WhatWouldKarlDo

October 10 is the anniversary of The Bombing of Kabul in 2001. A mere three days after the war began, the US had apparently run out of targets, so they began bombing the capital, as is their tradition. And as per usual, this was their largest airstrike to that point. Civilian targets are more fun apparently.

The attacks would of course continue over the following days/weeks. Hundreds of civilians were killed. Hospitals lost electricity. The Taliban offered to surrender bin Laden for trial in a third party country if the US regime stopped the bombing and provided proof of his guilt. Of course they wouldn't.

This was also the day that the US air force started ordering the usage of cluster bombs on Afghanistan. Between then and March of the following year, they would proceed to drop 1,228 of them. Causing plenty of indiscriminate deaths.

October 9 is the anniversary of Che Guevara's Execution in 1967. Having successfully won Cuba's independence from the USA, he was seeking to accomplish the same in Bolivia, in the hopes that the US wouldn't care so much about Bolivia. Unfortunately, the US was still shaken by the loss of Cuba, and took great interest in his whereabouts.

After a series of tactical and strategic errors, combined with some plain old bad luck, the CIA was alerted to his presence in Bolivia. Bolivia at the time was ruled by the brutal CIA backed dictator René Barrientos, immediately asked the US for support. They sent a special forces detachment to train the Bolivian Army, and drastically increased their own operations in Bolivia. Barrientos got to work killing miners in San Juan and Catavi.

More tactical errors and bad luck ensued. Che lost important paperwork to the CIA and lost several key personnel, including one captured alive, who talked. Che in his diary wrote:

the most important tasks are to escape and look for more propitious zones and to reestablish contacts, despite the fact that the whole apparatus is badly disjointed in La Paz, where they have also given us hard blows.

The writing was clearly on the wall. On October 8th, the Bolivian army finally caught up to him, and he was captured in the fighting. On the 9th, CIA operative Felix Rodriguez summarily executed him.

Barrientos ruled Bolivia for another year and a half, until he was finally killed in a helicopter crash. The USA still meddles in Bolivia's politics to this day

October 8 is the anniversary of The Days of Rage in 1969. During this event, about 800 youths banded together to attempt to force a stop to the Vietnam War via direct action. The illegal war was becoming increasingly unpopular as bodybags and the truth started to return from Vietnam.

Incensed that 2000 people were dying every day, and the US regime was not willing to listen to peaceful protests, they arranged a rally in Chicago, ready to fight the police. A few members of the members of The Chicago 8 also showed up to offer support.

The rally failed to attract the attention that they had hoped. About 800 people showed up on the first day. They rioted, and the militarized police tear gassed, shot at, and beat them. The uprising fizzled over the next two days. One protestor was left dead, and dozens injured. The police suffered no serious injuries.

The authoritarian regime continued to ignore the will of its people for another 6 years. Millions more would die. Peaceful protests continued to have little effect.

October 7 is the anniversary of The Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. This was a long bloody war that would last for a generation. Consent for the war was manufactured the month before, arising out of the worst airplane related terrorist attack since the bombing of Cubana Flight 455.

Today is also the day that Obama apologised for a vicious attack on a hospital in 2015, two days before. It was a hollow gesture. Just two years later, the rules of engagement would be relaxed. The US secretary of defence said this:

You see some of the results of releasing our military from, for example, a proximity requirement — how close was the enemy to the Afghan or the U.S.-advised special forces... no longer the case, for example. So these kind of restrictions that did not allow us to employ the airpower fully have been removed, yes.

We did see the results. As would be expected, it made life even worse for the Afghan people. But it was thankfully just a case of the US getting as much murder in as they could before they would leave the country four years later.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands. 92% of the population are left hungry. Unexploded bombs litter the countryside. Two thirds of the population suffer mental health problems. The US has stolen their central bank reserve. The US failed every stated objective of their war. The list of US war crimes is long. The list of prosecutions is short.

October 6 is the anniversary of The Bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in 1976. Killing all 73 people on board, it was the most deadly terrorist attack on an airplane in the Americas until 2001, and it was performed by an agent of the CIA.

