The Communist Daily

The revolution starts here!

Archive for the category “Antiwar”

Some State Solution: The Problem with Israel

Some State Solution: The Problem with Israel

Is Israel, by the evidence of its history and policies, a racist, apartheid state? I would argue that for all intents and purposes, it is. That is not an assertion that should be made lightly, it is a grave charge against a state, and one that should be taken seriously. Then I must here present my reasons for labeling the state of Israel racist, and apartheid. Israel is in the news once again, as they send overwhelming firepower into the Gaza strip, punishing the Palestinians for their rocket attacks into Israel. To many people around the world, this story is quite the familiar refrain. Someone on one side starts shooting, and before you know it, the whole area is alight with rockets, missiles, bombs and gunfire. Often it would seem that people who aren’t familiar with the history of the conflict throw their hands up in exasperation. “That’s just the way that area is, they’ve been fighting for thousands of years, and they’ll keep fighting for thousands more.” That is quite an unfortunate assessment however, as there are reasons for this modern conflict, and those reasons aren’t as ancient as some would have you believe. These  problems go back to before the genesis of the state of Israel, back to the 19th century and the start of a Zionist movement.

 

The geographic area commonly called Palestine has a long and storied history, and has been the home of some of the world’s greatest religions and cultural traditions. Jerusalem is sacred to all of the Abrahamic religions, accounting for billions of believers worldwide. It has also long been a source of conflict as different religious and cultural groups vied for supremacy and control over the small sliver of land in the Middle East. That long and storied history however is far too complicated and long to include in this short essay, so it will have to suffice to begin a little more recently in the story, namely the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

 

The state of Israel was created following the end of the second World War, however the movement to create such a state began in earnest in the late 19th century. There are a number of factors that would many people sympathetic to the Zionist cause, their hope for a homeland. Jewish communities in Europe had been long subject to horrible discrimination, slander, and even mass murder. Pogram was a common word in many countries, and many died for simply being the wrong member of an ethnic and religious minority. Perhaps it was thought that if the Jews had their own homeland, that they would be free forever from the scourge of racism and religious bigotry. Centuries of antisemitism had resulted in the murder of multitudes of Jews,  the destruction of their property and their disenfranchisement from the societies they lived in. Understandably, they wanted an end to that bigotry, and an end to living in fear. The problem is that the establishment of the state of Israel as a “Jewish state” has not solved those problems. They continue to live in a world that is rocked by war, hatred and ill will. The state of Israel did not solve the problem of anti-Jewish bigotry because it is impossible to solve problems of racism by nationalist xenophobia.

So if we know that Jews were running from persecution and mass murder, some may wonder why anyone would deny them a national home where they would feel safe. A haven where they would have their culture, traditions and people protected. The answer is a simple one, and it is one whose reasons have been played out time and again in multiple different scenarios throughout history. The problem is that we’re defining “Jewish” as a cultural and religious identity, an ethnic identity, and asserting that they should have an exclusive piece of land just for them, and no one else; which does reveal some problems. How does one define what a Jew is? How far back in one’s family tree does one have to go before they are considered Jewish? Is it only a religious and cultural identity? Is there a perceived biological aspect to the identity of “Jewishness”? Why should any country be able to deny the entry or settlement of people on the basis of race, class, national origin, religion or other factors of a similar nature? Does the history of oppression of a group of people give them the right to persecute and or exclude other perceived groups of humans? Is that morally or logically tenable as a building block of national policy and identity? The question arises whether or not Israel by its history and policies is a racist, apartheid state. I would argue that for all intents and purposes, it is. That is not an assertion that should be made lightly, it is a grave charge against a state, and one that should be taken seriously. Then I must here present my reasons for labeling the state of Israel racist, and apartheid.

 

During the British Mandate of Palestine in the early 20th century, the demographics of Palestine were much different than today. That alone, of course is not grounds for worry, however the differences between now and then, and how it came to be are historically significant. The Jews returning to the Palestinian region before, during and after World War Two did not simply slip into town and join the rest of the populace living in peace. During the British Mandate of Palestine, a majority Muslim population existed side by side with Jews, Christians, Druze and other minorities. The program of returning the Jews to the ancient land of Israel increased hugely after the war, and pushed out many of the original Palestinian inhabitants. It created a humanitarian nightmare. In the 2009 book by Richard Becker titled “Palestine, Israel and the US Empire”  this time in Palestinian history is explained.  Becker describes the Irgun, a Jewish terrorist group aiming to seize the entire land of Palestine from the hands of the British, and then the Palestinians, resorted to the horrific massacre of civilians, documenting eye-witness accounts of the horror. This was part of an ethnic cleansing campaign that would dramatically change the demographics of Palestine, and would steal away land from Palestinians who had lived there for many centuries. One such massacre was in a village called Deir Yassin. Becker states “On April 9th, 1948, the Irgun wiped out the entire population of Deir Yassin. The Irgun soldiers arrived in the village and announced that the residents had 15 minutes to leave. Then the attack began. The Zionist soldiers blew up homes with their inhabitants still inside, fired at will and at close range, and committed other atrocities. When it was over, more than two hundred lay dead.” (Becker, p. 61) That campaign of terror he describes was repeated many times as they drove out the Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, causing a large humanitarian crisis. In discussing the  Palestinian right of return in Chapter 18, he mentions just how large that exodus of refugees really was. In 1948, the expulsion of almost three fourths of the Palestinian population caused 750,000 refugees, and the 1967 war led to another 300,000 refugees. (Becker) Israel took the land from the Palestinian people, and now have relegated them to tiny slivers of land in what used to be their own country. They are denied the right of return, and are forced to live within the confines of the Gaza strip and the West Bank. This is reminiscent of the regime of apartheid in South Africa that lasted until recently. Some wanted to create national homes away from the other ethnicities, to keep them separate. The population of the West Bank and Gaza now number in the millions of  people, people who still don’t have the right of return to their homes and their villages.

 

Aside from the history of the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homes and villages and being forced into defacto Ghettos, what exists in the State of Israel today that would designate them an apartheid state? We only have to look at the words of Israeli politicians, and the Israeli people themselves. Harriet Sherwood in the Guardian newspaper recently revealed the results of a poll first published in the Haaretz newspaper detailing what the Israeli public thought about apartheid and the Palestinian people. She said that the poll revealed that more than two-thirds of the respondents thought that the 2.5 million residents of the West Bank should be denied the right to vote should the area be annexed. Furthermore, three out of four Israelis polled wanted separate roads for Palestinians and Israelis, and 58% of respondents already considered Israel an apartheid state. (Sherwood )  Israel has denied the Palestinians a state of their own. Israel has demanded that they hold elections, and then blockaded those who dared to vote for the party Israel didn’t approve of, causing more humanitarian crises. Israel has assassinated at will Palestinian officials, and then condemned the Palestinians for fighting back. Palestine seems to be in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sort of position. This all arises from the goal of establishing a state that was of, by and for one religious group, at the expense of everyone else. That bad idea has now gone on for decades, causing thousands of deaths, many of them civilians, even children.

 

The irrational fear and distrust of the Palestinian people by the Israelis is evident in the speech of their politicians. In 2008, as reported by the Telegraph newspaper, Matan Vilnai, the Israeli deputy defense minister called for a genocide stating “The more qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” (The telegraph) Shoah is the Hebrew word for holocaust. There have been many examples of this kind of speech.

 

In the book “Racism: A Very Short Introduction” by Ali Rattansi, he explains that racism can be based in cultural, or religious terms rather than overtly biological ones. He says “In practice, though, cultural demarcations are often drawn and used in a form that naturalizes them by implying that they are more or less immutable.” (Rattansi, p. 104) The Palestinians have been labeled as inherently violent, as incompatible for life in a society alongside the Israeli population. They have been subjected to apartheid, separated from the rest of their society for decades now, with no end in sight.

 

I believe that if we are to end the violent conflict in Palestine, we must bring about an inclusive, one state solution. We must heal the wounds, not by continuing to keep them separate, but by uniting them together into a peaceful coexistence. I believe it can be done. I think a two state solution would just legitimize the crimes of the Israeli state, and foster further resentment. Israel, in its current form as an apartheid state must end, for there to be peace again.

 

                                         CITATIONS

1)      Sherwood, Harriet. “Israeli poll finds majority would be in favour of ‘apartheid’ policies.” Guardian 23 OCT 2012, Online n. pag. Web. 16 Nov. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/23/israeli-poll-majority-apartheid-policies>.

2)      Becker, Richard. Palestine, Israel and the US Empire. 1st Ed. San Fransisco: PSL Publications, 2009. Print.

3)      Rattansi, Ali. Racism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.

4)      ” Israeli minister vows Palestinian ‘holocaust’.” Telegraph 29 FEB 2008, Online n. pag. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580339/Israeli-minister-vows-Palestinian-holocaust.html&gt;.

 

 

 

Money for War, Can’t Feed the Poor

The US loves to go on about how they are the greatest, most successful, richest and most prosperous country in the world. We sing of alabaster cities and glistening ivory towers. We have our gilded halls and our expensive rugs. There is something else Americans like to say too. “America is broke, we can’t afford these entitlement programs. We just don’t have the money to provide for food, education, healthcare or anything else for the poor. Just look at us, we’re broke!!”

You can’t have it both ways America. You sound like a deadbeat dad who has the money for the bar, but can’t cough up child support. No one is buying it. Seriously, no one (with half a brain) is buying it. The US has a GDP of over 14 trillion dollars a year. That’s nearly 10 trillion dollars more than the next contender China, or Japan right behind it in 3rd place. We throw away more food than any nation on earth. We spend more on health care costs per capita than any developed nation on earth. While McDonalds, your local supermarket, and high class restaurants throw out literally tons of food, people in the US starve, they go without the basic human necessities. The poor are deciding whether to pay their electric bill and have heat for the winter, or to forgo that and be able to eat. The elderly are contemplating whether to have medicine that keeps them alive, or have food to eat. Meanwhile the rich capitalist class is sitting on trillions of dollars. TRILLIONS. That could help pave our roads, pay our teachers,  feed the poor, send poor kids to college, etc etc etc.

“But we’re broke” they naysayers whine. Let me tell you just how “broke” we are most certainly not.

This link takes you to a chart that breaks down government spending by category: http://www.usfederalbudget.us/us_welfare_spending_40.html

Now let me give you some figures from 2011. Surely we poured money into welfare, entitlements, and those damn educational institutions, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.

We spent 903 BILLION dollars on defense in 2011. That’s almost a freaking trillion dollars in ONE year, just on our many wars. How much on education? 153 billion. oops. 131 billion on welfare for families and children, 109 billion for unemployment (be sure to blame that on the unemployed now,not the greedy selfish capitalists who fired them and made the remaining workers work harder for less),  and a paltry 75 billion on housing. Of course the government does cough up 37 Billion dollars to house its 2 million prisoners in this “land of the free”.

Americans live in a country that has a tangled messed up health care system that leaves millions without care for more than the cost of universal health care, the largest prison population in the WORLD (absolute, or per capita, either one), 800 plus military bases in 150 plus countries world wide. We can pay for pointless and destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can pay for thousands upon thousands of bombs and ships and missiles and guns, but no money for a poor child’s meal, or education. We say we don’t have enough to meet everyone’s needs, but that is a bold faced lie. We most certainly do have enough to meet everyone’s needs, and then some. We just don’t have enough, and will never have enough to satisfy the greed of the capitalist class.

All of this is the direct result of living in a country that has a capitalist system. The elite few who own the companies and corporations ride high on the hog while you toil away trying to survive. Their kids are guaranteed education in the hallowed halls of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, while you’ll be happy if you can afford to send your kid to community college. They make the profit, you do the work. The working class dies in the sands of Iraq, their kids dine on caviar and drive a Ferrari. Your house has leaks and crack and holes, they employ someone like you to make sure their topiary is always nicely groomed. They sell you out, use you up, throw you in the waste basket, and then America, then you praise them and admire them. You gladly wave their blood stained flag and are happy to sacrifice your children to the fires of their Moloch. You are happy to work you say, happy to have a job, they’re happy too. They are happy that you’re not aware that you are a wage slave, that you make them millions while you can’t make ends meet. Open your eyes, look around you and see that this is not a good system. The people are suffering, they are even dying. When they start to speak up, they get pepper sprayed, called dirty hippies, beaten, imprisoned, censored and stomped. NO MORE.

Reject this fake democracy, throw off the shackles of capitalism. How you ask? You won’t change things by voting for the two parties that control government, and get paid by the likes of JP Morgan Chase. You won’t change anything by spending a lot of time talking about how the cops (the running dogs of the capitalist ruling class) are really your friends. We can only change things one way in the US. That is to rise up and demand a new form of government. Please, join a socialist party (maybe the Party for Socialism and Liberation) ANGRILY demand an end to these useless deadly wars, call for a stop to US imperialism, resist the government. If you are in the military, get out NOW. Demand recognition as a conscientious objector, do what you have to. Do not fight any more for their bloody greedy bullshit. Your life is worth more. Start a union where you work. Start conversations with the people around you, show them what kind of a system it is. It is time to build class awareness. This is a class war, and it has been going on for a very long time. Fight for NOT JUST THE US, but the world as a whole. A socialist US is a good thing for the entire globe, and all its myriad peoples. Have courage, speak out, fight back. Workers of the world, UNITE!

“Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”- Maggie Kuhn

 

Worshiping War

Americans talk a lot about peace. Everywhere you look there’s a politician calmly talking about how America wants peace and prosperity. It’s a lie. Don’t believe it for a second. Americans have loved war since their founding, and they’ve never stopped. What do we value in America? Academic pride? Research and innovation? Beautiful landscapes and ice cream on sunny days? Oh no. No, we love war, and we worship the military.

