Listen to a reading of this article:
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The imperial propaganda machine is blaring loudly about anti-government protests in Cuba after ignoring anti-government protests in Brazil, Haiti, Chile and Colombia which were much larger and often met with much harsher police responses.
There is nothing surprising about this; the imperial media always ignore protests in member states while amplifying them in unabsorbed territories. But what is a bit surprising is how many calls we are seeing for US military intervention in Cuba despite the US military’s consistent and unbroken track record of always making things worse.
The mayor of Miami went on Fox News to encourage the Biden administration to consider airstrikes and other military options. Right-wing pundit Kurt Schlichter is calling for an invasion to topple Havana and former congressman Carlos Curbelo is saying that Biden should “keep all options on the table” for acts of war. Participants in US rallies against the Cuban government frequently voice support for military intervention.
Which is of course bananas. It appears unlikely that any overt US military action is on its way at this stage in the game; most Americans don’t even support the economic blockade on Cuba much less airstrikes or an invasion, so we’re not anywhere near that level of consent-manufacturing at this time. But it’s just amazing that this is an idea that’s getting any traction at all.
People who believe US military intervention solves problems are as dumb as flat-earthers but infinitely more destructive. It is always disastrous and it never achieves what its proponents claim it will achieve.
Whenever I say this I always get one or two geniuses stepping in to say “Aha, I believe you are forgetting a little thing known as World War Two?”
To such Einsteins I always say yes, your mind burns with the brightness of a thousand galaxies, but first of all that wasn’t interventionism since the US was attacked and Germany declared war on it immediately thereafter. More importantly, though, it’s very telling that people have to reach all the way back through history to an age where the world was almost unrecognizably different from the world of today to even try and find an example of the US military being used in a way that was not evil and disastrous.
After Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc, the facts are in and the case is closed. The interventionists have lost the argument. US interventionism is always the wrong answer to every question, unless the question is “How do we destroy that country?” or “How do we generate an obscene amount of wealth for obscenely horrible people?”
This was true last year when people were calling for regime change intervention in Iran, it was true the year before that when they were calling for regime change intervention in Venezuela, it is true now when they are calling for regime change intervention in Cuba, and it will remain true when they call for regime change intervention in whatever their next target will be.
I actually thought America had been making progress in terms of learning the perils of excessive meddling in the internal political affairs of other countries & now I see loads of opinion-makers saying it’s so obvious we need to topple the Cuban government & put in one we like.
— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) July 14, 2021
The correct answer to “What should be done about Cuba’s problems?” is for the US to end its cruel blockade. After that happens the correct answer to “What should be done about Cuba’s problems?” is “None of your fucking business.”
Whenever the empire is targeting a socialist government you see public discourse get dragged into a debate about socialism versus capitalism. Capitalism proponents cite the economic hardships and ensuing protests in the country as evidence that socialism doesn’t work, ignoring both the crushing economic sanctions and the obvious fact that per their own logic protests and economic hardship in capitalist nations means capitalism doesn’t work. Socialists fight back against this, and it becomes a big loud back-and-forth which drowns out the much stronger and completely indisputable point that US interventionism is literally always disastrous and literally never helpful.
It’s seriously the worst possible tool you could possibly use for any job; people only think you can solve problems by sending in the marines because they’ve watched too many movies glorifying the US military and depicting problems being solved by Good Guys With Guns. A casual glance at America’s history of interventionism immediately makes it clear that you’d have to be a pants-on-head fucking moron to believe it can help the Cuban people or anyone else.
It’s like trying to solve a math problem with a blowtorch.
If Every Debate About US Interventionism Was About Godzilla Instead
"Person A: Well we can’t just do nothing!
Person B: Dude, doing nothing would be infinitely better than sending in Godzilla to do the thing he literally always does."https://t.co/kEl6AJY8IG— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 14, 2021
In every debate about whether or not to send in the US military to a foreign nation, you could just as easily substitute Godzilla and have the pro-intervention side look just as rational:
Person A: Look at all that poverty and unrest!
Person B: I know, it’s terrible.
Person A: You know what we should do?
Person B: Please don’t say send in Godzilla.
Person A: We should send in Godzilla!
Person B: No, he always makes things worse! You know that! Every time we send in Godzilla to try and solve problems in the world, he just ends up trampling all over the city, knocking down buildings and killing thousands of people with his atomic heat beam.
Person A: Maybe this time would be different though!
Person B: Why in God’s name would this time be different?? You said it would be different in Iraq, in Libya, in Syria. What happened there?
Person A: He trampled all over the cities, knocked down the buildings and killed people with his atomic heat beam.
Person B: Exactly! So what makes you think sending in Godzilla would be any different this time?
Person A: Well we can’t just do nothing!
Person B: Dude, doing nothing would be infinitely better than sending in Godzilla to do the thing he literally always does.
