How An American Tradition Is Tainted By Genocide
Please note that this video and post are not meant to protest Thanksgiving but are rather meant to get you to think about the actual story of the Pilgrims. In our attempts to whitewash history we have often romanticized the genocide of the Wampanoag tribe and other Native Americans.
Thank you for visiting and please watch and share this video.
Showing posts with label American Genocide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Genocide. Show all posts
November 22, 2012
November 14, 2012
November 9, 2012
Manifest Destiny or Lebensraum
Genocide in America
(Wounded Knee Massacre)
In America we tend to think of genocide as a war crime committed by people in Germany or maybe Rwanda. But few people today think of genocide as a part of what built this great nation. It is hard to stomach the thought that genocide played any role in American history let alone the fact that it helped define America's rise from an experiment to a modern nation.
So for those of you who are still reading let me explain what I mean and how this horrific part of our past can help us stop this sin of our fathers from ever occurring again.
It is little secret that before the Europeans arrived their existed upon this soil cultures that were complex and rich in arts, language, and architecture. These societies rose and fell on their own accord before the first contact with Spanish, Dutch, French, or English. They waged war differently from the whites who came later. They communicated differences in a manner different from the Europeans. And it was this culture that evolved on its own that stood in such contrast to that of Europe that it was shocking to the invaders who first landed in Haiti and the Gulf region of America.
Prior to the invasion of America the cultures that had developed practiced war in measured degrees. Some wars could last a matter of hours, others might turn bitter and deaths may occur in larger numbers. Yet in all the wars history has been able to record none would have prepared the Native people for the invasion that was about to come.
Upon arrival the first attack on the Natives may not have been intentional. Through initial contact the Native Americans were exposed to diseases that would ravage their populations in plague proportions. Small pox, yellow fever, and cholera were just a few that spread rapidly wherever the Europeans went. Christopher Columbus may have very well been the first European explorer to note this as he often exploited the issue to gain control over what is now Haiti.
The next issue that quickly became apparent to soldiers and settlers alike was that the Native people had not developed weapons on the same scale as their European counterparts. In contrast the Native Americans of North America were often seen at first as using tools of the hunt to fight rather than the weapons of war developed over ages in Europe. Not to say that Native peoples didn't quickly adjust and even become rather ingenuitive in their attempts to fight back. On the contrary the Native peoples willingness to adopt weapons of the Europeans occurred without must hesitance. It was always the lack of understanding on the Native Americans' part of European warfare that left them as the underdogs.
As genocidal efforts to remove the Native Americans began in the North America it is important to note that the Spanish genocide of Latin America had almost completely destroyed the cultures that existed prior to Spanish occupation. Inca, Mayans, Aztecs... anything that came before the Spanish was now obliterated as the Spanish set out to destroy the Native peoples' languages, way of life, and even their art and architecture. The Spanish took on a way of subjugation that would be repeated under the Young Turks as they forced "Turkification" upon the Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontiac Greeks.
In the British occupied areas, especially the area soon be called the Thirteen colonies, the occupation was hallmarked by the removal of Native peoples and the ethnic cleansing of the region. The only minorities allowed to stay were those cast under the yolk of slavery. And in what is now Florida and Georgia, this did include some Native Americans.
For a period of time the Appalachian Mountains seemed to him-in the European settlers. Though traders and soldiers could be found wandering the rest of North America, for this period of time the use of ethnic cleansing was employed.
Ethnic cleansing in America was not carried out in the same manner as it was in Bosnia, though at times it did mirror later versions of it. In the British controlled areas the use of treaties and the loosely worded promises amongst tribes and Europeans were used to dwindle the populations. Once the targeted community was small enough to annihilate without much loss of European lives they were often removed or killed off. At times other Native American tribes did engage and even help the Europeans in this conquest. Though it does appear that these tribes did so under the impression that this act of appeasement would save them from the same fate. In rarer cases there were tribes that took the opportunity to take revenge upon a competing tribe.
