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“Why, This Isn’t Cuba”

April 9, 2018 By Bob Kinsey

By David Swanson

“Why, This Isn’t Cuba”


Back in the 1890s those who believed conquering a continent was killing enough (without taking over Hawaii, the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc.) included Speaker of the House Thomas Reed. He clipped an article out of a newspaper about a lynching in South Carolina. He clipped a headline about “Another Outrage in Cuba.” He pasted the two together (fake news!) and gave them to a Congressman from South Carolina who was pushing for a war on Cuba. The Congressman eagerly read the article, then stopped, looked puzzled, and remarked “Why, this isn’t Cuba.”
I recommend trying this trick. Clip an article about Israelis murdering Palestinians, or some outrage in a U.S. prison or a Saudi square or under the rain of humanitarian bombs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Libya, or elsewhere; paste it below a headline about Iran, North Korea, Bashar al Assad, or Vladimir Putin. Show it to the person closest to your Congress member or senators with whom you are able to get into the same room or reach by email. Or just show it to someone who has the misfortune to own a television.
Outrages should be outrages because of what they are, not because of who commits them. Good luck finding that to be the case in the United States today!
Here’s an excerpt from my new book, Curing Exceptionalism:
In exceptionalist nationalism, as perhaps in all nationalism, “we” are to adopt a first-person plural identity alive for centuries, so that “we fought the British” and “we won the Cold War.” This self-identification, especially when combined with the belief in exceptional superiority, inclines the believer toward focusing on noble things “we” did, and away from shameful things “we” did, even though personally he or she deserves neither credit for the former nor blame for the latter. “The nationalist,” wrote George Orwell, “not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”[i]
On page 1 of the Cheneys’ book(See Footnote): “We have guaranteed freedom, security, and peace for a larger share of humanity than has any other nation in all of history.”[ii] Such claims are, as here, generally not footnoted or explained. In the context of what follows it, the claim seems based largely on an analysis of World War II as the promotion of freedom and peace, and on a history of World War II that leaves out the lion’s share of the Allies’ fighting in Europe that was done by the Soviet Union.
The claim that “we” are the leading bringers of peace and freedom may, of course, also be based on U.S. wars and weapons production since World War II. Certainly, if whoever fights the most wars and produces the most weapons brings the most peace and freedom to the earth, then the United States takes the title. But outside the United States, this logic is far from universally accepted — quite the contrary. Most countries polled in December 2013 by Gallup called the United States the greatest threat to peace in the world.[iii] A survey by Pew in 2017 found similar results.[iv]
Since World War II, during what some U.S. academics think of as a golden age of peace, the U.S. military has killed or helped kill some 20 million people, overthrown at least 36 governments, interfered in at least 84 foreign elections, attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders, and dropped bombs on people in over 30 countries.[v] The U.S. military costs nearly as much as the rest of the world’s militaries combined, while the U.S., NATO members, and their allies account for three-quarters of the world’s military spending. U.S. weapons dealing is exceptional in the sense of leading all others, but quite inclusive in terms of its clients. The United States, as noted above, as of 2017 provided weapons and in most cases training to 73 percent of the world’s dictatorships.[vi] It is certainly possible to find good results from some of this, but a clear-eyed understanding requires weighing the good against the bad. Is the globe that fails to appreciate all of this global policing made up of a bunch of ingrates? Or is the policing model seriously flawed?
Avoiding national criticism, or self-reflection on “us,” risks allowing generosity to serve as a cover for a double standard. What might Americans think if another nation were to do some of its own freedom-promoting around the world? Such would be the behavior of a “rogue nation.” Here is a count of military bases in the world that exist outside their nations’ borders:[vii]
United States — 800
Russia — 9