Person A: Hey, inaction has consequences too you know! You probably don’t even talk to Cubans. My brother’s co-worker’s dentist is Cuban, and he says a Godzilla rampage is just what they need. You should listen to Cubans.
Person B: No matter how many Cubans I talk to, it will still be an indisputable fact that Godzilla rampages are always disastrous and always make things worse.
From a decades-long US occupation to foreign-backed coups, Haiti’s history is riddled with disastrous imperial interventions that have helped keep the country mired in poverty. There's zero justification for more American interference in the country. https://t.co/VX77ATX4Jk
— Jacobin (@jacobin) July 15, 2021
And it’s not just Cuba; there’s a push for interventionism in Haiti as well in the wake of President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination. The Washington Post editorial board has called for “swift and muscular intervention” from the US and United Nations, despite swift and muscular intervention being precisely the cause of Haiti’s problems. This would be less egregious than a full-on invasion since it’s Haiti’s de facto prime minister Claude Joseph asking for intervention, but there’s substantial opposition to outside interference from Haitians who don’t even recognize the authority of Joseph to extend such an invitation.
In an even remotely sane world, people promoting US interventionism would be regarded the same as people who endorse genocide or oppose age of consent laws. It is only because we live our lives saturated in mass media propaganda that the madness of promoting something so consistently destructive and horrific is tolerated in polite society.
US military interventionism is never, ever, ever the solution. You’re never going to make things better using something that always makes things worse. Virtually anything else would be preferable.
It’s amazing this even needs to be said.
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41 responses to “US Military Intervention Is Never, Ever, EVER The Solution”
Noam Chomsky, David Harvey, and the late David Graeber actually signed a letter in 2019 that requested U.S. military intervention for the Kurds. This is what living in American academia does to one: utter disconnection from the real world. Do/did any of these men ever have to go grocery shopping, wash clothes, clean the toilet, plant a garden, make dinner, TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO PAY THE RENT?
“…World War Two?” I think the interventionists were the guys with the cool swords or Hugo Boss uniforms. Ultimately, some of them might have gotten good jobs with the US or fled to South America but the ones that killed themselves probably made a good choice.
I would offer this explanation of the “surprise attack” on Pearl Harbor. As I understand it the attack was orchestrated by the U.S. government. Japan had repeatedly warned the U.S. that if America did not stop undermining Japan economically throughout the south pacific war would be declared. Naturally the U.S. ignored the warnings. The rust bucket WWI fleet docked at Pearl needed replacing. The two new aircraft carriers were conveniently pulled out of Pearl, and three Japanese representatives with a written declaration of war were made to wait in a lobby outside the oval office until after the attack so the U.S. could claim plausible deniability. To make matters worse the genocidal bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were totally unnecessary as Japan had already surrendered but wanted conditions. The U.S. insisted on unconditional surrender and devastated two cities over a word, “unconditional “. A few years later Japan was awarded the conditions they had asked for. Those who survived the initial blasts, and their descendants are suffering to this day. So I don’t see WWII as the glorious defense of America war that the warmongers and propagandists would have the world believe it was.
Sherman Owens, you’re absolutely right, and I agree 100%. FDR kian evil POTUS who deliberately orchestrated the attack on Pearl Harbor; and his successor – Harry S. Truman – insisted on unconditional surrender and devastated 2 cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki – with nuclear bombs over one word, “unconditional”. Just a few years later Japan was awarded the conditions they had asked for. Those who survived the initial blasts, and their descendants are truly suffering to this day .. So, I don’t see WWII as the glorious defense of America the warmongers and propagandists would’ve have the world believe it was.
It is truly gratifying, Eileen Kuch, to know that there are others out there who see through the fog of brainwashing lies put forward by a criminal empire. And I must thank Caitlin Johnstone for providing a platform where we can come together and share the truth. I am confident that future generations will look back at these dark times with more objective scrutiny than is evident in the world today. I applaud all who see the truth today.
We bombed Japan to scare the shit out of the Soviets. I too do not see WWII as the glorious defense of American warmongering. 1)There were plenty of people, including the Bush family, who supported fascism. 2) We did nothing to halt the advance of fascism in Europe. 3) We didn’t give a damn what the Japanese were doing when they were slaughtering Chinese people; I believe we were selling them scrap metal for weaponry. And now a large percentage of Americans think we were allied with Germany during WWII and were fighting the Russians.
Erratum: it’s 61 years of castrism actually (1960-2021), not 80.
Wars are U$($$$$$$$$$$$$$$).
Caitlin – you work SO hard at this it’s embarrassing.
I apologise on behalf of the human race.
– – –
Please don’t give up.
No offense Ross S, but on behalf of whom are you apologizing?
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What makes u think apologies are necessary?
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Do you represent the human race?
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Mmmmha. Huh. What…, ummmm… really. U do? Wow. Who could of figured.
