I very much appreciate the reminder of the enormity of our US “secret history.” There is such a deep need to know the truth, now more than ever. At its inception, this nation was blessed with an incredible treasure of natural resources, along with one other huge advantage: these resources were far more easily accessed than they were in most of the world, according to my high school American History teacher. But I guess there’s no such thing as “enough” for the truly greedy. Does anyone else remember when the word “democracy” was replaced in the media by the word “capitalism?” This probably occurred about the time the McCarthy hearings destroyed our identity as a nation based upon the higher values invoked by its founders, replacing it with the lesser ideal of promoting ourselves as an economic system which claimed to be the opposite of the economic system known as “communism.”

A couple of months ago, I shared a posting from a profoundly insightful collection of digitized historical quotes by Joe Moreno. I had not realized that our ruthless exploitation of other countries had been so thoroughly accomplished so long ago. Apparently corporate profit interests have dictated US policy, priorities and troop movements almost since the founding of this nation. I felt sick at heart over the endless, and shameless, lies we were all spoonfed for so long:

MAJOR GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER:

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American Fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”