@JTT,
I have always agreed with your comments about US aggression/ interference/ threats, JTT.
The US governments were busy little bees:
1. Executive Summary
Fueled by the Cold War and transnational corporate interests, the U.S. has covertly tinkered with the governments of Latin American countries since World War 2, producing an extremely violent and unstable political climate. This history gives context to the growing anti-Americanism in Latin America, most visibly illustrated in the open defiance of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales to US policy. It also gives context to the recent trend in Latin America to elect left-wing governments.
2. A Timeline of US Intervention in Latin America
Guatemala 1954: A CIA-organized coup overthrew the democratically elected and progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz. The U.S. justified its involvement by claiming that Soviets had an uncomfortable amount of influence over Guatemala, even though the two countries didn't even maintain diplomatic relations. The real reason for U.S. involvement came from pressure from the United Fruit Company, whose land was expropriated by Arbenz's progressive land reforms. The CIA action took a form that became the mold for CIA intervention in Latin America: The bribery of military officers and a propaganda campaign against the leftist government that included the resurrection of oppositional radio stations, the mass distribution of anti-government leaflets, and the anonymous submission of articles to newspapers painting the Arbenz government as communist. The U.S. also used international political clout to pressure the UN to ignore Arbenz’s request for an investigation of the incident. The coup was followed by a 40-year period of instability and brutality in Guatemala.
British Guiana (currently Guyana) 1953-64: CIA and British Intelligence funded anti-communist unions in order to strengthen opposition to democratically elected Dr. Cheddi Jagan. When this failed, the Churchill government simply removed him from office due to his socialist leanings. In 1957, Jagan was re-elected, and in response the U.S. Information Service launched an anti-communist (anti-Jagan) media campaign. Despite this, Jagan was re-elected again in 1961, which moved the British government to organize strikes in the unions that they had previously funded. The British government used these strikes as a sign of incompetence on the part of Jagan and changed the constitution to remove him from power.
Cuba 1959-present: After the Cuban revolution in 1959, the U.S. did everything in its power to prevent its government from succeeding. The U.S. performed air raids and even mobilized Cuban exiles to attack Cuba in the infamous CIA-orchestrated Bay of Pigs. The U.S. also enacted trade and credit embargos, sabotaged goods destined for Cuba, made multiple assassination attempts on Castro, his brother Raul, and Che Guevara.
Ecuador 1960-63: The CIA infiltrated the Ecuadorian government, set up news agencies and radio stations, bombed right-wing agencies and churches and blamed the left, all to force democratically elected Velasco Ibarra from office. When his replacement, Carlos Arosemara, refused to break relations with Cuba, the CIA-funded military took over the country, outlawed communism, and cancelled the 1964 elections.
Brazil 1961-64: After democratically elected Janio da Silva Quadros of the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) resigned, citing military and U.S. pressure as the reasons, his successor, Joao Goulart, was overthrown by a U.S.-supported military coup in 1964. Critics argue that this is because Goulart promoted social and economic reforms, limited the profits of multinationals, nationalized a subsidiary of U.S.-owned International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), and refused to break relations with Cuba and other socialist countries. He was replaced by two decades of a brutal military regime. There would not be another Labor Party president until the election of Lula da Silva in 2002.
Peru mid-1960's: The CIA set up military training camps and provided arms to the Peruvian government to combat guerilla forces.
Dominican Republic 1963-65: In 1963, Juan Bosch took office as the first democratically elected president of the Dominican Republic since 1924. He was a true liberal and called for land reform, low-rent housing, modest nationalization of business, and restrictions on foreign investment. Seven months after being elected, the U.S. allowed a right wing military coup to take over the government. Nineteen months later, a popular revolution broke out which attempted to reinstate Bosch. The U.S. reacted by sending in troops to stop the Bosch revolutionaries. Meanwhile, the CIA and U.S. Information Agency (USIA) conducted an intensive propaganda campaign against Bosch. U.S. troops stayed in the Dominican Republic until September 1966, when, thanks in part to the anti-Bosch media campaign, Juan Bosch lost the election to Joaquin Balaguer.