As the American settlers took control of their own destiny the Native Americans lost more control of their own. In the French and Indian War the Native Americans lost the least of to evils as the British and Americans claimed victory over the French. This meant the mild exploitation of the French was not to shift to the all out genocide the British and American forces favored. This turn for the worse would only be highlighted as the Americas broke with Britain. A point at which many of the Native Americans along the Canadian border fled north under the naive assumption that the Canadians would be more humane.
As the United States grew out of its adolescence the political nature of the genocide grew with it. In the years leading up to World War One in Germany a political and social philosophy developed out of the science of the day (eugenics). This idea stated that it was the natural right of a people to spread outward from their cultural nucleus and claim more land as their society grew with them. The need was perceived that a developing society and growing population was constantly in need of new sources of food and natural resources. Thus the more developed a society became the more space it required. Mixing this with Darwin's evolutionary theory many justified this claim by stating that only the most developed societies would survive while the backward societies were forced to assimilate or face extinction. More openly racist views stated that the more developed races would spread their society while the sub-races would be forced into subjugation or mass extinction... a view many Germans of the day were not directly opposed to despite the fact that slavery in Europe was illegal.
We call this theory today Lebensraum. It was the exact theory that drove Germany to commit the first genocide of the 20Th century in Namibia against the Herero and Namaqua. It would also be used to justify the Nazi ambitions of the Final Solution and the conquering of Europe. In America we called this theory Manifest Destiny.
This version of lebensraum was used to justify the Louisiana Purchase. It was then used by the Democrat party to justify expansion beyond the Louisiana territory and into areas that had been left for the Native American tribes whom had been pushed West. And in 1840 the Democrats used it again to go to war with Mexico so as to claim more territory in around the area of Texas (including California). The Democrats again pushed the idea as they forcibly pushed Texas into the Union so as to allow slavery to expand westward with them.
But for the Native Americans still left on the Great Plains this idea of manifest destiny was nothing more than the final nail in their coffin. The whites were already coming west. The land upon which the Native Americans sat was said to be "needed" by the United States to fulfill its destiny. And in the end the Indian Wars would amount to the creation of concentration camps and death squads roaming the west to root out the targeted victims of genocide.
Manifest destiny was never a valid claim to expansion. Even in modern times there are vast sections of America left open and free. The only difference is that the people who used to live on those lands have been assimilated or killed in the largest genocide of recorded history. Modern time has forgotten that this claim by the fledgling United States was nothing less vile than the claim of lebensraum by the founders of the Nazi party. Both were used to lend their moral superiority to the outright slaughter of people deemed unwanted, undeveloped, or less than human.
In America we have a long history with genocide. We committed it, we have covered it up, and at times we have romanticized it. Perhaps it is this love affair with out own genocide that keeps us from recognizing the genocides other cultures have suffered. It has been nearly a hundred years since the Armenians were forced to suffer the horrors of genocide. Yet here we are today unable as a country to admit to it. Both for the Armenians and the Native Americans alike.
Upon arrival the first attack on the Natives may not have been intentional. Through initial contact the Native Americans were exposed to diseases that would ravage their populations in plague proportions. Small pox, yellow fever, and cholera were just a few that spread rapidly wherever the Europeans went. Christopher Columbus may have very well been the first European explorer to note this as he often exploited the issue to gain control over what is now Haiti.
The next issue that quickly became apparent to soldiers and settlers alike was that the Native people had not developed weapons on the same scale as their European counterparts. In contrast the Native Americans of North America were often seen at first as using tools of the hunt to fight rather than the weapons of war developed over ages in Europe. Not to say that Native peoples didn't quickly adjust and even become rather ingenuitive in their attempts to fight back. On the contrary the Native peoples willingness to adopt weapons of the Europeans occurred without must hesitance. It was always the lack of understanding on the Native Americans' part of European warfare that left them as the underdogs.
As genocidal efforts to remove the Native Americans began in the North America it is important to note that the Spanish genocide of Latin America had almost completely destroyed the cultures that existed prior to Spanish occupation. Inca, Mayans, Aztecs... anything that came before the Spanish was now obliterated as the Spanish set out to destroy the Native peoples' languages, way of life, and even their art and architecture. The Spanish took on a way of subjugation that would be repeated under the Young Turks as they forced "Turkification" upon the Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontiac Greeks.
