by: Dr Gideon Polya
Friday July 4, 2014 - 09:09
The World should urgently make 4 July Independence from America Day. Make no mistake, the World loves and is inspired by the best of America, and notably by the best of its entertainers, sportsmen, writers, scholars, scientists, musicians, artists, actors, heroes and activists, and in particular we love American ideals as expressed in the American Declaration of Independence and the small community values of friendship, goodwill, tolerance and altruism. However America has progressively fallen into the hands of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist One Percenters with dire consequences for Americans and the World.
The dream of America has transmuted into a Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) One Percenter Amerika to the point that Jewish Hungarian American investor, billionaire, philanthropist and WW2 Jewish Holocaust survivor George Soros has called for the “de-Nazification” of America, stating in relation to the illegal war in Iraq that “[America’s future depends on the] extent it recognizes the mistake. America needs to follow the policies it has introduced in Germany. We have to go through a certain de-Nazification process" [1].
In similar vein, conservative, blue blood Republican, so-called Father of Reaganomics Dr Paul Craig Roberts (formerly Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under Reagan, associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate, and with many university appointments) writing for 4 July 2014 stated: “In the United States patriotism and militarism have become synonyms. This July 4th find the courage to remind the militarists that Independence Day celebrates the Declaration of Independence, not the American Empire. The Declaration of Independence was not only a declaration of independence from King George III but also a declaration of independence from unaccountable tyrannical government. The oath of office commits the US officeholder to the defense of the US Constitution from enemies ”foreign and domestic.” In the 21st century Americans’ worst enemies are not al Qaeda, Iran, Russia, and China. America’s worst enemies are our own presidents who have declared repeatedly that the orchestrated “war on terror” gives them the right to set aside the civil liberties guaranteed to every citizen by the US Constitution” [2].
Two conservative swallows do not make a summer. Accordingly it is useful to objectively and quantitatively consider American One Percenter crimes against Humanity, including Americans, concentrating on direct or indirect violations of the most fundamental human right, namely the Right to Life of born human beings. Thus when America invades and occupies a country or establishes hegemony through military bases or political subversion (as revealed by world heroes Julian Assange and Edward Snowden), America then becomes responsible not just for violent deaths through killing but also for avoidable deaths from US-imposed deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease [3].
I have set out below a succinct, quantitative summary of American One Percenter imperialism since 1776 and its dire human consequences.
1. America has invaded 70 nations since 1776.
The list below does not include the 1801-1805 US Marine Barbary War operations against Barbary pirates based in Morocco , Algeria , Tunisia and Libya; Muslim countries subject to attacks by US-backed Apartheid Israel; current Apartheid Australia-targetted US drone attacks from Mali to Pakistan; and massive US subversion of virtually all countries in the world as revealed by Julian Assange and Edward Snowden). In recent weeks the US has re-invaded Iraq with a total, so far, of 800 military personnel.