You may think that I’m just making stuff up here. After all, I’m a communist who hates the US, right? Who wants the downfall of the American government, right? Well, yes, but this is the truth. You can see it for yourself if you’d just open your eyes.

The US military is in a sorry state of affairs. 1 in 3 women will be raped or sexually assaulted during their military service. The US military has an all time high rate of suicide. Hell, the US military is killing off itself faster than any enemy can. It is full of undereducated, ignorant and hateful people, the majority of whom are hard core rightists. They bully their own members to suicide, and then send them off to die in meaningless wars. Oh, you may say, we’re just at war now. We’re not usually at war. Wrong. We’re the most warmongering nation on earth, and that’s a fact. Let’s look at a list of the wars and conflicts that America has been in since its founding:

American War Culture

Before I list all the wars and conflicts that America has participated in, I just want to point out one thing. No matter how many troops rape, pilliage, burn, attack and destroy, the US military seems to be above criticism. We criticize the politicians, sure, but we cannot criticize our military. We cannot speak out against the violence loving nature of American culture. We cannot call the US an empire even though it is, and has been one for decades upon decades. We cannot speak ill of the American ideal, we must bow to the eternal American way of life, fall in or be crushed beneath the machinery. We cannot protest in the streets without the military or paramilitary showing up to remind us that we the people are really not in control. Have you woken up yet? Can you see what’s happening? It’s time to end the corporatist empire of the United States of America. Time to END it, for once and all. Let’s build a better world. The first step is destroying the United States of America. Now read this list of American wars to educate yourself. Timthesocialist out.

Source: Wikipedia

1775–1799

1775–1783 – American Revolutionary War

1776–1777 – Second Cherokee War

1776–1794 – Chickamauga Wars

1785–1795 – Northwest Indian War

1786–1787 – Shays’ Rebellion

1791–1794 – Whiskey Rebellion

1798–1800 – Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war with France. This contest included land actions, such as that in the Dominican Republic city of Puerto Plata, where U.S. Marines captured a French privateer under the guns of the forts. Congress authorized military action through a series of statutes.[1]

1799–1800 – Fries’s Rebellion, a Pennsylvania protest against war taxes.
1800–1809

1801–1805 – First Barbary War – USS George Washington and USS Philadelphia affairs result in actions against the Barbary pirates responsible. In the Eaton expedition, a few Marines and soldiers landed with United States Agent William Eaton to raise a force against Tripoli in an effort to free the crew of the Philadelphia. Tripoli declared war; the United States did not, although Congress authorized military action by statute.[1]

1806 – Spanish Mexico – A platoon under Captain Zebulon Pike invaded Spanish territory at the headwaters of the Rio Grande on orders from General James Wilkinson. He was made prisoner without resistance at a fort he constructed in present-day Colorado, taken to Mexico, and later released after seizure of his papers.[RL30172]

1806–10 – Gulf of Mexico. American gunboats operated from New Orleans against Spanish and French privateers off the Mississippi Delta, chiefly under Captain John Shaw and Master Commandant David Porter.[1]
1810–1819

1810 – West Florida (Spanish territory). Governor William C.C. Claiborne of Louisiana, on orders of President James Madison, occupied with troops territory in dispute east of the Mississippi as far as the Pearl River, later the eastern boundary of Louisiana. He was authorized to seize as far east as the Perdido River.[RL30172]

1812 – Amelia Island and other parts of east Florida, then under Spain. Temporary possession was authorized by President James Madison and by Congress, to prevent occupation by any other power; but possession was obtained by General George Mathews in so irregular a manner that his measures were disavowed by the President.[RL30172]

1812–15 – War of 1812. On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war against the United Kingdom. Among the issues leading to the war were British impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy, interception of neutral ships and blockades of the United States during British hostilities with France. [RL30172]

1813 – West Florida (Spanish territory). On authority given by Congress, General Wilkinson seized Mobile Bay in April with 600 soldiers. A small Spanish garrison gave way. Thus U.S. troops advanced into disputed territory to the Perdido River, as projected in 1810. No fighting.[RL30172]

1813–14 – Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia). U.S. forces built a fort on the island of Nuku Hiva to protect three prize ships which had been captured from the British.[RL30172]

1814 – Spanish Florida. General Andrew Jackson took Pensacola and drove out the British forces.[RL30172]

1814–25 – Caribbean. Engagements between pirates and American ships or squadrons took place repeatedly especially ashore and offshore about Cuba, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Yucatán. Three thousand pirate attacks on merchantmen were reported between 1815 and 1823. In 1822, Commodore James Biddle employed a squadron of two frigates, four sloops of war, two brigs, four schooners, and two gunboats in the West Indies.[RL30172]

1815 – Algiers. The Second Barbary War was declared against the United States by the Dey of Algiers of the Barbary states, an act not reciprocated by the United States. Congress did authorize a military expedition by statute. A large fleet under Captain Stephen Decatur attacked Algiers and obtained indemnities.[RL30172]

1815 – Tripoli. After securing an agreement from Algiers, Captain Decatur demonstrated with his squadron at Tunis and Tripoli, where he secured indemnities for offenses during the War of 1812.[RL30172]

1816 – Spanish Florida. United States forces destroyed Negro Fort, which harbored fugitive slaves making raids into United States territory.[RL30172]

1816–18 – Spanish Florida – First Seminole War. The Seminole Indians, whose area was a haven for escaped slaves and border ruffians, were attacked by troops under General Jackson and General Edmund P. Gaines and pursued into northern Florida. Spanish posts were attacked and occupied, British citizens executed. In 1819 the Floridas were ceded to the United States.[RL30172]

1817 – Amelia Island (Spanish territory off Florida). Under orders of President James Monroe, United States forces landed and expelled a group of smugglers, adventurers, and freebooters.[RL30172]

1818 – Oregon. The USS Ontario dispatched from Washington, which made a landing at the mouth of the Columbia River to assert US claims. Britain had conceded sovereignty but Russia and Spain asserted claims to the area.[RL30172] Subsequently, American and British claims to the Oregon Country were resolved with the Oregon Treaty of 1846.[RL30172]
1820–1829

1820–23 – Africa. Naval units raided the slave traffic pursuant to the 1819 act of Congress. [RL30172][Slave Traffic]

1822 – Cuba. United States naval forces suppressing piracy landed on the northwest coast of Cuba and burned a pirate station.[RL30172]

1823 – Cuba. Brief landings in pursuit of pirates occurred April 8 near Escondido; April 16 near Cayo Blanco; July 11 at Siquapa Bay; July 21 at Cape Cruz; and October 23 at Camrioca.[RL30172]

1824 – Cuba. In October the USS Porpoise landed bluejackets near Matanzas in pursuit of pirates. This was during the cruise authorized in 1822.[RL30172]

1824 – Puerto Rico (Spanish territory). Commodore David Porter with a landing party attacked the town of Fajardo which had sheltered pirates and insulted American naval officers. He landed with 200 men in November and forced an apology. Commodore Porter was later court-martialed for overstepping his powers.[RL30172]

1825 – Cuba. In March cooperating American and British forces landed at Sagua La Grande to capture pirates.[RL30172]

1827 – Greece. In October and November landing parties hunted pirates on the Mediterranean islands of Argenteire, Myconos, and Andros.[RL30172]
1830–1839

1831–32 – Falkland Islands. Captain Silas Duncan of the USS Lexington investigated the capture of three American sailing vessels and sought to protect American interests.[RL30172]

1832 – Attack on Quallah Battoo, Sumatra, Indonesia – February 6–9. U.S. forces under Commodore John Downes aboard the frigate USS Potomac landed and stormed a fort to punish natives of the town of Quallah Battoo for plundering the American cargo ship Friendship.[RL30172]

1833 – Argentina. October 31 to November 15. A force was sent ashore at Buenos Aires to protect the interests of the United States and other countries during an insurrection.[RL30172]

1835–36 – Peru. December 10, 1835, to January 24, 1836, and August 31 to December 7, 1836. Marines protected American interests in Callao and Lima during an attempted revolution.[RL30172]

1835–42 Florida Territory. United States Navy supports the Army’s efforts at quelling uprisings and attacks on civilians by Seminole Indians. Government’s efforts to relocate the Seminoles to west of the Mississippi are hindered by 7 years of war.

1838 – The Caroline affair on Navy Island, Canada. After the failure of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 favoring Canadian democracy and independence from the British Empire; William Lyon Mackenzie and his rebels fled to Navy Island where they declared the Republic of Canada. American sympathizers sent supplies on the SS Caroline, which was intercepted by the British and set ablaze, after killing one American. It was falsely reported that dozens of Americans were killed as they were trapped on board, and American forces retaliated by burning a British steamer while it was in U.S. waters.

1838–39 – Sumatra (Indonesia). December 24, 1838, to January 4, 1839. A naval force landed to punish natives of the towns of Quallah Battoo and Muckie (Mukki) for depredations on American shipping.[RL30172]
1840–1849

1840 – Fiji Islands. July. Naval forces landed to punish natives for attacking American exploring and surveying parties.[RL30172]

1841 – McKean Island (Drummond Island/Taputenea), Gilbert Islands (Kingsmill Group), Pacific Ocean. A naval party landed to avenge the murder of a seaman by the natives.[RL30172]

1841 – Samoa. February 24. A naval party landed and burned towns after the murder of an American seaman on Upolu.[RL30172]

1842 – Mexico. Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, in command of a squadron long cruising off California, occupied Monterey, California, on October 19, believing war had come. He discovered peace, withdrew, and saluted. A similar incident occurred a week later at San Diego.[RL30172]

1843 – China. Sailors and marines from the St. Louis were landed after a clash between Americans and Chinese at the trading post in Canton.[RL30172]

1843 – Africa. November 29 to December 16. Four United States vessels demonstrated and landed various parties (one of 200 marines and sailors) to discourage piracy and the slave trade along the Ivory Coast, and to punish attacks by the natives on American seamen and shipping.[RL30172]

1844 – Mexico. President Tyler deployed U.S. forces to protect Texas against Mexico, pending Senate approval of a treaty of annexation. (Later rejected.) He defended his action against a Senate resolution of inquiry.[RL30172]

1846–48 – Mexican-American War On May 13, 1846, the United States recognized the existence of a state of war with Mexico. After the annexation of Texas in 1845, the United States and Mexico failed to resolve a boundary dispute and President Polk said that it was necessary to deploy forces in Mexico to meet a threatened invasion.

The war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848. The Treaty gave the U.S. undisputed control of Texas, established the U.S.-Mexican border of the Rio Grande River, and ceded to the United States the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. In return, Mexico received US $18,250,000[34] ($459,127,885 today)—less than half the amount the U.S. had attempted to offer Mexico for the land before the opening of hostilities. [RL30172]

1849 – Smyrna (İzmir, Turkey). In July a naval force gained release of an American seized by Austrian officials.[RL30172]
1850–1859

1851 – Ottoman Empire. After a massacre of foreigners (including Americans) at Jaffa in January, a demonstration by the Mediterranean Squadron was ordered along the Turkish (Levantine) coast.[RL30172]

1851 – Johanna Island (modern Anjouan, east of Africa). August. Forces from the U.S. sloop-of-war Dale exacted redress for the unlawful imprisonment of the captain of an American whaling brig.[RL30172]

1852–53 – Argentina. February 3 to 12, 1852; September 17, 1852 to April 1853. Marines were landed and maintained in Buenos Aires to protect American interests during a revolution.[RL30172]

1853 – Nicaragua. March 11 to 13. US forces landed to protect American lives and interests during political disturbances[RL30172]

1853–54 – Japan. Commodore Matthew Perry and his expedition made a display of force leading to the “opening of Japan.”[RL30172]

1853–54 – Ryūkyū and Bonin Islands (Japan). Commodore Matthew Perry on three visits before going to Japan and while waiting for a reply from Japan made a naval demonstration, landing marines twice, and secured a coaling concession from the ruler of Naha on Okinawa; he also demonstrated in the Bonin Islands with the purpose of securing facilities for commerce.[RL30172]

1854 – China. April 4 to June 15 to 17. American and English ships landed forces to protect American interests in and near Shanghai during Chinese civil strife.[RL30172]

1854 – Nicaragua. July 9 to 15. Naval forces bombarded and burned San Juan del Norte (Greytown) to avenge an insult to the American Minister to Nicaragua.[RL30172]

1855 – China. May 19 to 21. U.S. forces protected American interests in Shanghai and, from August 3 to 5 fought pirates near Hong Kong.[RL30172]

1855 – Fiji Islands. September 12 to November 4. An American naval force landed to seek reparations for attacks on American residents and seamen.[RL30172]

1855 – Uruguay. November 25 to 29. United States and European naval forces landed to protect American interests during an attempted revolution in Montevideo.[RL30172]

1856 – Panama, Republic of New Grenada. September 19 to 22. U.S. forces landed to protect American interests during an insurrection.[RL30172]

1856 – China. October 22 to December 6. U.S. forces landed to protect American interests at Canton during hostilities between the British and the Chinese, and to avenge an assault upon an unarmed boat displaying the United States flag.[RL30172]

1857–58 – Utah War. The Utah War was a dispute between Mormon settlers in Utah Territory and the United States federal government. The Mormons and Washington each sought control over the government of the territory, with the national government victorious. The confrontation between the Mormon militia and the U.S. Army involved some destruction of property, but no actual battles between the contending military forces.

