistan, 2002: (targeted with middle eastern Islamic nations) Previous to 9/11, the Taliban had cancelled permission for Unocal to build a proposed oil pipeline connecting Central Asian oil fields with sea ports.  Following 9/11, they agreed to negotiate a handover of bin Laden but the Bush administration imperiously brushed aside their efforts to negotiate, demanding unconditional submission to US terms, and used this as an opportunity to seize the country.

Iraq, 2003–: In supporting Saddam, the US expected to develop a relationship like that negotiated with Saudi Arabia.  However, both the EHMs and the jackals failed.  Saddam maintained national control of his 20 major industries, including oil.  He was negotiating oil development contracts with Russia, France and China.  He had proved elusive to assassination and coup attempts.  No option remained but invasion. (21)   This accounts for the transparently manufactured excuses for invasion and the “rush to war” after UN weapons inspectors had been re-admitted.  If the inspectors found weapons, they would be destroyed without a need for war.  If none were found, the excuse for war would be obviated.  In either case, the US would lose its excuse to seize Iraq, a goal proposed in 1992 by Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney and later promoted formally in letters to President Clinton and the congressional leadership in 1998 by their neocon think tank, Project for the New American Century (see their website).  As of January 2005, in addition to some 1,500 Americans killed, a peer-reviewed study published by the respected British medical journal, Lancet, estimates some 100,000 Iraqi deaths attributable to the war and occupation by comparing pre-invasion and post-invasion deaths recorded.

Latin America

Venezuela, 2003: Despite Venezuela’s position as the 4th leading oil exporter in OPEC and the the 3rd largest US oil supplier, per capita income had dropped over 40% between 1978 and 2003 associated with EHM manipulations supported by IMF pressure following oil price declines. (22)   Populist president Hugo Chávez had been elected by a landslide in 1998.  He denounces the US for “shameless imperialism” and introduces a new hydrocarbon policy similar to that of Roldós in Ecuador.  He proves incorruptible by the EHMs, so the Bush administration moves to option two, the Kermit Roosevelt CIA model of instigated (and paid) mass public protest.  This is orchestrated by US ambassador to Venezuela, Otto Reich, a veteran of the Iran/Contra affair who had been investigated but never charged. (23) The coup succeeds for less than 72 hours before reversal by popular outpouring of support and the continued loyalty of his military leadership and the state-owned oil company.
 
 

 ENDNOTES

1. Luke 27
2. See www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO410B.html
3. Moral Politics, by George Lakoff, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2002.
4. Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, by John Jost et al., Psychological Bulletin, May 2003
5. Out of Many, A History of the American People, by John Faragher et al., Prentice-Hall, 1999.
6. Ibid
7. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins, Berrett-Koehler, 2004
8. Out of Many...
9. House of Bush, House of Saud, by Craig Unger, Scribner, 2004.
10. The Exception to the Rulers, by Amy & David Goodman, Hyperion, 2004
11. Based on conversations with Indonesians recounted by John Perkins in Confessions...
12. Out of Many...
13. Ibid
14. Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Wikipedia online encyclopedia
15. The Iran-Iraq War, MSN Encarta Encyclopedia
16. Confessions...
17. Ibid
18. Ibid
19. Containing Iraq: Sanctions Worked, by George Lopez & David Cortright, Foreign Policy, July/August, 2004
20. The Age of Sacred Terror, by Daniel Benjamin & Steven Simon, Random House, 2003.
21. Ibid
22. Ibid
23. Ibid
 
 

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