By Charles.S.Perera

The Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, when he spoke all the men of Israel, fled him, and were sore afraid  (First Book of Samuel Chapter 17).

The Goliath of to-day-the USA when it speaks all flee in fear daring not to challenge. The Goliath of to-day violates human rights, commits war crimes, kills civilians with impunity as no one dares accuse him or present resolutions against him.  But he accuses small countries like Sri Lanka which has not committed any thing that can be called ”  wrong”. But Goliath nevertheless accuses  Sri Lanka, as he – Goliath, can get any one to give false evidence  against Sri Lanka, which no one will be allowed to doubt. So, every one stands in fear accepting whatever he-the Goliath –the USA, says.

Let us see briefly  just a few  out of so many glaring cases of  vicious  unchallenged crimes  USA- the Goliath has committed, and how it escapes from being accused for them by the countries of the world who are forced to shut their eyes and clap their hands as if nothing has happened  lest  the wrath of Goliath will fall upon them, and they will loose small  handouts and little benefits they receive as compensation.

I have not in this article included Latin American countries and those of Africa which also suffered immensely from the wrath of the  un holy Goliath-the USA. However, I am surprised that Japan a country that honours its dead had not in memory of those  innocent Civilian Japanese men, women, and children, killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not vote against the resolution on Sri Lanka presented by USA the perpetrator of those crime, but refrained from voting. It is a shame that Japan did not respect those that died a brutal death.

Reading this may open the eyes of those present at the UNHRCouncil Geneva sessions in March,2014, to see clearly who should really be in  the box of the accused.  USA by presenting a resolution against Sri Lanka is reversing the situation to absolve itself of the crimes which it has committed.

Being the arrogant Goliath who knows  that nobody will dare accuse him because of his might and muscle, has chosen a lamb-Sri Lanka for sacrificial rights to be performed by Navi Pillai, USA, UK, Canada, France, EU and the rest of the Europeans Countries.  India sleek in with them as a vulture smelling death to get nothing but a nod and a handshake from Goliath- and the mighty West. That satisfies the Indian ego to be with the mighty.

American Drone Attacks:

Aljazeera reported  this morning (12.2.2014) “Kareem Khan, whose brother and teenage son were killed in a drone attack in December 2009, was picked up at his home by security forces in the early hours of February 5, Shahzad Akbar said on Monday, the Agence France Press news agency reported. He was also due to travel to Europe on Saturday to speak with German, Dutch and British parliamentarians about his personal experience with drone strikes and the impact they are having on his country. Akbar gained prominence after disclosing the identity of the then CIA station chief in Islamabad in 2010 in an application filed in a Pakistani court against him for his alleged role in drone strikes. The case sparked loud criticism from Washington who accused Pakistan’s intelligence agencies of leaking the name of the spy chief, who was later called back to Washington. According to an AFP tally, 2,155 people have been killed in drone attacks since August 2008, with critics charging that the strikes cause many civilian casualties.”

Civilian Deaths: American War in Iraq:
In Iraq war though the number of  troops killed could be estimated, the number of Iraqi civilians killed is not precise, though the Cost of War Projects gives an estimate  of  174,000. It is reported in Wikipedia, ”  Regarding the Iraqis, however, information on both military and civilian casualties is  both less precise and less consistent. ”

Cluster Bombs

During the course of the war, according to a four-month investigation by USA Today, the U.S. dropped 10,800 cluster bombs on Iraq. “The bomblets packed inside these weapons wiped out Iraqi troop formations and silenced Iraqi artillery,” reported USA Today. “They also killed civilians. These unintentional deaths added to the hostility that has complicated the U.S. occupation.”

U.S. forces fired hundreds of cluster weapons into urban areas from late March to early April, killing dozens and possibly hundreds of Iraqi civilians. The attacks left behind thousands of unexploded bomblets that continued to kill and injure civilians weeks after the fighting stopped.

Because of the indiscriminate effect of these duds that keep killing long after the cessation of hostilities, the use of cluster munitions is banned by the international Convention on Cluster Munitions, which the United States has refused to sign.

