arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

As a Canadian, I consider the country to the south a great place. It's a country that has been at times a savior; it is full of inventive and intelligent people and provided some wonderful things for the world and great opportunities for the dispossessed of other lands. We have more beliefs in common than just about any other two nations and are proud to call them our friends. Our neighbor leads the whole world in almost every way, including blowing parts of it into little bits.

The United States claims to be a nation of peace lovers and it has been at peace since the end of the Second World War, except, that is, for their attacks on China (1945-46); Korea (1950-53); Guatemala (1954, 1967-69); Cuba (1959-60); Belgian Congo (1964); Vietnam (1961-73); Cambodia (1969-70); Grenada (1983); Libya (1986); El Salvador (1980-92); Nicaragua (1981-90); Panama (1989); Iraq (1991); Bosnia (1995); Sudan (1998); Yugoslavia (1999); Afghanistan (2001-02); plus a grudge match soon to come in Iraq. Plus "police action" in Columbia regarding drugs (ongoing), an insurrection in Chile (1973), and numerous other covert bombings conducted by, or under the direction of, the CIA. From 1945 to the end of the 20th century, the U.S. attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments and to crush more than 30 populist movements fighting against insufferable regimes. In the process, they bombed about 25 countries, killed several million people, and condemned many millions more to lives of agony, poverty and despair.

If this is a nation of peace lovers, then God help us all.

Now I can already hear the rationalizing that these were all just and moral battles; ...