The 20-th century was a century of bloodshed. Actually, this century probably cost more lives than any other had before. It is quite interesting that, mostly in the second half of the century, the United States were always one of the main acteurs (if not the initiator) in each ‘intervention‘ (read: slaughter). To call the US a peacemaker would therefore be naive, to put it mildly. A less polite (and more realistic) definition would be ‘a country that defends its interests‘. From my point of view, the United States are number one terrorist of the 20-th century. Forget Jackal, Bin Laden and Meinhof. Let‘s talk Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan.Now, that might be a bit rough and straightforward. There were even some positive (surprised?) consequences of US interventions, but those were mostly side-effects. Like liberating Kuwait from the Iraqi occupants or the creation of no-flight zones in Northern Iraq which saved thousands of Kurdish lives. But preserving peace and saving people‘s lives never was the main purpose of military interventions. The economic interests are what matters. In both cases, the reason was oil. And it‘s the same now, when we‘re on the edge of another war in that region – The US want to get independent from the Saudi oil without having to resort to their own resources.

They don‘t really give a damn about Kurds or Iraqi people.Turkey is the second biggest weapon industry customer of the US in the region – right after Israel. The US have been sending them guns since the 1950s. And, according to Noam Chomsky, there was a period in the nineties when Turkey received more weapons than in the whole postwar age altogether. Why? Because the Turkish government had to deal with the awakening resistance of Kurds. No-one in Pentagon cared about thousands of Kurds being tortured in prisons or about whole villages being burnt down to ashes. But when it comes to Iraqi oil, the US are on a ‘humanitarian mission‘ before you can say ‘Baghdad‘.

The same situation – bloodshed over resources or politics has repeated several times over the last 50 years. The coup d‘etat in Guatemala in the late fifties, the Bay of Pigs, the Vietnam War, the brutal murders and coup in Chile, military support for the death squads in Colombia and the ‘Contras‘ in Nicaragua, killings in El Salvadore, intervention in Panama… . We could go to closer detail in Southeast Asia, but is that really necessary? Every single mentioned ‘mission‘ or ‘intervention‘ was a terrorist act.Labelling all the US administrations beginning with Eisenhower as terrorist may be daring, especially after the 9-11 attacks. But what‘s 3000 or 4000 lives compared to 30 million? Do we appreciate white (or American) lives more than black or Asian? People tend to forget about the slaughters in Latin America or Southeast Asia (My Lai – 450 civilians massacred by US troops), but they‘ll always recall Lockerbie and 9-11.

So, according to this, an American‘s life is worth almost 10 000 Latinoamerican and Asian lives. The US are not only a troublemaker, but also a racist murderer. Juraj HALAS English Essays Competition Category Seniors, 1st Place