France — 8
United Kingdom — 8
Japan — 1
South Korea — 1
The Netherlands — 1
India — 1
Australia — 1
Chile — 1
Turkey — 1
Israel — 1
In 2007, the president of Ecuador told the United States that it could keep its base in Ecuador as long as Ecuador could have one in Miami, Florida.[viii] The idea was, of course, ridiculous and outrageous.
Of the United Nations’ 18 major human rights treaties, the United States is party to 5, fewer than any other nation on earth, except Bhutan (4), and tied with Malaya, Myanmar, and South Sudan, a country torn by warfare since its creation in 2011.[ix] Is the United States functioning as the world’s law enforcer from a location outside the world’s laws? Or is something else going on?
That the United States has done something should not weigh for or against that thing. Actions should stand or fall on their own merits. But the Cheneys tell us we must see a “moral difference between an Iranian nuclear weapon and an American one.” Must we, really? Either risks further proliferation, accidental use, use by a crazed leader, mass death and destruction, environmental disaster, retaliatory escalation, and apocalypse. One of those two nations has nuclear weapons[x], has used nuclear weapons[xi], has provided the other with plans for nuclear weapons[xii], has a policy of first-use of nuclear weapons[xiii], has leadership that sanctions the possession of nuclear weapons[xiv], and has frequently threated to use nuclear weapons[xv]. I don’t think those facts would make a nuclear weapon in the hands of the other country the least bit moral.
If you’re wondering, U.S. presidents who have made specific public or secret nuclear threats to other nations, that we know of, have included Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump, while others, including Barack Obama, have frequently said things like “All options are on the table” in relation to Iran or another country.[xvi]
[i] George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism,” http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat.
[ii] Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America (Threshold Editions, 2015).
[iii] Meredith Bennett-Smith, “Womp! This Country Was Named The Greatest Threat To World Peace,” HuffPost, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/02/greatest-threat-world-peace-country_n_4531824.html (January 23, 2014).
[iv] Dorothy Manevich and Hanyu Chwe, “Globally, more people see U.S. power and influence as a major threat,” Pew Research Center, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/01/u-s-power-and-influence-increasingly-seen-as-threat-in-other-countries (August 1, 2017).
[v] David Swanson, “U.S. Wars and Hostile Actions: A List,” Let’s Try Democracy, http://davidswanson.org/warlist.
[vi] David Swanson, “U.S. Wars and Hostile Actions: A List,” Let’s Try Democracy, http://davidswanson.org/warlist.
[vii] David Swanson, “What Are Foreign Military Bases for?,” Let’s Try Democracy, http://davidswanson.org/what-are-foreign-military-bases-for (July 13, 2015).
[viii] Phil Stewart, “Ecuador wants military base in Miami,” Reuters, https://uk.reuters.com/article/ecuador-base/ecuador-wants-military-base-in-miami-idUKADD25267520071022 (October 22, 2007).
[ix] “The Core International Human Rights Instruments and their monitoring bodies,” United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CoreInstruments.aspx.
[x] David Swanson, “Talk Nation Radio: Gareth Porter: Iran Has Never Had a Nuclear Weapons Program,” Let’s Try Democracy, http://davidswanson.org/talk-nation-radio-gareth-porter-iran-has-never-had-a-nuclear-weapons-program-3 (February 12, 2014).
[xi] David Swanson, “Hiroshima Haunting,” Let’s Try Democracy,” http://davidswanson.org/hiroshima-haunting (August 6, 2017).
[xii] David Swanson, “Video: RT Covers Jeffrey Sterling Trial,” Let’s Try Democracy, http://davidswanson.org/video-rt-covers-jeffrey-sterling-trial-2 (January 16, 2015).
[xiii] “Nuclear Posture Review,” U.S. Department of Defense, https://www.defense.gov/News/Special-Reports/NPR.
[xiv] “Al Khamenei’s Fatwa Against Nuclear Weapons,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Khamenei’s_fatwa_against_nuclear_weapons.
[xv] Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner (Bloomsbury USA , 2017), http://www.ellsberg.net/category/doomsday-machine.
[xvi] Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner (Bloomsbury USA , 2017), http://www.ellsberg.net/category/doomsday-machine.
—
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Help support DavidSwanson.org, WarIsACrime.org, and TalkNationRadio.org by clicking here: http://davidswanson.org/donate.