Uruguay 1964-1970: The CIA and the Agency for International Development (AID) set up the Office of Public Safety (OPS) mission in Montevideo to train police in the art of torture in order to suppress rebel activity. The torture and killing was mainly directed at the Tupamaros, guerrillas who embarrassed public officials and exposed corporate corruption.
Now that Tabare Vasquez, Uruguay’s new left-leaning president, is in office, many who were once Tupamaro guerillas are now holding positions in government. This roster includes Agriculture minister Jose Pepe Mujica and Federal deputy Luis Rosadilla, who previously spent nine years in prison for his guerrilla activity.
Chile 1964-1973: After the CIA unsucessfully prevented Salvador Allende from winning the Chilean presidency by spreading propaganda and funding the opposition, it concentrated its efforts on getting Allende overthrown. The campaign, which involved bribing officers and spreading misinformation, was eventually successful and brutal dictator General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Allende in 1973. Allende died during the overthrow and seventeen years of repressive military rule followed.
The recently elected Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, was herself imprisoned and tortured by Pinochet’s regime, as was her father, who died while in captivity. In her acceptance speech, Bachelet promised that to lead with tolerance, saying "because I was the victim of hatred, I have dedicated my life to reverse that hatred and turn it into understanding, tolerance and -- why not say it -- into love."
Bolivia 1964-75: In 1952, an armed popular revolt defeated the military, displaced the oligarchy, nationalized the mines, instituted land reform, set up a new government, and reduced the military to an impotent force. Yet under the training (School of Americas) and financial support of the CIA and Pentagon, the military was built up again and overthrew President Victor Paz in 1964 because of his refusal to support Washington's Cuba policies. (Note: this was nothing new for Bolivia, which has experienced the passing of governments more frequently than the passing of years.)
In January 2006, as Evo Morales was sworn in as Bolivia's first indigenous president, he predicted a future of indigenous rule, saying, "We are here to say enough of the 500 years of Indian resistance. From 500 years of resistance, we pass to another 500 years in power." Later that year, Morales sent Bolivian troops to occupy 56 gas installations and demanded all foreign energy-firms sign new contracts giving Bolivia majority ownership and as much as 82% of revenues, which they did.
Argentina 1970's: While Argentina was receiving worldwide condemnation for their human rights abuses during the "Dirty War" against left-wing dissidents, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was recorded giving the go-ahead to then-Argentine foreign minister Augusto Guzzetti. "We would like you to succeed," said Kissinger of the civil war against the Argentine leftists. From 1975 to 1983, about 30,000 civilians accused of subversion either died or disappeared.
Nicaragua 1978-1990: When the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, the U.S. was frightened by what they thought could be another Cuba. President Jimmy Carter tried to sabotage the revolution through economic and diplomatic forms, and later Reagan used violence. For eight years, Nicaragua faced military attacks by the U.S. funded Contras (Reagan's "freedom fighters). In 1990, the U.S. interfered in national elections, and the Sandinistas were defeated. According to Oxfam, the international development organization, Nicaragua under the Sandinistas was "exceptional in the strength of that government's commitment...to improving the condition of the people and encouraging [an] active development process." Now, Nicaragua is one of the poorest nations in the hemisphere, with widespread illiteracy and malnutrition.
Honduras 1980's: Honduras was basically a colony of the U.S. during the Contra war in Nicaragua. Thousands of U.S. troops were housed there and it was used as a supply center and refuge for the Contras. The U.S. funded the Contras by covertly and illegally selling arms to Iran (known as the Iran-Contra Affair).
Grenada 1979-1983: A 1979 coup took control of this small island country and attempted to install socialist reforms. The Reagan administration used destabilization tactics and eventually invaded in 1983, resulting in U.S. as well as Grenadian and Cuban casualties.
El Salvador 1980-92: After the U.S. helped fix an election to repress dissidents in El Salvador, the rebels turned to violence and a civil war ensued. Although the U.S. claimed to be only involved on an advisory basis 20 U.S. soldiers were killed in combat missions. The U.S. spent six billion dollars repressing this popular revolution.
