The news is humming with the impact of a video of Marines who are apparently urinating on the bodies of dead Afghan Insurgents. One would think from comments that this is an occurrence not in keeping with the traditions of the US Armed Forces and history of our country. But in truth it is exactly in keeping with the traditions of the US Military going back to the 19th century and forward to the 20th century, one has only to look at those operations by our armed forces that could be part of what are defined as acts of Empire.
This activity has its beginnings in the 19th century expansion of our nation across the continent to the Pacific and the campaign against the Native American Tribes who were seen as obstacles to that movement. The idea of marginalizing of the Native American Resistance fighters, either in the popular press, by esmasculation of their souls and self respect by introducing alcohol, or the actual extermination of their ability to resist by killing women and children indiscriminately, was a common tactic and used throughout that century. The tactics developed and honed in the western campaigns against the Indians, were exported to the Philippines in the last year of the 19th century to smother a resistance struggle by the Filipino Nation.
While the idea of extermination was a component of the campaign against the Indian Nations in the United States, it became the centerpiece of the Philippine Insurrection from 1899 to 1910. While the US Government or President Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 declared victory in the Philippine conflict, but in truth it continued for eight more years in many parts of that nation. Roosevelt declared victory to accomplish one thing, to get the struggle off of the front pages of the US papers, as it had became an embarassment to the US in the release of stories of genocide, torture and crimes against civilian populations had occupied the front pages for several years. The leader of the Filipino Resistance, Emilio Aguinaldo surrendered in 1904, to stop the indiscriminate killing of his people by the US Military. Waterboarding, which has become a watch word in the Global War of Terror, can trace its first use by the US Military in the Philippine Insurrection as a interrogation tool and called the "Philippine Water Treatment." Concentration camps, where civilian populaces were moved to in order to keep them from supporting the Resistance fighters, were adopted from the British who were using them in their South African Campaign against the Boer Resistance fighters. By our count, over 250,000 Filipino civilians, men, women and children were killed or died as a result of the conflict, and by the Filipino count, around 1,000,000 civilians were killed or died in the struggle against US hegemony and occupation of their nation.
Throughout the first 30 years of the 20th century, our troops were sent routinely to nations located south of our border, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicauragua and Panama played host to the US Marines for short or long periods of time. In the Caribbean, Cuba, Haiti, and Dominican Republic were occupied frequently by the US Marines, mainly to insure that governments friendly to the business interests of the United States were installed. Those citizens who resisted these visits were catagorized as bandits, and killers by the US, the most famous was Sandino in Nicauragua, who resisted the efforts of the US Marines to install "friendly" dictators. The Marines were eventually successful using 20th century technology against fighters armed with rifles and handguns and installed a dictator who ruled for over 40 years, Somoza. Who was ironically overthrown by a insurgent movement called the Sandinistas in the later 1970's.
Since WWII, we have intervened in the western hemisphere, in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvado, Nicauragua, Honduras, Chile, Grenada and Panama directly or indirectly to maintain a ruler friendly to our business interests aka our national interests. We have resurrected the 4th Fleet, which sails off of the coast of Eastern South America, for the purposes of restoring the idea of a watchful eye on our southern neighbors, who have been electing truly democratic and representative governments across that continent and that is a worrisome problem for a nation dependent on resources from that region of the world. In other parts of the world, we have also intervened with not much success, we bankrolled operations in Africa to check peoples' revolutions funded by the former USSR and aided the South Africans in their fight against African Nationalist movements.
In Asia, we fought a 20 year war in Southeast Asia, ultimately embroiling Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in warfare that had genocidal tendencies, killing millions and millions of civilians, using the tactics developed in the Philippine Insurrection, which was held up as a "successful counterinsurgency war" by the US General Staff. The climax of the Vietnam War in May of 1975, threw a damper on the idea of prolonged and protracted intervention by force for the next 25 years. Desert Storm in 1990-91, was a campaign that achieved its goals and then extracted most of our forces as soon as those goals were achieved. Our activities in the Adriatic region, in the 1990's, were a reaction to pressure from Europe and although we still have a presence there, it is muted. With the attacks on 9/11, a new era of unrestrained imperial ambitions was unleashed on the world by the US. Attacking terrorists and terrorism and the eradication of same became the mission, and the idea of borders, and sovereignty disappeared, as we have recognized neither in that pursuit.