Sign up for these emails at https://actionnetwork.org/forms/articles-from-david-swanson.

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Disarmament Quotes

So far as I can see, the atomic bomb has deadened the finest feeling that has sustained for ages. There used to be so-called laws of war, which made it tolerable. Now we know the truth. War knows no law except that of might. The atomic bomb brought an empty victory but it resulted for the time being in destroying the soul of Japan. What has happened to the soul of the destroying nation is yet too early to see... 

Mahatma Gandhi from The Essential Gandhi, Louis Fisher, ed.

There are still thousands of warheads loaded on operational systems and standing on high states of alert on virtually hair-trigger posture. And you have to ask yourself: Why is that? Who is the enemy? What is the threat? 

U.S. General Lee Butler Former Commander in Chief, U.S. Strategic Air Command in 1991-92

It is my fervent goal and hope…that we will some day no longer have to rely on nuclear weapons to deter aggression and assure world peace. To that end the United States is now engaged in a serious and sustained effort to negotiate major reductions in levels of offensive nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal of eliminating these weapons from the face of the earth. 

Ronald Reagan, October 20, 1986

“Everything I did at Kings Bay was a result of my faith and my commitment to challenge the idols whose only purpose is to destroy human life on an unimaginable scale. I went to Kings Bay to use my body to refuse to bow down to these idols. I went to try to bring attention to the idolatry that it is requiring of our nation and its people. I went in a spirit of prayer and repentance. I went in hope that this witness might invite other people to reflect on the obscenity and on the idolatry that it is before God.”

Liz McAlister Kings Bay Protestor 2019

We are prone to self-righteousness if we call ourselves peacemakers, and yet do not perceive how the peace issue cuts through all the economic and social issues that we often try to keep separate. If the race for nuclear arms is encouraged by our fear of losing the affluent ways of life that we have taken for granted, then we must see how our fears and desires have left so many other human beings naked and hungry.

Malsolm Warford "The Church's Role in a Nuclear Age

A world free of the threat of nuclear weapons is necessarily a world devoid of nuclear weapons…. Nuclear weapons pose an intolerable threat to humanity and our habitat…. Others subscribe to Churchill’s assertion ‘Peace is the sturdy child of terror.’ For me, such a peace is a wretched offspring, a peace that condemns us to live under a dark cloud of perpetual anxiety, a peace that codifies mankind’s most murderous instincts….The beast must be chained, its soul expunged, its lair laid waste.

General Lee Butler Former Commander, Strategic Air Command, April 28, 1996

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending he sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." --spoken to the American Society of Newspaper Editors 1953

Dwight Eisenhower US President 1953-1961

It is my firm belief that the infinite and uncontrollable fury of nuclear weapons should never be held in the hands of any mere mortal ever again, for any reason. 

Mikhail Gorbachev, 1995

Through the release of atomic energy, our generation has brought into the world the most revolutionary force since prehistoric man's discovery of fire. This basic force of the universe cannot be fitted into the outmoded concept of narrow nationalisms. For there is no secret and there is no defense; there is no possibility of control except through the aroused understanding and insistence of the peoples of the world. We scientists recognise our inescapable responsibility to carry to our fellow citizens an understanding of atomic energy and its implication for society. In this lies our only security and our only hope - we believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death. 

Albert Einstein, January 22, 1947

[T]he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . . [I]n being the first to use it, we . . . adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.

5-Star Admiral William D. Leahy Chief of Staff to President's Roosevelt and Truman, leader of Combined US-UK Chiefs of Staff during WWII

Elimination of nuclear weapons, so naive, so simplistic, and so idealistic as to be quixotic? Some may think so. But as human beings, citizens of nations with power to influence events in the world, can we be at peace with ourselves if we strive for less? I think not. 

Robert McNamara Former U.S. Secretary of Defense

Over the past 15 years, the goal of elimination of nuclear weapons has been so much on the back burner that it will take a true political breakthrough and a major intellectual effort to achieve success in this endeavor.

Mikhail Gorbachev, January 31, 2007

We endorse setting the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and working energetically on the actions required to achieve that goal ... 

George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, January 4, 2007

We seek the elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth. 

Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address, January 21, 1985

Now, understand, this matters to people everywhere. One nuclear weapon exploded in one city -– be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague –- could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And no matter where it happens, there is no end to what the consequences might be -– for our global safety, our security, our society, our economy, to our ultimate survival. 

Former President Barack Obama, April 5, 2009

Viewing Trinity Test July 16,1945: "Now we are all Sons of Bitches"

Kenneth Bainbridge Deputy Director

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