US indignation at other nations' lack of subservience in the face of American hegemony continues unabated.

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Here we go again.  It seems that at the end of every major military conflict since WWII where the US unilaterally invades another country, the same self-centered, whining protests from the US media can be heard lamenting the lack of groveling from said country. "Look at all we've done for them," news commentators will decry. "And for what? Do they thank us for our heroic, Herculean effort to bring freedom, liberty and democracy to their country? Of course, not."

Recently, Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at the US military for seeking to work with the Taliban in order to keep American troops in the country longer. This immediately brought out the American media to condemn Karzai and flatly refute his seemingly baseless claims.  Fox News even lamented that after over 10 years, hundreds of billions of US dollars spent, and more than 2,000 US military casualties, "This is the thanks we get." 

Of course, the rest of American media followed suit and equally condemned Karzai for his nasty comments. Apparently, no one in the media remembers just six months ago when the US was fully engaged with the Taliban to work on security issues in Afghanistan post US withdrawal. Gore Vidal famously coined the true name of America, "United States of Amnesia," and we can plainly see that once again, he is proven right.

The main problems I have with this is: (1) this isn't the first time the US MSM has lied through its teeth to sow hatred and mistrust of others around the world; (2) this isn't the first time that the American sheeple have baa-ed their assent to the ludicrous and baseless accusations of the media; and (3) millions of people and trillions of dollars have already been needlessly wasted in this macabre death dance between the US and hapless and unfortunate third-world countries and there is no sign that the perpetrators, the US government and its lapdog media, have even learned anything from this.

Let's take a tiny trip down memory lane, shall we? I grew up in the 1960s and, yes, I remember exactly where I was when Kennedy was assassinated. I was 8 years old and remember staring at my Mom in bewilderment as the news came over the radio. She didn't seem to be too distressed, so I didn't think much of it. It was only years later that I fully understood the consequences of what had happened in Dealey Plaza that day. My family was a staunch John Birch Society group that wanted nothing to do with the likes of that "Commie-lover" John Kennedy.

So in 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson called for retaliation against the North Vietnamese aggression at the Gulf of Tonkin, I remember thinking that it was about time we kicked some Commie derriere. As 1965 and 1966 passed on, I was sure we were on our way to proving that US might makes US right. I can remember 1967 being the year that I finally started questioning why the same names of towns were being used in "new" offensives. Hadn't we already been there and done that, I thought?

As the war dragged on, the media started portraying the Vietnamese as evil minions of some dark overlord who hated our troops and did evil things to them. The media would lash out that those evil Vietnamese mothers would actually send their newborn babies, strapped with lethal bombs, over to American GIs just to kill the soldier. These female saboteurs would lure an innocent, unsuspecting GI down a dark alleyway and then have her hated, Commie cohorts jump him and slit his throat. And we were supposedly there to free them from the yoke of oppression, the ungrateful heathens.

By the time 1970s rolled around, I was fully frustrated with the media and the war. We were learning more and more about our own atrocities, our own foibles, and our own errors. The evil gooks suddenly had an equal rival, the evil US war machine. By then, the US media started using the now famous refrain, "They don't appreciate all that we've done for them. The Vietnamese people don't deserve the blood of our fallen soldiers."

Now we have the US media, spearheaded by the ever ridiculous Fox News, telling Americans how ungrateful the Iraqis are after we "liberated" them from the evil, tyrannical Saddam Hussein. Let's not worry too much over the fact that the US was also instrumental in the rise of Saddam Hussein to power in the late 1970s. Let's forget for a second the fact that President Ronald Reagan used Donald Rumsfeld to sell thousands of tons of chemical and biological weapons that he eventually used against the Iranians as well as his own people. Let's ignore for the moment the fact that then UN Secretary Madeleine Albright stated in 1996 that 500,000 dead Iraqi babies resulting from the sanctions against Iraq was "worth it."

After illegally invading Iraq in 2003, with the entire world telling us not to, and causing the death of upwards of a million Iraqis, causing 80% unemployment in the nation for over 10 years, and creating an economic and social catastrophe that will last for decades to come in Iraq, we now have Fox News saying, "Ungrateful Iraq Starts 'Harassing,' 'Detaining' US Contractors."

Yes, you guessed it. Those no-good-for-nothing, sons-of-camel-smackers, are actually going to use THEIR OWN LAWS to strike back at the United States. Don't they know that around 4,000 American soldiers have lost their lives and that more than 2 trillion US taxpayer dollars have been spent on their country? Do they realize how many American TV reality shows have been preempted to bring us the latest yawning story in the battle to save our face in Iraq?

I'm afraid that the bottom line is, Americans have yet to wake up to their own callous behavior on the world stage. We act like 4-year-old brats in front of other nations, pouting that everyone misunderstands the truly godlike help we offer other nations. We stomp our feet decrying the fact that they are eager to accept our "aid," all the while rejecting the follow- up remedy that comes with that aid.

We very conveniently forget that those same countries never asked for the aid in the first place. South Vietnam was a made-up country by the UN in order to solve a French colonial problem. No one asked the US to butt in. No one asked the US to lie about the Gulf of Tonkin and then send in 500,000 troops over 10 years and cause the death of 2 million Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians.

Nobody asked the US to send secret military help to the Mujahedeen in 1979 in Afghanistan in order to set up terrorist camps and terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda to give the Soviet Union a "Vietnam-like" war to fight. No one asked the US to then dismantle those very same terrorist camps after 9/11 as a supposed final solution to "terrorism" around the world. No one said that Afghanistan has to be invaded in order to destroy those same bases.

No one asked the US to invade the land of its puppet, Saddam Hussein, to prevent imaginary WMDs from being deployed against them. In fact, the largest peace demonstration in human history occurred in February, 2003, when nearly every nation on planet Earth begged the US NOT to invade Iraq.

And now, Fox News and so many millions of Americans feel indignant that the Iraqis and Afghanis won't kiss our feet, and beg us for more crumbs, after we illegally invaded their country, destroyed their economy and society, and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children in the process.

I am now convinced that Americans will never learn. Americans will continue to invent lies and pretexts to invade other countries, kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people and destroy entire nations whenever its government so demands. And they will always eventually blame the nations they attack and destroy for not being "grateful enough" to the Americans for such destruction.

Authors Bio:

66 year old Californian-born and bred male - I've lived in four different countries, USA, Switzerland, Mexico, Venezuela, and currently live in the Dominican Republic - speak three languages fluently, English, French, Spanish - have worked as a journalist for Empower-Sport Magazine. I am a retired Supply Chain Specialist.