1857 – Nicaragua. April to May, November to December. In May Commander Charles Henry Davis of the United States Navy, with some marines, received the surrender of William Walker, self-proclaimed president of Nicaragua, who was losing control of the country to forces financed by his former business partner, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and protected his men from the retaliation of native allies who had been fighting Walker. In November and December of the same year United States vessels USS Saratoga, USS Wabash, and Fulton opposed another attempt of William Walker on Nicaragua. Commodore Hiram Paulding’s act of landing marines and compelling the removal of Walker to the United States, was tacitly disavowed by Secretary of State Lewis Cass, and Paulding was forced into retirement.[RL30172]

1858 – Uruguay. January 2 to 27. Forces from two United States warships landed to protect American property during a revolution in Montevideo.[RL30172]

1858 – Fiji Islands. October 6 to 16. A marine expedition with the USS Vandalia killed 14 natives and burned 115 huts in retaliation for the murder of two American citizens at Waya.[RL30172] [Vandalia 1] [Vandalia 2]

1858–59 – Ottoman Empire. The Secretary of State requested a display of naval force along the Levant after a massacre of Americans at Jaffa and mistreatment elsewhere “to remind the authorities (of the Ottoman Empire) of the power of the United States.”[RL30172]

1859 – Paraguay. Congress authorized a naval squadron to seek redress for an attack on a naval vessel in the Paraná River during 1855. Apologies were made after a large display of force.[RL30172]

1859 – Mexico. Two hundred United States soldiers crossed the Rio Grande in pursuit of the Mexican nationalist Juan Cortina.[RL30172] [1859 Mexico]

1859 – China. July 31 to August 2. A naval force landed to protect American interests in Shanghai.[RL30172]
1860–1869

1860 – Angola, Portuguese West Africa. March 1. American residents at Kissembo called upon American and British ships to protect lives and property during problems with natives.[RL30172]

1860 – Colombia, Bay of Panama. September 27 to October 8. Naval forces landed to protect American interests during a revolution.[RL30172]

1861–65 – American Civil War A major war between the United States (the Union) and eleven Southern states which declared that they had a right to secession and formed the Confederate States of America.

1863 – Japan. July 16. Naval battle of Shimonoseki. The USS Wyoming retaliated against a firing on the American vessel Pembroke at Shimonoseki.[RL30172]

1864 – Japan. July 14 to August 3. Naval forces protected the United States Minister to Japan when he visited Yedo to negotiate concerning some American claims against Japan, and to make his negotiations easier by impressing the Japanese with American power.[RL30172]

1864 – Japan. September 4 to 14. Naval forces of the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands compelled Japan and the Prince of Nagato in particular to permit the Straits of Shimonoseki to be used by foreign shipping in accordance with treaties already signed.[RL30172]

1865 – Panama. March 9 and 10. US forces protected the lives and property of American residents during a revolution.[RL30172]

1865–77 Southern United States – Reconstruction following the American Civil War. The South is divided into five Union occupation districts under the Reconstruction Act.

1866 – Mexico. To protect American residents, General Sedgwick and 100 men in November obtained surrender of Matamoros, on the border state of Tamaulipas. After three days he was ordered by US Government to withdraw. His act was repudiated by the President.[RL30172]

1866 – China. June 20 to July 7. US forces punished an assault on the American consul at Newchwang.[RL30172]

1867 – Nicaragua. Marines occupied Managua and Leon.

1867 – Formosa (island of Taiwan) June 13. A naval force landed and burned a number of huts to punish the murder of the crew of a wrecked American vessel.

1868 – Japan (Osaka, Hiolo, Nagasaki, Yokohama, and Negata). – February 4 to 8, April 4 to May 12, June 12 and 13. US forces were landed to protect American interests during a civil war (Boshin War) in Japan .[RL30172]

1868 – Uruguay. February 7 and 8, 19 to 26. US forces protected foreign residents and the customhouse during an insurrection at Montevideo.[RL30172]

1868 – Colombia. April. US forces protected passengers and treasure in transit at Aspinwall during the absence of local police or troops on the occasion of the death of the President of Colombia.[RL30172]
1870–1879

1870 – Mexico. June 17 and 18. US forces destroyed the pirate ship Forward, which had been run aground about 40 miles up the Rio Tecapan.[RL30172]

1870 – Kingdom of Hawaii. September 21. US forces placed the American flag at half-mast upon the death of Queen Kalama, when the American consul at Honolulu would not assume responsibility for so doing.[RL30172]

1871 – Korea. Shinmiyangyo. June 10 to 12. A US naval force attacked and captured five forts to force stalled negotiations on trade agreements and to punish natives for depredations on Americans, particularly for executing the crew of the General Sherman and burning the schooner (which in turn happened because the crew had stolen food and kidnapped a Korean official), and for later firing on other American small boats taking soundings up the Salee River. [RL30172]

1873 – Colombia (Bay of Panama). May 7 to 22, September 23 to October 9. U.S. forces protected American interests during hostilities between local groups over control of the government of the State of Panama.[RL30172]

1873–96 – Mexico. United States troops crossed the Mexican border repeatedly in pursuit of cattle and other thieves and other brigands.[RL30172]

1874 – Kingdom of Hawaii. February 12 to 20. Detachments from American vessels were landed to protect the interests of Americans living in the Kingdom during the coronation of a new king.[RL30172]

1876 – Mexico. May 18. An American force was landed to police the town of Matamoros, Mexico, temporarily while it was without other government.[RL30172]

1878 – Lincoln County, New Mexico. July 15 – July 19. During the Battle of Lincoln (1878) (part of the Lincoln County War) 150 cavalry-men arrived from Fort Stanton, under the command of Lieutenant George Smith (later Colonel Nathan Dudley) to assist the Murphy-Dolan Faction in attacking the Lincoln County Regulators vigilante group. 5 dead, 8-28 wounded
1880–1889

1882 – Egypt. July 14 to 18. American forces landed to protect American interests during warfare between British and Egyptians and looting of the city of Alexandria by Arabs.[RL30172]

1885 – Panama (Colón). January 18 and 19. US forces were used to guard the valuables in transit over the Panama Railroad, and the safes and vaults of the company during revolutionary activity. In March, April, and May in the cities of Colón and Panama, the forces helped reestablish freedom of transit during revolutionary activity.[RL30172]

1888 – Korea. June. A naval force was sent ashore to protect American residents in Seoul during unsettled political conditions, when an outbreak of the populace was expected.[RL30172]

1888 – Haiti. December 20. A display of force persuaded the Haitian Government to give up an American steamer which had been seized on the charge of breach of blockade.[RL30172]

1888–89 – Samoa. November 14, 1888, to March 20, 1889. US forces were landed to protect American citizens and the consulate during a native civil war.[RL30172]

1889 – Kingdom of Hawaii. July 30 and 31. US forces at Honolulu protected the interests of Americans living in Hawaii during an American led revolution.[RL30172]
1890–1899

1890 – Argentina. A naval party landed to protect US consulate and legation in Buenos Aires.[RL30172]

1890 – South Dakota. December 29. Soldiers of the US Army 7th Cavalry killed 178 Sioux Amerindians following an incident over a disarmament-inspection at a Lakota Sioux encampment near Wounded Knee Creek. 89 other Amerinds were injured, 150 were reported missing; Army casualties were 25 killed, 39 wounded.[citation needed]

1891 – Haiti. US forces sought to protect American lives and property on Navassa Island.[RL30172]

1891 – Bering Strait. July 2 to October 5. Naval forces sought to stop seal poaching.[RL30172]

1891 – Chile. August 28 to 30. US forces protected the American consulate and the women and children who had taken refuge in it during a revolution in Valparaíso.[RL30172]

1892 – Homestead strike, On July 6. Striking miners attack Pinkerton National Detective Agency agents attempting to break the strike by bringing non-union workers to the mine. 6,000 Pennsylvania state militiamen sent to reinstate law and order. 16 dead, 27-47 wounded

1892 – Wyoming. April 11 to April 13. U.S. Cavalry sent to breakup a gun battle at the TA Ranch. Johnson County War

1893 – Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. January 16 to April 1. Marines landed in Hawaii, ostensibly to protect American lives and property, but many believed actually to promote a provisional government under Sanford B. Dole. This action was disavowed by President Cleveland, and eventually the United States apologized in 1993.[RL30172]

1894 – Brazil. January. A display of naval force sought to protect American commerce and shipping at Rio de Janeiro during a Brazilian civil war.[RL30172]

1894 – Nicaragua. July 6 to August 7. US forces sought to protect American interests at Bluefields following a revolution.[RL30172]

1894–95 – China. Marines were stationed at Tientsin and penetrated to Peking for protection purposes during the First Sino-Japanese War.[RL30172]

1894–95 – China. A naval vessel was beached and used as a fort at Newchwang for protection of American nationals.[RL30172]

1894–96 – Korea. July 24, 1894 to April 3, 1896. A guard of marines was sent to protect the American legation and American lives and interests at Seoul during and following the Sino-Japanese War.[RL30172]

1895 – Colombia. March 8 and 9. US forces protected American interests during an attack on the town of Bocas del Toro by a bandit chieftain.[RL30172]

1896 – Nicaragua. May 2 to 4. US forces protected American interests in Corinto during political unrest.[RL30172]

1898 – Nicaragua. February 7 and 8. US forces protected American lives and property at San Juan del Sur.[RL30172]

1898 – Spanish-American War On April 25, 1898, the United States declared war with Spain. The war followed a Cuban insurrection, the Cuban War of Independence against Spanish rule and the sinking of the USS Maine in the harbor at Havana.[RL30172]

1898–99 – Samoa. Second Samoan Civil War a conflict that reached a head in 1898 when Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States were locked in dispute over who should have control over the Samoan island chain.

1898–99 – China. November 5, 1898 to March 15, 1899. US forces provided a guard for the legation at Peking and the consulate at Tientsin during contest between the Dowager Empress and her son.[RL30172]

1899 – Nicaragua. American and British naval forces were landed to protect national interests at San Juan del Norte, February 22 to March 5, and at Bluefields a few weeks later in connection with the insurrection of Gen. Juan P. Reyes.[RL30172]

1899–1913 – Philippine Islands. Philippine-American War US forces protected American interests following the war with Spain, defeating Filipino revolutionaries seeking immediate national independence.[RL30172] The U.S. government declared the “insurgency” officially over in 1902, when the Filipino leadership generally accepted American rule. Skirmishes between government troops and armed groups lasted until 1913, and some historians consider these unofficial extensions of the war.[2]
1900–1909

1900 – China. May 24 to September 28. Boxer Rebellion American troops participated in operations to protect foreign lives during the Boxer uprising, particularly at Peking. For many years after this experience a permanent legation guard was maintained in Peking, and was strengthened at times as trouble threatened.[RL30172]

1901 – Colombia (State of Panama). November 20 to December 4. (See: Separation of Panama from Colombia) US forces protected American property on the Isthmus and kept transit lines open during serious revolutionary disturbances.[RL30172]

1902 – Colombia. – April 16 to 23. US forces protected American lives and property at Bocas del Toro during a civil war.[RL30172]

1902 – Colombia (State of Panama). September 17 to November 18. The United States placed armed guards on all trains crossing the Isthmus to keep the railroad line open, and stationed ships on both sides of Panama to prevent the landing of Colombian troops.[RL30172]

1903 – Honduras. March 23 to 30 or 31. US forces protected the American consulate and the steamship wharf at Puerto Cortes during a period of revolutionary activity.[RL30172]

1903 – Dominican Republic. March 30 to April 21. A detachment of marines was landed to protect American interests in the city of Santo Domingo during a revolutionary outbreak.[RL30172]

1903 – Syria. September 7 to 12. US forces protected the American consulate in Beirut when a local Muslim uprising was feared.[RL30172]

1903–04 – Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Twenty-five Marines were sent to Abyssinia to protect the US Consul General while he negotiated a treaty.[RL30172]

1903–14 – Panama. US forces sought to protect American interests and lives during and following the revolution for independence from Colombia over construction of the Isthmian Canal. With brief intermissions, United States Marines were stationed on the Isthmus from November 4, 1903, to January 21, 1914 to guard American interests.[RL30172]

1904 – Dominican Republic. January 2 to February 11. American and British naval forces established an area in which no fighting would be allowed and protected American interests in Puerto Plata and Sosua and Santo Domingo City during revolutionary fighting.[RL30172]

1904 – Tangier, Morocco. “We want either Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.” A squadron demonstrated to force release of a kidnapped American. Marines were landed to protect the consul general.[RL30172]

1904 – Panama. November 17 to 24. U.S forces protected American lives and property at Ancon at the time of a threatened insurrection.[RL30172]

1904–05 – Korea. January 5, 1904, to November 11, 1905. A guard of Marines was sent to protect the American legation in Seoul during the Russo-Japanese War.[RL30172]

1906–09 – Cuba. September 1906 to January 23, 1909. US forces sought to protect interests and re-establish a government after revolutionary activity.[RL30172]

1907 – Honduras. March 18 to June 8. To protect American interests during a war between Honduras and Nicaragua, troops were stationed in Trujillo, Ceiba, Puerto Cortes, San Pedro Sula, Laguna and Choloma.[RL30172]
1910–1919

1910 – Nicaragua. May 19 to September 4, 1910. Occupation of Nicaragua US forces protected American interests at Bluefields.[RL30172]

1911 – Honduras. January 26. American naval detachments were landed to protect American lives and interests during a civil war in Honduras.[RL30172]

1911 – China. As the Tongmenghui-led Xinhai Revolution approached, in October an ensign and 10 men tried to enter Wuchang to rescue missionaries but retired on being warned away, and a small landing force guarded American private property and consulate at Hankow. Marines were deployed in November to guard the cable stations at Shanghai; landing forces were sent for protection in Nanking, Chinkiang, Taku and elsewhere.[RL30172]

1912 – Honduras. A small force landed to prevent seizure by the government of an American-owned railroad at Puerto Cortes. The forces were withdrawn after the United States disapproved the action.[RL30172]

1912 – Panama. Troops, on request of both political parties, supervised elections outside the Panama Canal Zone.[RL30172]

1912 – Cuba. June 5 to August 5. U.S. forces protected American interests in the province of Oriente and in Havana.[RL30172]