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The math problem I’m planning on presenting soon will be….ah forget it. Apologies to one and all at the behest of Ross S. I guess the truth will never be known.
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Pompous
You have no right to claim you represent the human race.
That’s true, we don’t know if he’s actually human, he could simply be a snivelling Liberal……..
?
It was a facetious response to your comment to another post…..someone apologized for “all of humanity.”
Charlotte – you must know the definition of “ruse”. There is but one per Merriam Webster, so probably it is the same in other English dictionaries. Here it is:
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a wily subterfuge
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Seems apropos.
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https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruse
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Is that what it is or is there a deeper meaning no bleeding heart could ever comprehend?
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What say you oh gracious one? I say this. At some point the protest will overwhelm the status quo, and God bless the protesters when the walls come tumbling down. The time is approaching. The reckoning is at hand.
Charlotte Ruse is also sweet cream and sponge cake. Eleanore has a pretty cool handle, yes?
Um, ok, I guess so herr Gregory herr.
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I’m fond of so many things and Charlotte is one of them. I’m fond of you as well.
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I invite you to my Table of Peace, and I hope you set one up of your own. If you do, and then you invite me, I’ll make every effort to be there.
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Ken
Events are aligning with a theory that I’m seeing on MOA to the effect that the ‘western powers’ are abandoning the western Asia theater in order to focus on consolidation of the US backyard. Bolsonaro is so excited by the prospect that he is dying of hiccups.
The hiccups might be a consequence of when he was stabbed in 2018.
Maybe, Bolsonaro’s hiccups is a side effect of “Big-Bird’s bite.”
They’re really funny with Cuba. There’s another guy who writes for Townhall like Kurt Schlichter – I forget his name – who’s always having a go at how bad it is with communism et al. I understand that he lost a brother to the revolution. Of course, when it gets emotional, you can hardly expect anything reasonable from people. For this kind of guys – the Miami expats who had to leave the island in a hurry with one hand in front and the other behind on New Year’s Eve 1959 -, Cuba has become the voodoo doll into which they obsessively stick a pin every time they get a chance. Pure hatred…
Don’t even try to say there are people there. As long as they don’t rise against the “regime”, they’re “unpeople”. Kill ’em all, God will know His own…
Funny enough, there’s been folks everywhere – even on the left – for 80 years to condemn Castro and castrism with its 141 political prisoners (according to the Cuban opposition) and lack of freedom but what about what Castro replaced? Hmmmh?
Well… folks… it’s about time you learnt the truth about that because US media won’t tell you! Before Castro, in Cuba, there was nuffin’. Not even a snake, not even an apple… Nuffin’! And then Castro came, just like Cain in the Bible. In Cain’s time, there was only him and his mom and dad on Earth on account that he’d whacked his bro. God exiled him and Cain became… guess what… a town builder! For whom? A whole spontaneous generation apparently… Same in Cuba. Castro came out of nowhere and brought people with him, some of whom he jailed, some of whom he shot, out of pure sadism, and some of whom he spoke to for hours from a podium until they passed out.
Since the revolution had not been televised, it’s hard to have a clear picture really…
Batista? Never heard of him. Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, the Havana conference depicted in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather II?
The American mafia had transformed Cuba into a giant brothel – with 11,500 prostitutes – and casino with gambling, weed and coke ad lib, for rich Americans – and others – to come and enjoy while Batista and his clique were rewarded in cash for looking the other way when the illegal profits were drawn out. On top of which, “in a manner that antagonized the Cuban people, the U.S. government used its influence to advance the interests and increase the profits of the private American companies, which ‘dominated the island’s economy’. By the late 1950s, U.S. financial interests owned 90% of Cuban mines, 80% of its public utilities, 50% of its railways, 40% of its sugar production and 25% of its bank deposits – some $1 billion in total” (Wikipedia).
And you can imagine the workers there were lavishly paid to go for the American Dream!
During his 1960 presidential campaign, candidate John Fitzgerald Kennedy claimed: “Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years … and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state – destroying every individual liberty. Yet our aid to his regime, and the ineptness of our policies, enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror. Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista – hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend – at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to press for free elections.”
And in October 1963, one month before being assassinated, JFK declared to a French journalist: “I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear” (Wikipedia).
Kennedy! A Boston brahmin whose father was himself reputed to have mafia connections. So he should know what he was talking about!
And in 80 years, in spite of US power, money, embargo, expat hatred and CIA assassination attempts, castrism has never been overthrown, so it must have some support from the people there. We know they’ve got very good medical care because they’re just in front of the US for average life expectancy and they don’t lose their houses in order to pay their medical bills, that’s for sure. And it’s not only because most of them don’t own a house.