American Indian nations (1776 onwards, American Indian Genocide; 1803, Louisiana Purchase; 1844, Indians banned from east of the Mississippi; 1861 onwards, California genocide; 1890, Lakota Indians massacre), (2) Mexico (1836-1846; 1913; 1914-1918; 1923), (3) Nicaragua (1856-1857; 1894; 1896; 1898; 1899; 1907; 1910; 1912-1933; 1981-1990), (4) American forces deployed against Americans (1861-1865, Civil War; 1892; 1894; 1898; 1899-1901; 1901; 1914; 1915; 1920-1921; 1932; 1943; 1967; 1968; 1970; 1973; 1992; 2001), (5), Argentina (1890), (6), Chile (1891; 1973), (7) Haiti (1891; 1914-1934; 1994; 2004-2005), (8) Hawaii (1893-), (9) China (1895-1895; 1898-1900; 1911-1941; 1922-1927; 1927-1934; 1948-1949; 1951-1953; 1958), (10) Korea (1894-1896; 1904-1905; 1951-1953), (11) Panama (1895; 1901-1914; 1908; 1912; 1918-1920; 1925; 1958; 1964; 1989-), (12) Philippines (1898-1910; 1948-1954; 1989; 2002-), (13) Cuba (1898-1902; 1906-1909; 1912; 1917-1933; 1961; 1962), (14) Puerto Rico (1898-; 1950; ); (15) Guam (1898-), (16) Samoa (1899-), (17) Honduras (1903; 1907; 1911; 1912; 1919; 1924-1925; 1983-1989), (18) Dominican Republic (1903-1904; 1914; 1916-1924; 1965-1966), (19) Germany (1917-1918; 1941-1945; 1948; 1961), (20) Russia (1918-1922), (21) Yugoslavia (1919; 1946; 1992-1994; 1999), (22) Guatemala (1920; 1954; 1966-1967), (23) Turkey (1922), (24) El Salvador (1932; 1981-1992), (25) Italy (1941-1945); (26) Morocco (1941-1945), (27) France (1941-1945), (28) Algeria (1941-1945), (29) Tunisia (1941-1945), (30) Libya (1941-1945; 1981; 1986; 1989; 2011), (31) Egypt (1941-1945; 1956; 1967; 1973; 2013), (32) India (1941-1945), (33) Burma (1941-1945), (34) Micronesia (1941-1945), (35) Papua New Guinea (1941-1945), (36) Vanuatu (1941-1945), (37) Austria (1941-1945), (38) Hungary (1941-1945), (39) Japan (1941-1945), (40) Iran (1946; 1953; 1980; 1984; 1987-1988; ), (41) Uruguay (1947), (42) Greece (1947-1949), (43) Vietnam (1954; 1960-1975), (44) Lebanon (1958; 1982-1984), (45) Iraq (1958; 1963; 1990-1991; 1990-2003; 1998; 2003-2011, 2014), (46) Laos (1962-), (47) Indonesia (1965), (48) Cambodia (1969-1975; 1975), (49) Oman (1970), (50) Laos (1971-1973), (51) Angola (1976-1992), (52) Grenada (1983-1984), (53) Bolivia (1986; ), (54) Virgin Islands (1989), (55) Liberia (1990; 1997; 2003), (56) Saudi Arabia (1990-1991), (57) Kuwait (1991), (58) Somalia (1992-1994; 2006), (59) Bosnia (1993-), (60) Zaire (Congo) (1996-1997), (61) Albania (1997), (62) Sudan (1998), (63) Afghanistan (1998; 2001-), (64) Yemen (2000; 2002-), (65) Macedonia (2001), (66) Colombia (2002-), (67) Pakistan (2005-), (68) Syria (2008; 2011-), (69) Uganda (2011), (70) Mali (2013), (71) Niger (2013) [4].2. America has military bases in at least 156 countries.
According to Canadian geographer Professor Jules Dufour: “The US has established its control over 191 governments which are members of the United Nations. The conquest, occupation and/or otherwise supervision of these various regions of the World is supported by an integrated network of military bases and installations which covers the entire Planet (Continents, Oceans and Outer Space). All this pertains to the workings of an extensive Empire, the exact dimensions of which are not always easy to ascertain … the presence of US military personnel in 156 countries. The US Military has bases in 63 countries. Brand new military bases have been built since September 11, 2001 in seven countries. In total, there are 255,065 US military personnel deployed Worldwide. These facilities include a total of 845,441 different buildings and equipments. The underlying land surface is of the order of 30 million acres. According to Gelman, who examined 2005 official Pentagon data, the US is thought to own a total of 737 bases in foreign lands. Adding to the bases inside U.S. territory, the total land area occupied by US military bases domestically within the US and internationally is of the order of 2,202,735 hectares, which makes the Pentagon one of the largest landowners worldwide (Gelman, J., 2007)” [5].
3. American hegemony is associated with over 1.3 billion avoidable deaths since 1950.
A major component of war- or hegemony-related deaths is represented by non-violent avoidable deaths from violently-imposed deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease. Since 1950 the UN has provided detailed demographic data that have permitted calculation of such avoidable deaths, year by year, for every country in the world. 1950-2005 avoidable deaths total 1.3 billion for the whole world, 1.2 billion for the non-European world and 0.6 billion for the Muslim world, the latter carnage being 100 times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust in which the British with Apartheid Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death for strategic reasons. Currently 17 million people die avoidably each year in the Developing World on Spaceship Earth with the US in charge of the flight deck [3].