1912 – China. August 24 to 26, on Kentucky Island, and August 26 to 30 at Camp Nicholson. US forces protected Americans and American interests during the Xinhai Revolution.[RL30172]

1912 – Turkey. November 18 to December 3. U.S. forces guarded the American legation at Constantinople during the First Balkan War[RL30172]

1912–25 – Nicaragua. August to November 1912. U.S. forces protected American interests during an attempted revolution. A small force, serving as a legation guard and seeking to promote peace and stability, remained until August 5, 1925.[RL30172]

1912–41 – China. The disorders which began with the overthrow of the dynasty during Kuomintang rebellion in 1912, which were redirected by the invasion of China by Japan, led to demonstrations and landing parties for the protection of US interests in China continuously and at many points from 1912 on to 1941. The guard at Peking and along the route to the sea was maintained until 1941. In 1927, the United States had 5,670 troops ashore in China and 44 naval vessels in its waters. In 1933 the United States had 3,027 armed men ashore. The protective action was generally based on treaties with China concluded from 1858 to 1901.[RL30172]

1913 – Mexico. September 5 to 7. A few marines landed at Ciaris Estero to aid in evacuating American citizens and others from the Yaqui Valley, made dangerous for foreigners by civil strife.[RL30172]

1914 – Haiti. January 29 to February 9, February 20 and 21, October 19. Intermittently US naval forces protected American nationals in a time of rioting and revolution.[RL30172] The specific order from the Secretary of the Navy to the invasion commander, Admiral William Deville Bundy, was to “protect American and foreign” interests.[citation needed]

1914 – Dominican Republic. June and July. During a revolutionary movement, United States naval forces by gunfire stopped the bombardment of Puerto Plata, and by threat of force maintained Santo Domingo City as a neutral zone.[RL30172]

1914–17 – Mexico. Tampico Affair led to Occupation of Veracruz, Mexico. Undeclared Mexican-American hostilities followed the Tampico Affair and Villa’s raids . Also Pancho Villa Expedition) – an abortive military operation conducted by the United States Army against the military forces of Francisco “Pancho” Villa from 1916 to 1917 and included capture of Vera Cruz. On March 19, 1915 on orders from President Woodrow Wilson, and with tacit consent by Venustiano Carranza General John J. Pershing led an invasion force of 10,000 men into Mexico to capture Villa.[RL30172]

1915–34 – Haiti. July 28, 1915, to August 15, 1934. United States occupation of Haiti 1915–1934 US forces maintained order during a period of chronic political instability.[RL30172] During the initial entrance into Haiti, the specific order from the Secretary of the Navy to the invasion commander, Admiral William Deville Bundy, was to “protect American and foreign” interests.[citation needed]

1916 – China. American forces landed to quell a riot taking place on American property in Nanking.[RL30172]

1916–24 – Dominican Republic. May 1916 to September 1924. Occupation of the Dominican Republic American naval forces maintained order during a period of chronic and threatened insurrection.[RL30172]

1917 – China. American troops were landed at Chungking to protect American lives during a political crisis.[RL30172]

1917–18 – World War I. On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war with Germany and on December 7, 1917, with Austria-Hungary. Entrance of the United States into the war was precipitated by Germany’s submarine warfare against neutral shipping and the Zimmermann Telegram.[RL30172]

1917–22 – Cuba. US forces protected American interests during insurrection and subsequent unsettled conditions. Most of the United States armed forces left Cuba by August 1919, but two companies remained at Camaguey until February 1922.[RL30172]

1918–19 – Mexico. After withdrawal of the Pershing expedition, U.S. troops entered Mexico in pursuit of bandits at least three times in 1918 and six times in 1919. In August 1918 American and Mexican troops fought at Nogales, The Battle of Ambos Nogales. The incident began when German spies plotted an attack with Mexican soldiers on Nogales Arizona. The fighting began when a Mexican officer shot and killed a U.S. soldier on American soil. A full scale battle then ensued, ending with a Mexican surrender.[RL30172]

1918–20 – Panama. US forces were used for police duty according to treaty stipulations, at Chiriqui, during election disturbances and subsequent unrest.[RL30172]

1918–20 – Soviet Union. Marines were landed at and near Vladivostok in June and July to protect the American consulate and other points in the fighting between the Bolshevik troops and the Czech Army which had traversed Siberia from the western front. A joint proclamation of emergency government and neutrality was issued by the American, Japanese, British, French, and Czech commanders in July. In August 7,000 men were landed in Vladivostok and remained until January 1920, as part of an allied occupation force. In September 1918, 5,000 American troops joined the allied intervention force at Archangel and remained until June 1919. These operations were in response to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and were partly supported by Czarist or Kerensky elements. [RL30172] For details, see the American Expeditionary Force Siberia and the American Expeditionary Force North Russia.

1919 – Dalmatia (Croatia). US forces were landed at Trau at the request of Italian authorities to police order between the Italians and Serbs.[RL30172]

1919 – Turkey. Marines from the USS Arizona were landed to guard the US Consulate during the Greek occupation of Constantinople.[RL30172]

1919 – Honduras. September 8 to 12. A landing force was sent ashore to maintain order in a neutral zone during an attempted revolution.[RL30172]
1920–1929

1920 – China. March 14. A landing force was sent ashore for a few hours to protect lives during a disturbance at Kiukiang.[RL30172]

1920 – Guatemala. April 9 to 27. US forces protected the American Legation and other American interests, such as the cable station, during a period of fighting between Unionists and the Government of Guatemala.[RL30172]

1920–22 – Russia (Siberia). February 16, 1920, to November 19, 1922. A Marine guard was sent to protect the United States radio station and property on Russian Island, Bay of Vladivostok.[RL30172]

1921 – Panama and Costa Rica. American naval squadrons demonstrated in April on both sides of the Isthmus to prevent war between the two countries over a boundary dispute.[RL30172]

1922 – Turkey. September and October. A landing force was sent ashore with consent of both Greek and Turkish authorities, to protect American lives and property when the Turkish nationalists entered İzmir (Smyrna.[RL30172]

1922–23 – China. April 1922 to November 1923. Marines were landed five times to protect Americans during periods of unrest.[RL30172]

1924 – Honduras. February 28 to March 31, September 10 to 15. U.S. forces protected American lives and interests during election hostilities.[RL30172]

1924 – China. – September. Marines were landed to protect Americans and other foreigners in Shanghai during Chinese factional hostilities.[RL30172]

1925 – China. January 15 to August 29. Fighting of Chinese factions accompanied by riots and demonstrations in Shanghai brought the landing of American forces to protect lives and property in the International Settlement.[RL30172]

1925 – Honduras. April 19 to 21. U.S. forces protected foreigners at La Ceiba during a political upheaval.[RL30172]

1925 – Panama. October 12 to 23. Strikes and rent riots led to the landing of about 600 American troops to keep order and protect American interests. [RL30172]

1926–33 – Nicaragua. May 7 to June 5, 1926, and August 27, 1926, to January 3, 1933. The coup d’état of General Chamorro aroused revolutionary activities leading to the landing of American marines to protect the interests of the United States. United States forces came and went intermittently until January 3, 1933.[RL30172]

1926 – China. August and September. The Nationalist attack on Hankow brought the landing of American naval forces to protect American citizens. A small guard was maintained at the consulate general even after September 16, when the rest of the forces were withdrawn. Likewise, when Nationalist forces captured Kiukiang, naval forces were landed for the protection of foreigners November 4 to 6.[RL30172]

1927 – China. February. Fighting at Shanghai caused American naval forces and marines to be increased. In March a naval guard was stationed at American consulate at Nanking after Nationalist forces captured the city. American and British destroyers later used shell fire to protect Americans and other foreigners. Subsequently additional forces of marines and naval forces were stationed in the vicinity of Shanghai and Tientsin.[RL30172]
1930–1939

1932 – China. American forces were landed to protect American interests during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai.[RL30172]

1932 – United States. “Bonus Army” of 17,000 WWI veterans plus 20,000 family cleared from Washington and then Anacostia flats “Hooverville” by 3rd Cavalry and 12th Infantry Regiments under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, July 28.

1933 – Cuba. During a revolution against President Gerardo Machado naval forces demonstrated but no landing was made.[RL30172]

1934 – China. Marines landed at Foochow to protect the American Consulate.[RL30172]
1940–1944

1940 – Newfoundland, Bermuda, St. Lucia, – Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad, and British Guiana. Troops were sent to guard air and naval bases obtained under lease by negotiation with the United Kingdom. These were sometimes called lend-lease bases but were under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement.[RL30172]

1941 – Greenland. Greenland was taken under protection of the United States in April.[RL30172]

1941 – Netherlands (Dutch Guiana). In November the President ordered American troops to occupy Dutch Guiana, but by agreement with the Netherlands government in exile, Brazil cooperated to protect aluminum ore supply from the bauxite mines in Suriname.[RL30172]

1941 – Iceland. Iceland was taken under the protection of the United States, with consent of its government replacing British troops, for strategic reasons.[RL30172]

1941 – Germany. Sometime in the spring the President ordered the Navy to patrol ship lanes to Europe. By July US warships were convoying and by September were attacking German submarines. In November, the Neutrality Act was partly repealed to protect US military aid to Britain. [RL30172]

1941–45 – World War II. On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war with Japan in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Germany declared war against the United States.[RL30172]
1945–1949

1945 – China. In October 50,000 US Marines were sent to North China to assist Chinese Nationalist authorities in disarming and repatriating the Japanese in China and in controlling ports, railroads, and airfields. This was in addition to approximately 60,000 US forces remaining in China at the end of World War II.[RL30172]

1945–49 – Occupation of part of Germany.

1945–55 – Occupation of part of Austria.

1945–52 – Occupation of Japan.

1944–46 – Temporary reoccupation of the Philippines during World War II and in preparation for previously scheduled independence.[citation needed]

1945–47 – US Marines garrisoned in mainland China to oversee the removal of Soviet and Japanese forces after World War II.[3]

1945–49 – Post World War II occupation of South Korea; North Korean insurgency in Republic of Korea[4]

1946 – Trieste (Italy). President Truman ordered the increase of US troops along the zonal occupation line and the reinforcement of air forces in northern Italy after Yugoslav forces shot down an unarmed US Army transport plane flying over Venezia Giulia..[citation needed] Earlier US naval units had been sent to the scene.[RL30172] Later the Free Territory of Trieste, Zone A.

1947 – Greece. US Marines land in Athens and assist in the re-establishment of monarchy and the arrest of Greek Communists.

1948 – Jerusalem (British Mandate). A marine consular guard was sent to Jerusalem to protect the US Consul General.[RL30172]

1948 – Berlin. Berlin Airlift After the Soviet Union established a land blockade of the US, British, and French sectors of Berlin on June 24, 1948, the United States and its allies airlifted supplies to Berlin until after the blockade was lifted in May 1949.[RL30172]

1948–49 – China. Marines were dispatched to Nanking to protect the American Embassy when the city fell to Communist troops, and to Shanghai to aid in the protection and evacuation of Americans.[RL30172]
1950–1959
Map of military operations since 1950

1950–53 – Korean War. The United States responded to North Korean invasion of South Korea by going to its assistance, pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolutions. US forces deployed in Korea exceeded 300,000 during the last year of the conflict. Over 36,600 US military were killed in action.[RL30172]

1950–55 – Formosa (Taiwan). In June 1950 at the beginning of the Korean War, President Truman ordered the US Seventh Fleet to prevent Chinese Communist attacks upon Formosa and Chinese Nationalist operations against mainland China.[RL30172]

1954–55 – China. Naval units evacuated US civilians and military personnel from the Tachen Islands.[RL30172]

1955–64 – Vietnam. First military advisors sent to Vietnam on 12 Feb 1955. By 1964, US troop levels had grown to 21,000. On 7 August 1964, US Congress approved Gulf of Tonkin resolution affirming “All necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States. . .to prevent further aggression. . . (and) assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asian Collective Defense Treaty (SEATO) requesting assistance. . .”[Vietnam timeline]

1956 – Egypt. A marine battalion evacuated US nationals and other persons from Alexandria during the Suez crisis.[RL30172]

1958 – Lebanon. Lebanon crisis of 1958 Marines were landed in Lebanon at the invitation of President Camille Chamoun to help protect against threatened insurrection supported from the outside. The President’s action was supported by a Congressional resolution passed in 1957 that authorized such actions in that area of the world.[RL30172]

1959–60 – The Caribbean. Second Marine Ground Task Force was deployed to protect US nationals following the Cuban revolution.[RL30172]

1959–75 – Vietnam War. US military advisers had been in South Vietnam for a decade, and their numbers had been increased as the military position of the Saigon government became weaker. After citing what he termed were attacks on US destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf, President Johnson asked in August 1964 for a resolution expressing US determination to support freedom and protect peace in Southeast Asia. Congress responded with the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, expressing support for “all necessary measures” the President might take to repel armed attacks against US forces and prevent further aggression. Following this resolution, and following a communist attack on a US installation in central Vietnam, the United States escalated its participation in the war to a peak of 543,000 military personnel by April 1969.[RL30172][not in citation given]
1960–1969

1962 – Thailand. The Third Marine Expeditionary Unit landed on May 17, 1962 to support that country during the threat of Communist pressure from outside; by July 30, the 5,000 marines had been withdrawn.[RL30172]

1962 – Cuba. Cuban Missile Crisis On October 22, President Kennedy instituted a “quarantine” on the shipment of offensive missiles to Cuba from the Soviet Union. He also warned Soviet Union that the launching of any missile from Cuba against nations in the Western Hemisphere would bring about US nuclear retaliation on the Soviet Union. A negotiated settlement was achieved in a few days.[RL30172]

1962–75 – Laos. From October 1962 until 1975, the United States played an important role in military support of anti-Communist forces in Laos.[RL30172]

1964 – Congo (Zaire). The United States sent four transport planes to provide airlift for Congolese troops during a rebellion and to transport Belgian paratroopers to rescue foreigners.[RL30172]

1965 – Invasion of Dominican Republic. Operation Power Pack. The United States intervened to protect lives and property during a Dominican revolt and sent 20,000 US troops as fears grew that the revolutionary forces were coming increasingly under Communist control.[RL30172] A popular rebellion breaks out, promising to reinstall Juan Bosch as the country’s elected leader. The revolution is crushed when U.S. Marines land to uphold the military regime by force. The CIA directs everything behind the scenes.

