This article is dedicated to all Peace Lovers
Z.K. Pahrü Pou, BTC, Pfutsero
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ELCOME. War Weds God! The Priests who arrange and conduct this marriage ceremony are the Corporate Masters. Nothing Special but they love it! And it became an addiction! The United States of America (USA) is addicted to war and in their dollar is printed ‘In God We Trust’. U.S military spending is 51% and other everything else is 49%( 2004). It has the largest and most powerful military in history. In 1897, Theodore Roosevelt said, “I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.” Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana, 1900, said, “We are the ruling race of the world…We will not renounce or part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God of the civilization of the world….He has marked us as his chosen people… He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile people.” Surely, addiction is a disease and U.S.A is severely affected by war addiction. We must help her out from this malaise.
Philippines and Haiti: The U.S invaded Philippines in 1898, and ordered soldiers to “Burn all and kill all.” By the time the Filipinos were defeated, 600,000 had died. Between 1898 and 1934, the Marines (the U.S armies trained for overseas war) invaded Cuba 4 times, Nicaragua 5 times, Honduras 7 times, the Dominican Republic 4 times, Haiti twice, Guatemala once, Panama twice, Mexico 3 times and Colombia 4 times. Behind the Marines came legions of U.S. business executives ready not only to sell their goods but also to set up plantations, drill oil wells, and stake out mining claims. In 1915, American marines attacked Haiti to put down peasant rebellion. They opened fire with machine guns from airplanes on defenseless Haitian villagers, killing men, women and children in the open market places for sport. 50,000 Haitians were killed.
I WW: First World War was a horrific battle among the European colonial powers over how to divide up the world. When U.S. President Woodrow Wilson decided to enter the fray, he told the American people that he was sending the troops to Europe to “make the world safe for democracy.” In 1917, Wilson’s ambassador to England, W.H.Page, said rather forthrightly that the U.S. would declare war on Germany because it was “the only way of maintaining our present pre-eminent trade status.” For this, 130,274 U.S. soldiers were sent to their deaths.
II WW: In October 1940, as German and Japanese troops were marching in Europe and Asia, a group of prominent government officials, business executives, and bankers was convened by the U.S. State Department and the Council on Foreign Relations to discuss U.S. Strategy. They concluded that the country had to prepare for war and come up with … “an integrated policy to achieve military and economic supremacy for the United States.” Before the bombs were dropped, President Harry Truman, 1945, offered prayer: “We pray that God might guide us to use [the Bomb] in His ways and for His purpose.” 200,000 people were killed instantaneously when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki. Tens of thousands more died later from radiation poisoning. The defeat of Japan had already been assured before the bombs were dropped. The U.S. main purpose was to demonstrate to the world the deadly power of America’s new weapon of mass destruction. World War II left the U.S. in a position of political, economic and military superiority.
Korea, 1950-1953: After World II, the ambitious plans of the U.S. State Department for Asia and the Pacific were upset completely by revolutions and anti-colonial wars from China to Malaysia. A major confrontation developed in Korea. Washington decided to intervene directly to show that Western military technology could defeat any Asian army. U.S. warships, bombers, and artillery reduced much of Korea to rubble. Over 4,500,000 Koreans died; three out of four were civilians. 54,000 U.S. soldiers returned home in coffins. Korea is still divided and some 40,000 U.S. troops remain in southern Korea to this day.
Vietnam, 1964-1973: For ten years the U.S. assaulted Vietnam with all the deadly force the Pentagon could muster, trying to preserve a corrupt South Vietnamese regime, which had been inherited from the French colonial empire. The U.S. may have used more firepower in Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) than had been used by all sides in all previous wars in human history. U.S. warplanes dropped seven million tons of bombs on Vietnam which is the equivalent of one 350-pound bomb per person. 400,000 tons of napalm were rained down on the tiny country. Agent Orange and other herbicides were used to destroy forests. Villages were burned to the ground and their residents massacred. Altogether, two million people died in the Indochina war, most of them civilians killed by U.S. bombs and bullets. Around 60,000 U.S. soldiers were killed and 300,000 wounded. Despite the ferocity of the assault on Vietnam, the U.S. was ultimately defeated by a lightly armed but determined peasant army.