Haiti 1987-94: After supporting the Duvalier family dictatorship for 30 years and opposing Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the U.S. claimed to support the elections that returned Aristide to power after he was ousted by a 1991 military coup. Meanwhile, they warned Aristide that they would only allow him to rule if he implemented free market policies. Aristide did not remain in power for long, however, and in a subsequent interview he attributed his removal from power to his refusal to privatize Haiti’s state-owned enterprises.
The 2004 coup was orchestrated by the leaders of the FRAPH, or Haitian Front for Advancement and Progress, a CIA-backed organization that carried out state terror against opponents of the military regime that ruled the country from 1991 to 1994. Another leader in the armed coup against Aristide was Guy Philippe, a former member of the Haitian military who received training from US Special Forces in Ecuador in the 1990s. After these forces pushed Aristide into exile, the U.S. stepped in to restore stability in Haiti, now under new rule. Since Aristide’s removal from power, his supporters have been targeted by the UN forces now tasked with “peace keeping,” killing many innocents from Haiti’s poorest neighborhoods in the process.
Panama 1989: Just weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the U.S. invaded Panama, killing thousands and leaving many more wounded and homeless in order to capture Manuel Noriega, a previous ally of the U.S.
Mexico, Peru, and Colombia 1990's to present: Under the guise of the drug war, the U.S. has given military aid to these countries despite their poor human rights records. This aid is used to fight rebel forces.
Venezuela: Recent U.S. intervention in Venezuela manifests itself as millions of dollars in contributions to political opponents of leftist President Hugo Chavez. The short-lived 2002 coup d'etat that kidnapped the democratically elected president was orchestrated by groups who had received funding from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED). When the opposition took power, they dissolved all of Venezuela's democratic institutions, including the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, the Constitution, the General Attorney, and the Public Defender's office. Meanwhile, their plan promised a return to free market economic policies. The coup only lasted two days before a popular resistance reinstated Chavez.
Source:
http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/us-interventions-in-latin-american-021/
And while they were doing all that, they were also doing this:
1918-1945:
BREAKING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST:
THE FIGHT FOR INFLUENCE & OIL
1920-28: U.S. pressures Britain, then the dominant Middle East power, into signing a "Red Line Agreement" providing that Middle Eastern oil will not be developed by any single power without the participation of the others. Standard Oil and Mobil obtain shares of the Iraq Petroleum Company.
1932-34: Oil is discovered in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and U.S. oil companies obtain concessions.
1944: U.S. State Department memo refers to Middle Eastern oil as "a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history." During U.S.-British negotiations over the control of Middle Eastern oil, President Roosevelt sketches out a map of the Middle East and tells the British Ambassador, "Persian oil is yours. We share the oil of Iraq and Kuwait. As for Saudi Arabian oil, it's ours." On August 8, 1944, the Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement is signed, splitting Middle Eastern oil between the U.S. and Britain.
Between 1948 and 1960, Western capital earns $12.8 billion in profits from the production, refining and sale of Middle Eastern oil, on fixed investments totaling $1.3 billion.
1945-1955:
REPLACING RIVALS AND WAGING WAR
ON NATIONAL LIBERATION
1946: President Harry Truman threatens to drop a "super-bomb" on the Soviet Union if it does not withdraw from Kurdestan and Azerbaijan in northern Iran.
November 1947: The U.S. helps push through a UN resolution partitioning Palestine into a Zionist state and an Arab state, giving the Zionist authorities control of 54% of the land. At that time Jewish settlers were about 1/3 of the population.
May 14, 1948: War breaks out between newly proclaimed state of Israel, and Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria, who had moved troops into Palestine to oppose the partition of Palestine. Israeli attacks force some 800,000 Palestinians--two-thirds of the population--to flee into exile in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank. Israel seizes 77 percent of historic Palestine. The U.S. quickly recognizes Israel.
March 29, 1949: CIA backs a military coup overthrowing the elected government of Syria and establishes a military dictatorship under Colonel Za'im.
