The cheerleaders of the military industrial complex are revving themselves up for yet another American misadventure overseas. Sketchy, second-hand reports have appeared that seem to confirm the limited use of sarin gas by forces under the control of president-for-life Bashar al-Assad against Syrian rebels. President Obama had previously marked the use of chemical weapons in Syria’s bloody civil war as a “red line” and “game changer” for America’s involvement in the affairs of that foreign, sovereign country.
Of course that “game change” was never specified by the administration. The president never said we were going to war, but some people managed to read U.S. military aggression between the lines. Now the President’s representatives are treading lightly, doing their best to hold back war mongers like Senator John McCain, who endlessly advocate for America’s involvement in the affairs of every country across the globe.
It is obvious that the use of sarin gas is not a de facto reason to get involved in the Syrian civil war. In 1988 Irai forces unleashed a sarin gas attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja, yet the United States did nothing to Iraq (until they invaded an oil-producing ally). When the Aum Shinrikyo sect used sarin to attack Japanese citizens on subway cars, the United States did not send the Marines into downtown Tokyo.
So what motivates warmongers like McCain? U.S. imperialism is at the root of it. The United States have never gotten over the empire envy that was such an integral part of our nation’s youth. The United States has been going to war with sovereign nations every few years since its inception. In the early days, the U.S. simply absorbed these sovereign nations and their people. The American Indian Wars, as they are now known, brought untold horror, with Americans utilizing advanced weaponry and germ warfare to decimate dozens of civilizations in the name of westward expansion. Wars with Mexico and Spain also greatly expanded the early American land empire.
Just since the end of World War II, the United States has barely gone a year without forcing itself into the affairs of other nations. Here’s a partial list of American military exploits over the past 70 years:
The French Indochina War (50-54)
The Korean War (50-53)
The Vietnam War (53-75)
The Laotian Civil War (53-75)
The 1958 Lebanese Crisis (Operation Blue Bat) (58)
The Cambodian Civil War (70-75)
The Invasion of the Dominican Republic (Operation Power Pack) (65-66)
The 1981 Gulf of Sidra Incident (81)
The Lebanese Civil War (82-84)
The Invasion of Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury) (83)
The Bombing of Libya (Operation El Dorado Canyon) (86)
The Action in the Gulf of Sidra (Operation Prairie Fire) (86)
The Tanker War (Operation Honest Will) (86-87)
The Second Gulf of Sidra Incident (89)
The Invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause) (89-90)
The Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) (90-91)
The Somali Civil War (Operation Restore Hope) (92-94)
The Bosnian War (Operation Deliberate Force) (94-95)
Operation Uphold Democracy (94-95)
Operation Infinite Reach (98)
The Kosovo War (Operation Noble Anvil) (99)
The Second Liberian War (03)
The Invasion of Iraq (03-11)
The Libyan Civil War (Operation Odyssey Dawn) (11)
