austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

308 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
spreads Al � s is innocent since the original person with AIDs was largely just seeking
pe � nal enjoyment from the viral invasion Gust as the USA only wanted the personal
enjoyment of the Indians' land). More importantly, however, that argument ignores
all the evidence of deliberate murderous intent on the part of the USA (including pub
licly announcing a national campaign to exterminate the Indians, USA laws providing
rewards for the killing of any and all Indians, the gruesome cases of USA biological
warfare, the USA's deliberate destruction of Indian food and water sources, and the
USA's use of force to keep Indians away from food and water, as documented in the
Introduction to this book). Deaths by disease tend to be maximized under conditions
of extreme duress, forced migrations and overcrowding (Levene and Roberts, 1 999),
and war (Hobhouse, 1989), especially in a campaign of deliberate extermination (like
the USA followed), as documented by Thornton (1997). To illustrate the importance
of intent here, it is possible to examine the Polynesian peoples in New Zealand called
Maori, who were very similar to Indians in terms of being very susceptible to deadly
European diseases (as well as in terms of having some democratic communist tendencies),
and yet there is some evidence that the European invasion of their country did
not even result in a population decline for the Maori because the native people of New
Zealand were recognized as humans whom (despite some land theft by the British and
some wars with the British invaders) the British never attempted to exterminate (King,
1997). On the other hand, a malicious campaign that exhibited some intent (and effects)
similar to (although not nearly as atrocious and deliberate as) that of the USA was
Great Britain's policy in Australia, where about half the aboriginal population (or about
200,000 people) was exterminated (Reynolds, 1995). Although only about 10% of the
Australian aborigines were killed directly (with most dying instead of hunger and disease
as their livable land was stolen by brute force), and although there were never any
laws in Australia providing rewards for the extermination of natives as there were in
the USA, the deaths of the Australian aborigines can be considered deliberate because
the British officially labeled Australia "uninhabited", effectively legalizing the extermination
of the aborigines to make way for the settling invaders (Reynolds, 1995), who
were effectively only compensated for such killings with free land (and not also with
additional monetary rewards as in the USA).
3. Mass murderers have historically often attempted to portray their victims as the
evil ones in order to try and justify their own atrocities (Daunton and Halper, 1999).
For instance, Jennings ( 1975) has noted an old argument often made that the Indians in
what is now the USA deserved to die because they were savages ruled by dictators who
offered human sacrifices to pagan gods, and who even engaged in cannibalism. However,
such allegations are generally either totally untrue (Sale, 1991) or based on some
very speculative archaeological findings from the ancient past (Der Sp iegel, 1998). The
truth of the matter is that it was the Europeans who engaged in massive numbers of
religious executions (Levene and Roberts, 1 999), which some estimated numbered hundreds
of thousands during the medieval Inquisition (Smith, 2000), and it was the earliest
invaders from Europe who, despite gifts of food from Indians, engaged in cannibal·
ism in order to survive the new environment in what is now the USA (Zinn, 1995). In
addition, although there were Indians in Latin America who had a dictatorial political
system that did offer human sacrifices (Chalk and Jonassohn, 1990), the Indians in what
is now the USA did not, and they actually "were much more democratic and allowed
liNCh more freedom to the individual" (Driver, 1961 ). Indian societies of what is now
!be USA were also characterized by more equal rights fo r women, besides exhibiting
• widespread signs of social democracy and communism (Zinn, 1995). In fact,
Novack (1972) argues that the existence of free communist democracies among the
Indians was a primary underlying reason why the USA committed genocide, insofar as
!be native Americans were too different from the USA's capitalist system to be compatible
with the invaders. Regardless, the logic of exterminating an entire people in order
to "ftee" them (or stop a few human sacrifices) is morally incomprehensible to anyone
but mass murderers.
4. Note that the figures reported in the Introduction to this book greatly understate
!be true number of deaths resulting from USA imperialism. In particular, even without
considering the victims of pure capitalist exploitation, the number of innocent people
killed by USA imperialism is much larger if one includes deaths from disease and starvation
that were not deliberately inflicted but that stemmed indirectly from wars initi­
lled and perpetuated by the USA. For instance, UNICEF estimates that over 300,000
children alone have died directly or indirectly as a result of the war in Angola that was
begun and has been perpetuated by the USA (Minter, 1994). Moreover, as many as
ooe million people may have been killed in the 1979-89 war in Mghanistan that was
lalllehed by terrorists who were financed with about $6 billion worth of weapons from
the CIA and whose terrorist activities have now become threatening enough to provoke
USA military attacks (Catalinotto, 1998c). Although the CIA-financed terrorists may
DOt have been the only ones committing atrocities in the latter conflict, the Soviet Union
had long offered to allow Afghanistan to become a neutral and independent country and
to withdraw its troops as long as the foreign-supplied rebels discontinued their terrorist
llllcb (Girardet, 1985).
S. Despite the fact that even a USA congressional representative recently called the
�against Iraq "infanticide," USA state department spokesman James Rubin con­
tlllled with the worldwide propaganda line of blaming the USA holocausts on others,
"Sadd.m is again pushing the canard that sanctions-rather than the misrule and the
cynical manipulation of his own people that Saddam Husein propagates--are respon
sible for the suffering of the Iraqi people" (CNN, 2000a). While the absurd logic in the
� type of USA propaganda (i.e., blaming the leader of the victims for the suffering
!"f'ICicd upon them by the USA) would seem to be all too apparent to anyone thinking
rt through, most Americans are already so convinced by the propaganda barrage that
dley � the " g ood" guys, they don't even stop to think about it (especially since to do
10 nught cause some mental and social discomfort and distract them from their own
Jlenonal lives). The result is Americans' tacit consent to a continuation of USA mass
lllllden.
�t The UN h � further estimated the cost of providing clean water and � itation � o
IV:To- people ·� the world who don't have such basic necessities to be JUSt $12 ba _ l­
tbe lll n ua lly, whale the incremental annual cost of making it possible for everyone an
1�orld to ha �e a basic education was calculated to be only $6 billion (Catalinotto,
· ). As mentaoned by Ashton et al. ( 1984), the needed money is not allocated to such
�1 tasks partially because the rich capitalist countries (which could easily afford
aid that would amount to far less than 1% of the GOP of the USA alone, and less