1952: U.S.-led military alliance expands into the Middle East with Turkey's admission to NATO.
1953: The CIA organizes a coup overthrowing the Mossadeq government of Iran after Mossadeq nationalizes British holdings in Iran's huge oilfields. The Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, is put on the throne, ruling as an absolute monarch for the next 25 years--torturing, killing and imprisoning his political opponents.
1955: U.S. installs powerful radar system in Turkey to spy on the Soviet Union.
1956-1958:
UPHEAVAL AND INTRIGUE IN EGYPT,
IRAQ, JORDAN, SYRIA & LEBANON
July 1956: After Egypt's nationalist leader, Gamal Abdul Nasser, receives arms from the Soviet Union, the U.S. withdraws promised funding for Aswan Dam, Egypt's main development project. A week later Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal to fund the project. In October Britain, France and Israel invade Egypt to retake the Suez Canal. President Eisenhower threatens to use nuclear weapons if the Soviet Union intervenes on Egypt's side; and at the same time, the U.S. asserts its regional dominance by forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw from Egypt.
October 1956: A planned CIA coup to overthrow a left-leaning government in Syria is aborted because it was scheduled for the same day Israel, Britain and France invade Egypt.
March 9, 1957: Congress approves Eisenhower Doctrine, stating "the United States regards as vital to the national interest and world peace the preservation of the independence and integrity of the nations of the Middle East."
April 1957: After anti-government rioting breaks out in Jordan, U.S. rushes 6th fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and lands a battalion of Marines in Lebanon to "prepare for possible future intervention in Jordan." Later that year, the CIA begins making secret payments of millions a year to Jordan's King Hussein.
September 1957: In response to the Syrian government's more nationalist and pro-Soviet policies, the U.S. sends Sixth Fleet to eastern Mediterranean and rushes arms to allies Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Saudi Arabia; meanwhile the U.S. encourages Turkey to mass 50,000 troops on Syria's northern border.
1958: The merger of Syria and Egypt into the "United Arab Republic," the overthrow of the pro-U.S. King Feisal II in Iraq by nationalist military officers, and the outbreak of anti-government/anti-U.S. rioting in Lebanon, where the CIA had helped install President Camille Caiman and keep him in power, leads the U.S. to dispatch 70 naval vessels, hundreds of aircraft and 14,000 Marines to Lebanon to preserve "stability." The U.S. threatens to use nuclear weapons if the Lebanese army resists, and to prevent an Iraqi move into the oilfields of Kuwait, and draws up secret plans for a joint invasion of Iraq with Turkey. The plan is shelved after the Soviet Union threatens to intervene.
1957-58: Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA agent in charge of the 1953 coup in Iran, plots, without success, to overthrow Egypt's Nasser. "Between July 1957 and October 1958, the Egyptian and Syrian governments and media announced the uncovering of what appear to be at least eight separate conspiracies to overthrow one or the other government, to assassinate Nasser, and/or prevent the expected merger of the two countries." (Blum, p. 93)
1960: U.S. works to covertly undermine the new government of Iraq by supporting anti-government Kurdish rebels and by attempting, unsuccessfully, to assassinate Iraq's leader, Abdul Karim Qassim, an army general who had restored relations with the Soviet Union and lifted the ban on Iraq's Communist Party.
1963: U.S. supports a coup by the Ba'ath party (soon to be headed by Saddam Hussein) to overthrow the Qassim regime, including by giving the Ba'ath names of communists to murder. "Armed with the names and whereabouts of individual communists, the national guards carried out summary executions. Communists held in detention...were dragged out of prison and shot without a hearing...
y the end of the rule of the Ba'ath, its terror campaign had claimed the lives of an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 communists."
1966: U.S. sells its first jet bombers to Israel, breaking with 1956 decision not to sell arms to the Zionist state.
June 1967: With U.S. weapons and support, Israeli military launches the so-called "Six Day War," seizing the remaining 23 percent of historic Palestine--the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem--along with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights.
