America; From Nation Building To Nation Destruction.

by Sami Jamil Jadallah

When I was growing up in Palestine, I remember the first picture I ever took with my family, and it was a picture in clothes we got from a Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) package. In those days, America’s gift to the Arabs was the CARE Package. Now, America’s gifts to the Arabs are the cluster and phosphorous bombs sent directly from the American government to the Arab people.

If we look at America’s policy in the Middle East both past and present, we can see it is driven by ideological, political and military commitments to an ever-expanding Zionist Israel, always against America’s interests and always against America’s claimed ideals and principals.

In the days after WWII, America’s leadership by the likes of General George Marshall and Dean Acheson was committed to nation building after the near total destruction of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

The Marshall Plan with logistical, financial and administrative commitment to rebuilding West Europe and Japan is something that causes us to admire American spirit. However, it also causes us to wonder what went wrong in America’s foreign policy.

In the name of fighting Communism, the United States engaged itself directly or through proxies through many armed conflicts around world in support of kleptocracies in the Far East, in the Middle East, in Latin and South America, in Africa, and even in Communist East Europe such as what we saw with Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu.

In the Far East, of course Vietnam always comes to mind when Lyndon Johnson the president of the United States lied (see Gulf of Tonkin incident) his way to Congress and America was engaged in full scale war that killed and murdered more than one million Vietnamese and killed and murdered more than 55,000 American servicemen, and completely destroyed the infrastructures in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War was not limited to Vietnam—it was none other than the war criminal Henry Kissinger who decided to expand into Cambodia (incursion) and to Laos.

America also committed itself to supporting ruthless military dictatorships in both the Philippines and Indonesia, supporting klepto criminal regimes that laid waste to these two nations sowing the seed of revolutions that drove America’s allies Ferdinand Marcos and General Suhartoout of the country and out of office

In Iran, the story of re-installing the late and former Shah of Iran at a price of $100,000 is something always remembered and taught within the corridors of the State Department and the CIA. $100,000 did wonders by removing a freely elected Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq. Together with his close circle of friends, the late Shah of Iran not only looted the country, but engaged in the most cruel abuses of civil and human rights in partnership with the SAVAK and the Mossad. The demise of the Shah and subsequent rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran was but a result of the reckless criminal policies of the United States and its partner in crime the late Shah.

Not too far from Iran, the United States also engaged in giving full unconditional support to Saddam Hussein as he ruthlessly took over the government of Iraq and carried out his brutal war against the people of Iraq.

The United States also gave Saddam the support he needed to engage in his 8 year war against post-Shah Iran. That war cost both Iraq and Iran more than two million lives, the destruction of their economies and infrastructures, and the fleecing of Gulf countries treasuries to the tune of $150 Billion.

Few years later and no sooner than the blood of the Iraq-Iran was dried, Saddam was at it again, this time with a tacit “wink” from the United States.

Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait brought about the destruction of both Iraq and Kuwait not to mention the hundreds of thousands who died during the conflict and the millions Iraqis, mostly elderly and children, who died as a result of the boycott. Once again, the Arab Gulf countries ended paying the bill to the tune of $700 Billion.

On the Iranian borders, the United States also decided to go to war against Afghanistan in retaliation for the September 11th attack on the Twin Towers in New York. Again, not so sure who is the beneficiary of such war—certainly not the United States and certainly not Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the United States was now not too happy with the behavior of its former buddy and ally Saddam, and decided to take advantage of the tragedy of 9/11, and invade Iraq under the pre-text that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, a lie perpetuated by George Bush and his Zionist Neocons, think tanks, and the main stream media. The War on Iraq was an Israeli war, not an American war.

More than 100,000 dead, more than 4 million displaced and now refugees both in and outside of Iraq. The United States left Iraq in ruins; a nation ruled by ruthless sectarian leadership, a nation divided along ethnic and sectarian lines with thieves, thugs and crooks as government leaders. Of course the cost to America was close to a trillion dollars with a crippled economy, thousands killed and tens of thousands left with permanent injuries. Now the same group of American Zionists who took the nation to war in Iraq wants the United States to go to war against Iran.

In the Middle East, the United States has consistently supported dictatorships that looted and ruined the countries including Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Palestinian Occupied Territories. In the case of Syria, price was silence along Israel’s borders.

We must not forget the many wars Israel engaged in against the Palestinians and against all of its neighbors near and far with the help of the United States. Thanks to unconditional financial, military and political support from the United States, Israel waged wars in ‘48, ‘56, ‘67, ‘81, ‘82 and more recently in 2006 against Lebanon with the support of the United States that rushed one million cluster bombs to Israel to drop on civilian targets in Lebanon, resulting in the destruction of housing projects, bridges, power stations, telecommunications centers, airports and marine facilities.

No less criminal than the War on Lebanon was The War on Gaza, when in December 2009; Israel commenced its Operation Cast Lead against the people of Gaza, attacking schools, hospitals, clinics, housing projects, and farms. George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, were cheerleaders. Everyone in Gaza, militant or civilian was an equal opportunity target and victim for Israel and its US-supplied phosphorous bombs.

The story is no different in Central and Latin America where the United States supported ruthless dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Panama. The United States gave full support to military dictatorships in Guatemala, El Salvador, and insurgent groups in Nicaragua. More than 500,000 people were killed and murdered in these wars, compliments of the United States.

Africa was no different with the United States always on the side of dictatorships and Apartheid in Zaire and South Africa, supporting a number of petty little dictatorships in the Central African Republic, in Liberia, one among many.

Too bad for America, too bad for the world, too bad for human dignity and mankind that the greatest “democracy” in the world turned from a country committed to building nations to a country committed to destruction on a global scale.

Skewed political ideology driven by anti-Communism, Evangelical Christianity and Zionism, liberal ruthless capitalism, are the driving force behind America’s wars against the world and against itself.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami, a Palestinian-American and a US Army Veteran (66-68), recipient of the “soldier of the month award and leadership award from the 6th Army NCO Academy, is an international legal and business consultant with over 40 years of international experience, in construction, hospitality services, conservation, and defense, in the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. Sami is a holder of BA, MPA in Public and Environmental Affairs, Jurist Doctor from Indiana University. While at IU he was elected class president, student government president and chairman of the Indiana Students Association,

Active in peace movement as a co-author of the pre-amble for the One State for All of its people and voluntary service program SalamNation. A frequent contributor on national and international affairs. He resides in the United States.