1967 – Israel. The USS Liberty incident, whereupon a United States Navy Technical Research Ship was attacked June 8, 1967 by Israeli armed forces, killing 34 and wounding more than 170 U.S. crew members.

1967 – Congo (Zaire). The United States sent three military transport aircraft with crews to provide the Congo central government with logistical support during a revolt.[RL30172]

1968 – Laos & Cambodia. U.S. starts secret bombing campaign against targets along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the sovereign nations of Cambodia and Laos. The bombings last at least two years. (See Operation Commando Hunt)
1970–1979

1970 – Cambodian Campaign. US troops were ordered into Cambodia to clean out Communist sanctuaries from which Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacked US and South Vietnamese forces in Vietnam. The object of this attack, which lasted from April 30 to June 30, was to ensure the continuing safe withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam and to assist the program of Vietnamization.[RL30172]

1972 – North Vietnam – Christmas bombing Operation Linebacker II (not mentioned in RL30172, but an operation leading to peace negotiations). The operation was conducted from 18–29 December 1972. It was a bombing of the cities Hanoi and Haiphong by B-52 bombers.

1973 – Operation Nickel Grass, a strategic airlift operation conducted by the United States to deliver weapons and supplies to Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

1974 – Evacuation from Cyprus. United States naval forces evacuated US civilians during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.[RL30172]

1975 – Evacuation from Vietnam. Operation Frequent Wind. On April 3, 1975, President Ford reported US naval vessels, helicopters, and Marines had been sent to assist in evacuation of refugees and US nationals from Vietnam.[RL30172]

1975 – Evacuation from Cambodia. Operation Eagle Pull. On April 12, 1975, President Ford reported that he had ordered US military forces to proceed with the planned evacuation of US citizens from Cambodia.[RL30172]

1975 – South Vietnam. On April 30, 1975, President Ford reported that a force of 70 evacuation helicopters and 865 Marines had evacuated about 1,400 US citizens and 5,500 third country nationals and South Vietnamese from landing zones in and around the US Embassy, Saigon and Tan Son Nhut Airport.[RL30172]

1975 – Cambodia. Mayagüez Incident. On May 15, 1975, President Ford reported he had ordered military forces to retake the SS Mayagüez, a merchant vessel which was seized from Cambodian naval patrol boats in international waters and forced to proceed to a nearby island.[RL30172]

1976 – Lebanon. On July 22 and 23, 1976, helicopters from five US naval vessels evacuated approximately 250 Americans and Europeans from Lebanon during fighting between Lebanese factions after an overland convoy evacuation had been blocked by hostilities.[RL30172]

1976 – Korea. Additional forces were sent to Korea after two American soldiers were killed by North Korean soldiers in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea while cutting down a tree.[RL30172]

1978 – Zaire (Congo). From May 19 through June 1978, the United States utilized military transport aircraft to provide logistical support to Belgian and French rescue operations in Zaire.[RL30172]
1980–1989

1980 – Iran. Operation Eagle Claw. On April 26, 1980, President Carter reported the use of six U.S. transport planes and eight helicopters in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the American hostages in Iran.

1980 – U.S. Army and Air Force units arrive in the Sinai in September as part of “Operation Bright Star”. They are there to train with Egyptians armed forces as part of the Camp David peace accords signed in 1979. Elements of the 101st Airborne Division, ( 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry) and Air Force MAC (Military Airlift Command) units are in theater for four months and are the first U.S. military forces in the region since World War II.

1981 – El Salvador. After a guerrilla offensive against the government of El Salvador, additional US military advisers were sent to El Salvador, bringing the total to approximately 55, to assist in training government forces in counterinsurgency.[RL30172]

1981 – Libya. First Gulf of Sidra Incident On August 19, 1981, US planes based on the carrier USS Nimitz shot down two Libyan jets over the Gulf of Sidra after one of the Libyan jets had fired a heat-seeking missile. The United States periodically held freedom of navigation exercises in the Gulf of Sidra, claimed by Libya as territorial waters but considered international waters by the United States.[RL30172]

1982 – Sinai. On March 19, 1982, President Reagan reported the deployment of military personnel and equipment to participate in the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai. Participation had been authorized by the Multinational Force and Observers Resolution, Public Law 97-132.[RL30172]

1982 – Lebanon. Multinational Force in Lebanon. On August 21, 1982, President Reagan reported the dispatch of 800 Marines to serve in the multinational force to assist in the withdrawal of members of the Palestine Liberation force from Beirut. The Marines left September 20, 1982.[RL30172]

1982–83 – Lebanon. On September 29, 1982, President Reagan reported the deployment of 1200 marines to serve in a temporary multinational force to facilitate the restoration of Lebanese government sovereignty. On September 29, 1983, Congress passed the Multinational Force in Lebanon Resolution (P.L. 98-119) authorizing the continued participation for eighteen months.[RL30172]

1983 – Egypt. After a Libyan plane bombed a city in Sudan on March 18, 1983, and Sudan and Egypt appealed for assistance, the United States dispatched an AWACS electronic surveillance plane to Egypt.[RL30172]

1983 – Grenada. Operation Urgent Fury. Citing the increased threat of Soviet and Cuban influence and noting the development of an international airport following a bloodless Grenada coup d’état and alignment with the Soviets and Cuba, the U.S. invades the island nation of Grenada.[RL30172]

1983–89 – Honduras. In July 1983 the United States undertook a series of exercises in Honduras that some believed might lead to conflict with Nicaragua. On March 25, 1986, unarmed US military helicopters and crewmen ferried Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border to repel Nicaraguan troops.[RL30172]

1983 – Chad. On August 8, 1983, President Reagan reported the deployment of two AWACS electronic surveillance planes and eight F-15 fighter planes and ground logistical support forces to assist Chad against Libyan and rebel forces.[RL30172]

1984 – Persian Gulf. On June 5, 1984, Saudi Arabian jet fighter planes, aided by intelligence from a US AWACS electronic surveillance aircraft and fueled by a U.S. KC-10 tanker, shot down two Iranian fighter planes over an area of the Persian Gulf proclaimed as a protected zone for shipping.[RL30172]

1985 – Italy. On October 10, 1985, US Navy pilots intercepted an Egyptian airliner and forced it to land in Sicily. The airliner was carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro who had killed an American citizen during the hijacking.[RL30172]

1986 – Libya. Action in the Gulf of Sidra (1986) On March 26, 1986, President Reagan reported on March 24 and 25, US forces, while engaged in freedom of navigation exercises around the Gulf of Sidra, had been attacked by Libyan missiles and the United States had responded with missiles.[RL30172]

1986 – Libya. Operation El Dorado Canyon. On April 16, 1986, President Reagan reported that U.S. air and naval forces had conducted bombing strikes on terrorist facilities and military installations in the Libyan capitol of Tripoli, claiming that Libyan leader Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi was responsible for a bomb attack at a German disco that killed two U.S. soldiers.[RL30172]

1986 – Bolivia. U.S. Army personnel and aircraft assisted Bolivia in anti-drug operations.[RL30172]

1987 – Persian Gulf. USS Stark was struck on May 17 by two Exocet antiship missiles fired from an Iraqi F-1 Mirage during the Iran-Iraq War killing 37 US Navy sailors.

1987 – Persian Gulf. Operation Nimble Archer. Attacks on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf by United States Navy forces on October 19. The attack was a response to Iran’s October 16, 1987 attack on the MV Sea Isle City, a reflagged Kuwaiti oil tanker at anchor off Kuwait, with a Silkworm missile.

1987–88 – Persian Gulf. Operation Earnest Will – After the Iran-Iraq War (the Tanker War phase) resulted in several military incidents in the Persian Gulf, the United States increased US joint military forces operations in the Persian Gulf and adopted a policy of reflagging and escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Persian Gulf to protect them from Iraqi and Iranian attacks. President Reagan reported that US ships had been fired upon or struck mines or taken other military action on September 21 (Iran Ajr), October 8, and October 19, 1987 and April 18 (Operation Praying Mantis), July 3, and July 14, 1988. The United States gradually reduced its forces after a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq on August 20, 1988.[RL30172] It was the largest naval convoy operation since World War II.[5]

1987–88 – Persian Gulf. Operation Prime Chance was a United States Special Operations Command operation intended to protect U.S. -flagged oil tankers from Iranian attack during the Iran-Iraq War. The operation took place roughly at the same time as Operation Earnest Will.

1988 – Persian Gulf. Operation Praying Mantis was the April 18, 1988 action waged by U.S. naval forces in retaliation for the Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf and the subsequent damage to an American warship.

1988 – Honduras. Operation Golden Pheasant was an emergency deployment of U.S. troops to Honduras in 1988, as a result of threatening actions by the forces of the (then socialist) Nicaraguans.

1988 – USS Vincennes shoot down of Iran Air Flight 655

1988 – Panama. In mid-March and April 1988, during a period of instability in Panama and as the United States increased pressure on Panamanian head of state General Manuel Noriega to resign, the United States sent 1,000 troops to Panama, to “further safeguard the canal, US lives, property and interests in the area.” The forces supplemented 10,000 US military personnel already in the Panama Canal Zone.[RL30172]

1989 – Libya. Second Gulf of Sidra Incident On January 4, 1989, two US Navy F-14 aircraft based on the USS John F. Kennedy shot down two Libyan jet fighters over the Mediterranean Sea about 70 miles north of Libya. The US pilots said the Libyan planes had demonstrated hostile intentions.[RL30172]

1989 – Panama. On May 11, 1989, in response to General Noriega’s disregard of the results of the Panamanian election, President Bush ordered a brigade-sized force of approximately 1,900 troops to augment the estimated 1,000 U.S. forces already in the area.[RL30172]

1989 – Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. Andean Initiative in War on Drugs. On September 15, 1989, President Bush announced that military and law enforcement assistance would be sent to help the Andean nations of Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru combat illicit drug producers and traffickers. By mid-September there were 50–100 US military advisers in Colombia in connection with transport and training in the use of military equipment, plus seven Special Forces teams of 2–12 persons to train troops in the three countries.[RL30172]

1989 – Philippines. Operation Classic Resolve. On December 2, 1989, President Bush reported that on December 1, Air Force fighters from Clark Air Base in Luzon had assisted the Aquino government to repel a coup attempt. In addition, 100 marines were sent from U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay to protect the United States Embassy in Manila.[RL30172]

1989–90 – Panama. Operation Just Cause. On December 21, 1989, President Bush reported that he had ordered US military forces to Panama to protect the lives of American citizens and bring General Noriega to justice. By February 13, 1990, all the invasion forces had been withdrawn.[RL30172] Around 200 Panamanian civilians were reported killed. The Panamanian head of state, General Manuel Noriega, was captured and brought to the U.S.
1990–1999

1990 – Liberia: On August 6, 1990, President Bush reported that a reinforced rifle company had been sent to provide additional security to the US Embassy in Monrovia, and that helicopter teams had evacuated U.S. citizens from Liberia.[RL30172]

1990 – Saudi Arabia: On August 9, 1990, President Bush reported that he launched Operation Desert Shield by ordering the forward deployment of substantial elements of the U.S. armed forces into the Persian Gulf region to help defend Saudi Arabia after the August 2 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. On November 16, 1990, he reported the continued buildup of the forces to ensure an adequate offensive military option.[RL30172]American hostages being held in Iran.[RL30172]

1991 – Iraq and Kuwait. Operation Desert Storm: On January 16, 1991, in response to the refusal by Iraq to leave Kuwait, U.S. and Coalition aircraft attacked Iraqi forces and military targets in Iraq and Kuwait in conjunction with a coalition of allies and under United Nations Security Council resolutions. In February 24, 1991, U.S.-led United Nation (UN) forces launched a ground offensive that finally drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait within 100 hours. Combat operations ended on February 28, 1991, when President Bush declared a ceasefire.[RL30172]

1991–1996 – Iraq. Operation Provide Comfort: Delivery of humanitarian relief and military protection for Kurds fleeing their homes in northern Iraq during the 1991 uprising, by a small Allied ground force based in Turkey which began in April 1991.

