The United States Is Innocent
and Has Never Killed Anyone By David Swanson
It was bound to be the case that if a U.S. president ever admitted that the United States murdered people and did so on
a scale at least as significant as other countries, he would be defending the practice, not denouncing it.
It is not a secret in much of the world that the United States is (as that Putin stooge Martin Luther King Jr. put it)
the greatest purveyor of violence on earth. The United States is the top weapons dealer, the top weapons buyer, the
biggest military spender, the most widespread imperial presence, the most frequent war maker, the most prolific
overthrower of governments, and from 1945 to 2017 the killer of the most people through war.
During this past U.S. election, a debate moderator asked if a candidate would be willing to kill thousands of innocent
children as part of basic presidential duties. One can find many faults in Russia and other countries, but in none could
one find such an occurrence.
I ask people at public events where I speak to name eight countries bombed under president Barack Obama, and most cannot
come close. Nowhere else on earth can people not keep track of their wars.
During this last presidency, the United States developed a new policy of murdering people with missiles from drones.
Other nations do not yet have anything to match it.
Hillary Clinton told Goldman Sachs bankers that a no-fly zone in Syria would require killing lots of Syrians, but told
the public that a no-fly zone should be created.
For all its evils at home and abroad, Russia -- over the years -- has proposed complete nuclear disarmament, significant
overall disarmament, a ban on weapons in space, and a peace settlement in Syria. The United States has broken promises,
laws, and morality to expand NATO and its troops to Russia's border.
The reality of U.S. foreign relations is generally treated as "fake news." So, when someone like Donald Trump, who pushes lies and
disasters like they're going out of style, blurts out some truth, Democratic partisans are eager to denounce it.
But their blind partisan patriotism just reinforces the truth of what Trump said. As he pursues policies of "stealing
oil" and "killing families" he is adding nothing new to the United States' record. Killing has been the primary
investment of federal discretionary spending since long before the days of the Bowling Green Massacre.
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David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
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