September 17, 1970: With U.S. and Israeli backing, Jordanian troops attack Palestinian guerrilla camps, while Jordan's U.S.-supplied air force drops napalm from above. U.S. deploys the aircraft carrier Independence and six destroyers off the coast of Lebanon and readies troops in Turkey to support the assault. The U.S. threatens to use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union if it intervenes. 5000 Palestinians are killed and 20,000 wounded. This massacre comes to be known as "Black September."
1973: The U.S. rushes $2.2 billion in emergency military aid to Israel after Egypt and Syria attack to regain Golan Heights and Sinai. U.S. puts forces on alert, and moves them into the region. When the Soviet Union threatens to intervene to prevent the destruction of Egypt's 3rd Army by Israel, U.S. nuclear forces go to DEFCON III to force the Soviets to back down.
1973-1975: U.S. supports Kurdish rebels in Iraq in order to strengthen Iran and weaken the then pro-Soviet Iraqi regime. When Iran and Iraq cut a deal, the U.S. withdraws support, denies the Kurds refuge in Iran, and stands by while the Iraqi government kills many Kurdish people.
1979-84: U.S. supports paramilitary forces to undermine the government of South Yemen, which was allied with the Soviet Union.
THE FALL OF THE SHAH AND
THE SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN
1978: As the Iranian revolution begins against the hated Shah, the U.S. continues to support him "without reservation" and urges him to act forcefully against the masses. In August 1978, some 400 Iranians are burned to death in the Rex Theater in Abadan after police chain and lock the exit doors. On September 8, 10,000 anti-Shah demonstrators are massacred at Teheran's Jaleh Square.
1979: The U.S. tries, without success, to organize a military coup to save the Shah. In January, the Shah is forced to flee and the reactionary Shi-ite Islamists led by Ayatollah Khomeini take power in February.
Summer 1979: The U.S. publicly supports the Khomeini regime's efforts to suppress the Kurdish liberation struggle and maintain Iranian domination of Kurdestan.
1979: U.S. President Jimmy Carter designates the Persian Gulf a vital U.S. interest and declares the U.S. will go to war to ensure the flow of oil.
1979: In response to Soviet military maneuvers on Iran's northern border, Carter secretly puts U.S. forces on nuclear alert and warns the Soviets they will be used if the Soviets intervene.
Summer 1979: U.S. begins arming and organizing Islamic fundamentalist "Mujahideen" in Afghanistan. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski writes, "This aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention," drawing the Soviets into an Afghan quagmire. Over the next decade the U.S. alone passed more than $3 billion in arms and aid to the Mujahideen, with another $3 billion provided by the U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.
November 4, 1979: Islamic militants, backed by the Khomeini regime, seize the U.S. embassy in Teheran and demand the U.S. return the Shah to Iran for trial. The Embassy and 52 U.S. personnel are held for 444 days; this international embarrassment prompts new U.S. actions against Iran--including an abortive rescue attempt.
December 1979: Soviet troops invade Afghanistan--which the U.S. rulers considered a "buffer state" between the Soviet Union to the north and the strategically important states of Iran and Pakistan to the south--overthrowing the Amin government and installing a more pro-Soviet regime.
1980: U.S. begins organizing a "Rapid Deployment Force," increasing its naval presence and pre-positioning military equipment and supplies. It also steps up aid to reactionary client states such as Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. On September 12, Turkey's military seizes power and unleashes a brutal clampdown on revolutionaries and Kurds struggling for liberation in order to "stabilize" the country as a key U.S. ally.
Summer 1980: As the Carter administration tries to bully Iran into surrendering the U.S. hostages, supporters of presidential candidate Ronald Reagan cut a secret deal with the Islamic Republic: promising that the Reagan administration will allow Israel to ship arms to Iran if Iran continues to hold the hostages during the coming presidential campaign to cripple Carter's campaign for re-election. (Gary Sick)
September 22, 1980: Iraq invades Iran with tacit U.S. support, starting a bloody eight-year war. The U.S. supports both sides in the war providing arms to Iran and money, intelligence and political support to Iraq in order to prolong the war and weaken both sides, while trying to draw both countries into the U.S. orbit.
