Author Archives: brian

The First U.S. Korea War

July 1, 2000 – 4:37 pm

The history of U.S. nineteenth century military intervention in Korea included the first American Korean War in 1871, a war noted by its belligerence. Five years earlier, in July 1866, a U.S. Merchant Marine ship, the General Sherman, a heavily armed ship with a mixed crew of U.S., British, and Chinese/Malay, including a Welsh/U.S. Protestant missionary, Robert Thomas, attempted to penetrate Korean waterways in pursuit of trade discussions and Christian evangelization. Denied permission to sail up the Taedong River leading to Pyongyang, the ship defied Korean authorities.

Posted in The Most Dangerous of Rogue Nations: The United States, Korea | Comments (0)

What the Flag Means To Me

July 1, 2000 – 9:36 am

I was probably seven years old before it really sunk in that everybody in my town was not celebrating my birthday on July 4. It was an exciting day with parades, picnics, fireworks and, in my case, special birthday parties and gifts. I lived much of my young life with the extra boost of having been born on the day that our earliest political framers signed the Declaration of Independence, an historical act of defiance against monarchial colonial rule from distant England. I remember proudly carrying the U.S.

Posted in The Most Dangerous of Rogue Nations: The United States, Challenging Traditional Patriotism | Comments (2)

End of Cruel U.S. Policies Demands Radical Healing of the National Ethos

July 1, 2000 – 9:00 am

The attitudes and behaviors exhibited by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors that resulted in the cruel dispossession of the natives who already inhabited the land, formed the defining experience of the "American" Republic. Our cultural character has enabled a pattern of conduct rooted in deep-seated racism (unresolved fear manifesting in hatred) and arrogant ethnocentrism ("Manifest Destiny") that has never been adequately checked or corrected.

Posted in Envisioning Nonviolent Revolutionary Alternatives | Comments (3)

The Chronic U.S.-Concocted Distortions about Cuba

June 1, 2000 – 7:08 am

The U.S. Record of Lawless Policies and Ill-conceived Laws Against Sovereign Cuba

On Wednesday, May 16, 2001, the historical surreal obsession of U.S. policymakers with nearby Cuba manifested once again. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), former democratic vice-presidential candidate under Al Gore in the 2000 elections, and nine other bi-partisan U.S. Senators including Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) and Bob Graham (D-FL) introduced the Cuban Solidarity Act of 2001.

Posted in The Most Dangerous of Rogue Nations: The United States, Cuba | Comments (4)

Memorial Day! What Does It Mean?

May 1, 2000 – 9:33 am

"Our moral integrity and political wisdom require that we study the past so as to prevent its indignities from recurring."

–Klemens von Klemperer, Professor at Smith College,
Northampton, Mass., April 1985

"Whoever fears to look his own past in the face must necessarily fear what is to come."

–Vaclav Havel, Czechoslovak President, 1990
Posted in The Most Dangerous of Rogue Nations: The United States, Challenging Traditional Patriotism | Comments (0)
Real Time Web Analytics