In the British occupied areas, especially the area soon be called the Thirteen colonies, the occupation was hallmarked by the removal of Native peoples and the ethnic cleansing of the region. The only minorities allowed to stay were those cast under the yolk of slavery. And in what is now Florida and Georgia, this did include some Native Americans.
For a period of time the Appalachian Mountains seemed to him-in the European settlers. Though traders and soldiers could be found wandering the rest of North America, for this period of time the use of ethnic cleansing was employed.
Ethnic cleansing in America was not carried out in the same manner as it was in Bosnia, though at times it did mirror later versions of it. In the British controlled areas the use of treaties and the loosely worded promises amongst tribes and Europeans were used to dwindle the populations. Once the targeted community was small enough to annihilate without much loss of European lives they were often removed or killed off. At times other Native American tribes did engage and even help the Europeans in this conquest. Though it does appear that these tribes did so under the impression that this act of appeasement would save them from the same fate. In rarer cases there were tribes that took the opportunity to take revenge upon a competing tribe.
As the American settlers took control of their own destiny the Native Americans lost more control of their own. In the French and Indian War the Native Americans lost the least of to evils as the British and Americans claimed victory over the French. This meant the mild exploitation of the French was not to shift to the all out genocide the British and American forces favored. This turn for the worse would only be highlighted as the Americas broke with Britain. A point at which many of the Native Americans along the Canadian border fled north under the naive assumption that the Canadians would be more humane.
As the United States grew out of its adolescence the political nature of the genocide grew with it. In the years leading up to World War One in Germany a political and social philosophy developed out of the science of the day (eugenics). This idea stated that it was the natural right of a people to spread outward from their cultural nucleus and claim more land as their society grew with them. The need was perceived that a developing society and growing population was constantly in need of new sources of food and natural resources. Thus the more developed a society became the more space it required. Mixing this with Darwin's evolutionary theory many justified this claim by stating that only the most developed societies would survive while the backward societies were forced to assimilate or face extinction. More openly racist views stated that the more developed races would spread their society while the sub-races would be forced into subjugation or mass extinction... a view many Germans of the day were not directly opposed to despite the fact that slavery in Europe was illegal.
We call this theory today Lebensraum. It was the exact theory that drove Germany to commit the first genocide of the 20Th century in Namibia against the Herero and Namaqua. It would also be used to justify the Nazi ambitions of the Final Solution and the conquering of Europe. In America we called this theory Manifest Destiny.
This version of lebensraum was used to justify the Louisiana Purchase. It was then used by the Democrat party to justify expansion beyond the Louisiana territory and into areas that had been left for the Native American tribes whom had been pushed West. And in 1840 the Democrats used it again to go to war with Mexico so as to claim more territory in around the area of Texas (including California). The Democrats again pushed the idea as they forcibly pushed Texas into the Union so as to allow slavery to expand westward with them.
But for the Native Americans still left on the Great Plains this idea of manifest destiny was nothing more than the final nail in their coffin. The whites were already coming west. The land upon which the Native Americans sat was said to be "needed" by the United States to fulfill its destiny. And in the end the Indian Wars would amount to the creation of concentration camps and death squads roaming the west to root out the targeted victims of genocide.
Manifest destiny was never a valid claim to expansion. Even in modern times there are vast sections of America left open and free. The only difference is that the people who used to live on those lands have been assimilated or killed in the largest genocide of recorded history. Modern time has forgotten that this claim by the fledgling United States was nothing less vile than the claim of lebensraum by the founders of the Nazi party. Both were used to lend their moral superiority to the outright slaughter of people deemed unwanted, undeveloped, or less than human.
In America we have a long history with genocide. We committed it, we have covered it up, and at times we have romanticized it. Perhaps it is this love affair with out own genocide that keeps us from recognizing the genocides other cultures have suffered. It has been nearly a hundred years since the Armenians were forced to suffer the horrors of genocide. Yet here we are today unable as a country to admit to it. Both for the Armenians and the Native Americans alike.
