...especially if you're a neocon war-monger (or a believer in "humanitarian" wars), as Red Constantino reminds us (footnotes omitted):
"We are not supposed to remember that the American Chamber of Commerce described the imposition of martial rule in the Philippines in 1972 as a 'heaven-sent relief' and we are expected to forget that, after martial law was declared, the same august Chamber wished Marcos 'every success in your endeavor to restore peace and order, business confidence, economic growth and the well-being of the Filipino people.'
"We are not supposed to remember that, two years before Marcos inflicted martial law on Filipinos, US investments in the Philippines stood at $16.3 million; and that by 1981, the year of the Bush toast to the Filipino tyrant, US investments stood at $920 million.
"We are expected to forget the 1965 -1966 Indonesian bloodbath - the slaughter of a million Indonesians perpetrated by a vile gang of Indonesian generals backed by America. A culling that overthrew a government that the US government disliked. A slaughter that midwifed the three-decade dictatorship of the Indonesian despot Suharto.
"We are not supposed to remember that during the carnage, the US government had supplied Suharto and his generals lists containing the names of those America wanted slaughtered....
"'The US is generally sympathetic with and admiring of what the [Indonesian] army is doing,' said the American Ambassador in Jakarta, Marshall Green, of the killings. But we are not supposed to remember these things.
"We are expected to forget about the Iraqi coup of 1963. A coup that took place four years after a massive public demonstration attended by half a million Iraqis had demanded working class leadership in Iraq. A coup that took place two years after the government of Abdul Karim-Qasim attempted to implement socio-economic reforms that included increasing taxes on the rich, the introduction of inheritance taxes, rent controls, price controls, the regulation of working hours and the provision of compulsory systems of social insurance.
"We are not supposed to remember the 1963 coup. A US-engineered coup that eventually catapulted a certain Saddam Hussein to the highest echelons of leadership in Iraq. We are not supposed to remember that the Ba'ath Party came to power, in the words of a Ba'athist president, 'using an American locomotive....'
"We are expected to forget all these things lest we ask some interesting questions. Without America's support, would the Marcos regime have lasted as long as it did? Without America's instigation, would Suharto have been able to slaughter so many and rule Indonesia for so long and with such barbarity? Without the American locomotive of 1963, where would Iraq be today?"
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