Sept. 25, 2001: Terrorism and American Foreign Policy by Robert Elias

Who said that thing about throwing the first stone?

In a context where those being stoned can cast back, the axiom is be far simpler, "Beware throwing stones."
Or, "Ending a war is not a unilateral decision!"

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Terrorism and American Foreign Policy
by Robert Elias September 25, 2001
Professor of Sociology at University of San Francisco, California
http://www.robert-fisk.com/robert_elias_25sept2001.htm

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US Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction

The indiscriminate use of bombs by the US, usually outside a declared war situation, for wanton destruction, for no military objectives, whose targets and victims are civilian populations, or what we now call “collateral damage.”

Japan (1945)
China (1945–46)
Korea & China (1950–53)
Guatemala (1954, 1960, 1967–69)
Indonesia (1958)
Cuba (1959–61)
Congo (1964)
Peru (1965)
Laos (1964–70)
Vietnam (1961–1973)
Cambodia (1969–70)
Grenada (1983)
Lebanon (1983–84)
Libya (1986)
El Salvador (1980s)
Nicaragua (1980s)
Iran (1987)
Panama (1989)
Iraq (1991–2000)
Kuwait (1991)
Somalia (1993)
Bosnia (1994–95)
Sudan (1998)
Afghanistan (1998)
Pakistan (1998)
Yugoslavia (1999)
Bulgaria (1999)
Macedonia (1999)
US Use of Chemical & Biological Weapons

The US has refused to sign Conventions against the development and use of chemical and biological weapons ...........

the indiscriminate use of bombs et. al, especially since WWII, usually on peoples we are not at war with and on their "homeland." It's as if bombing of civilians by the good guys wearing the white hats is not terrorism for the only people who commit terrorism are the bad guys wearing the black hats, whereas terrorism is terrorism by definition, no matter who commits it. It should come at no surprise that most of the recipients of bombs et. al by the good guys wearing the white hats are the bad guys wearing the black hats (i.e., those whose politics lean a tad or more to the left). Some sober soul-searching by the guys wearing the white hats and all Americans is long overdue.

From personal experiences living in Latin America, I have to ask, "How far left is leftist?" In my jungle village in the Amazon, US Rangers loaded the "leftists" on planes. When they landed, the leftists were no longer on board! It's a big jungle out there, and they just threw them out of the planes!

In El Salvador, the shot "suspected leftists" at road stops. Mistakes were made, including a General's son. Shooting leftists are road blocks is just not a fool-proof political exercise! But, American support continued thanks to Reagan and Bush. Then they started killing leftist nuns and priests.

Historically, this has always been more about right-wing hats and left-wing hats, or fundamentalism vs. reform, capitalism vs communism, heliocentrism vs. geocentrism, creationism vs. science, slavery vs. human rights, etc. etc.... The "good guys" perception is entirely subjective--why are the white hat guys into black ops warfare?

The definition of terrorism keeps shifting to suit current needs. Reagan called the Sandinists terrorist while killing Nicaraguans. That "leftist" net killed Americans Linda Frasier and Ben Linder. Bombing press conferences is just not a fool-proof political exercise! Giving drug trafficing mercenaries hundreds of millions of dollars to kill and maim is just not a fool-proof political exercise!

Abraham Lincoln's words need to be heeded by Republicans today:

"The marching of an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing crops and their property to destruction, to you may appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does not appear so to us. So to call such an act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent absurdity...the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President."
A. Lincoln, July 27, 1848.

And President Polk said this about waging the War on Mexico:

"...refusing to accept a cessation of territory, would be to abandon all our just demands, and to wage the war, bearing all the expense, without a purpose or definite object."

It was silver and gold then, it's oil today. Creating an enemy, "othering" part of the human family, is part of a murderous process, whether it is "pagans" or "leftists" or "terrorists," or whatever word is used to enable burning the "heretics" of the day.

conjures up many images including the "sinking" of the Maine, the Gulf of Tomkin, and more recently Condi's "mushroom clouds" and the administration's "WMD."