1991 – Iraq: On May 17, 1991, President Bush stated that the Iraqi repression of the Kurdish people had necessitated a limited introduction of U.S. forces into northern Iraq for emergency relief purposes.[RL30172]

1991 – Zaire: On September 25–27, 1991, after widespread looting and rioting broke out in Kinshasa, Air Force C-141s transported 100 Belgian troops and equipment into Kinshasa. American planes also carried 300 French troops into the Central African Republic and hauled evacuated American citizens.[RL30172]

1992 – Sierra Leone. Operation Silver Anvil: Following the April 29 coup that overthrew President Joseph Saidu Momoh, a United States European Command (USEUCOM) Joint Special Operations Task Force evacuated 438 people (including 42 third-country nationals) on May 3 .Two Air Mobility Command (AMC) C-141s flew 136 people from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to the Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany and nine C-130 sorties carried another 302 people to Dakar, Senegal.[RL30172]

1992–1996 – Bosnia and Herzegovina: Operation Provide Promise was a humanitarian relief operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav Wars, from July 2, 1992, to January 9, 1996, which made it the longest running humanitarian airlift in history.[6]

1992 – Kuwait: On August 3, 1992, the United States began a series of military exercises in Kuwait, following Iraqi refusal to recognize a new border drawn up by the United Nations and refusal to cooperate with UN inspection teams.[RL30172]

1992–2003 – Iraq. Iraqi no-fly zones: The U.S., United Kingdom, and it’s Gulf War allies declared and enforced “no-fly zones” over the majority of sovereign Iraqi airspace, prohibiting Iraqi flights in zones in southern Iraq and northern Iraq, and conducting aerial reconnaissance and bombings. Oftentimes, Iraqi forces continued throughout a decade by firing on U.S. and British aircraft patrolling no-fly zones.(See also Operation Northern Watch, Operation Southern Watch) [RL30172]

1992–1995 – Somalia. Operation Restore Hope. Somali Civil War: On December 10, 1992, President Bush reported that he had deployed U.S. armed forces to Somalia in response to a humanitarian crisis and a UN Security Council Resolution in support for UNITAF. The operation came to an end on May 4, 1993. U.S. forces continued to participate in the successor United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM II).(See also Battle of Mogadishu)[RL30172]

1993-1995 – Bosnia. Operation Deny Flight: On April 12, 1993, in response to a United Nations Security Council passage of Resolution 816, U.S. and NATO enforced the no-fly zone over the Bosnian airspace, prohibited all unauthorized flights and allowed to “take all necessary measures to ensure compliance with [the no-fly zone restrictions].”

1993 – Macedonia: On July 9, 1993, President Clinton reported the deployment of 350 U.S. soldiers to the Republic of Macedonia to participate in the UN Protection Force to help maintain stability in the area of former Yugoslavia.[RL30172]

1994: Bosnia. Banja Luka incident: NATO become involved in the first combat situation when NATO U.S. Air Force F-16 jets shot down four of the six Bosnian Serb J-21 Jastreb single-seat light attack jets for violating UN mandated no-fly zone.

1994–1995 – Haiti. Operation Uphold Democracy: U.S. ships had begun embargo against Haiti. Up to 20,000 U.S. military troops were later deployed to Haiti to restore democratically-elected Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from a military regime which came into power in 1991 after a major coup.[RL30172]

1994 – Macedonia: On April 19, 1994, President Clinton reported that the U.S. contingent in Macedonia had been increased by a reinforced company of 200 personnel.[RL30172]

1995 – Bosnia. Operation Deliberate Force: In August 30, 1995, U.S. and NATO aircraft began a major bombing campaign of Bosnian Serb Army in response to a Bosnian Serb mortar attack on a Sarajevo market that killed 37 people in August 28, 1995. This operation lasted until September 20, 1995. The air campaign along with a combined allied ground force of Muslim and Croatian Army against Serb positions led to a Dayton agreement in December 1995 with the signing of warring factions of the war. U.S. and NATO dispatched the IFOR peacekeepers to Bosnia to uphold the Dayton agreement.[RL30172]

1996 – Liberia. Operation Assured Response: On April 11, 1996, President Clinton reported that on April 9, 1996 due to the “deterioration of the security situation and the resulting threat to American citizens” in Liberia he had ordered U.S. military forces to evacuate from that country “private U.S. citizens and certain third-country nationals who had taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy compound….”[RL30172]

1996 – Central African Republic. Operation Quick Response: On May 23, 1996, President Clinton reported the deployment of U.S. military personnel to Bangui, Central African Republic, to conduct the evacuation from that country of “private U.S. citizens and certain U.S. government employees”, and to provide “enhanced security for the American Embassy in Bangui.”[RL30172] United States Marine Corps elements of Joint Task Force Assured Response, responding in nearby Liberia, provided security to the embassy and evacuated 448 people, including between 190 and 208 Americans. The last Marines left Bangui on June 22.

1996 – Bosnia. Operation Joint Guard: In December 21, 1996, U.S. and NATO established the SFOR peacekeepers to replace the IFOR in enforcing the peace under the Dayton agreement.

1997 – Albania. Operation Silver Wake: On March 13, 1997, U.S. military forces were used to evacuate certain U.S. government employees and private U.S. citizens from Tirana, Albania.[RL30172]

1997 – Congo and Gabon: On March 27, 1997, President Clinton reported on March 25, 1997, a standby evacuation force of U.S. military personnel had been deployed to Congo and Gabon to provide enhanced security and to be available for any necessary evacuation operation.[RL30172]

1997 – Sierra Leone: On May 29 and May 30, 1997, U.S. military personnel were deployed to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to prepare for and undertake the evacuation of certain U.S. government employees and private U.S. citizens.[RL30172]

1997 – Cambodia: On July 11, 1997, In an effort to ensure the security of American citizens in Cambodia during a period of domestic conflict there, a Task Force of about 550 U.S. military personnel were deployed at Utapao Air Base in Thailand for possible evacuations. [RL30172]

1998 – Iraq. Operation Desert Fox: U.S. and British forces conduct a major four-day bombing campaign from December 16–19, 1998 on Iraqi targets.[RL30172]

1998 – Guinea-Bissau. Operation Shepherd Venture: On June 10, 1998, in response to an army mutiny in Guinea-Bissau endangering the U.S. Embassy, President Clinton deployed a standby evacuation force of U.S. military personnel to Dakar, Senegal, to evacuate from the city of Bissau.[RL30172]

1998–1999 – Kenya and Tanzania: U.S. military personnel were deployed to Nairobi, Kenya, to coordinate the medical and disaster assistance related to the bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.[RL30172]

1998 – Afghanistan and Sudan. Operation Infinite Reach: On August 20, President Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack against two suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical factory in Sudan.[RL30172]

1998 – Liberia: On September 27, 1998, America deployed a stand-by response and evacuation force of 30 U.S. military personnel to increase the security force at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia. [1] [RL30172]

1999–2001 – East Timor: Limited number of U.S. military forces deployed with the United Nations-mandated International Force for East Timor restore peace to East Timor.[RL30172]

1999 – Serbia. Operation Allied Force: U.S. and NATO aircraft began a major bombing of Serbia and Serb positions in Kosovo in March 24, 1999, during the Kosovo War due to the refusal by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to end repression against ethic Albanians in Kosovo. This operation ended in June 10, 1999, when Milosevic agreed to pull out his troops out of Kosovo. In response to the situation in Kosovo, NATO dispatched the KFOR peacekeepers to secure the peace under UNSC Resolution 1244.[RL30172]
2000–2009

2000 – Sierra Leone. On May 12, 2000 a US Navy patrol craft deployed to Sierra Leone to support evacuation operations from that country if needed.[RL30172]

2000 – Nigeria. Special Forces troops are sent to Nigeria to lead a training mission in the county.[7]

2000 – Yemen. On October 12, 2000, after the USS Cole attack in the port of Aden, Yemen, military personnel were deployed to Aden.[RL30172]

2000 – East Timor. On February 25, 2000, a small number of U.S. military personnel were deployed to support the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). [RL30172]

2001 – On April 1, 2001, a mid-air collision between a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals surveillance aircraft and a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) J-8II interceptor fighter jet resulted in an international dispute between the United States and the People’s Republic of China called the Hainan Island incident.

2001 – War in Afghanistan. The War on Terrorism begins with Operation Enduring Freedom. On October 7, 2001, US Armed Forces invade Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks and “begin combat action in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda terrorists and their Taliban supporters.”[RL30172]

2002 – Yemen. On November 3, 2002, an American MQ-1 Predator fired a Hellfire missile at a car in Yemen killing Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, an al-Qaeda leader thought to be responsible for the USS Cole bombing.[RL30172]

2002 – Philippines. OEF-Philippines. January 2002 U.S. “combat-equipped and combat support forces” have been deployed to the Philippines to train with, assist and advise the Philippines’ Armed Forces in enhancing their “counterterrorist capabilities.”[RL30172]

2002 – Côte d’Ivoire. On September 25, 2002, in response to a rebellion in Côte d’Ivoire, US military personnel went into Côte d’Ivoire to assist in the evacuation of American citizens from Bouake.[8]

[RL30172]

2003–2011 – War in Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. March 20, 2003. The United States leads a coalition that includes Britain, Australia and Spain to invade Iraq with the stated goal being “to disarm Iraq in pursuit of peace, stability, and security both in the Gulf region and in the United States.”[RL30172]

2003 – Liberia. Second Liberian Civil War. On June 9, 2003, President Bush reported that on June 8 he had sent about 35 US Marines into Monrovia, Liberia, to help secure the US Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania, and to aid in any necessary evacuation from either Liberia or Mauritania.[RL30172]

2003 – Georgia and Djibouti. “US combat equipped and support forces” had been deployed to Georgia and Djibouti to help in enhancing their “counterterrorist capabilities.”[9]

2004 – Haiti. 2004 Haïti rebellion occurs. The US first sent 55 combat equipped military personnel to augment the US Embassy security forces there and to protect American citizens and property in light. Later 200 additional US combat-equipped, military personnel were sent to prepare the way for a UN Multinational Interim Force, MINUSTAH.[RL30172]

2004 – War on Terrorism: US anti-terror related activities were underway in Georgia, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Eritrea.[10]

2004–present: Drone attacks in Pakistan

2005–06 – Pakistan. President Bush deploys troops from US Army Air Cav Brigades to provide Humanitarian relief to far remote villages in the Kashmir mountain ranges of Pakistan stricken by a massive earthquake.

2006 – Lebanon. US Marine Detachment, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit[citation needed], begins evacuation of US citizens willing to leave the country in the face of a likely ground invasion by Israel and continued fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.[11][12]

2007 – Somalia. Battle of Ras Kamboni. On January 8, 2007, while the conflict between the Islamic Courts Union and the Transitional Federal Government continues, an AC-130 gunship conducts an aerial strike on a suspected Al-Qaeda operative, along with other Islamist fighters, on Badmadow Island near Ras Kamboni in southern Somalia.[13]

2008 – South Ossetia, Georgia. Helped Georgia humanitarian aid,[14] helped to transport Georgian forces from Iraq during the conflict. In the past, the US has provided training and weapons to Georgia.

2010–Present

2010-11 War in Iraq. Operation New Dawn. On February 17, 2010, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that as of September 1, 2010, the name “Operation Iraqi Freedom” would be replaced by “Operation New Dawn”. This coincides with the reduction of American troops to 50,000.
2011 – Libya. Operation Odyssey Dawn. Coalition forces enforcing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 with bombings of Libyan forces.
2011 – War on Terrorism. Osama Bin Laden is killed by U.S. military forces in Pakistan as part of Operation Neptune Spear.
2011 – Drone strikes on al-Shabab militants begin in Somalia.[15] This marks the 6th nation in which such strikes have been ca    rried out, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.[citation needed]
2011 – Uganda. US Combat troops sent in as advisers to Uganda.[16]

Battles with the Native Americans

See also: American Indian Wars, Indian massacres

Frontier warfare during the American Revolution, which included:

Chickamauga Wars (1776–94)
Battle of Oriskany (1777)
Wyoming Valley Massacre (1778)
Cherry Valley Massacre (1778)
Sullivan Expedition (1779)
Battle of Blue Licks (1782)

Northwest Indian War (1785–95)
Nickajack Expedition (1794)
Sabine Expedition (1806)
War of 1812 (western theatre), which included:

Tecumseh’s War (1811–13)
Peoria War (1813)
Creek War (1813–14)

Seminole Wars (1812, 1817–18, 1835–42, 1855–58)
Arikara War (1823)
Fever River War (1827)
Le Fèvre Indian War (1827)
Black Hawk War (1832)
Pawnee Indian Territory Campaign (1834)
Creek War of 1836, aka Second Creek War or Creek Alabama Uprising (1835–37)
Missouri-Iowa Border War (1836)
Texas–Indian Wars (1836–1877)
Southwestern Frontier (Sabine) disturbances (no fighting) (1836–37)
Osage Indian War (1837)
Cayuse War (1848–55)
Southwest Indian Wars (1849–63)
Navajo Wars (1849–66)
Long Walk of the Navajo (1863–68)
Apache Wars (1851, 1854–55, 1860, 1861–72, 1873, 1885–86)
Yuma War (1850–53)
Yuma Expedition (1851–52)
Utah Indian Wars (1851–53)
Walker War (1853)
Mohave War (1858)
California Indian Wars (1850–66)
Gila Expedition (1850)
Mariposa War (1850–51)
Klamath and Salmon River Indian War (1855)
Tule River War (1856)
Mendocino War (1858)
Pitt River Expedition (1859)
Bald Hills War 1858–1864
Owens Valley Indian War (1862–65)
Pitt River Expedition (1850)
Grattan Massacre (1855)
Yakima War (1855)
Winnas Expedition (1855)
Klickitat War (1855)
Puget Sound War (1855–56)
Rogue River Wars (1855–56)
Tintic War (1856)
Mountain Meadows Massacre (1857)
Spokane-Coeur d’Alene-Paloos War (1858)
Pecos Expedition (1859)
Antelope Hills Expedition (1859)
Bear River Expedition (1859)
Paiute War (1860)
Kiowa-Comanche War (1860)
Cheyenne Campaign (1861–1864)
Dakota War of 1862 (1862)
Bear River Massacre (1863)
Colorado War (1863–65)
Goshute War (1863)
Skirmishes between 1st Cavalry Regiment (United States) and Indians 1849; 1854; 1866–71; 1877; 1885; 1890
Kidder Massacre (1867) (See Second Cavalry Regiment)
Snake War (1864–68)
Utah’s Black Hawk War (1865–72)
Red Cloud’s War (1866–68)
Comanche Wars (1867–75)
Battle of Washita River (68)
Marias Massacre (1870)
Modoc War (1872–73)
Red River War (1874)
Apache Wars (1873, 1885–86)
Eastern Navada Expedition (1875)
Black Hills War (1876–77)
Nez Perce War (1877)
Paiute Indian troubles (1878)
Bannock War (1878)
Cheyenne War (1878–79)
Sheepeater Indian War (1879)
White River War (1879)
Ghost Dance War (1890–91)
Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
Battle of Leech Lake (1898)
New Mexico Navajo War (1913)
Colorado Paiute War (1915)
AIM Takeovers (1969–75)[citation needed]
Seneca Indian Nation Standoff and New York State Thruway Blockade (1997)[citation needed]

