by Oui
Tue Feb 3rd, 2026 at 08:06:28 AM EST
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Downfall of the Empire with the January 6th Insurrection Storming of the Capitol ... defacing Washington quite similar to the British forces in 1812 ransacking the small town on the Potomac river.
During the War of 1812, British forces stormed into Washington, and set fire to the White House and other federal buildings. Rather than dent U.S. morale, the sacking of Washington served to galvanize the population against the British.
Most excellent summary of the state of affairs ... only the Apprentice could have written this dark script ....
Just about sums up the European reaction to another four years of Trumpism as Biden strictly pushed forward the MAGA nonsensical foreign adventures of the New World bringing democracy to New Europe, the former autocratic Communist states in the wake of that great war defeating 20th century fascism, dictatorship and replacing most of the Latin American nations with “our guy” protected by mercenaries [some called them terrorists] trained in the School of Americas [Fort Benning].
The school of Latin America's dictators | The Guardian Opinion – 19 Nov. 2010 |
When the elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was dragged from his bed and flown out of the country in his pyjamas last year, it was no surprise to find that this classic coup was led by a graduate of the School of Americas, the notorious army training school in Fort Benning, Georgia. But General Vasquez was simply following a well-trodden path for autocrats in Honduras – after all, two of the country's most hated past dictators, Juan Melgar Castro and Policarpo Paz Garcia, had also attended the school.
More than 60,000 Latin American soldiers have been trained at the School of the Americas – among them, the some of the region's most notorious human rights abusers, such as Salvadoran death-squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson. In all, 11 dictators have attended its courses: men such as Argentine junta leader, Leopoldo Galtieri, infamously responsible for the "disappeared" and Guatemala's Efraín Ríos Montt, whose scorched earth campaign against indigenous villages, was classified as "genocide" by a UN-sponsored commission.
Dozens of my diaries @BooMan on dictatorships and human rights abuse in South America …
For the illegal assault and occupation of Iraq, the White House introduced the Salvador Option to murder at will …. thousands were tortured or executed by drone, missile or just hell fire from blazing guns of USA heroes in the Armed Forces. Breaking the resistance …
Exporting the "Salvadoran Option" to Iraq and Beyond | Wilson Center |
As Iraq disintegrated, US officials looked to the past for guidance, including a largely forgotten example, the US intervention in El Salvador (ca. 1979-1992). According to journalists, Pentagon and White House officials proposed the “Salvadoran option” during a January 2005 meeting. This policy advocated the usage of US-trained Shia and Kurdish Peshmerga commando units to identify, locate, and capture or kill Sunni insurgents. Senior officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney and General John Abizaid, head of US Central Command, also recommended using lessons from El Salvador during public appearances. For both Abizaid and Cheney, holding elections during the conflict democratized El Salvador, and would do the same in Iraq. Beginning in 2003, the United States implemented various aspects of the Salvadoran option in Iraq, and, unfortunately, reaped similar results.
Instead of invading and occupying El Salvador, the United States implemented a counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy that relied on a comparably small group of US diplomats and soldiers to defeat the insurgency and democratize the country. COIN uses military and non-military means to defeat insurgency and prevent its reoccurrence in the future. Practitioners of COIN and military strategists have viewed the Salvadoran intervention as successful because it prevented an insurgent triumph, fostered democracy, and improved human rights. My study of the US COIN intervention, The Salvadoran Crucible: The Failure of US Counterinsurgency in El Salvador, 1979-1992, disputes the success narrative. Instead, the effort prolonged the civil war and contributed to the country’s further devastation. The outcomes trumpeted by the intervention’s defenders occurred not as the result of US policy, but due to the insurgents’ war against the state.
[work in progress - ..]