1981: U.S. holds military maneuvers off the coast of Libya to bully the Qaddafi government. When a Libyan plane fires a missile at U.S. planes penetrating Libyan airspace, two Libyan planes are shot down.
1981: The Reagan administration secretly encourages Israel and other allies, such as South Korea and Turkey, to ship hundreds of millions of U.S.-made arms to Iran despite a ban on the shipment of U.S.-made weapons.
From the fall of 1981 through the winter of 1982, forces led by the Union of Iranian Communists, Sarbederan, mount an historic resistance to the Islamic Republic; the uprising at Amol at the end of January 1982 is brutally crushed by the forces of the Islamic Republic.
1982: After receiving a "green light" from the U.S., Israel invades Lebanon to crush Palestinian and other anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli forces. Over 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians are killed, and Israel seizes southern Lebanon, holding it until 2000.
September 14, 1982: Lebanon's pro-U.S. President-elect, Bashir al-Jumayyil, is assassinated. The following day, Israeli forces occupy West Beirut, and from 16 to 18 September, the Phalangist militia, with the support of Israel's military under now-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, move into the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and barbarically massacre over 1,000 unarmed Palestinian men, women, and children.
1983: U.S. sends troops to Lebanon, supposedly as part of a multinational "peace-keeping" operation but in reality to protect U.S. interests, including Israel's occupation forces. U.S. troops are withdrawn after a suicide bomber destroys a U.S. Marine barracks.
1983: CIA helps murder Gen. Ahmed Dlimi, a prominent Moroccan Army commander who seeks to overthrow the pro-U.S. Moroccan monarchy.
Spring 1983: The U.S. provides the Islamic Republic of Iran with a list of Soviet agents.
1984: U.S. shoots down two Iranian jets over Persian Gulf.
1985-1986: The U.S. secretly ships weapons to Iran, including 1,000 TOW anti-tank missiles, Hawk missile parts, and Hawk radars. The weapons are exchanged for U.S. hostages in Lebanon, and in hopes of increased U.S. leverage in Iran. The secret plot collapses when it is publicly revealed on November 3, 1986, by the Lebanese magazine, Al-Shiraa. (The Chronology)
1985: U.S. attempts to assassinate Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a Lebanese Shiite leader. 80 people are killed in the unsuccessful attempt. (Blum)
1986: When a bomb goes off in a Berlin nightclub and kills two Americans, the U.S. blames Libya's Qaddafi. U.S. bombers strike Libyan military facilities, residential areas of Tripoli and Benghazi, and Qaddafi's house, killing 101 people, including Qaddafi's adopted daughter.
1987: The U.S. Navy is dispatched to the Persian Gulf to prevent Iran from cutting off Iraq's oil shipments. During these patrols, a U.S. ship shoots down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 onboard.
1988: The Iraqi regime launches mass poison-gas attacks on Kurds, killing thousands and bulldozing many villages. The U.S. responds by increasing its support for the Iraqi regime.
July 1988: A cease-fire ends the Iran-Iraq war with neither side victorious. Over 1 million Iranians and Iraqis are killed during the 8-year war.
1989: The last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan. The war, fueled by U.S.-Soviet rivalry, has torn Afghanistan apart, killing more than one million Afghans and forcing one-third of the population to flee into refugee camps. More than 15,000 Soviet soldiers die in the war.
July 1990: April Glaspie, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, meets with Saddam Hussein, who threatens military action against Kuwait for overproducing its oil quota, slant drilling for oil in Iraqi territory, and encroaching on Iraqi territory--seriously harming war weakened Iraq. Glaspie replies, "We have no opinion on the Arab- Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."
August 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. The U.S. seizes the moment to assert its hegemony in the post-Soviet world and strengthen its grip on the Persian Gulf: the U.S. condemns Iraq, rejects a diplomatic settlement, imposes sanctions, and prepares for an all-out military assault on Iraq.
