>This was
>the American century. Given the grim alternatives to US hegemony, the
>rest of the world should, for once, express its gratitude.
The short [Anglo-] American Century
(This is just from memory, other subscribers can add in the details of Panama, Guatemala, Cuba and the extensive CIA involvement in Africa.)
1916 Joins in the imperialist slaughter in Europe
1918 Military invasion of the Soviet Union
1930s economic blockade of Japan
1942 Non-appearance of the 'second front' widely seen as Roosevelt's decision to let Hitler clean up the partisans before imposing a new order on Europe (Soviet troops would say when they opened the American tinned meat rations 'let's open the second front').
1945 Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki despite full intelligence reports that Japan had already decided to surrender
1946 Plans drawn up to permanently divide Germany (see C Eisenberg, Drawing the Line, The American Decision to Divide Germany 1944-49).
1946 Support for General Scobie's disarming of the Greek partisans and the imposition of a dictatorship.
1948 Creation of the state of Israel on Palestinian land
1949 Chiang Kai-Shek's seizure of Taiwan
1950 onwards US increasingly involved in Vietnam war leading to the loss of one million Vietnamese lives
1951 Macarthur provokes Korean war (see I Stone, The Secret history of the Korean War)
1954 Overthrow of Iran's radical leader Mossadegh
1956 Suez crisis: Israel seizes the Negev and the canal is permanently blocked
1965 CIA backing for Suharto's bloody coup against Sukarno and the left
1967 Victory over Arab states for US-backed Israel
1973 Kissinger endorsed takeover of Chile and another beating for the Arabs, followed by the sustained destabilisation of Lebanon.
1976 support for Indonesian invasion of East Timor
1979 onwards contra war against Nicaragua
1980 military intervention in Iran
1982 Israeli/Falangist massacres of Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Chatila
1988 bombing raids on Libya killing Col. Ghadaffi's adopted daughter, intervention in Lebanon
1991 Gulf War. The British Medical Journal estimated lives lost in the initial bombing alone at 180 000. Intermittent bombing of Iraq ever since, alongside an economic blocade that is starving the country to this day.
1993 Operation 'restore Hope' in Somalia leads to an air war against Somali civilians with thousands killed.
1994 US trained RPF guerillas invade Rwanda signalling the start of a bloody civil war.
1999 Sustained bombardment of the Yugoslav Republic in Kosovo war
-- Jim heartfield