Luis Posada and fellow terrorist Orlando Bosch planned the attack. Luis Posada had a very long history with the CIA. An anti-Castro terrorist seemed like a good fit for them. They helped him set up a terrorist training camp in the 60s. He was involved with the Bay of Pigs invasion. He provided the CIA with assistance and intelligence all the way through the 80s.

In his free time, he would dabble in drug running, terrorism, and assassinations. The CIA would sometimes wave their finger at him, but mostly look the other way and cover up his crimes. Especially when the violence was towards Cuban officials. As such, they didn't do much when they heard that he was going to bomb a Cuban plane a few days before the attack.

After the attack, they did their best to cover up any association with the man. But two men by the names of Freddy Lugo and Hernan Lozano carried out the attack. They were quickly caught. They confessed, and gave up the names of the CIA stooge and his cohort, as well as their connection to the CIA. All four stood trial in Venezuela.

Lugo and Lozano served long prison sentences. Bosch got off on a technicality. Posada escaped from prison, and after a few more years of doing work in South America for the CIA, found his way back to the US. He was caught crossing the border illegaly in Texas. But unlike most, he was released and allowed to move to Florida. The US refused to extradite him to Cuba or Venezuela, because "he faced the threat of torture".

Both Bosch and Posada died of old age living free in Miami. Even after the US' much touted "War on Terror", terrorism is perfectly acceptable to the corrupt regime, so long as it's against citizens of "enemy" countries.

October 5th is the anniversary of the day that Chief Joseph Surrenders in 1877. Chief Joseph was a great chief of the Nez Perce tribe, who famously attempted to flee to Canada.

Originally from what is now Oregon, he was told by the US regime that he needed to move to a reservation in Idaho to make room for white settlers. He and his band of course refused. But eventually, the US grew impatient and forced him from his land at gunpoint. Knowing that a war would not be winnable, he went to Idaho to rejoin the rest of his tribe. The peace didn't last anyway. After the white people murdered an Indian, fighting openly broke out.

It was decided that the best way of protecting the tribe would be to leave the country, and seek safe harbour with one of the Canadian tribes. Still opposing the war, Chief Joseph was to lead the refugees, while other chiefs fought the battles. Chief Joseph's hopes for some sort of peace were ultimately dashed however, when the US military managed to catch up with them. The military attacked the refugee camp, killing 80 people, most of whom were women and children. However, Chief Joseph was able to save their horses from slaughter, allowing the survivors to continue their flight.

Going through land deemed impassable by the American death squads, they evaded capture and made it to Montana. But a mere 100km from the Canadian border, their struggle was put to an end. Starving, freezing, and surrounded by US troops, Chief Joseph had no choice but to surrender. In his famous speech, he had this to say:

"It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are — perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever"

The US promised to return him to the reservation in Idaho. But ultimately they decided that upon seeing the state of their comrades, the remaining Nez Perce would be very upset. He and his followers were bounced along multiple reserves. Eventually landing in a small reserve in Washington, he lived the remainder of his life there. True to his word, he never went to war again. He never stopped begging the US regime to allow him to return home. They decided to allow him to make his case to the white settlers. He died in Washington. The physician who attended to him at his death said that he died of a broken heart.

October 4 is the anniversary of The Fort Wilson Riot in 1779. What actually happened on this day is confused and muddled through the lenses of history and propaganda. But I really wanted to talk about it today, as it was an important event in the history of class war in the USA.

What is clear is that there was a very large class divide in Philadelphia, a mere 3 years after the revolution. The political situation was divided. There were some who thought that any white man over the age of 21 who paid taxes should be able to vote. There were those who felt that only white male property owners should be able to vote. Inflation was growing out of control. James Wilson was an oligarch who had very recently managed to successfully defend the right of Philadelphia loyalists to own private property.

This was a tinderbox. It should come as no surprise that hungry people faced with political disenfranchisement would want to take it out on the ones deemed responsible. And with patriotic fervour running high, Wilson's successful defence of the loyalists was the catalyst for the riot.

So, the poor and the downtrodden rose up against their capitalist masters. They marched on Wilson's house, and a pretty good skirmish resulted. Reports indicate that even a cannon was used on the house. But in the end the cavalry showed up and dispersed the crowd, arresting those they could. The wealthy fled the city.

