Memorial Day Ignores the Horrors of Endless US Aggression

by Stephen Lendman

Deplorable US history is belligerent, ruthless, immoral, defiant of rule of law principles and democratic values while feigning high-mindedness.

America glorifies wars and violence in the name of peace, perpetually at war with invented enemies, pacifism considered unpatriotic, civil and human rights obstacles to its imperial aims.

Neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post editors deplorably blustered "(t)oday, let us remember those who acted selflessly. THEY DIED for you."

They died in vain, lives wasted, sent to battle on false pretenses - in pursuit of US imperial aims for unchallenged global dominance, not for any noble purpose as falsely claimed.

None of America's wars were waged for declared reasons. So-called war of independence changed nothing but new management in charge of old policies.

Civil war was fought to keep the nation intact, maintaining dirty business as usual, not to free Black African slaves Lincoln and others in the north didn't give a damn about.

Subsequent wars were imperial conflicts, stealing half of Mexico and other territories, becoming a world power by involvement in WWs I and II - not good wars, pure evil ones, nations raped and destroyed, tens of millions of lives lost.

War on the Korean peninsula followed numerous Seoul provocations - Truman's war, not Pyongyang's, turning much of the north to smoldering rubble, millions perishing to advance America's imperium.

Washington bears full responsibility for Southeast Asia's 30-year war, a liberating struggle, America attacking North Vietnam and neighboring countries Cambodia and Laos, using deadly dioxin and other terror weapons, killing millions, causing utter devastation, wounds from the conflict unhealed to this day.

The 1990s included Gulf War aggression on Iraq, genocidal sanctions, raping and destroying Yugoslavia - prelude for imperial wars to follow.

Millions more lives were lost from conflicts, related violence, untreated diseases and injuries, starvation, and overall deprivation - appalling Nuremberg-level high crimes.

They're ongoing this Memorial Day in multiple theaters, wars of choice for profit and dominance, the lessons of past conflicts never learned.

State-sponsored violence begets more of it, an endless cycle of mass slaughter, destruction and unspeakable human misery.

Who honors the countless victims of US imperialism? Who keeps count of lives lost?

Who explains the horrors of endless US aggression? Who understands the risk of possible life on earth ending nuclear war?

At Gettysburg in 1863, Lincoln said "(w)e here resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Devastating civil war continued until June 22, 1865 - many others in its aftermath. 

America is a warrior nation, a serial aggressor, deploring peace and stability, permanently at war on humanity - the real message Memorial Day conveys.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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