The Myth of Pristine Wilderness: a land with no people does not exist. The idea that America was virgin land, a wilderness inhabited by non-people called savages, is a myth. Only through killing and displacement does it become uninhabited. Before the arrival of the British, north America was a continent villages, of nations, of confederations of nations. Exterminate All the Brutes IV: The Bright Colours of Fascism
The Navy seal team members who carried out the assassination of Osama bin Laden on May 2nd 2011 were reporting in real time to President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials in the sealed Situation Room. Following the operation, the New York Daily News commented, ‘Along with the unseen pictures of Osama bin Laden’s corpse and questions about what Pakistan knew, intelligence officials’ reasons for dubbing the Al Qaeda boss ‘Geronimo’ remain one of the biggest mysteries of the Black Ops mission. ibid.
Kill anything that moves. Take no prisoners. In California, hunting Indians was both legal and profitable. $5 a head, 50 cents a scalp. In 1849 the American government paid more than a million dollars to Indian hunters. ibid.
Make America Great again, he said. When exactly was it great? I mean really great? And for whom? ibid.
In the beginning, the slaves had to clean the cotton with their bare hands. The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney would change everything. But Cotton also destroyed the soil, while using slaves’ bodies like a commodity became the most lucrative enterprise around. More profitable than all lands, banks, railroads, factories and gold products put together. Slaves were used as collateral for mortgages, a newly developed tool of commerce. ibid.
By 1890, disarmed, held in concentration camps, their children taken away half-starved, the Lakota and Dakota survivors found a new resistance: ghost dancing. ibid.
Wounded Knee Massacre: East Indians killed 300; Survivors: 51 (4 men, 47 women), Army casualties 25 dead. ibid.
We’ve run out of options now so we’re going for a last resort Plan B which is just to break out of Baba Amr. Storyville: Under the Wire, geezer’s opening commentary, Paul Conroy, BBC 2021
Marie [Colvin]: One of the greatest war correspondents of our generation. Exceptionally driven. ibid. Sean Ryan, Sunday Times
It really hit me at that point [in cellar with wounded civilians] just what the regime was doing to its own people, its own children. ibid. Paul
‘The foreign correspondent Marie Colvin was killed while covering the bombardment of the city of Homs in Syria.’ ibid. news
One hundred years ago Muslim Azerbaijan used to supply half the world’s oil. In recent years Western oil firms have invested vast sums here. But officially Azerbaijan is still at war with neighbouring Armenia. Simon Reeve, Holidays in the Danger Zone: Places that Don’t Exist V: Nagorno Karabakh
Azerbaijan and Armenia got their independence but a small mountainous area called Nagorno Karabakh triggered war. ibid.
In September last year Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war. In 44 days of fighting the fortunes or the two countries and their peoples were turned upside down … So who really won this war? And what does the future hold for people who have lived through and lost so much? Our World: Who Won the Karabakh War?, BBC 2021
Two neighbours, two wars, the bitterest of enemies. Nagorno Karabakh is an Armenian-majority area inside Azerbaijan’s international borders. In 1992 a long-running dispute over who should control it turned into war. Armenia invaded taking over Najorno Karabakh and the surrounding areas. ibid.
After each war there is a little less democracy to save. Brooks Atkinson 1894-1984
The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. Exodus 15:3
For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Exodus 17:16
And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Numbers 10:9
And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. Numbers 31:7
And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them.
For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed.
So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, Deuteronomy 2:14-16
A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:
As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day:
And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.
Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.
This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee. Deuteronomy 2:21-25
But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.
And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land.
Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz.
And the Lord our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.
And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain:
Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took.
From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the Lord our God delivered all unto us: Deuteronomy 2:30-36
Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
And the Lord said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.
So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.
And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many.
And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city. Deuteronomy 3:1-6
When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:
And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Deuteronomy 20:10-14
Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever. Deuteronomy 23:6
And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. Joshua 8:25