COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON RINF FROM DISSIDENT VOICE
Wars of Self-Defense?
Just where do you see any of those?
At least in so far as the world's imperial power, the United
States, is involved?
It has never really fought a “war of defense.”
Never.
The closest one being, but only on brief superficial
examination, WWII.
But even that case - still rich with many sentimental
associations, myths, and unquestioned assumptions - really was a special kind
of covert war of aggression. It employed exactly the techniques Israel did in
the Six Day War.
A combination of putting so many Pacific ships at Pearl
Harbor as an attractive target plus a long and growing list of punitive and
irritating measures against Japan by the Roosevelt administration pushed the
Japanese to do what had never intended to do, attack the United States.
WWII set America up as a world power, smashing important
competitors like Germany and Japan and draining the UK. Just as Israel’s Six
Day War gave it the geographical basis for building Greater Israel.
But even if you, for some reason, reject the example of
WWII, virtually every American War has been a War of Aggression.
War of 1812 - intended to capture Canada, which by the way
was first invaded just before the Revolutionary War in an attempt to secure it
for the American colonies.
Mexican War.
The Indian Wars.
Spanish-American War.
Seizure of Hawaii.
Rebellion in the Philippines.
Vietnam.
Cambodia
Afghanistan (which never attacked the US).
Iraq.
Libya.
The "civil war" in Syria.
Somolia.
The tiny war against Panama.
The First Gulf War.
Add in all the nasty little interventions and coups - from
overthrowing a democratic government in Iran to overthrowing one in Ukraine -
and you have quite a record.
American history only seems different to that of an
historically aggressive country such as Germany because most of America's foes
were small or weak, not major states as the Germans faced, but it has been a
relentless assault nevertheless, not different in intent or purpose to the
raging storms of a Hitler or Napoleon.