And yet it must be acknowledged, alas, that there have been outrageous human rights violations in Cuba for the past two decades, with torture duly denounced by UN reports. In Guantanamo Bay. US intervention again… :o)
As long as the leaders can be bought, the secret agents will leave them in place. But any leader that wants to share corporate profits of their country’s natural resources with their own people will be targeted for replacement.
Whatever sadistic acts attributed to their puppets can be used against them if they get out of line. The weapons used to commit these acts of genocide are given to them by the usual suspects.
This one has a “Stewball” sound:
https://freefall555.blogspot.com/search?q=Secret+agent+man
Ms Johnstone, the United States will have to suffer from ” a bloody nose ” somewhere to prove the point that it needs to rethink its foreign policy. Perhaps a ” barracks bombing ” such as was suffered in Beirut years ago. United States troops are just sitting ducks everywhere overseas; it is high time our egotistical politicians and generals woke up to that fact!
Nah. That is old history.
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Short-term solution history. There are better solutions.
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Ken
Um, I think there are fruits in Hawaii including bananas.
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I think bananas are in Cuba as well.
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I’d like to see them Cuban bananas up close.
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The bigs ones and the little ones.
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If I had a serious medical condition that needed treatment,
I’d trust the Cuban doctors and nurses the most.
I’d go there for treatment if it was allowed.
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Why isn’t it allowed?
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That is a serious question.
There are serious
Ramifications.
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So think before you do something you would later regret.
Do your due diligence please.
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I pray for peace.
BK
Next stop, I am sorry to say, for the interventionist train is China. All efforts end up there.
Dust off the Northwoods Document—or bring the refugees here to America so we can all starve together. Feels like we’re under a cat’s paw.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662&page=1
I keep having to repeat this one statement: My country is destroying other countries and their people and doing it in my name. They never asked me my opinion, nor for permission. I repeat, unequivocally, this statement shows my opinion and refutes any possibility of the government assuming it has my permission to kill and destroy human life.
Either Clueless, or just another Propagandist (playing along): “I actually thought America had been making progress in terms of learning the perils of excessive meddling in the internal political affairs of other countries.” Either Undeniable Truth, or just another set of Indisputable Facts: “The correct answer to ‘What should be done about [other sovereign country’s] problems?’ is for the US to [first] end its cruel blockade[s]. After that happens the correct answer to ‘What should be done about [other sovereign country’s] problems?’ is ‘None of your fucking business.’” https://seaclearly.com/2017/08/26/protest-music-war-in-the-name-of-god
But…
Oh no!
Putin! It’s like he’s Kong!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/15/kremlin-papers-appear-to-show-putins-plot-to-put-trump-in-white-house?utm_term=cc66b927d46cf273bb0bdee8af229dd4&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email
I just read this article and I don’t believe a word of it. The lead writer is Luke Harding, and we know what a liar he is! But it is very frightening in that it cannot be interpreted any other way except to indicate that the U.S. is determined to have a war with Russia. I smell the stench of Madame Clinton in the background. I await events with trepidation.
Yankee stay home. There’s enough things to improve in the amerikan homeland to keep the country busy for generations. From universal health care to infrastructure to financialization to corruption to, to, to add infinitum. I just saw that China has $47 Trillions in the people’s savings to spend and Amerika is that far in debt, a parasitic vampire squid leeching off the world while exporting it’s toxic culture of garbage unhealthy foods and garbage unhealthy entertainment.
“[B]ut first of all that wasn’t interventionism since the US was attacked…”
The blockade of Japan was an act of war, the same as the blockade of Cuba.
My late uncle used to say, with humor, “He started it. He hit me back first.”
People used not to change. Now they are changing a little after seeing what’s the meaning of “Don’t go into the light Caroline!”. It’s not even close to enough but it seems some will scape from Godzilla’s tail and heat beam.
America should replace its emblem of the bald eagle with a vulture.
ps: no insult to vultures intended.
I like this game, Moi.
Let’s replace the eagle with a foot-long hot dog.
How about Franklin’s idea or so I’ve heard and maybe read.
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Turkey’s are mean and protective and so tasty – white meat and dark both!
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How about the Turkey versus a vulture?
An eagle is often a vulture anyhow.
Can you blame it?
“It’s like trying to solve a math problem with a blowtorch.”
It’s more like trying to remedy a headache with hammer. The patient quickly dies, but the cleanup is extraordinarily messy.
Some math problems reside in the head. Others are on paper.
A blowtorch might work for a problem in the head, but not one on paper.
Paper burns, but ideas won’t succumb to fire.
I am very fond of hammers.
I like to have one in each hand,
When I encounter a difficult problem……?
But usually other tools are called for.
Sill – feels good to wield a hammer in both hands!
Le me say based on experience.
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What up Charlotte Ruse?
What up with you?
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Poem of the day…..
BK
715211343 est us of a
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that held them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Very nice Charlotte.
I’ve got work to do.
Talk to you later.
Ken