 Authorizing Torture by American Armed Forces :

Possibly anticipating a long, drawn-out occupation and counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq, in a March 2003 memorandum Bush administration lawyers devised legal doctrines justifying certain torture techniques, offering legal rationales “that could render specific conduct, otherwise criminal, not unlawful.”

They  argued that the president or anyone acting on the president’s orders are not bound by U.S. laws or international treaties prohibiting torture, asserting that the need for “obtaining intelligence vital to the protection of untold thousands of American citizens” supersedes any obligations the administration has under domestic or international law.

“In order to respect the President’s inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign,” the memo states, U.S. prohibitions against torture “must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his Commander-in-Chief authority.”

Over the course of the next year, disclosures emerged that torture had been used extensively in Iraq for “intelligence gathering. Numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees,” wrote Gen. Antonio Taguba, in a 53 page Classified Army Report, says Journalist Seymour Hersh in an article to Thr Nerw Yorker in May, 2004.

These actions, authorized at the highest levels, constituted serious breaches of international and domestic law, including the Convention Against Torture the Geneva Convention  relative to the treatment of Prisoners of War, as well as the U.S. War Crimes Act and the Torture Status.

Deaths of Iraqi children due to US Sanctions as  it is reported, in a video  interview

“GENOCIDE BY SANCTIONS” Captions:   Seven years of sanctions, 1.5 million dead, Iraq is suffering.
Voice of Iraqi doctor:  “For now, the diagnosis is not settled for this child.  He has had prolonged fever and he is wasting.”
Leslie Stahl (CBS Sixty Minutes interview, 11 May 1996): “We have heard that a half a million children have died.  I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima.  And, you know……………is the price worth it?”
Madeleine Albright (US Secretary of State): “I think this is a very hard choice.  But the price, we think the price is worth it.”
Narrator: “Worth it, because she believes the sanctions are working.” ( http://www.addictedtowar.com/docs/sanctions.htm)

War of America and its allies  against Libya:

Goliath- USA and its allies awaited a long time to  remove Colonel Gaddafi from leadership in Libya labelling him  a dictator. Finally,  when a group of dissidents rebelled in Bengazzi France seized the opportunity to support the rebels and armed them to fight against Libyan armed forces, France got USA and allies to finish off with Colonel Gaddafi, setting  up a Provisional Government with a urgently collected Libyan immigrants in France. The Western forces claimed the operation in Libya was aimed at protecting civilians.

But what was the real cause of Colonel Gaddafi’s removal.  He was no dictator to his people, and the group of dissidents in Bengazzi did not represent  the majority of the Libyan people.

In 1951 Libya was officially the poorest country in the world, but by the time of the 2011 uprising, Libyans’ living standards were considered the highest in Africa. The GDP per Capita was more than double that of Egypt, and above that of Russia. All people had access to doctors, hospitals, clinics and medicines, completely free of charge; but more than the advances in housing, agricultural, industry, health care, education, was the advance in direct popular democracy.  Condoleezza Rice praised Libya for its “excellent co-operation” in the US-led  war on terror.” (http://www.conservapedia.com/Libyan_War)

Why then did Goliath that is USA of to-day and its allies wanted to dispose him from Leadership in Libya ?

It is said that Colonel Gaddafi had a project which was called the Gold Money Plan. The report goes:

“Gaddafi’s Gold-Money Plan Would Have Killed the US Dollar”
Kevin Hayden wrote in 2011: “‘According to more than a few observers, Gadhafi’s plan to quit selling Libyan oil in U.S. dollars ”” demanding payment instead in gold-backed “dinars” (a single African currency made from gold) ”” was the real cause. The regime, sitting on massive amounts of gold, estimated at close to 150 tons, was also pushing other African and Middle Eastern governments to follow suit.”