4. American occupation has been associated with over 82 million avoidable deaths since 1950.
Below is a summary of 1950-2005 avoidable mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) for each country occupied by the US in the post-1945 era. The asterisk (*) indicates a major occupation by more than one country in the post-WW2 era (thus, for example, the UK and the US have been major occupiers of Afghanistan , Iraq and Korea , leaving aside the many other minor participants in these conflicts). Data is also given for the US: US [8.455m/300.038m = 2.8%], Afghanistan* [16.609m/25.971m = 64.0%], Cambodia* [5.852m/14.825m = 39.5%], Dominican Republic [0.806m/8.998m = 9.0%], Federated States of Micronesia [0.016m/0.111m = 14.4%], Greece* [0.027m/10.978m = 0.2%], Grenada* [0.018m/0.121m = 14.9%], Guam [0.005m/0.168m = 3.0%], Haiti* [4.089m/8.549m = 47.9%], Iraq* [5.283m/26.555m = 19.9%], Korea* [7.958m/71.058m = 11.2%], Laos* [2.653m/5.918m = 44.8%], Panama [0.172m/3.235m = 5.3%], Philippines [9.080m/82.809m = 11.0%], Puerto Rico [0.039m/3.915m = 1.0%], Somalia* [5.568m/10.742m = 51.8%], US Virgin Islands [0.003m/0.113m = 2.4%], Vietnam* [24.015m/83.585m = 28.7%], total = 82.193m/357.651m = 23.0%. [3]. However one should also consider the 24 million avoidable deaths in 1950-2005 linked to the attacks on and occupation of neighbouring countries by the US-backed, genocidally racist colony of Apartheid Israel for which the corresponding 1950-2005 avoidable mortality/ 2005 population data have been garnered: Israel [0.095m/6.685m =1.4%] - Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Jordan* [0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Lebanon [0.535m/3.761m = 14.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories* [0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Syria* [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], total = 23.858m/106.854 = 22.3% [3].
5. Huge and deadly American wealth inequality is linked to violence and war.
There is a remarkable dichotomy of evil and good in America as illustrated by war monger, war criminal and mass murderer George Bush versus the humane conservative Dr Paul Craig Roberts who stated (2014): “On July 4th all across America there will be patriotic speeches about our soldiers who gave their lives for their country. To an informed person these speeches are curious. I am hard pressed to think of any examples of our soldiers giving their lives for our country. US Marine General Smedley Butler had the same problem. He said that his Marines gave their lives for United Fruit Company’s control of Central America. “War is a racket,” said General Butler, pointing out that US participation in World War I produced 21,000 new American millionaires and billionaires”[2]. French economist Thomas Piketty in his important book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” has shown that the One Percenter share of total income in each of the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia fell from about 20% in 1910 to 6-9% in 1970, but after 1980 variously increased to 10-18% in 2007 (18% for the US). A similar pattern obtains with the top 10% (the Ten Percenters) in these countries, a phenomenon that Piketty describes as “the rise of the supermanager: an Anglo-Saxon phenomenon” [6, 7] (see [6], Figures 9.2-9.8, pp315-324). The One Percenters now own about 50% of world wealth with a huge impact on global avoidable mortality from deprivation now totalling 17 million avoidable deaths in the Developing World. However a roughly 4% annual global wealth tax generating US$16 trillion annually (pigs might fly) would suffice to bring all poor countries up to the modest annual per capita income of Cuba (annual per capita income of US$6,301), a country having lower infant mortality than the wealthy US (annual per capita income of US$51,163) and zero annual avoidable mortality [8] .
6. American wealth inequality is linked to 1.3 million preventable American deaths annually.
The horrendous wealth inequality and militarism (including an estimated $40 trillion long-term accrual cost of Apartheid Israel to Americans [9]) is linked to 1.3 million preventable American deaths each year linked to the fiscal perversion of traitorous Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist One Percenters committing $8-10 trillion to ethnic cleansing and active and passive mass murder of 12 million Muslims abroad since 1990 in the War on Muslims (and 10 million in the post-2001 War on Terror) in support of US hegemony, oil and Apartheid Israel instead of keeping Americans alive at home [9, 10]. 7. American violence linked to 100,000 opiate drug deaths annually. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) about 0.1 million people die from opiate drug-related causes each year. The US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 6% of world market share in 2001 to 93% in 2007 means about 0.9 x 0.1 million deaths per year x 12.7 years = 1.1 million global deaths due to US Alliance-pushed Afghan opiates, this including about 200,000 Americans, 50,000 Iranians, 18,000 British, 10,000 Canadians, 8,000 Germans and 4,000 Australians [10].
8. American–initiated and US-dominated tobacco industry kills 6 million people each year.
In the United States tobacco use is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., about 443,000 deaths per year, with an estimated 49,000 of these smoking-related deaths as the result of second hand smoke exposure) [10]. However, worldwide tobacco-related deaths total about 6 million each year from the American –initiated and US-dominated tobacco industry [11].
