“we are a killer nation, at home and abroad”

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The following essay is written by Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor (dsimpson@post-gazette. com, 412-263-1976.)

Dan Simpson: Peace on Earth? Not until the U.S. stops selling arms and making war

By Dan Simpson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Reviewing the bidding on the United States at the end of 2015, I conclude that we are a killer nation, at home and abroad.

The segment of our society that benefits most from this role, again, at home and abroad, is the arms industry. At home, it sells the guns that are used, virtually without control, to slaughter innocent groups of people, including in churches and schools. Our corrupt and conscienceless federal and state legislators lack the courage and brains to stop it. […]

Overseas, we are considered killers. Other countries can only pray to their chosen god or gods that the United States does not decide to work its will on them, whether it be to impose a form of government we think they should adopt or to cite some supposed wrong they have committed as an excuse to pour bombs down upon them or send drones to kill their leaders.

Like it or not, that is our reputation. Most foreigners I meet think we are crazy. Virtually all think we are a danger to world society. […]

We are in Afghanistan, where we started in 2001 right after 9/​11. We are in Iraq, where President George W. Bush took us on false premises in 2003 to get himself re-elected as a wartime president. […]

We have lost 2,332 troops in Afghanistan over the past 14 years — another six last week — and 4,425 in Iraq. […]

Why are we doing this? I thought the argument Ronald Reagan made in 1986, that if we didn’t fight the Communists in Nicaragua we would have to fight them in Harlingen, Texas, was as dead as the charlatans who governed us at that time.

In support of our ally and major arms purchaser, Saudi Arabia, we have helped to destroy Yemen. The Saudis have bombed it into the Stone Age, and I have yet to hear anyone in the White House or the Pentagon say there are no U.S. pilots in Saudi cockpits. Yemen already was the poorest country in the Middle East. Read more…