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By: Gary D. Barnett
“Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.” ~Jean Rostand– Pensées d’un biologiste
How has a nation that boasts of being a bastion of freedom and liberty become the most prolific killer on earth? This question will immediately enrage most Americans, and not in any moral sense of remorse for the innocent victims around the world, but due to a false sense of exceptionalism and backward patriotism.
To do any legitimate study of U.S. aggression would take one back to the very beginning, but the past 120 years have seen the continued slaughter of innocents as a normality of the American way of life. I say this because the masses have for the most part supported this indiscriminate killing, and lauded those responsible for the carnage. There were of course dissenters from this norm, but in the end, they were mostly marginalized or worse. Those who do not tow the line of the military today are in many cases ridiculed. And given that every major event, especially sporting events, display 300 foot U.S. flags, military jets, and military personnel ad nauseam, including the recent presidential spectacle, a parade dubbed the “military show of a lifetime,” the devotion shown by the spectators is nothing less than unadulterated worship.
The false sense of superiority that most Americans seem to possess is part of the problem, but how do those who consider themselves better than everyone else, stomach the slaughter of even women and children? How can they simply turn their heads, pretending that all the brutal aggression levied in their name is justified? How can they stand by while entire populations die of disease and starvation due to abominable sanctions? How can they watch families who have the same hopes and dreams as they do, be torn apart at the hands of political and corporate warmongers?
“Kill them all, and you are a god.” Is that how the term God is on our side came into vogue in this country? Is this notion the impetus for public justification for mass murder? Worship these days, at least in this country, has moved away from the devout, and been replaced as reverence to the state. Many churches in this country now pay homage to the military and its troops, the very ones committing murder in their names. Contradiction and hypocrisy at this level belies logic and sanity.
Soon after the birth of the Revolution, the U.S. began warring against its own people, including the Indian tribes, and has continued the war policy ever since that time. When one speaks of American history, the single constant over the past 243 years has been war. War against the American Indians, dissenting American citizens, its neighbors, and most of the rest of the world has been nearly continuous. This is not a country that should any longer be known for exceptionalism or freedom, but for war and aggression. The United States as a nation is the most brutal killing machine that has ever existed, and is continuing to kill around the globe.
As should be expected, there is a wide discrepancy in the reporting of the number of people killed by U.S. forces throughout history. Since World War II, a period referred to as the “post war period,” the U.S. has been responsible for at least 20 million to 30 million deaths according to most estimates. Since the winners write the history, the number of those who died at the hands of the U.S. during this time is likely much higher than what has been reported.
But U.S. wars and other government aggression began long ago, so how many died at the hands of American forces from 1776 until 1898, and from 1898 until the end of World War II? This information is not easily found, and many records, especially civilian death records, are simply not available. If they were, I think the numbers would be astounding to say the least. Depending on the source, between 80 million and 100 million or more died in just the world wars alone. Those deaths were not all due to the U.S., but many were, and without U.S. involvement in those wars of aggression, how many millions fewer would have died?
What should be evident is that the U.S. and its military have been responsible for tens of millions of deaths due to its wars, its violent aggressions, and its sanctions. No other nation on earth has ever been responsible for such carnage, and no other nation has caused such widespread suffering. How many have really been wounded, disfigured, or harmed by war, chemical weapons, sanctions, and total destruction of infrastructures at the hands of the United States? How many have been displaced, and lost their families? How many continue to live with the horrors of war? And considering that more people are being killed every single day by U.S. forces, and that more war seems inevitable, how many more millions will die before Americans wake up to the horror of this aggression?
As I write this, U.S. wars and threats of more war continue. These threats along with other acts of war, including economic sanctions, embargos, and tariffs against over 35 countries (see here and here) are endless. Any combative event, whether a false flag or not, could escalate into global war, and current U.S. foreign policy is mostly to blame for this horrendous possibility. What is missing is any apparent or coherent understanding of the immense risk if U.S. wars for money and power were to escalate into a nuclear action. The devastation would be extreme, and would consume the world.
While American citizens are preoccupied with their smart phones and their Facebook page, and languish over fake racism, gender identity, agenda driven “climate change,” and robotic sex, much of the rest of the world lives in fear. That fear is justified, and is due to U.S. aggression that is ever present and never ending.
A better way is to end war and seek peace. In order for this to occur, the general population must have an awakening, an awakening based on humility instead of arrogance, love instead of hate, harmony instead of divisiveness, and patience instead of indifference. This will require individual thought and individual action, and a mass separation from the political state. A revolution of sorts is vital if societal catastrophe is to be avoided.
“We used to wonder where war lived, what made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives… inside ourselves.”
~Albert Camus—Source/Notes: Carnets: 1935-1942 (1963 edition)
Reprinted with permission from LewRockwell.com
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