The invasion of Afghanistan in early '02, the defeat of the Taliban was just the beginning and wetted the appetites of those who wrote the "Plan for a New American Century," in the 1990's, were now in charge and further invasions of nations seemed possible to make this plan a reality. The invasion of Iraq, and the destruction of Saddam was the next step taken by the new American Empire. The glitch that became the hair in the soup of these American Czars, was the unplanned for insurgency that arose in the fall of '03 in Iraq. An insurgency that made eventually made the longterm occupation of Iraq by the United States untenable and the factor for our leaving that country in the early morning hours in the last month of '11.
Now we are in the midst of disengagement from Afghanistan, and it is clear that the continued operation of US and NATO forces will not resolve the issues present in that nation. When you are in the midst of this kind of fights, frustration and rage will manifest in the troops sent to fight what is essentially a holding action. Because for no matter the amount of treasure, blood and sweat invested by them in this kind of operation, satisfactory results that will seem to make those sacrifices worthwhile will not or ever be forthcoming. This kind of frustration ends up in actions like that of those Marines who committed what is a unforgivable act on the dead bodies of their foes by any nation. It also ends up with the ordinary citizens of Afghanistan who are not resisting but do not want the foreign troops occupying their nation are labeled, the "enemy." So it follows that any action against an enemy is alright, drone attacks , shootings at checkpoints of civilians, and no knock raids in the middle of the night into the homes of Afghan families, that have killed thousands and thousands of innocents have undermined the reasons for our being there in the first place.
Our troops will be coming home from that remote and dusty place, which was before the Soviet Invasion, a backwater nation, that was referenced in some lines in poems written by another white imperialist, Rudyard Kipling, that defender of the British Empire and marginalizer in chief of indigenous independence movements. The sun eventually set on Kipling's British Empire despite its best efforts to keep that from happening, and that leaves the question, when will it set on the American Empire?
This activity has its beginnings in the 19th century expansion of our nation across the continent to the Pacific and the campaign against the Native American Tribes who were seen as obstacles to that movement. The idea of marginalizing of the Native American Resistance fighters, either in the popular press, by esmasculation of their souls and self respect by introducing alcohol, or the actual extermination of their ability to resist by killing women and children indiscriminately, was a common tactic and used throughout that century. The tactics developed and honed in the western campaigns against the Indians, were exported to the Philippines in the last year of the 19th century to smother a resistance struggle by the Filipino Nation.
While the idea of extermination was a component of the campaign against the Indian Nations in the United States, it became the centerpiece of the Philippine Insurrection from 1899 to 1910. While the US Government or President Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 declared victory in the Philippine conflict, but in truth it continued for eight more years in many parts of that nation. Roosevelt declared victory to accomplish one thing, to get the struggle off of the front pages of the US papers, as it had became an embarassment to the US in the release of stories of genocide, torture and crimes against civilian populations had occupied the front pages for several years. The leader of the Filipino Resistance, Emilio Aguinaldo surrendered in 1904, to stop the indiscriminate killing of his people by the US Military. Waterboarding, which has become a watch word in the Global War of Terror, can trace its first use by the US Military in the Philippine Insurrection as a interrogation tool and called the "Philippine Water Treatment." Concentration camps, where civilian populaces were moved to in order to keep them from supporting the Resistance fighters, were adopted from the British who were using them in their South African Campaign against the Boer Resistance fighters. By our count, over 250,000 Filipino civilians, men, women and children were killed or died as a result of the conflict, and by the Filipino count, around 1,000,000 civilians were killed or died in the struggle against US hegemony and occupation of their nation.
