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International Terrorism: where to drop the bombs

2003-04-10 - 11:26 p.m.

Please read the last entry if you haven't already. This quote from "The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda" is a follow-up:

"In a University of Massachusetts study, people were asked whether they thought that the United States should intervene with force to reverse illegal occupation or serious human rights abuses. By about two to one, people in the United States (according the study) thought we should. We should use force in the case of illegal occupation of land and severe human rights abuses. If the United States was to follow that advice, we would bomb El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Damascus, Tel Aviv, Capetown, Turkey, Washington, and a whole list of other [countries]...If you know the facts about that range of examples, you'll know very well that Saddam Hussein's aggression and atrocities fall well within the range. They're not the most extreme. Why doesn't anybody come to that conclusion? The reason is that nobody knows. In a well-functioning propaganda system, nobody would know what I'm talking about when I list that range of examples."

Let me list several of those examples; however, I preface this by stating that I am not criticizing (nor praising) the American-British war effort.

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Indonesia

The invasion of a small eastern section of itself, East Timor, led to 200,000 deaths--most of which were civilians--several million casualties and free military reign to pillage, rape and decapitate (yes) dissidents.

Israel

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978, the Israeli airforce bombed the city of Beirut, which led to 20,000 deaths--80% of which were civilians. "Pacification" campaigns were instituted by the Israelis within the country while Lebanon repeatedly begged Israeli to comply with Security Council Resolution 425. This resolution called on Israeli specifically to withdraw unconditionally. As of 1987, a total of 67,000 Lebanese were killed by Israelis, while 100,000 were killed due to civil wars stemming from Israeli occupation.

Guatemala

Population: 12,974,361 million people. A poll conducted by the Arias Foundation for Peace Human Progress "investigated the popular perception of issues related to the role of the military in the life of the country, as well as to human rights violations."

Findings (based on statistical analysis):

*76% of the population said they did not believe the military contributed anything positive to the government.

*84% pointed out that the Armed Forces violated human rights.

*57% fear the "Civil Self-Defense Squads" that perform "counterinsurgency" (domestic pacification) measures.

Since the 1954 coup led by Rios Montt, over ">200,000 people have been killed, while millions have been displaced into Mexico and various Central American countries. The indigenous Mayan population has suffered far worse: hundreds of villages have been bombed and set aflame with occupants forced to remain in the blaze at gunpoint. Many Mayans are sent to "model" villages, or "social re-adaptation centers" that have been designated as "inhumanely unfit" by the UN-sponsored Truth Commission.

Rios Montt still holds power in Guatemala through his control of the current dictator, Alfonso Portillo.

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Well, one down and more to go, right?

As an aside, here's a website that exhaustively lists the casualties for every major atrocity, massacre and genocidal campaign committed by any country during the 20th century.

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