>> |
About this site Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana This website is basically a collection data related to the USA's most questionable foreign policy decisions of the last fifty years. All of the data has been published previously in one form or another and authors are credited wherever possible. The primary motivation for collecting this information has been to contribute to the discussion about the role of the United States of America in the world with particular reference to military interventions since World War 2. The site is aimed at providing a historical background to the current status quo emphasising some of the US government's more controversial decisions. Readers of this site have occasionally accused me of anti-Americanism. Whilst I am openly critical of some military actions conducted by the USA I don't consider myself anti-American. I've worked at American firms, have a bunch of American friends and am a great admirer of many aspects of American culture - the music, movies, business, technology and freedom that has made it a truly great nation. I'm also quite interested in looking at reasons why armed intervention is the most appropriate course of action...but that's a topic for another site altogether. This website focuses on negative aspects of US foreign policy and as such is very far from balanced. I've chosen an ideological position and the information on this site is my attempt at supporting my thesis that "not all US military interventions are good". I haven't argued the opposing position that "some/most/all US military interventions are justified" but that does not mean that I do not accept this position. The question is too big to have a simple black/white answer. It is important to have a good perspective on the situation particularly at a time that the US is refusing to recognise the value of the International Criminal Court. Few would disagree that an honest exposition of some of the reasons (valid or otherwise) for the anti-American sentiment in the world is required before we as a species can collectively undertake the task of improving international relations.
Several points should be made in relation to the information presented in this website:
Having made these points it may also be said that these pages show clearly that during the last fifty years America has, through ignorance and greed, made some terrifyingly vicious foreign policy decisions. The US has, among other things, often supported freedom fighting/terrorist activities in foreign countries. This support has regularly been given to groups working against a democratically elected government showing the irony in George W. Bush's statement, "If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a terrorist." The hypocrisy of the situation is made clear when Bush's sentiment is compared to Kissinger's famous quote, "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people," made just prior to Augusto Pinochet's US-supported/CIA-facilitated military coup against Chile's democratically-elected President Salvador Allende. It would be naively optimistic to assume that all American foreign policy decisions have been made with the benefit of all of humanity as their goal - some of these decisions have been made by the American government with the goal of advancing American interests to the detriment of other nations. It is these decisions which will be the focus of this web site. By the same token it may be quite reasonable realpolitik to acknowledge that the omelette of our post-coldwar world could not have been made without breaking a few metaphorical eggs. Finally, this web site has been created with the goal of raising our collective awareness of the issues involved in the complex process of learning to co-exist peacefully in this increasingly interconnected world. It has been made in the belief that it is possible to improve our quality of life. To this end your comments, corrections and additions are welcome and can be sent to Ward Levingston at threeeights@hotmail.com. |