The unending American quest for supremacy has continued unabated since its first involvement in the affairs of Argentina in 1890.
Sabir Shah
The News International
LAHORE: While the Pakistani rulers haplessly watch the Washington-triggered drones causing massive casualties on their soil regularly, they can perhaps seek solace in the fact that in a persistent bid to establish its hegemony over the world and to display its superior military might for its corporate gains, America has intruded in the affairs of at least 50 countries of the world over 130 times during the last 121 years.
Research and calculations conducted by The News, with assistance sought from renowned US scholar Dr Zoltan Grossman’s book “From wounded knee to Libya: A Century of US military interventions,” and from celebrated author William Blum’s books “A brief history of US interventions: 1945 to Present” and a best seller “Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II,” show than the unending American quest for supremacy has continued unabated since its first involvement in the affairs of Argentina in 1890.
While the US troops have intervened in the affairs of Panama eight times (1895, 1901-14, 1908, 1912, 1918-20, 1958, 1964 and 1989), they entered Nicaragua (1894, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1907, 1910, 1912-33), Honduras (1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924-25, 1983-89) and China (1894-95, 1898-1900, 1911-14, 1922-27, 1927-34, 1948-49, 1958) some seven times each under one pretext or the other during this period under review.
The American forces sailed for Cuba (1898-1902, 1906-1909, 1912, 1917-33, 1961, 1962) six times, they went to Iran five times (1946, 1953, 1980, 1984, 1987-88), and they interfered on four different occasions in Haiti (1891,1914-34, 1987-94, 2004-05) Dominican Republic (1903-04,1914,1916-24,1963-66), Yugoslavia (1919,1946,1992-94,1991-93), Iraq (1958, 1963, 1990-91, 1991-93) and Philippines (1898-1910, 1948-54, 1989, 2002).
The US troops were dispatched thrice to Korea (1894-96, 1904-05, 1945-53), Libya (1981, 1986-89, 2011), Guatemala (1920, 1954, 1966-67), Yemen (2000, 2002, 2004) and Liberia (1990, 1997, 2003).
They were sent on foreign missions twice to nations like Chile (1891, 1964-73), Mexico (1913, 1914-18), Puerto Rico (1898, 1950), El-Salvador (1932, 1981-82), Germany (1948, 1961), Laos (1962, 1971-73), Somalia (1992-94, 2006) and Afghanistan (1998, 2001).
Apart from featuring prominently in World War I and II, the US combat forces have also been active at least once in countries like Argentina, Samoa, Russia, Guam, Turkey, Uruguay, Greece, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Oman, Macedonia, Syria, Pakistan, Bolivia, Virgin Islands, Zaire (Congo), Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Grenada, Angola, Sudan, Albania, Bosnia and Colombia.
In one of his published articles “A briefing on the history of US military interventions,” Dr Zoltan Grossman, a member of the South-West Asia Information Group in the United States, discusses at length how American policy makers have been intervening in other countries for a long time, the backgrounds of these actions and the loss of civilian lives as a result of these military offensives.
In his article, Dr Grossman writes,” Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, most people in the world agree that the perpetrators need to be brought to justice, without killing many thousands of civilians in the process. But unfortunately, the US military has always accepted massive civilian deaths as part of the cost of war. The military is now poised to kill thousands of foreign civilians, in order to prove that killing US civilians is wrong.”
He further states in this article published in the “Z magazine” of US in October 2001 and translated in Italian and Polish languages:” The media have told us repeatedly that some Middle Easterners hate the US only because of our “freedom” and “prosperity.” Missing from this explanation is the historical context of the US role in the Middle East, and for that matter in the rest of the world. This basic primer is an attempt to brief readers who have not closely followed the history of US foreign or military affairs, and are perhaps unaware of the background of US military interventions abroad, but are concerned about the direction of our country toward a new war in the name of “freedom” and “protecting civilians.”
Dr Zoltan Grossman maintains, “The United States military has been intervening in other countries for a long time. In 1898, it seized the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico from Spain and in 1917-18 became embroiled in World War I in Europe. In the first half of the 20th century it repeatedly sent Marines to “protectorates” such as Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. All these interventions directly served corporate interests, and many resulted in massive losses of civilians, rebels, and soldiers.”
Grossman goes on to write,” In the early 1960s, the US returned to its pre-World War II intervention role in the Caribbean, directing the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs exile invasion of Cuba, and the 1965 bombing and Marine invasion of the Dominican Republic during an election campaign. The CIA trained and harboured Cuban exile groups in Miami, which launched terrorist attacks on Cuba, including the 1976 downing of a Cuban civilian jetliner near Barbados. During the Cold War, the CIA would also help to support or install pro-US dictatorships in Iran, Chile, Guatemala, Indonesia and many other countries around the world.”
He asserts, “Even when the US military had apparently defensive motives, it ended up attacking the wrong targets. After the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa, the US “retaliated” not only against Osama Bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan, but a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that was mistakenly said to be a chemical warfare installation. Bin Laden retaliated by attacking a US Navy ship docked in Yemen in 2000. After the 2001 terror attacks on the United States, the US military is poised to again bomb Afghanistan, and possibly move against other states it accuses of promoting anti-US “terrorism,” such as Iraq and Sudan.”
In one of the concluding paragraphs of his afore-cited article, Dr Grossman views,” Such a campaign will certainly ratchet up the cycle of violence, in an escalating series of retaliations that is the hallmark of Middle East conflicts.
Afghanistan, like Yugoslavia, is a multiethnic state that could easily break apart in a new catastrophic regional war. Almost certainly more civilians would lose their lives in this tit-for-tat war on “terrorism” than the 3,000 civilians who died on September 11.”
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