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Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Santos: Wars of aggression
By Lino Santos
IN THE wires the other day, a reporter of Xinhua, the Chinese News Agency reported that "The offensive, the first preemptive strike in the US history, kicked off about 90 minutes after the expiration of an ultimatum issued by US President George W. Bush for Saddam to leave the country or face war."
This ignorance, reflected in how the story was presented, could present an altogether different picture that what is actually the case.
The phrase "First Preemptive strike in US history" is far from the truth. The United States has a history of preemptive and borderline strikes, -- all to justify American wars of aggression all over the world.
For example in its efforts to expand towards the west, the United States government wage a genocidal war against the American Indians and almost annihilated the native Americans tribes. History books will show that the Indians were fighting to defend their lands and it was the immigrant Americans who tried to take away their lands. So in this line, the white Americans were striking ahead or were on the attacking mode while the Indians were mostly defensive.
In the Spanish=American war, the Americans were the ones who preempted the war, in the guise of helping the Cubans fight for independence against Spain. The Americans, had nothing in common with the Cubans, but the American found reason or cause to invade Cuba with a simple excuse. By force or reason, it sent the battleship Maine to Havana. Unfortunately, the battleship exploded. The Americans claimed that the Spaniards created an act of war by mining the battleship which resulted to the death of American sailors. Later researches showed that the explosion was actually caused by the igniting of vaporous and combustible coal powder because of the heat or a cigarette thrown by a careless American Sailor.
The Americans invented the battle cry "Remember the Maine" as it invaded Cuba and brought the Spanish Flag down in Central America.
It would be interesting to note that while the Americans were preparing to invade Cuba, their President dispatched Admiral George Dewey to Hongkong. When finally the Americans landed in Cuba, Dewey was directed to proceed to Manila and attack the Spanish fleet. That was a preemptive strike preparatory to grabbing the Philippines from Spain.
The American has a history of preemptive strikes or of provoking wars and moving on to attack unprepared or lesser armed nations of the world.
In the move to take over Spanish possessions in Northwestern America, the Americans used the Alamo debacle as an excuse to pursue the Mexicans out of what is now California, Texas and other still Spanish speaking states in the United States. The Americans are fond of inventing catch phrases to agitate soldiers into killing frenzies. Thus after Texas, the battle cry was "Remember the Alamo." (Remember the movie starring John Wayne?)
After developing a strong navy, the United States started behaving like the policeman of the world when marines attacked Tripoli, the home of the Barbary pirates of old. Thus we have the marines singing "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli."
This habit of preempting attacks was what got the Americans involved in Korea, Vietnam, and now again the Middle East.
No amount of reasoning can convince the United States to stop its "Preemptive attack on Iraq." Her leadership has convinced the ruling military class of the need for this modern war of aggression for all its worth.
Excuses, no matter how flimsy these may be, can always justify the course of action of the strong and mighty in this world.
(March 25, 2003 issue)
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