9. Apocalyptic One Percenter US state terrorism and nuclear, poverty and climate change threats.
It is likely that a nuclear exchange involving the US and other state nuclear terrorism would wipe out all of Humanity (currently 7 billion people). Already about 17 million people die avoidably each year from US- and other First World One Percenter-imposed poverty. Presently about 5 million people die avoidably each year from climate change (0.5 million) and carbon burning (4.5 million) in a worsening climate genocide [12] but it is estimated that 10 billion will perish this century (all but circa 0.5 billion of Humanity) if man-made climate change is not properly addressed [13]. The One Percenter-dominated US has about 4.5% of the world’s population and consumes about 25% of the world’s resources in a carbon-based economy. Obama rhetoric aside, the One Percenter-run US is giving no indication that it will address America’s disproportionately huge contribution to man-made climate change [14] and the primary driver, massively increasing wealth inequality. Despite a desperate innate optimism in relation to the potentially achievable , I really cannot see the One Percenter-dominated US adopting the science-based imperative of urgently returning atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2 from the current dangerous and damaging 400 ppm CO2 [15].
Conclusions.
The US One Percenters are not the only One Percenters in the world but the US One Percenters dominate as does their neoliberal philosophy. Similarly, while the US has invaded 70 countries and subverts all countries on earth, other first world countries contribute to egregious global violence and accompanying wealth inequality. The richest countries in the world in terms of per capita income include those with the worst records of invading other countries. Thus the US has invaded 70 nations [4], the UK about 170 [16] and France has invaded 80 countries [17]. The US , the UK and France are united in the egregiously violent France-UK-US (FUKUS) Coalition and are world leaders in ownership of global wealth, in arms sales, and in invasion and occupation of other countries since 1945 and in the 21st century [6, 7].
With half the world’s wealth in the hands of the One Percenters, “one dollar one vote” trumps the notional “one man one vote” for the remaining 99% who, like legislators, are subject to a barrage of neoliberal propaganda from the presstitutes of the One Percenters. The Western democracies have become One Percenter- and Ten Percenter-dominated Murdochracies. Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies in which Big Money buys people, politicians, parties, polices, public perception of reality and political power.
What can decent people do before it is too late (if it is not too late already)? Decent people who care for future generations, Humanity and the Biosphere must (a) inform everyone they can, (b) apply, where feasible, Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the climate criminal and war criminal One Percenters and their Ten Percenter lackeys, and (c) make the Fourth of July Independence from America Day.
References.
[1]. Gideon Polya, “George Soros urges Bush America "de-Nazification" after removal of war criminal Bush regime”, Bellaciao, 21 February 2007:http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?ar... .
[2]. Paul Craig Roberts, “July 4th Militarist Bunkum (an encore by request)”, Countercurrents, 3 July 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/robe... .
[3]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” that includes an avoidable mortality-related history of every country since Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web:http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .
[4]. Gideon Polya, “The US Has Invaded 70 Nations Since 1776 – Make 4 July Independence From America Day”, Countercurrents, 05 July 2013:http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... .
[5]. Jules Dufour, “The world-wide network of US military bases”, Global Research: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-wo... .
[6]. Thomas Piketty “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”.
[7]. Gideon Polya, “Key book review: “Capital In The Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty”, Countercurrents, 1 July 2014:http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... .
[8]. Gideon Polya, “4 % annual Global Wealth Tax to stop the 17 Million deaths annually”, Countercurrents, 27 June, 2014:http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... .
[9]. Gideon Polya, “American Holocaust, millions of untimely American deaths and $40 trillion cost of Israel to Americans”, Countercurrents, 27 August, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... .
[10]. Gideon Polya, “ One million Americans die preventably annually in USA ”, Countercurrents, 18 February 2012:http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... .
[11]. “Tobacco”, WHO, 2014: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/fact... .
[12]. DARA, “Climate Vulnerability Monitor. A guide to the cold calculus of a hot planet”, 2012, Executive Summary pp2-3: http://daraint.org/climate-vulnerab... .
[13]. “Climate Genocide”: “Climate Genocide”:https://sites.google.com/site/clima... .
[14]. Gideon Polya, “Pro-gas Obama’s EPA-based plan to reduce coal-based pollution amounts to climate change inaction”, Countercurrents, 7 June 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... .
[15]. “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm”:https://sites.google.com/site/300or... .
[16]. Jasper Copping, “British have invaded nine out of ten countries – so look out Luxembourg . Britain has invaded all but 22 countries in the world in its long and colourful history, new research has found”, Telegraph, 4 November 2012: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/... .
[17]. Gideon Polya, “President Hollande and French invasion of privacy versus French invasion of 80 countries since 800 AD”, Countercurrents, 15 January, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... .
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