Iraq, 1991: The 1991 U.S.-Iraq War continued an epic battle for control over the immensely rich oil fields of the Persian Gulf that began over 75 years. The Middle East possesses almost two-thirds of the world’s known oil resources. The U.S. State Department declared that Middle Western oil was …”a stupendous source of strategic power… one of the greatest prizes in world history.” The CIA helped Saddam Hussein to become the leader of Iraq in 1963. After 1979 Iranian Revolution, the U.S. and its allies considered Iran the main threat to U.S. and its allies, therefore were happy to provide Hussein with advanced weaponry including materials to make chemicals and biological weapons (anthrax). In 1980, Hussein decided to invade Iran- that pleased Washington. Iraq used chemical weapons against the Iranian troops and insurgent Kurdish villagers. The U.S. knew this but continued to supply Hussein with the necessary chemicals and also satellite photos of the positions of Iranian troops. Over 100,000 Iranian soldiers were killed or injured with poison gas. Hussein failed to seize any of Iran’s oilfields and so decided to invade Kuwait. This displeased the U.S. because the Kuwaiti emir was a loyal friend of the U.S. and British oil companies. George H.W. Bush worried that the huge Iraqi army had become a threat to U.S. domination of the Middle East. Bush decided Hussein had to be punished for trespassing on an oil-rich U.S. protectorate. The Pentagon launched the most intensive bombing campaign in history using conventional bombs, cluster bombs (designed to rip bodies apart), napalm and phosphorus (which cling to and burn skin), and fuel-air explosives (which have the impact of small nuclear bombs). Later, the U.S. used munitions tipped with depleted uranium, which is now suspected as a cause of cancer among both Iraqis and U.S. soldiers and their children. Tens of thousands of Iraqis died during the war. Even more people died from water-borne diseases that spread because the U.S. systematically destroyed Iraq’s electrical, sewage treatment and water treatment systems. Bush’s successor, Bill Clinton, not only kept up the most severe economic sanctions, but also continued to bomb Iraq regularly for 8 years. It was then that George W.Bush, an allegedly born again Christian, who invaded Iraq in 2003, killed thousands of innocent men and women, young and old and finally get caught Saddam Hussein and hanged him.
Kosovo, 1999: When Yugoslav Strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, did not co-operate with U.S. efforts to extend its influence in Eastern Europe, the Clinton Administration embraced the Kosovo Liberation Army, despite their drug dealing, ethnic extremism and brutality. Hundreds of Albanians were driven out of the country and killed thousands of others by Serbian soldiers and militia along with the bombardment by NATO. Ultimately, the war served U.S. political objectives, while causing tremendous death and suffering on all sides and greatly aggravating ethnic antagonisms.
In 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan to hunt down its own bred Osama Bin Laden. In order to occupy Afghanistan from the USSR, the agent of US secretly selected Osama Bin Laden, from Saudi Arabia and was trained in military warfare. He was made a millionaire. He was given weapons and logistic support to invade Afghanistan against the soviet forces. Finally, Osama Bin’s organization liberated Afghanistan. Not long after the occupation, Osama Bin became uncooperative to US dictate. The US did not however stop his activities for the reasons best known to them. He was allowed to operate freely even to the extent of the destruction of twin World Trade Centre with airplane bombs. After this destruction, the US secret agency continues to work closely with Osama Bin Laden for three months and they let him live. When the USA did not need him anymore, they killed him.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the ruler of Libya and the once-loyal friend of USA, was no more. Gaddafi refused to share the rich oil resources with USA earning the rage of this super power country. His life was terminated by rebels supported by USA. The ongoing crisis in Syria, in Egypt and in Iran are all infected by the war mongering disease of USA. The continuing tension between the North and South Korea is the creation of US- who did not allow the two countries to have permanent peace settlement except temporary armistice. The US wanted to station its armies in huge number in South Korea. If peace comes, the US cannot keep its armed forces in Korea which would also lead to the decrease of their controlling power in Asian countries.
The USA has stationed its armed forces in 112 countries of the world. They have been able to top or changed governments in 29 countries after IIWW. If any country or ruler did not fall in line with their dictates, they are considered dangerous and called them ‘evil’ that needs to be punished or destroyed. Which country will be the next target, no one knows. But this super power country is restless without war. They need war with other country(ies) in order to have common goal/vision. Hence war helps the rulers to divert the real situation of its citizens who are facing many problems and are likely to revolt and dismember America into pieces like former USSR. The other reason is that USA is ruled by corporate masters- who earns billions of dollars through waging war. Almost if not all wars and conflicts are fought in Third World countries. And almost if not all weapons used in this conflicts are supplied by the armed industries of USA and other developed countries. The highest source of income for USA is from weapons trade. The other reason for waging war by USA is to snatch natural resources from other countries to feed its consumerist population. The USA wanted to control the whole world resources through pursuing free trade policy (neo-liberalisation) so that they can colonise the whole world through its agents (corporate masters). This is latest form of colonisation. We must be careful of what the media of this super power country conveys every day because mainstream media is in the hands of the rich corporate masters. They relay news that suits them and so can fool us. It is time for US to repent if they ‘Trust in God’ and take the responsibility of caring, loving, saving life rather than destroying them. Christians should not use the name of God in vain. A decisive time has come for US to decide whether they worship God or Mammon. A long as this super power country serves mammon, there cannot be peace in the world.
