Nelson Mandela warned us that ‘the US has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world’

 By John Menadue

Sep 10, 2024

That warning was 20 years ago, but in the years since, the US has continued in its violent and aggressive ways, cloaking its violence and aggression with bromides about a rules-based international order and defence of democratic values. If only that was true.

The US is a far greater threat to world peace than China. Renowned diplomat and scholar Kishore Mahbubani has pointed out that in the past 20 years, Western powers, mainly the US, have dropped 326,000 bombs in the greater Middle East/North Africa region. This total amounts to an average of 46 bombs dropped per day over the past 20 years. By contrast, the total number of bombs dropped in inter-state conflicts in East Asia in the past 20 years is: ZERO!

Yet our ministers and journalists continue peddling US propaganda about the China threat. In their Red Alert, the SMH and the Age in association with the US military-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute warned us of war with China within three years. Margaret Simons in the Guardian described it as “one of the most alarming front-page stories in the nation’s history….Australia faces the threat of war with China within three years – and we’re not ready.”

So many of our politicians and journalists have been on the US propaganda drip feed for so long that they are blinded to Australia’s national interest.

China is not a threat to the word but the US is.

Just ask the Palestinians in Gaza about US atrocities. The Lancet estimates that the death toll could be nearer 150,000. Palestinians face massive US-supported violence and death

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese said on Friday that without a ceasefire, the Israel Defence Forces “could end up exterminating almost the entire population in Gaza over the next couple of years”.

“The range of presumably direct and indirect deaths could be between 15% and 20% of the population already by the end of this year,” she said.

If only the other Albanese had similar concerns.

These “unspeakable atrocities” are all backed diplomatically and militarily by the US, the most violent and aggressive country in all recorded history.

Let’s look at the post WW2 record of the US.

The US launched a brutal air campaign over North Korea in which 80% of North Korean cities were reduced to flame and rubble. North Korea has still not recovered.

In the Vietnam and Indochina Wars, 5.5 million died. The side-effects of Agent Orange continue.

The respected Brown University in the US with its “Costs of War” research tells us of the destructive ways of the US since 9/11 in 2004:

“The US post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan have taken a tremendous human toll on those countries.

Key findings

432,093 civilians have died violent deaths as a direct result of the U.S. post-9/11 wars.

• An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people have died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting.
• More than 7.6 million children under five in post-9/11 war zones are suffering from acute malnutrition
• War deaths from malnutrition and a damaged health system and environment likely far outnumber deaths from combat. (updated as of August 2023)

The US has never had a decade without war. Since its founding in 1776, the US has been at war 93% of the time. It has launched 201 out of 248 armed conflicts since the end of WWII. It maintains more than 700 military bases or sites around the world, including in Australia. In our own region, it has massive deployment of hardware and troops in Japan, the ROK and Guam.

The US would have a national convulsion if China had similar bases in Mexico or Cuba or if Chinese vessels regularly patrolled off California or the Florida Keys.

The US has been extensively meddling in other countries’ affairs and elections for a century. It tried to change other countries’ governments 72 times during the Cold War. Many foreign leaders were assassinated. In the piece reproduced in this blog (The fatal expense of US Imperialism), Professor Jeffrey Sachs said: “The US has been extensively meddling in other countries’ affairs and elections for a century .” Many foreign leaders were assassinated. He added that

“the scale of US military operations is remarkable. … The US has a long history of using covert and overt means to overthrow governments deemed to be unfriendly to the US. … Historian John Coatsworth counts 41 cases of successful US-led regime change for an average of one government overthrow by the US every 28 months for centuries”.

The overthrow or interference in foreign governments are diverse, including Honduras, Guatemala, Iran, Haiti, Congo, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, Chile, Iraq, Afghanistan and most recently, Syria .

And this interference continued with the undermining of the pro-Russian Government in the Ukraine by the US-backed Maidan coup in 2014. Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan agreed that, in allowing the reunification of Germany, NATO would not extend eastwards. But with US encouragement from Bill Clinton onwards, NATO has provocatively extended right up to the borders of Russia.

Not surprisingly, Russia is resisting.

And now Gaza, with death and destruction on a great scale. Gaza has become a Charnel House.

How can we deny that the US is the most aggressive and dangerous country on our planet?

Nelson Mandela warned us 20 years ago about unspeakable US atrocities. But we refuse to face the criminal behaviour of the US either directly or through proxies like Israel. We are also fast becoming a new US proxy with the military colonisation of Northern Australia.

Yet many of our journalists tug their forelocks in loyalty to the US empire. They make a hero of President Joe Biden’s Asia “tsar”, Kurt Campbell, who described the AUKUS agreement as “getting Australia off the fence. We have them locked in now for the next 40 years”. Our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls Campbell a “good mate”.

We are in a perilous state, tying ourselves to the most violent and aggressive country on our planet and probably in all history, all, of course, in defence of a rules-based international order, human rights and democracy.

What a disgrace.

The US atrocities continue.

https://johnmenadue.com/nelson-mandela-warned-us-that-the-us-has-committed-unspeakable-atrocities-in-the-world/

Can you help Pearls and Irritations?

Pearls & Irritations appears to be one of the few media with an independent voice left in Australia that is willing to focus on issues of substance. May their voice grow stronger! Donor, NSW For the first time and for a short period of time we can offer tax deductibility on donations through the Australian Cultural Fund, a fundraising platform for Australian artists, established in 2003 by the Australian Government and operated by Creative Australia. You can make your donation by clicking anywhere here.

Please consider a donation to help Pearls and Irritations extend its voice and reach.

John Menadue

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.