AMERICA NEVER HAD AN INNOCENCE!
Some writers state that America lost its "innocence" after it started invading and attacking other countries after World War I.
I strongly disagree and say that America never had an innocence. The United States was founded on bloodshed (i.e. the American Revolution) and continues to shed blood for numerous reasons, including to secure resources, to open up economic markets, and to expand its territory and global domination. The greatest tragedy and injustice of American territory and economic expansion, Manifest Destination, is the war waged against the Native Americans.
There were between 10 and 15 million native inhabitants in America prior to "white" man's arrival. By 1894, there were less than 500,000 Native Americans alive.
American presidents from George Washington to Benjamin Harrison practiced ethnic cleansing against the original inhabitants in America. These presidents considered native Americans savages and a lower class of humans than even slaves. Presidents made it official policy to uproot, exterminate, and place in reservations--concentration camps (where Indians were raped, molested, and murdered by American troops, including George Custer himself, and settlers) , as many native Americans as possible. Our beloved Thomas Jefferson stated in 1780 as then Governor of Virginia, that the Ohio Shawnees (Native Americans) should be exterminated or forced off their land. Indians, he said, should be "...extirpated for the earth." Then as President in 1803, Jefferson ordered Native Americans to be removed , establishing "...the federal policy of removal-involuntary or voluntary." Jefferson proclaimed in 1807 to his Secretary of War, "And if ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down till that tribe is exterminated, or is driven beyond the Mississippi." Jefferson added, "...in war they (Indians) will kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them (Indians)." President Andrew Jackson, in seven of his eight annual messages to Congress, discussed the policy of Indian removal. Jackson formulated the Indian Removal Act in 1830 to brutally force Indian relocation. Indian relocations continued to be embraced by every American president up until WWI.
The United States broke over 300 treaties with the Native Americans, even though the Constitution of the United States provides that treaties are the supreme law of the land.
Indian wars continued until 1891, when the Native American population was reduced to less than 500,000. Over 95 per cent of original native inhabitants had been exterminated, making this one of the largest genocides in all of history. President Teddy Roosevelt exclaimed that the Indian wars and Indian removals "..was as ultimately beneficial as it was inevitable." Native Americans were not granted citizenship until June 2ND, 1924. Up until 1948, some states barred Native Americans from voting.
The main problem with the US is that she tries to impose her ideals and culture on others because she fails to understand other people's beliefs and practice. Americans embrace violence as the first and only means of reliable conflict resolution. This same premise is endorsed by George W. Bush who attacked Iraq without provocation over erroneous intel-- i.e. weapons of mass destruction-- and then failed to take in account Muslem traditions and cultures during the U.S. occupation and rebuilding.
By Christian Gatsby
a page from my upcoming book, MISLED...THE RIGHT WAY