April 29, 2011
Screamers
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Some days my soul cries out with such anger, such passion, that it can not be silenced... it can not find satisfaction. It needs to know that the world has seen its sins cast upon a banner raised for all to see. It needs to know that all others have been made to bear witness to the perverted crimes of their fellow man. It needs to scream.
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I urge all of you to see this film. I urge all of you to be Screamers.
December 13, 2010
Scream Till Your Throat Bleeds...
...Never Relent, Never Stop, Never Forget.
Turkey
Rwanda
Cambodia
Iraq
Germany
Russia
China
Bosnia
Kosovo
Argentina
Australia
Namibia
United States
All of these are just a handful of modern states that have been the place settings of our most awful of sins. In each country the genocides happened through direct actions of the political parties involved. In every case mentioned above the rewards for slaughtering a "target of opportunity" just seemed to be to great to pass up. We as humans have killed each other for literally pennies on the dollar... with little reward for such great efforts of inhumanity.
The Armenian Genocide is still "forgotten" in the fact that the government formed out of its blood will still to this day deny it with ever increasing ferocity. Our government supports Turkey in its denial of the Armenian Genocide. Republicans and Democrats alike share the blame for this atrocious act of profiteering. Greed stifles the screams of long since dead children of Armenia. Lust for blood money and frivolous perks keeps our government in bed with willful murderers.
But as the great butcher once said... "Who alive today remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?"
WE DO.
Though I shut my eyes the images of wronged men linger in my mind. Though my lips fail me this urge to scream arises ever more relentlessly. It is as if I have just seen the murderous acts first hand and yet nobody around me even bothers to help. Instead we walk on past as the dead await their good Samaritan.
April 24Th marks the bloody beginning of the Armenian Genocide back in 1915. In 1904 the Germans in Namibia began to erect the first death camps of the 20Th century. The Germans began to slaughter the Herero and Namaqua in an effort to gain "vital Lebensraum". General Lothar Von Trotha achieved the Germans' goals by slaughtering an estimated 80 percent of the Herero and just over half of the Namaqua.
Germany today is seemingly believed to have been the kindest "masters" ever to have colonized Africa. Or so people have been led to believe. The "Second Reich" was just as barbaric as the first and last. And as we speak, Germany seems to be on the path toward the far right once more.
The blood on their hands was never washed away. As the saying goes... those who fail to learn from the past are damned to repeat it.
In the United States we seem to feel that our only sins have been to get into bed with the sinners themselves. We seem to forget what we did to the Americans who were here before us. We tend to think of "Indian Reservations" as being "safe places" for the old Americans. We tend not to realize that they were camps much like Buchenwald in the aspect that we set them up only to put the "problems out of sight" and out of mind.
Wounded Knee... the most famous butcher of our American history rode into the Native American camp and ordered the executions of anything that moved. Men, women, children... babies... anything that moved. The reason, the targeted "problems" might be up to something.
We stuck Geronimo on a "reservation" and told him to farm land that white settlers knew was unworkable. When he decided to live the way his ancestors did (instead of starve under white rule) we labeled him an outlaw and a "danger to society". We were not taught in school that the real danger was living in a society that hates you.
Of the sins we do admit... the sins of our allies are far to often never called by their rightful name. Genocide.
And when we have seen such acts taking place we dared not scream. Instead we remained silent and closed our eyes to what was going on before us. In Rwanda the dead and dieing yelled out in many different ways... LOOK AT US!
We decided to do what our good leader, Uncle Bill, told us to... look away.
After the killings were done we decided it was safe to look. After all... you can't help the dead, only the living... right?
We seem even more complacent when these sorta acts are carried out against groups of people to whom we have no connection. When the Serbs began to slaughter the Muslims in Bosnia... it wasn't the United State's problem. Instead we once again sat back and let the bloodbath unfold. We even decided it would be "indecent" to lift the weapons embargo on the Bosnian people, so as to allow them to defend themselves. After all, if we weren't going to ride in and save them why allow them to save themselves?