Relocation

Indian removal (1830s)
Trail of Tears (1835–38)
World War II-Era German American Internment (1942–45)
World War II-Era Japanese American Internment (1942–46)
World War II-Era Italian American Internment (1942–43)

Armed insurrections and slave revolts

See also: Slave rebellion, Tax revolt

Gloucester County, Virginia Slave Rebellion (1663)
Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)
Leisler’s Rebellion (1689–91)
Stono Rebellion (1739)
Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763–66)
War of the Regulation (1764–71)
Boston Tea Party (1773)
American Revolutionary War (1775–83)
Shays’ Rebellion (1786)
Whiskey Rebellion (1794)
John Fries’ Rebellion (1799–1800)
Louisiana Territory Slave Rebellion (1811)
Nat Turner’s slave rebellion (1831)
Buckshot War (1837–38)
Patriot War (1837–38)
Anti-Rent War (1839–44)
Dorr Rebellion (1841–42)
Taos Revolt (1847)
Utah War (1857–58)
John Brown’s Raid on Federal Armory at Harper’s Ferry (1859)
American Civil War (1861–65)
Green Corn Rebellion Oklahoma (1917)
The Bonus March (1932)
The Battle of Athens – also known as the McMinn County War. Uprising in Athens, Tennessee (1946)
Jayuya Uprising – Puerto Rico (1950)
Wounded Knee incident – Wounded Knee, South Dakota (1973)

Range wars
See also: Range war

Franklin County War (Idaho, 1866–72)
Mason County War (Texas, 1874–77)
Colfax County War (New Mexico, 1875)
Lincoln County War (New Mexico, 1877–78)
San Elizario Salt War (Texas-Mexico borderlands 1877)
Johnson County War (Wyoming, 1892)
Pleasant Valley War (Arizona, 1886)
Sheep Wars (Texas-New Mexico borderlands, 1879–1900)
Posey War (Utah, 1923)

Bloody local feuds

Rowan County War (Kentucky, 1884–87)
Hatfield-McCoy feud (West Virginia-Kentucky, 1878–91)

Bloodless boundary disputes

Toledo War (1835, Michigan Territory-Ohio)
Aroostook War (1838–39, U.S.-Britain)
Honey War (1839, Iowa Territory-Missouri)
Oregon boundary dispute (1844–46, U.S.-Britain)
Pig War (1859, U.S.-Britain)
Chamizal dispute (1895–1963, U.S.-Mexico)
Alaska boundary dispute (1907, U.S.-Canada)
Red River Bridge War (1932, Oklahoma-Texas)

Terrorist, paramilitary groups and guerrilla warfare
18th & 19th century

Francis Marion (1780–82)
Bleeding Kansas (1854–60)
Wakarusa War (1855)
Cortina Troubles (1859–61)
Quantrill’s Raiders (1861–63)
Red Shirts Hamburg Massacre (1876)
Ku Klux Klan (1877)
Knights of the White Camelia
White League (1874–)
Coushatta Massacre (1874)
Colfax Riot (1874)

20th & 21st century

Black Patch Tobacco Wars (1904–14?)[citation needed]
Mass racial violence in the United States (1917; 1919; 1921; 1943; 1965; 1967)
U.S. Embassy Bombing (1983)
Marine Barracks Bombing (1983)
Oklahoma City bombing (1995)
U.S. Embassy Bombings (1998)
USS Cole Bombing (2000)
September 11, 2001 attacks (2001)

Labor-management disputes
Further information: Timeline of labor issues and events and List of strikes

Great Railroad Strike (1877)
Homestead Strike (1892)
Pullman Strike (1894)
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899
Battle of Blair Mountain (1921)

State and national secession attempts
Further information: List of extinct states and Unrecognized historic regions of the United States

Westsylvania (1776)
Green Mountain Boys (1777–91) (Vermont voluntarily entered the Union in 1791)
State of Franklin (1784–90)
Republic of West Florida (1810)
Republic of Indian Stream (1832–42)
Free City of Tri-Insula (1861)
Confederate States of America (1861–65)

Riots, disorder and natural disasters

Detroit Race Riot (1943) Detroit, Michigan (1943)
Watts Riots Los Angeles, California (1965)
1967 Detroit riot Detroit, Michigan (1967)
Hurricane Hugo (1989)
Los Angeles riots (1992)
Hurricane Andrew (1992)
Hurricane Katrina (2005)
Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010)

Miscellaneous

Pennamite-Yankee War (1769–84)
Oconee War (1784)
Burr conspiracy (1804–07)
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair (1807)
Little Belt Affair (1811)
Railroad War (1853–55)
Sinking of the General Sherman (1866)
Fenian raids (1866)
Brooks-Baxter War (1873)
Virginius affair (1873)
Canal Zone Riots (1964)
Kent State massacre (1970)
War on Drugs (~1972–)
Iran hostage crisis (1979–81)
Iraqi attack on USS Stark (1987)
Waco Siege (1993)

Latter Day Saints

Mormon War (1838)
Utah War (1857–58)

Republic of Texas
Texas Revolution (1835–36)
Texas Santa Fe Expedition (1841)

 

The revolutionary origins of Memorial Day and its political hijacking

The revolutionary origins of Memorial Day and its political hijacking.

The revolutionary origins of Memorial Day and its political hijacking

A day celebrating Black liberation utilized for white supremacy

By Ben Becker

MAY 26, 2012

 

The way the Civil War became officially remembered — through Memorial Day celebrations— was based on the erasure of the Black veteran and the liberated slave.

What we now know as Memorial Day began as “Decoration Day” in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. It was a tradition initiated by former slaves to celebrate emancipation and commemorate those who died for that cause.

 

These days, Memorial Day is arranged as a day “without politics”—a general patriotic celebration of all soldiers and veterans, regardless of the nature of the wars in which they participated. This is the opposite of how the day emerged, with explicitly partisan motivations, to celebrate those who fought for justice and liberation.

 

The concept that the population must “remember the sacrifice” of U.S. service members, without a critical reflection on the wars themselves, did not emerge by accident. It came about in the Jim Crow period as the Northern and Southern ruling classes sought to reunite the country around apolitical mourning, which required erasing the “divisive” issues of slavery and Black citizenship. These issues had been at the heart of the struggles of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

 

To truly honor Memorial Day means putting the politics back in. It means reviving the visions of emancipation and liberation that animated the first Decoration Days. It means celebrating those who have fought for justice, while exposing the cruel manipulation of hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members who have been sent to fight and die in wars for conquest and empire.

 

The first Decoration Day

 

As the U.S. Civil War came to a close in April 1865, Union troops entered the city of Charleston, S.C., where four years prior the war had begun. While white residents had largely fled the city, Black residents of Charleston remained to celebrate and welcome the troops, who included the TwentyFirst Colored Infantry. Their celebration on May 1, 1865, the first “Decoration Day,” later became Memorial Day.

 

Historian David Blight retold the story:

 

During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the planters’ horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison. Union soldiers were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of exposure and disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. Some 28 black workmen went to the site, re-buried the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

 

Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders’ race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy’s horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freed people. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.”

 

At 9 a.m. on May 1, the procession stepped off led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing “John Brown’s Body.” The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses.

 

Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens. As many as possible gathered in the cemetery enclosure; a childrens’ choir sang “We’ll Rally around the Flag,” the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture. (“The First Decoration Day,” Newark Star Ledger)

 

The battle over the ‘memory’ of the Civil War

 

Blight’s award-winning “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory” (2001) explained how three “overall visions of Civil War memory collided” in the decades after the war.

 

The first was the emancipationist vision, embodied in African Americans’ remembrances and the politics of Radical Reconstruction, in which the Civil War was understood principally as a war for the destruction of slavery and the liberation of African Americans to achieve full citizenship.

 

The second was the reconciliationist vision, ostensibly less political, which focused on honoring the dead on both sides, respecting their sacrifice, and the reunion of the country.

 

The third was the white supremacist vision, which was either openly pro-Confederate or at least despising of Reconstruction as “Black rule” in the South.

 

Over the late 1800s and the early 1900s, in the context of Jim Crow and the complete subordination of Black political participation, the second and third visions largely combined. The emancipationist version of the Civil War, and the heroic participation of African Americans in their own liberation, was erased from popular culture, the history books and official commemoration.

 

In 1877, the Northern capitalist establishment decisively turned their backs on Reconstruction, striking a deal with the old slavocracy to return the South to white supremacist rule in exchange for the South’s acceptance of capitalist expansion. This political and economic deal was reflected in how the war was commemorated. Just as the reunion of the Northern and Southern ruling classes was based on the elimination of Black political participation, the way the Civil War became officially remembered—through Memorial Day celebrations—was based on the elimination of the Black veteran and the liberated slave.

 

The spirit of the first Decoration Day—the struggle for Black liberation and the fight against racism—has unfortunately been whitewashed from the modern Memorial Day.

As Blight explains, “With time, in the North, the war’s two great results—black freedom and the preservation of the Union—were rarely accorded equal space. In the South, a uniquely Confederate version of the war’s meaning, rooted in resistance to Reconstruction, coalesced around Memorial Day practice.” (“Race and Reunion,” p. 65)

 

The Civil War whitewashed

 

In the statues, anniversary parades and popular magazines, the Civil War was portrayed as an all-white affair, a tragic conflict between brothers. To the extent the role of slavery was allowed in these remembrances, Lincoln was typically portrayed as the beneficent liberator standing above the kneeling slave.

 

The mere image of the fighting Black soldier pierced through this particular “memory,” which in reality was a collective and forced “forgetting” of the real past. Portraying the rebellious slave or Black soldier would unmask the Civil War as a life-and-death struggle against slavery, a true social revolution, and a reminder of the political promises that had been betrayed.

 

While African Americans and white radicals continued to uphold the emancipationist remembrance of the Civil War during the following decades—as exemplified by W.E.B. DuBois’ landmark “Black Reconstruction”—this interpretation was effectively silenced in the “respectable” circles of academia, mainstream politics and popular culture. The white supremacist and reconciliationist retelling of the war and Reconstruction was only overthrown in official academic circles in the 1950s and 1960s as the Civil Rights movement shook the country to its core, and more African Americans fought their way into the country’s universities.

 

While historians have gone a long way to expose the white supremacist history of the Civil War and uncover its revolutionary content, the spirit of the first Decoration Day—the struggle for Black liberation and the fight against racism—has unfortunately been whitewashed from the modern Memorial Day.

 

So let’s use Memorial Day weekend to honor the fallen fighters for justice worldwide, to speak plainly about this country’s historic crimes, and rededicate ourselves to take on those of the present.

 

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago.

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago

Report and photos from the demonstration

MAY 21, 2012

 

 

 

The ANSWER Coalition published the report below.

 

“NATO: Shut it Down! Wall Street: Shut it Down! Homeland Security: Shut it Down!” That forceful chant rang out as protesters, many thousands strong, marched on the NATO Summit on May 20 in Chicago.

 

Responding with determination in the face of an organized campaign of government threats and intimidation aimed at anti-NATO protesters, an impressive number of young people, union members, antiwar organizations and community members filled the streets to demand “U.S./NATO Out of Afghanistan Now!” during the opening day of the NATO Summit.

 

The Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8) estimates the crowd size as about 15,000.

 

In the week leading up to the NATO Summit, thousands of people marched and rallied in Chicago. The actions included a large rally of nurses demanding higher taxes on the rich and a march on Mayor Emanuel’s house, 1,000 people strong, which demanded “Health Care not Warfare!”

 

People came in buses, by train and by car caravan from all over the country to take a stand in Chicago against imperialist war and capitalist austerity.

 

In a moving display of solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and the Middle East at the end of the march, Afghanistan and Iraq veterans took off their medals and hurled them toward the NATO Summit grounds. One of those who returned his medals, Marine Vince Emmanuelli, said: “Our enemies are right here and we look at them every day. … They are the millionaires and billionaires who control this planet and we’ve had enough of it.” (WBEZ Chicago)

 

Months-long campaign against protesters

 

Though the military machines of NATO are the greatest purveyors of violence in the world, local and federal law enforcement agencies and the media engaged in a months-long attack campaign against protesters and protest groups.

 

The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild set up a 24-hour hotline to provide support for people who were arrested before and during the NATO protest.

 

Prior to the May demonstration, the NLG Chicago chapter reported:

 

“More than two-dozen people had been arrested so far in the lead up to the NATO summit. At least 7 arrestees in addition to the ones with terrorism-related charges are currently in custody.

 

“During a Wednesday night house raid, police broke down the doors of multiple apartment units with guns drawn and searched residences without a warrant or consent. In addition to 9 arrests made that night, NLG attorneys believe that two undercover police or confidential informants were arrested with the others and were later released. Of the 9 activists arrested, 6 were released without any charges despite being shackled for at least 18 hours in solitary confinement and denied access to attorneys.”

 

At the May 20 mass march, a police mob surrounded and brutally attacked the demonstration as it was winding down, swinging their clubs at people’s heads and injuring many dozens. At least 45 people were arrested. Among those injured were ministers, community activists, journalists and others who tried to rescue people from police.

 

‘The people will not be bullied or silenced by the police and government’

 

The ANSWER Coalition in Chicago went all out to build the March on the NATO Summit, both through street outreach and social media outlets, and had a big presence at the protest with banners and placards and large amplified sound that unified large numbers of marchers with booming chants. The banners and placards read: “No War on Iran! Hands off Syria!”, “Troops Home Now! Money for Jobs and Education!”, “Unite the 99%: Fight Racism!” and “U.S./NATO Out of Afghanistan Now!”