In sharp contrast to people of colour, the protestors on this day were issued pardons. However, they were framed as the villains in this scenario, and ultimately the events cost them their political power. It was seen as a "casual overflowing of liberty", thus providing justification for centralising political power once again amongst the oligarchs.

October 3 is the anniversary of The Hanging of Captain Jack in 1873. Captain Jack, whose real name was Kintpuash was a chief of the Modoc tribe, which lived in what is today Oregon. He led a reasonably successful resistance to the imperialist American invaders, and has the distinction of being the only chief executed for war crimes by the absurdly hypocritical regime.

Like all tribes, the US regime had relocated the Modoc people onto a reservation. Like many (including myself), he found life on the reservation to be unpalatable, and he and a number of men left the reserve and lived amongst white people in his former lands. Although well liked, some of the white settlers desired his land and pushed the government for his removal.

For the crime of returning home, the military was called to move him back to the reserve. Fighting broke out. After the initial skirmish and another battle that saw high losses for the imperialists, they sent in a peace commission. Knowing that a peaceful end wasn't really in the cards, they were put to death. This included a reverend and a US army general. The highest ranking officer to ever be killed by an Indian.

The US regime responded with overwhelming force, and Captain Jack's defences finally broke, and his men scattered. Eventually captured, the US regime, without a hint of irony, put him on trial for murder, in violation of the laws of war. Needless to say, it was not a fair trial, and several Modocs were executed.

His men were forced to relocate to Oklahoma. In 1954, the US regime took back the reservation and the treaty rights of the Modoc who did not leave the reserve. Although their treaty rights were regained in 1986, their reservation was never returned.

October 2 is the anniversary of the signing of The Treaty of Old Crossing in 1863. This day saw the Ojibwe people sell off all their land to the USA for a pittance.

White people in Minnesota were becoming increasingly upset at the presence of native people. The recent Dakota War, which I wrote about earlier, had put the fear into them. So at the request of the white settlers, the government stepped in to remove the Ojibwe people as well.

The negotiator they selected was Alexender Ramsey, the former governor of Minnesota during the Dakota war. During his time in office, he had oversaw the rounding up of Dakota into concentration camps, their mass executions, and he personally established a bounty on the scalp of every Dakota after the war.

So Ramsey came to the meeting with a gatling gun and negotiated with the local tribes for days at gunpoint. He presented the deal as payment of $20,000 to the tribes in order to secure safe passage through their lands. The tribes didn't see much point in refusing the deal, as they would take what they wanted anyway, and they would still get to keep their land.

Of course, once the treaty went to Washington, it was rewritten as a sale of the land. The US regime found other people to sign it, some of them not actually even native. The tribes were surprised to discover that their homes were now alloted for white people, and they were forced out of the state. Bishop Whipple, who acted as unpaid council for the tribes said it was "from beginning to end a fraud". He was powerless to stop it. The US considered the land rightfully theirs.

Today, Minnesota has a native population of less than 1%. The US courts have admitted that the land was stolen, but only agreed to pay a paltry $54m. The Red Lake Historical Society has this whitewashing to say about today's events:

Thus the Red Lake and Pembina bands of the Chippewa Indians ceded to the United States of America that most wonderful and fertile land that became known as the "bread and butter basket" of the nation, making it possible for thousands of families to acquire homes.

October 1 is the anniversary of [The Dedication of Mt. Rushmore] in 1925. Construction of the faces of the four war criminals started a few days later by the KKK affiliate Gutzon Borglum.

The mountain its constructed on was known to the Lakota as Six Grandfathers Mountain. It was the most sacred mountain in the sacred Black Hills, lying right in the middle. I've mentioned the Lakota previously in The Grattan Fight, and The Sell or Starve Act, which detailed how the Lakota lost possession of the Black Hills after the US found gold. They tore up the treaty and forcibly relocated the Lakota.

As originally pitched, the mountain was to feature known figures of the west, such as Lewis and Clark, and the Lakota chief Red Cloud. This would have still been unacceptable, but instead, it became a monument to Manifest Destiny and the very people who stole the land in the first place.

The Lakota are still demanding its return to this day. Even the corrupt US courts have ruled that the land was stolen, but only offered monetary compensation. The Lakota have been offered $1.3 billion, but are still no closer to reclaiming their land. American leaders have this to say on the matter:

Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?