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!
Saddam did the same thing in 2000. What happened next?  Iraq was invaded and Hussein was hanged.  Iran began considering selling oil in Euros. What happened next? The country is placed on the table for planning nuclear war, is sanctioned by World Bank nations, and set up for a complete downfall.  Gaddafi mentions the GOLD DINAR, GOLD FOR OIL. What happens next?  He is cornered and assassinated on the street. ” http://havacuppahemlock1.blogspot.fr/2013/02/libyas-gold-dinar-oil-for-gold-killed.html

Depleted Uranium bombs were dropped in Libya

The Center for Research on Globalization says the bombs and missiles that the US-led military alliance has dropped on several Libyan cities contain depleted uranium (DU).

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, a research associate at the CRG center, told Press TV that there are several international missions in Libya to gather evidence on NATO war crimes, including the use of DU. His remarks come weeks after the Stop the War Coalition said in its late March report that dozens of bombs and cruise missiles were launched by the US, British, and French forces ”” all with DU warheads ”” in the first 24 hours of the war on Libya.

DU munitions are controversial as their use is associated with long-term health concerns such as kidney damage, cancer, skin disorders and genetic defects.

Nazemroaya, who is currently in Tripoli, said that NATO was also violating international laws by “bombing civilian structures, hospitals, civilian homes and hotels” in various parts of Libya. The developments come as the Western forces claim the operation in Libya is aimed at protecting civilians.

Goliath  of  USA  keeps his homeland safe  and in peace, because the USA carries out wars away from home:

US is fighting a war far away from its homeland. From the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Iraq and then Afghanistan and Pakistan, US never fought a war on its own land that’s why people of U.S are living in a peaceful environment without any fear of air strike, bombing, night raids and drone attack; they do not realize the fear of war. While innocent people of Afghanistan and Pakistan are paying for a sin which they haven’t committed. In fact these innocent casualties are becoming the cause of terror for civilians. Article 51/2 of Geneva Convention ‘Protection of the Civilian Population’ states: “The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited”.

The U.S and NATO led ISAF besides having highly sensitive technology and sophisticated spying systems are unable to differentiate and mark actual targets for which they have been spending huge amounts of money. Careless and unverified attacks caused innocent killings instead of actual targets. To kill few suspects killing of hundreds of innocents cannot be justified.

Pathetically, after more than ten years of continuous war and spending trillions of dollars, U.S and its allied forces did not realize that show of power is not the only solution to resolve the issues. Indeed the presence of foreign forces has created a complex situation in Afghanistan, as well as in Pakistan. In the presence of large number of US- led NATO forces, the suicide attacks, bombing and terrorist attacks are routine in both countries.

The United Nations reported that in the year of 2011 the civilian death toll in Afghanistan was 3,021 and 4,507 Afghans were wounded. According to other sources the actual number of civilian casualties was probably five times as large as the number that the UN mentioned. In February 2012 the annual report on ‘Protection of civilians in armed conflict’ prepared by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), acknowledged that 3,021 civilian deaths last year is an increase of eight percent than the previous year’s total of 2,790. Jan Kubis, the head of UNAMA said that “for much too long, Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of war. Parties to the conflict must greatly increase their efforts to protect civilians to prevent yet another increase in civilian deaths and injuries in 2012.” He also stated that according to U.N. figures, “the Taliban and their allies were responsible for 79 percent of civilian casualties, Afghan and NATO led ISAF 9 percent, but it was not clear who was responsible for the remaining 12 percent of the casualties”.

Brutal killings of defenceless civilians, by air strikes, and drone attacks only been responding through an ‘apology’ by NATO. Apologies for civilian deaths cannot be enough because there is no justification of innocent killings, not at all. ……… international community were paying no attention and maintaining silence even NATO’s bombing killed thousands of innocent men, women and children from Yugoslavia, to Iraq, from Afghanistan to Libya and in Pakistan as well.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-killings-of-innocent-civilians-in-afghanistan-and-pakistan/31395

Civilian Deaths in American war in Afghanistan:

Again the exact numbers are not known  but said to be between 16725 -19013 deaths

Deaths in Hiroshima and Nagasaki-American Atomic Bombs:

Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns,radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizeable garrison.

