holy shit Jeffrey Sachs says “the most violent country in the world since 1950 has been the United States” then the moderator cuts him off and the audience applauds lmao
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914.
I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.
I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.
I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912.
I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916.
I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.
In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.
Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.
The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
i mean to be fair, yeah i think the british empire probably qualifies as the instigator and supporter of the most global violence before 1950 or so, when the US took control over the british and other empires. this isn’t to say anything good about US colonial and imperial violence before that, just a statement of fact.
Someone has not been studying US history from before 1950 it seems.
I recommand reading “War is a Racket” by Smedly Butler
It’s in the public domain, here is an online version: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
And I found an audio book for those that prefer that: https://librivox.org/search?title=War+Is+a+Racket&author=Butler&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced
Relevant quote:
i mean to be fair, yeah i think the british empire probably qualifies as the instigator and supporter of the most global violence before 1950 or so, when the US took control over the british and other empires. this isn’t to say anything good about US colonial and imperial violence before that, just a statement of fact.