America’s Invasion of Cambodia and Laos Gives Russia License to Invade Poland
(And how Working in the World Trade Center Made Me Hate American Foreign Policy)
By
David Gottfried
As I write this, the Western Media is screeching that Russia has attacked a “facility” near the Polish border. At first, we were advised that the facility was known as the “International Center for Peacekeeping & Security.” With a name like that one might think that the facility was dedicated to peace. Of course, later reports told us that it was a critical military hub in the West’s war against Russia, a training center for foreign fighters against Russia and a site which receives military goods from Poland in route to points throughout Ukraine. But, of course, a little verbal subterfuge is to be expected: The West has learned to cloak its iniquity with a mask and facade of benevolence just as the United States’ military renamed its Department of War the Department of Defense even as it pioneered the use of anti-personnel weapons, which were made to kill people and not destroy military hardware, and the neutron bomb, which similarly left buildings intact but killed living things.
Since Poland, and other NATO countries, are funneling supplies and fighters into Ukraine, they are clearly aiding and abetting Ukraine. Ergo, they are not neutral. They are part of this war. By pretending that they are neutral they are able to inflict damage without sustaining damage. They are able to kill Russians while keeping their populace safe from the storm. The laws of war embraced by the United States clearly authorize Russia to invade Poland.
In 1970, Richard Nixon told the American people that since the Vietnamese communists often sought shelter in Cambodia, he had elected to invade Cambodia. Actually, he had been bombing Cambodia since shortly after becoming President in January 1969. This is generally termed the “secret bombing” as neither Congress nor the American people were advised that we were bombing Cambodia until he sent in ground troops, when he invaded Cambodia in the Spring of 1970. Interestingly enough, we claim that Ukrainians are fighting for Democracy, and that we westerners come from democratic states, but words like Democracy and Republic are thrown around so reflexively and indiscriminately that I don’t think Americans really know what a democracy entails. For Christ’s sake, how can anyone look themselves straight in the face and say that America can launch a secret war against Cambodia and yet have a democracy at the same time. Of course, Americans have the right to vote, but their votes mean little because they do not know what they are voting for because their politicians don’t tell them what they are really doing in places like Cambodia.
Likewise, we had been bombing Laos since 1965 because the North Vietnamese sent munitions down the so-called Ho Chi Minh trail to aid the Vietcong, and NVA units, fighting in South Vietnam. To cut off the flow of supplies, certain sections of the trail were bombed more than once per day to ensure that no sections of the trail could be repaired in time to allow trucks to proceed South. Indeed, the Rand corporation devised a bombing schedule with such frequency that it looked like a prescription for penicillin that had to be taken every six hours. Nevertheless, all the tinkerers and technocrats of the War Machine couldn’t put Imperial Humpty Dumpty back together again: When the roads were filled with bomb craters, diligent North Vietnamese girls pedaled munitions south by bicycle.
Of course, some people, with enough lies and maliciousness, might tell us that America’s war in Vietnam was just whereas Russia’s war is, in their warped scheme of things, unjust.
It’s easier to be deceived if you don’t know what’s going on and nowadays people don’t know what’s going on because so many never consult maps. When we fought in World War Two, President Roosvelt advised Americans to get maps so they could have a better sense of what was going on and what the stakes were. Of course, presidents stopped suggesting that Americans get a map and learn what’s going on. They like their citizens dumb and happy and passive.
If one looked at a map, one would see that Vietnam was 10,000 miles from California whereas Ukraine is adjacent to Russia. If one looked at map, one would find that NATO has advanced 1000 miles to the East since the Berlin Wall collapsed, that NATO has gone back on its word to Russia that it would not move one mile further to the East, that many of NATO’s new Eastern European members were allied with Nazi Germany, and that 20 million Russians were killed in World War Two.
Many Americans have said to me that I should have “more respect” for America because of America’s losses on September 11, 2001. We Americans certainly did suffer on 9/11, and our foes were despicable, dastardly devils masquerading as human beings.
After 9/11, we concluded that we were entitled to do certain extraordinary things to get revenge. Among other things, we conquered Iraq which was not even responsible for 9/11. (The Saudis were knee deep in the shitty scum that bequeathed 9/11, but we couldn’t consider any punitive action against those guys, Bush’s business partners.) And in our desire to strike out at someone – anyone – after 9/11, we weakened America by ineluctably augmenting the power of Iran. Iraq and Iran have been the very best of enemies for life, and our nullification of Iraq allowed Iran to surge ahead politically and militarily.
In any event, we did a lot of crazy things after 9/11. Russia suffered not one 9/11 but hundreds. As I said it lost 20 million people in World War Two. That’s sort of like having 9/11 every day for four years. With that sort of history, Russia has every right to zealously, religiously and ferociously guard its Western boundaries and strike hard and fast.
Of course, I am not recommending that Russia attack Poland. Given her difficulties in subduing Ukrainian malcontents, I am not sure she can take on too many more antagonists. And Russia’s military difficulties are, in my view, most unfortunate.
Just as it was most unfortunate that Russia was defeated in Afghanistan by Osama bin Ladin. And Osama bin Ladin was empowered by the United States of America and its imperial emperor and idiot ignoramus Ronald Ray Gun. And, back then, the lapdog press said the same thing about the Afghans that they are saying about Ukrainians today: They love their nation. They are bold. And they are so religious. (Damn, we should stop liking people on the grounds that they are religious. When people believe their views are in accord with the divine, they are apt to do the most diabolical things.)
I used to work in the World Trade Centre, and never a day goes by that I fail to remember that my coworkers were killed because America always steadfastly chooses to aid any and all opponents of Russia, whether they be Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Ladin or Ukraine.