Vietnam a war on Civilians.

Few Americans born after the Tet Offensive know even the barest facts about the Vietnam War. I aim this generalization not at the oft-underrated Joe Sixpack but at graduates of our finest universities. I remember getting coffee with an old friend, then fresh out of Yale, right after she had backpacked through Vietnam. Whenever she mentioned the war she referred to the former South Vietnam as “the democratic side.” It was immediately clear that she, like virtually everyone else of her and my generation, had never heard of the Geneva Accords of 1954 to guarantee free elections in South Vietnam, elections scuttled after the CIA predicted that Ho Chi Minh would win. My friend had had no sense that the U.S. invaded (a word rarely used, but what else can you call sending 500,000 troops to a foreign nation?) South Vietnam to prop up an authoritarian government with little popular legitimacy. We launched a ruthless pacification campaign; it failed””but not before Washington spread the war into Laos and Cambodia and ultimately killed some two million civilians. This was the war, and there was no “democratic side.”

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/vietnam-a-war-on-civilians/

The numbers are numbing. According to study by Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington, there were 3.8 million violent war deaths, of which two million were civilian, with similar estimates reached by the Vietnamese government and Robert McNamara himself. Up to 500,000 Vietnamese women turned to sex work. 14,000 South Vietnamese civilians were killed, mostly by U.S. firepower, during the Tet Offensive. 70 million liters of herbicidal agents, notably Agent Orange, were dumped across the countryside. (“Only you can prevent forests” was the travestied Smokey the Bear slogan.) 3.4 million combat sorties were launched by the U.S. and South Vietnam between 1965 and 1972. The amount of ammunition fired per soldier was 26 times higher than in World War II. In the northernmost province of South Vietnam, Quang Tri, only 11 out of 35,000 villages were not damaged by bombing or artillery. A survey found that 96 percent of Marine Corps second lieutenants said they would torture prisoners to obtain information.

American war in  Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia where USA Armed Forces killed  millions:

1,921,000 Vietnamese dead (* see Notes below) includes:

• 450,000 South Vietnamese civilians killed from 1961-1975;
• 40,000 South Vietnamese civilians executed under Project Phoenix;
• 176,000 soldiers of the Saigon regime (ARVN) killed 1961-1972;
• 900,000 “enemy” soldiers killed (NLF and North Vietnamese forces) 1961-1972;
• 155,000 soldiers on both sides killed 1973-1975; and
• 200,000 North Vietnamese civilians killed 1961-1975.

200,000 Cambodians dead (civilian and military), 1969-1975;

100,000 Laotian dead (civilian and military) 1964-1973.

http://www.vn-agentorange.org/edmaterials/cost_of_vn_war.html

The above facts have been recorded, and  evidence against USA  for war crimes it has committed are overwhelming.  But no resolution has been presented against USA for the crimes it has committed. It is unacceptable that USA which has committed war crimes with impunity stand before the United Nations Human Rights Council to present a resolution against Sri Lanka

But Sri Lanka  has been put in the box of the accused, and a  resolutions against Sri Lanka is presented at the UNHR Council by a criminal the USA whose violation of human rights and war crimes are well documented.  It is USA and its Western Allies who aided and abetted in those crimes who should be called for accountability.  No one who respects justice and fair play would stand along side USA and its allies  to vote in favour of the USA Resolution against Sri Lanka.

The USA resolution against Sri Lanka  is not motivated by any humanist sympathy towards the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.  It has a political agenda which is to divide Sri Lanka, so that the North and East of the Island could be used by USA and its allies to set up an American marine base for its Pacific fleet to stop Chinese and Russian influence in the Indian Ocean.

Therefore the countries participating in the 2014 session of the UNHR Council should  vote against the resolution presented by USA against Sri Lanka, in view of the democratic right of  all Sovereign States to be free and independent to choose its system of government  and develop their countries without being interfered by rich and powerful countries like USA and its Western Allies.