onlooker wrote:
I am not going to go through the whole list, but just from the top few I see Slavery, which has existed for all of human history. Limiting it to 500 years is an attempt to blame it on the exploitation of the America's which is disingenuous at best. Next Genocide of Native Americans was not done for simple money grab reasons, there was a great deal of racism, religious motivation, and simple theft involved in the process but the bulk of the deaths were the accidental introduction of European diseases in the 1500's by explorers and early immigrants who had no concept of germ theory or understanding of disease. The conquest of the remnant population was a nasty business, but compared to anywhere else on the planet at the time it was standard operating procedure based on the rule of might makes right.
The preventable disease/hunger/poverty claims are just silly. People do not die from these things because someone else has a money motive, if that were the case the WHO and UN blue helmets could have fixed the first two decades ago.
Vietnam war was equally Capitalist/Communist as both philosophies drove governments to fund the war from start to finish. The exact same thing is true of Korea, Angola, Mozambique, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, not to mention the Cuban Embargo.
How they managed to twist the War on Drugs as being a Capitalist cause is beyond me, and I am a Libertarian that believes adults should have the freedom to choose to fry their brains on drugs of that is what they want to do. Most of the remainder are badly formulated and executed plans by the USA State Department which has a disturbing view of international policy, but again these things are hardly Capitalist in nature. Take for example the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980's started by Iraq with the encouragement of the USA in retaliation for the embarrassment of the Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981. Or the East Timor 'Crisis' when the Muslim government of Indonesia decided to invade and conquer the other half of the island of Timor which had been a Portuguese territory for centuries. The fact that the residents were predominantly Catholic surrounded by Muslims was a much bigger factor in the invasion than any potential Capitalist gains.
I trust I have made my point, though I am certain the dedicated Marxist faithful will refuse to accept that fact.