Sunday, July 12, 2020

The Deep Racism Underpinning Our Wars


This week, I hope to draw readers’ attention to a very clearly stated article by Walden Bello which appeared on Common Dreams website. Walden Bello is Filipino and has occupied himself in the diplomatic area most of his life.
Currently he is co-founder and senior analyst at Focus on the Global South.  He is winner of the Right Livelihood Award. But plenty of public figures have awards and honors, which doesn’t mean they know how to think straight. Walden is one of the few Incorruptibles still standing.

“The Racist Underpinnings of American Wars” is a clear and simple statement.  It points out that America’s two original sins are the cornerstones of its foundation: The Native American genocide, and the slavery of Black Americans. The one “cleared” the territory we now refer to as continental U.S.; the other’s free labor made her fabulously wealthy. As a history of our origins, neither is in dispute.

But karma has a way of replicating itself without end. What distinguishes Walden’s article is that it focuses exclusively on America’s wars in Asia, subjects American’s like to overlook: War in the Philippines, World War II against the Japanese, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It passes over U.S. nuclear “testing,” the massive detonations over the Marshall Islands resulting in American children being born with an average 10% lower IQ in its top year, 1963, and in the loss of native habitat which became unlivable, with the maiming of the bodies of the Marshallese and their descendants for all eternity.  What traits do these wars hold in common?

Marshallese being forced off their island

Reviewing them briefly here, all were waged against Asian people of color. All were accompanied by racial epithets for the “enemy:” “gugus” and “nigger” for the Filipinos, whereas the Americans self-identified as “Indian Fighters;” the ultimate expression of racial hatred was the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; in Korea the U.S. learned to marry murder with technology, dropping more bombs than all the bombs it unleashed during World War II; and in Vietnam, the aim was to “bomb the gooks back to the stone age,” dropping 70 tons of bombs for every square mile, or 500 bombs for each man, woman and child.  Bello overlooks the U.S. use of defoliant and unexploded ordnance, the gift that keeps on giving, with maimed victims, and deformed Vietnamese births occurring to this day.  

Just another imperialist war

Returning to his simple two premises, Walden leaves us with a clearer under-standing of how American racism replays itself endlessly in U.S. wars, and in denial of its own racist origins. When we take to the streets now because finally we seem to have tired of our own genocidal behavior at home, we need to remember that we march for those millions of dead we have let pile up in our genocidal wake.


(MLK JR. realized the U.S. would “never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw skiils and money.”)



VOLUNTEER: Write PCs to reluctant voters at Daily Kos.







New report this week finds economic benefits in protecting 30% of planet’s land and ocean outweigh the costs 5 to 1.

Resolution halting 5 G has passed the Hawaii County planning board, and set to be voted on by Hawaii City Council.

World rebukes U.S. over Iran sanctions.

CIA-backed Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) indicted for 20-year-old ghoulish crimes by war crimes court at Le Hague.

More than 100 Jewish lawyers  and judges call on Israel to halt annexation plans.

Shell writes down $22 billion as fossil fuels belly flop.

Chesapeake Energy files for bankruptcy.

Court orders shut down and removal of oil from Dakota Access Pipeline, although company plans to ignore court.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit rules against Exxon and Suncor in case can proceed in state and federal court.

Supreme Court rules nearly half of Oklahoma still native American territory.

Inter-American Court of Human Rights rules for indigenous people of Saita, Argentina after 22 years of litigation, ordering govt. of Argentina to cede 4,000 km2 of territory to the Lhaka Honrat Assn.

After 3 dirty pipelines delayed in 24 hours, Supreme Court rejects #45 effort to greenlight Keystone XL construction.

‘The future does not belong to you,’ climate campaigners say to Big Oil after cancellation of 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation pushes Deutsche Bank for fossil fuel divestment amidt pipeline shut downs, pandemic, and climate crisis.

Lawsuit seeks documents on #45 order “expediting fossil fuel project approvals."

In rebuke to #45, Federal Appeals Court upholds endangered species protections for Yellowstone grizzlies.

“No one above the law, including #45 as Supreme Court allows New York Prosecutor to subpoena financial records. Sounds nice doesn’t it, except for the Democratic senator who keeps delaying bringing it out of committee.

More than 60 enviro justice advocates and groups issue COVID call to action, demanding end to ‘sacrifice zones.’

In Canada people with work are sharing the stimulus checks with the unemployed. Why can’t we?

Massive Chicago protest: No to the continuation of theft of Palestinian land.

Zionist  lobby loses latest appeal against American Studies Assn.

Raleigh BLM protest reaches 35th day.

In Charleston, S.C. dock workers shut down nation’s 4th busiest port during George Floyd’s funeral to show BLM solidarity.

Treaty defenders block road to Trump Rushmore event before scores are arrested.

Washington State law puts limits on facial recognition technology.

Florida Democratic candidates organize to protest Florida Democratic Party.

Common Cause announces GOP National Committee drops lawsuit blocking Gov. Newsom from sending every California voter a vote-by-mail ballot for Nov. election.

‘Historic victory for working people’: City of  Seattle passes progressive tax on big business to fund relief.

After weeks of protest, Minnesota pushes legislative change to distribute reparations for slave descendants in St. Paul.

Milton, Mass. rally protests anti-racist teacher’s suspension.

Ford workers ask company to stop assembling and selling police cars as protests continue.

FCA Toledo plant workers support call for rank-and-file safety committees.

Federal Appeals Court upholds block on  transit ban.

Strike set for July 20 for BLM in 25 cities wins union support.

More than 80 lawmakers demand #45 rescind plan to force international students out.

Sanders calls on do-nothing Senate to approve $200 month checks, cancel rent, and expand Medicare.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey places $3 million behind coalition of mayors considering universal basic income for residents in Oakland, Los Angeles, and Compton.

Biden “vows” to share any COVID vaccine with world. (But read up on a Trojan horse at https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/05/25/covid-vaccine-what-else-could-they-put-in-the-shot)

As progressives demand far more work, Biden-Sanders panels unveil policy blueprint.

New House bill would tax Wall St. windfalls to guarantee good jobs.

Atlanta Hawks lead way offering 21,000 seat downtown stadium for the fall  2020 election.

Protests against police violence could help make formerly homeless Candace Valenzuela the first Afro-Latina in Congress.

San Francisco to pay six-figure settlements in police excessive force lawsuits.


We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress. – Will Rogers.



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