January 16, 1991: After a 6-month military buildup, the U.S.-led coalition launches "Operation Desert Storm." For the next 42 days, U.S. and allied planes pound Iraq, dropping 88,000 tons of bombs, systematically targeting and largely destroying its electrical and water systems. On February 22, 1991, the U.S. coalition begins its 100-hour ground war. Heavily armed U.S. units drive deep into southern Iraq. Overall, 100,000 to 200,000 Iraqis are killed during the war.
Spring 1991: Shi'ites in the south and Kurds in the north rise up against Hussein's regime in Iraq. The U.S., after encouraging these uprisings during the war, now fears turmoil and instability in the region and refuses to support the rebels. The U.S. denies the rebels access to captured Iraqi weapons and allows Iraqi helicopters to attack them.
1991: Iraq withdraws from Kuwait and agrees to a UN-brokered cease-fire, but the U.S. and Britain insist that devastating sanctions be maintained. The U.S. declares large parts of north and south Iraq "no-fly" zones for Iraqi aircraft.
1991-present: U.S. military deployments continue after the war, with 17,000 to 24,000 U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf region at any given time. (CSM)
1992: U.S. Marines land near Mogadishu, Somalia, supposedly to ensure humanitarian relief and "restore order." But the U.S. also plans to remove the dominant warlord, Mohammed Aidid, and install a more pro-U.S. regime. In June 1983, after numerous gun battles with Aidid forces, U.S. helicopters strafe Aidid supporters, killing scores. In October, when U.S. forces attempt to kidnap two Aidid lieutenants, a fierce gunbattle breaks out. Five U.S. helicopters are shot down, 18 U.S. soldiers killed and 73 wounded, while 500 to 1000 Somalians are killed and many more injured.
March 1992: U.S. Defense Department drafts new, post-Soviet "Defense Planning Guidance" paper stating, "In the Middle East and Southwest Asia, our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region's oil."
1993: U.S. brokers a "peace" agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at Oslo, Norway. The agreement strengthens Israel and U.S. domination, while leaving Palestinians a small part of their historic homeland, broken up into isolated pieces surrounded by Israel. No provisions are made for the return of the four million Palestinian refugees living outside of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
1993: U.S. launches missile attack on Iraq, claiming self-defense against an alleged assassination attempt on former president Bush two months earlier.
1995: The U.S. imposes oil and trade sanctions against Iran, reinforcing sanctions in effect since 1979, for alleged sponsorship of 'terrorism', seeking to acquire nuclear arms and hostility to the Middle East process. (BBC, CSM)
1995: With U.S. backing, Turkey launches a major military offensive, involving some 35,000 Turkish troops, against the Kurds in northern Iraq.
1998: Congress passes the "Iraq Liberation Act," giving nearly $100 million to groups attempting to overthrow the Hussein regime.
August 1998: Claiming retaliation for attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, President Clinton sends 75 cruise missiles pounding into rural Afghanistan --supposedly targeting Osama Bin Laden. The U.S. also destroys a factory producing half of Sudan's pharmaceutical supply, claiming the factory is involved in chemical warfare. The U.S. later acknowledges there is no evidence for the chemical warfare charge.
December 16-19, 1998: The U.S. and Britain launch "Operation Desert Fox," a bombing campaign supposedly aimed at destroying Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. For most of the next year, U.S. and British planes strike Iraq every day with missiles. (BBC)
October 1999: The U.S. Department of Defense shifts command of its forces in Central Asia from the Pacific Command to the Central Command, underlining the heightened importance of the region, which includes vast oil reserves in and around the Caspian Sea.
January 2001: Tenth anniversary of the U.S. war on Iraq: sanctions are still in place and the UN estimates that 4,500 children are dying per month from disease and malnutrition as a result. The U.S. planes, which have flown over 280,000 sorties in Iraq over the past decade, continue to attack from the air. In the past two years, over 300 Iraqis have been killed in these bombings.
October 2001: U.S. begins bombing Afghanistan, as the first act of war in "Operation Enduring Freedom"--the U.S. "war against global terrorism."
Source: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6308.htm
And this is a list of CIA Atrocities: (certainly not all-inclusive and only until 1993):
It won't let me cut and paste, so click here:
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html
