From pixabay.com: American Flag Images ? Pixabay ? Download Free Pictures960 × 504 - 269k -
(Image by pixabay.com) Details DMCA
The US celebrated the glorious Fourth, the nation's independence day and the myths going along with it. As with most wars, the elite prospered, the poor shed blood, and most shamefully in this case the slaves remained slaves. Dissenters in this war dubbed Royalists were killed or fled to Canada, a country later peacefully independent from Britain and none the worse for it.
Back to the revolutionary war, let us not forget the French, their navy, their army without which, well ... . Having suffered a reverse against the British in India, the French were thirsty for revenge, and America gave them the ideal opportunity.
Oh
yes, India. It, too, celebrates independence from Britain a little
more than a month hence. However, in the process it managed to shoot
itself in the foot and elsewhere severing itself into three countries
and a very painful digit called Kashmir that still has not healed. How
did England manage to conquer such a large sub-continent? Well, in
actual fact, it didn't.
We have heard of the Rajahs, Maharajahs, Nawabs and so forth.
Large sections remained independently run by these rulers under certain
restrictions. This included Hyderabad and its Nizam (ruler) who allied
himself with the British in the 18th century Deccan peninsula wars
against Mysore, which fought the British and its Indian allies until its
ruler died fighting.
The
British used skillful political manipulation and Indian soldiers in a
land divided by language, custom, religion and even race. America on
the contrary favors force, often brutal force, usually effectively as in
the Philippines. It did not work in Vietnam but Central and Latin
America have been another story. If Cuba bucked the trend, Venezuelan
and Ecuador have tried, and their story continues to unfold.
Just
the 21st century list curdles the blood. Afghanistan, its people and
its government, had nothing to do with 9/11; so why attack them, when a
maverick from Saudi Arabia and Arabs mostly from Saudi Arabia were the
perpetrators. Yes, the leader Osama bin Laden, fostered by the CIA, was
based in Afghanistan, but then why not attack his base, instead of
making new enemies and getting trapped in the US's longest war.
Why
Iraq? Why Libya? And many others including a coup to remove an
elected government in Ukraine. The extremist fundamentals are no longer
kept in check by Libya's secular Gadaffi and are mushrooming in Africa,
while China might get the oil, and it looks like Iran has become the big winner in Iraq .
The answer? Why, of course, another war. This time with the Saudis
against Iran despite the Syria misadventure. Can reason and foresight
prevail as dead bodies pile up and refugees scatter?
So here we are 242 years later ... in a land governed by corporate greed and economic malfeasance centered on unsustainable growth; facing rising global temperatures; an earth already in the sixth mass extinction with rapidly declining wild life.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