 

Asked what she thought of the protest, ANSWER organizer Ymelda Viramontes said: “Today’s protest shows that the people can and will resist the government and Wall Street’s attempts to bully and silence us. The number of people that came out into the streets of downtown today to show solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, Iran and Syria and demand no U.S. or NATO intervention—that’s a good indication that we can build a powerful movement against war and racism right here in the U.S.”

 

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.

Remembering Courage: Rachel Corrie

On March 16th 2003, a brilliant, courageous and determined activist had her life snuffed out. Rachel Corrie was a student at Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Washington. She took a year off from her studies to travel to Palestine to work in solidarity against the crimes of Israeli apartheid. She traveled to Gaza to act as a human shield, doing her best to stand up for the Palestinian people. While attempting to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes by the Israeli Defense Force, she was murdered by a IDF bulldozer. The IDF lied and claimed it was an accident, and refused to even take responsibility for their senseless killing of a civilian. She gave her life to bring the plight of the Palestinians to the world’s attention. She was a hero, and we should all remember her sacrifice, and the amazing amount of good she did in her short 23 year old life. With her memory, commit to fighting for a better future for all of Palestine, and a future without Israeli apartheid and war crimes.  For more information, go to:

http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/ Help continue the work she began.

Rachel Corrie 1979~2003

What’s behind Kony 2012?

What’s behind Kony 2012 ?                                                                                                                                                              .

he discovery of oil in Uganda in recent years is a contributing factor to imperialism’s interest in the region

What’s behind Kony 2012?

U.S. military intervention cannot be a force for progressive change

By Eugene Puryear

MARCH 8, 2012

The discovery of oil in Uganda in recent years is a contributing factor to imperialism’s interest in the region.

The power of social media is immense. That fact was fully on display as Facebook walls and in-boxes everywhere flooded with messages from a new political campaign “Kony 2012.” Kony 2012 purports to be aimed at bringing to justice Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, an armed rebel band that roams the jungles of northern Uganda and northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kony is without a doubt an odious figure. Since 1987, his LRA has roamed across Uganda, the DRC, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Originally a part of a broader movement in Uganda focused on the rights of the Acholi people, the LRA morphed into a band of armed child soldiers, manipulated and drugged, rampaging wantonly across the landscape with seemingly no real goals or ideology.

Principally, the LRA appears to be a vehicle for Kony’s own leadership fantasies, which are hard to decipher and most likely rooted in some ethereal alternative reality. It is indisputable that Kony and the LRA have had a devastating effect on the regions they have inhabited, engaging in killings, rapes and abductions that are deserving of condemnation.

Once these facts are taken into account, however, it must be said that the aims of Kony 2012, whether sincere or not, have absolutely no chance of helping the people of Uganda or the DRC to mitigate the ill effects of the LRA. Kony 2012 calls for military intervention from Western powers to capture Kony and extradite him to the Hague to be tried for war crimes.

A little-known but not insignificant factor at play in the region is the discovery of oil in Uganda in recent years. “One of the most spectacular recent finds has been in Uganda. The reserves of the Albertine rift, which takes in the Ugandan and Congolese shores of Lake Albert …, are said to need $10 billion for development. All being well, Uganda will soon become a mid-sized producer, alongside countries such as Mexico. Foreign investment in Uganda may nearly double this year to $3 billion. The country expects to earn $2 billion a year from oil by 2015.” (The Economist, May 31, 2010)

Could it be that a desire to get access to this bonanza is a significant factor behind imperialist interests in intervening in the region’s conflicts? To ask the question is to answer it.

Oil, of course, is not the whole story, as Uganda is a key U.S. ally in a number of geostrategic endeavors.  There is much to be said on this topic, but there are three basic points progressive activists and revolutionary militants in the United States should keep in mind when considering the issues around the LRA.

1) Military intervention by the West has already been disastrous

The current Ugandan government has long been a friend of the West. In 1987, the year after he came to power, President Yoweri Museveni implemented an International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity plan. Under Museveni, Uganda became an important supporter of U.S.-backed military operations in the neighboring countries of Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In a July 2011 meeting of AFRICOM, the Pentagon’s agency for coordinating military operations in Africa, AFRICOM commander Gen. Carter Ham called Uganda, “a major partner” in achieving U.S. objectives in the region. (NTV Uganda, July 25, 2011)

As it concerns the LRA, the United States in particular has been attempting to build up Ugandan military forces. In 2008, the U.S. African Command brought together the combined forces of the Ugandan, CAR and South Sudanese military in “Operation Lightning Thunder” to deliver a death blow to the LRA. This operation failed miserably, and in retaliation the LRA killed almost 1,000 people and abducted 700 people. Twenty thousand people were displaced in the process. One further casualty was fledgling peace talks that drowned in blood.

Rather than an isolated incident, this was just the most recent in a long line of failed attempts to destroy the LRA. The LRA operates in an area the size of France, significant parts of which are covered by dense jungle and seriously lacking in infrastructure. These offensives at best serve to drive the LRA further into the hardest to penetrate areas, where they live to fight another day. Small assassination squads and massive military forces have failed over and over to capture or kill Kony or make a significant dent in the LRA’s fighting ability. In fact, the only outcome of U.S.-supported offensives has been significant further suffering in the LRA’s areas of influence, where the innocent have been routinely victimized by the LRA’s retaliatory offensives.

Perversely, President Obama sent 100 troops to Uganda last fall to try again. As always, this new and improved plan is supposed to bear fruit, but the preponderance of evidence suggests that these strategies of dealing with the LRA militarily are at best aspirational and at worst (and most likely) futile.

U.S. imperialist interests and humanitarian interests are mutually exclusive. The Kony 2012 campaign perpetuates the myth that the U.S. military can act as an agent for human rights, and will resonate with many truly well-intentioned people who feel “we must do something.” This only facilitates U.S. military intervention whose real goals are to ensure U.S. geostrategic interests in the region at the expense of the Ugandan people.

2) Conflict is deeper than the LRA

As odious as the LRA may be, it is a limited part of a much broader regional conflict that has been raging across East Africa for well over a decade, in which millions of people have lost their lives and rape has become a weapon of war on an unprecedented scale. DRC, South Sudan and Uganda in particular have been racked by a series of regional conflicts fueled by the resource-extraction mania demanded by the always-hungry, never tired imperialist capital accumulation machine.

Over vast swaths of the countries mentioned above are a series of ethnic and regional conflicts that are further compounded by the desire of elites in these states to establish their rule over both resource-rich areas and havens of their factional opponents.

This has created a vast array of militias of varying sizes and motivations continually fighting and moving across the region as necessary for survival, often using control over rudimentary mining operations to fund their activities. Some of these groups also ally themselves with one government or the other that provide funding and weapons and operate their own very brutal operations. On top of that, Western powers looking to exploit the resources of these regions ally themselves with these governments, arming and funding their military activities.

The Ugandan army that Kony 2012 hopes will put an end to the abuses of the LRA is itself a serial human rights abuser. In suppressing the Acholi revolt that the LRA sprang from, the Ugandan army forced thousands of people in the Acholi areas into concentration camps. There is also the brutal occupation Ugandan forces carried out for years in eastern DRC, systematically looting that country of a significant amount of its wealth. While hunting Kony in CAR, the Ugandan army looted, operated prostitution rings, and raped and infected girls with HIV. The Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, championed by Kony 2012, also has its own sordid record of brutal behavior.

It is patently ridiculous to suggest that sending a group of raping looters to solve human rights abuses will improve the situation for the peoples of Uganda, South Sudan or the DRC.

3) Strengthening the Ugandan army has repercussions for Ugandan progressives

Uganda is a country of deep divisions, and President Museveni has relied on a mix of co-option, intimidation and military campaigns to keep the country “unified” under the aegis of the National Resistance Movement. While a full analysis of the NRM government is beyond the scope of this article, it is worth noting that NRM often suppresses progressive activists, shows callous disregard for the rights of oppositional ethnic groups, and acts as the governmental wing of anti-gay lynch mobs.

Given this context, one cannot overlook the fact that better training, communications and arms for the Ugandan military is likely simply to result in more effective suppressive activity towards legitimate progressive and ethnic movements.

Taking all of this into account, it is clear that Kony 2012 deserves no support from the people of the world whom it seeks to rally under its banner. In the name of fighting for “human rights,” Kony 2012 is championing a rogues gallery of murdering, raping, corrupt governments and militaries that happily ally themselves with imperialist powers that have killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan in just the last decade.

Scrutinizing Invisible Children

It is also imperative that progressives seek to understand the origins of the Kony 2012 campaign, which has its roots in the organization Invisible Children. IC has been criticized for spending only 32 percent of its funds on direct services to children in Africa, with the remainder going to staff salaries, travel and transport and film production.

IC supports direct military intervention. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army have been repeatedly accused of rape and looting, but IC continues to defend them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries,” although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission.

The journal Foreign Affairs writes that IC “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony—a brutal man, to be sure—as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil,” (referring to a fictional character in Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness”).

Chris Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, has written on the topic of IC’s programming: “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming.”

Rather than lining up with a blood-soaked coalition, people of conscience need to expose Kony 2012 and its deadly agenda, which is guaranteed to sink the region even deeper into the morass of death. There are no simple answers. Any solution to the suffering of the peoples of the region must be rooted in a perspective that seriously addresses the legacy of colonialism and ongoing neo-colonialism and the resulting underdevelopment, ethnic conflict and political corruption.

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.

Latest Afghanistan massacre will be remembered as tipping point in the war

Latest Afghanistan massacre will be remembered as tipping point in the war.

Latest Afghanistan massacre will be

remembered as tipping point in the

war

ANSWER Coalition press statement

MARCH 12, 2012

An Afghan man sits with the body of one of the 16 victims of this atrocity.

March 11

Today’s cold-blooded murder of at least 16 Afghani civilians by a U.S. Army soldier is the latest in a decade-long history of atrocities carried out by the NATO occupiers. It will be remembered as the tipping point in a criminal war that grows more criminal with each passing month.

The “apologies” by President Obama and U.S. commanding General John Allen are nothing by brazen hypocrisy and will ring hollow in the ears of the Afghani people. Occupying armies, unable to distinguish insurgent fighters from the population as a whole, inevitably propagate a racist ideology among their troops. This officially promoted racism and contempt toward the occupied people is what produces atrocity after atrocity, and insult after insult.

The only way these horrors will end is by ending the war. The ANSWER Coalition joins with the people of Afghanistan and the anti-war movement around the world in demanding the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO occupying forces. The ANSWER Coalition organized protests on the first day of the U.S. war on Afghanistan in 2001 and has been working to end the war for the past decade.

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.

Japan: A Colony of the US

At the end of WW2, Japan lay in ruins. Cities destroyed, industry gone and millions dead. Japan paid the ultimate price of their imperialism and fascism. Fast forward to present day Japan, and much has changed. Japan is now a constitutionally mandated pacifist country. They do not have a military, only a self defense force. They swore in their new constitution that Japan would forever renounce the right to attack any other country. I applaud this. Japan is a beautiful place, with a rich heritage and great people, many of whom want to put the dark years behind them, and move on into a better, more peaceful future.

Centuries later, and what is the greatest threat to Japan’s status as a peaceful and progressive nation?  I’ll tell you what it is. It is their unending subservience to the fascist demands of the US.

In a news story from Reuters, they announce that Japan will be cutting oil imports from Iran by 11% as the result of negotiations with the US government. They admit that this could prove harmful to the Japanese economy, in a time when they are struggling.

This is just another example of why Japan needs to throw off their subservience to the blood thirsty dogs in Washington. They have pulled Japan into supporting their morally bankrupt wars, hosting thousands of US troops at the expense of the Japanese people, and made the Japanese government forget who they really should be working for, the people of Japan.

Japan: Kick out all US troops now, close all foreign bases. End trade agreements with the US, and develop trade and relations with Asia. It is time for Japan, and the world to throw of the parasite of US hegemony and imperialism. Do not be attached to fascists and imperialists, you went down that road once, and you don’t want to go down it again.

Edit: Here is the link to the Reuters story: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/21/us-japan-usa-sanctions-idUSTRE81J1FK20120221?feedType=RSS&feedName=wtMostRead&utm_source=Greg+Stanski&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FMostRead+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Most+Read+Articles%29

Marine Commits War Crime, the Punishment is?

A U.S. Marine who committed a war crime in Haditha, Iraq has plead guilty to a charge related to said incident. What did he plead guilty to and what was the punishment? Wait, what was the war crime to begin with? Let’s start from the beginning.

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich was responsible for the murder of 24 Iraqi civilians. He murdered them. They were unarmed, and helpless before a military attack. That is considered a war crime in most places in the world. He plead guilty in his court martial to “dereliction of duty” that led to the deaths of those 24 Iraqis. He will lose a rank. That. Is. It. He will be busted down a rank, but keep his freedom, his job, and his career. One of the most well known (although I don’t for a second believe that this was the largest war crime case in Iraq, as the whole damn war was one giant war crime) cases ended with a guilty plea, and a little tiny slap on the wrist for this unrepentant killer. The AP reports:

“The 31-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine apologized for the loss of their loved ones and said he never intended to harm them or their families. He went on to tell the court that his guilty plea in no way suggests that his squad behaved badly or dishonorably.

“‘But even with the best intentions, sometimes combat actions can cause tragic results,’ Wuterich said in an unsworn statement.”

Give me a break. In other news, whistle-blower Bradley Manning stil languishes in prison for exposing US war crimes to the light of day.

If you’re not outraged, you’re not f***ing paying attention.

Post Navigation

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 2,887 other followers