War Criminals: Theirs and Ours
by William Blum
On December 3, 1996, the Justice Department issued a list
of 16 Japanese citizens who would be barred from entering the
United States because of "war crimes" committed during
the Second World War. Among those denied entry were some who were
alleged to have been members of the infamous "Unit 731",
which, said the Justice Department, "conducted inhumane and
frequently lethal pseudo-medical experiments -- on thousands of
... prisoners and civilians," including mass dissections
of living humans. (1)
This action appeared to be rather hypocritical in light of
the fact that after the war the man in charge of the Unit 731
program -- whose subjects included captured American soldiers
-- General Shiroshii, along with his colleagues, had been granted
immunity and freedom in exchange for providing the United States
with details about the experiments. Moreover, their crimes were
not to be revealed to the world. The justification for this policy,
advanced by American scientists and military officials, was, of
course, the proverbial, ubiquitous "national security".{2}
There is another reason the 1996 policy is hypocritical. The
Japanese, if they wished to, could issue a list of Americans barred
from Japan for "war crimes" and "crimes against
humanity". Such a list might include the following:
George Bush, for the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent
civilians, including many thousands of children, in attacks upon
Iraq and Panama.
Colin Powell, for his prominent role in the attacks on Iraq
and Panama.
General Norman Schwarzkopf, for his military leadership of
the Iraqi carnage.
Ronald Reagan, for the death, destruction, and torture inflicted
upon the people of El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Grenada
by his military and political policies.
Elliott Abrams, for his key participation in Reagan's obsessive
and paranoid "anti-communist" crusade.
Oliver North, for being a prime mover behind the contras,
whose atrocities are legendary, and for his role in the invasion
of Grenada, which took the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians.
Henry Kissinger (who has successfully combined two careers:
socialite and war criminal), for his Machiavellian, amoral, immoral
roles in the US interventions into Angola, Chile, East Timor,
Vietnam, and Cambodia which brought unspeakable horror and misery
to the peoples of those lands.
Gerald Ford, for giving his approval to Indonesia to use American
arms to brutally suppress the people of East Timor.
Robert McNamara, for his responsibility in the slaughters
in Indochina and the suppression of popular movements in Peru.
John Deutch, for his callous coverups of Gulf War Syndrome
at the Defense Department and drug complicity at the CIA.
Bill Clinton, for his unprovoked rocket attacks upon the people
of Iraq and his continual military aid to the governments of Turkey,
Peru, Colombia and Mexico, which use the weapons to arm death
squads and to carry out wholesale massacres of their own people.
NOTES
1. Washington Post, December 4, 1996, p. A1
2. Leonard A. Cole, Clouds of Secrecy: The Army's Germ Warfare
Tests over Populated
Areas (Maryland, 1990), pp. 12-14
Written by William Blum, author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military
and CIA Interventions
Since World War II; email:bblum6@aol.com
William
Blum page