Throughout the first 30 years of the 20th century, our troops were sent routinely to nations located south of our border, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicauragua and Panama played host to the US Marines for short or long periods of time. In the Caribbean, Cuba, Haiti, and Dominican Republic were occupied frequently by the US Marines, mainly to insure that governments friendly to the business interests of the United States were installed. Those citizens who resisted these visits were catagorized as bandits, and killers by the US, the most famous was Sandino in Nicauragua, who resisted the efforts of the US Marines to install "friendly" dictators. The Marines were eventually successful using 20th century technology against fighters armed with rifles and handguns and installed a dictator who ruled for over 40 years, Somoza. Who was ironically overthrown by a insurgent movement called the Sandinistas in the later 1970's.
Since WWII, we have intervened in the western hemisphere, in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvado, Nicauragua, Honduras, Chile, Grenada and Panama directly or indirectly to maintain a ruler friendly to our business interests aka our national interests. We have resurrected the 4th Fleet, which sails off of the coast of Eastern South America, for the purposes of restoring the idea of a watchful eye on our southern neighbors, who have been electing truly democratic and representative governments across that continent and that is a worrisome problem for a nation dependent on resources from that region of the world. In other parts of the world, we have also intervened with not much success, we bankrolled operations in Africa to check peoples' revolutions funded by the former USSR and aided the South Africans in their fight against African Nationalist movements.
In Asia, we fought a 20 year war in Southeast Asia, ultimately embroiling Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in warfare that had genocidal tendencies, killing millions and millions of civilians, using the tactics developed in the Philippine Insurrection, which was held up as a "successful counterinsurgency war" by the US General Staff. The climax of the Vietnam War in May of 1975, threw a damper on the idea of prolonged and protracted intervention by force for the next 25 years. Desert Storm in 1990-91, was a campaign that achieved its goals and then extracted most of our forces as soon as those goals were achieved. Our activities in the Adriatic region, in the 1990's, were a reaction to pressure from Europe and although we still have a presence there, it is muted. With the attacks on 9/11, a new era of unrestrained imperial ambitions was unleashed on the world by the US. Attacking terrorists and terrorism and the eradication of same became the mission, and the idea of borders, and sovereignty disappeared, as we have recognized neither in that pursuit.
The invasion of Afghanistan in early '02, the defeat of the Taliban was just the beginning and wetted the appetites of those who wrote the "Plan for a New American Century," in the 1990's, were now in charge and further invasions of nations seemed possible to make this plan a reality. The invasion of Iraq, and the destruction of Saddam was the next step taken by the new American Empire. The glitch that became the hair in the soup of these American Czars, was the unplanned for insurgency that arose in the fall of '03 in Iraq. An insurgency that made eventually made the longterm occupation of Iraq by the United States untenable and the factor for our leaving that country in the early morning hours in the last month of '11.
Now we are in the midst of disengagement from Afghanistan, and it is clear that the continued operation of US and NATO forces will not resolve the issues present in that nation. When you are in the midst of this kind of fights, frustration and rage will manifest in the troops sent to fight what is essentially a holding action. Because for no matter the amount of treasure, blood and sweat invested by them in this kind of operation, satisfactory results that will seem to make those sacrifices worthwhile will not or ever be forthcoming. This kind of frustration ends up in actions like that of those Marines who committed what is a unforgivable act on the dead bodies of their foes by any nation. It also ends up with the ordinary citizens of Afghanistan who are not resisting but do not want the foreign troops occupying their nation are labeled, the "enemy." So it follows that any action against an enemy is alright, drone attacks , shootings at checkpoints of civilians, and no knock raids in the middle of the night into the homes of Afghan families, that have killed thousands and thousands of innocents have undermined the reasons for our being there in the first place.
Our troops will be coming home from that remote and dusty place, which was before the Soviet Invasion, a backwater nation, that was referenced in some lines in poems written by another white imperialist, Rudyard Kipling, that defender of the British Empire and marginalizer in chief of indigenous independence movements. The sun eventually set on Kipling's British Empire despite its best efforts to keep that from happening, and that leaves the question, when will it set on the American Empire?
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