As a young boy whilst attending primary and
secondary schools in Central Scotland back in the 60s, we were taught and
learned much about the United States of America. It was the richest country in
the world, made great films, music, had worldwide sports stars and was the Land
of the Free. When in our teens we would go to McDonalds, ate hamburgers
and French fries and drank Coca-Cola. Americanisation had arrived in
Britain. I was a great lover of music. There were the likes of Elvis Presley,
the Four Tops, Roy Orbison, Stevie Wonder, the Three Degrees, Bob Dylan; I
could go on. Yes, we all thought America, a great country, marvellous, the
origin of such greatness in the world . . . the land of liberalisation and free
speech.
If only things were really like that. Why? Because
there was another side to this great country - military interests - and in this
blog I will explain as best as I can why recent events (August 31 -
September 1) in Afghanistan finally resulted in American military failure. But,
you know, America has gotten involved in so many armed conflicts resulting
in death and destruction that it makes me wonder why?
Let's take a look at recent escapades (wars).
Forget the Second World War. Between 1950 and 1974/1975 there was the
involvement in Indochina, firstly, the Korean War with the so-called
enemies of China, Russia and of course North Korea. Two years later it was
America's Vietnam War and its disastrous exit from Saigon. One would think that
America had learned its lessons after nearly 25 years fighting in Indochina but
no! Between 1966 and 1969 the Americans found themselves back in Korea this
time to do with the Demilitarized Zone; this resulted in three years spent
fighting with no territorial changes. From 1982 - 1990 America was involved in
conflicts in Lebanon, Grenada and Panama. All of these conflicts came under the
heading of the Cold War but it was in August 1990 and Operation Desert Shield,
that would see the United States waging war against Iraq in The Middle East and
the so-called Iraqi No-Fly Zone Enforcement Operations that would last 12
years.
In Europe after the breakup of the Soviet Union,
America got involved in ridiculous conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the
Kosovo War in Serbia between 1992 and 1999. But then Afghanistan
happened. And yet another Iraq War that had American involvement between 2003 -
2011 which led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government and his eventual
capture and death. And remember this is all going on during the war in
Afghanistan. And lastly, we had American intervention in Operation Ocean Shield
(against Somali pirates), the Libyan Crisis and first civil war and the
disastrous involvement in Syria.
Phew, it sounds like a mad nightmare. And the
costs? Well having done quite a bit of research on the subject it
would seem that the United States, from 1950 to the present day, would have
spent at least $5 trillion on all these wars and conflicts. Deaths? This is
difficult to clarify but I would suggest that from this same time period
America lost at least, and I’d say at a minimum, 102,000 lives.
And then we had Joe ‘the Stooge’ Biden who said
evacuating all Americans from Afghanistan was a victory. Sorry, mate, it was no
victory but a loss. And then he stated that he vowed to defend the US against
evolving threats from terrorist groups, such as ISIS, without getting the US
involved in another ground war. “The U.S. must now confront challenges
from powerful adversaries such as Russia and China as well.”
Look, there’s never winners in war, only losers
followed by hurt and suffering.
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