Trnopolje was the latest concentration camp to be erected upon European soil. Unlike Omarska and Keraterm, Trnopolje was not a standard death camp. And unlike Manjaca, it was not a "political prisoner" camp either. Trnopolje was a camp established to allow Serbian soldiers the pronounced "freedom" of raping Muslim girls and women. Other prisoners at Trnopolje were used in much the same manner and then deported either to other camps or out of Serb held territory.
The United States knew about all four camps in the Prijedor area. We even had photographs of the camp and its prisoners... we just didn't show the public till it was too late.
After all, who alive today remembers the annihilation of the Bosnians?
It has been about the same length of time from now back to the time the Serbs were unleashing hell upon Bosnia as it had been from the time Hitler said the same thing about the Armenians.
And that brings us back to the second genocide of the 20Th century. The attacks on the Armenians marked the first time the entire world knew about the acts of genocide as they were happening. It marks the first time that the entire world knew about the genocide and did nothing to stop it.
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We here at Alder's Ledge invite you to scream with us. Help us by doing anything you can to inform others of genocide. Read articles here on Alder's Ledge that explain how genocides begin, why they begin, and how to stop them. Read about pogroms and other genocidal acts and share them with us here in our comments sections. We will read and reply to every comment you leave in whatever fashion we deem appropriate.
Have questions about anything you have seen here? Just ask us in a comment and we will be more than happy to discuss anything you have questions or concerns about. This is an open forum for you the reader.
And remember... Scream till your throat bleeds or your voice fails you... Never Relent, Never Stop, Never Forget.
You can follow us on FaceBook, key search word... Alder's Ledge. Or follow us on Twitter, @alders_ledge
December 3, 2010
We Wish To Inform You...
That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
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A Brief History of Pogroms and Organized Chaos
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American Style
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The very word Pogrom means to literally "wreak havoc". It is a relatively new Russian word with ancient roots in human history. And in most incidents it is used to describe organized killings of Jewish communities in highly antisemitic cultures. Yet for the most part these sorts of attempts to "demolish violently" in part or in whole have been used against any minority.
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In the United States we have witnessed these sorts of "state sponsored terrorism" in our recent past... we far to often ignore them and hide them. Under General Custer's dirty flag of freedom we marched into the West with one goal... "to demolish violently" the native way of life. Like the Spanish Conquistadors that came before us, we introduced a way of thinking not to different from the natives. The only difference was that we had the "human waves" to back our hatred and annihilate the peoples of the plains.
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If you talk to very many average blue color working Americans you will find that the "Arab" is our new Native American. Among the liberal "upper crust" the Muslim is a novelty to be admired from afar... still not to be fully embraced. Among the conservative "working class" Islam is a foreign invader ready to rape and pillage... in much the same way they painted the Native American. And yet we hide away our animosity in much the same manner as our forefathers did; silently waiting for the opportunity to launch our assault.
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The Hispanic community has gotten even less respect in recent history. But that is even more taboo to bring up than the "Arab". Yet here I go...
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With a broad brush we often paint with fabricated numbers and bloated statistics the entire Latin community as "illegal aliens". When we feel generous we give them the titles of "immigrant", "migrant workers", or simply "illegals". But for the most part the goal is segregation. We seem to willfully forget that if you go back far enough even the Native American is an immigrant to this continent.
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Forget about how we treated the blacks, gypsies, Japanese, Chinese, gays, or Jews. The cases for the Native Americans, Muslims, and Hispanics most clearly make my case for why we here at home are far from exempt from the hatred that feeds widespread "havoc". After all, we have made our own concentration camps... we have organized government to slaughter the weak... and we have washed our hands of innocent blood.
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So how do pogroms get started?
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"Where one or more are gathered..." evil will always be lingering close behind. After all, we are a species born to sin and to sin we so often turn. This just happens to be the worse form of sin we far too often take to. With our prejudice always at the front of our arsenals we take up arms when the world offers us "change".
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With the harsh introduction of "radical Islam" we took up arms for good reasons against foreign foes. But for those left behind to fight upon the home front... we needed a face to a foe who dared not raise its head in public. For this we painted all Muslims as al-Quada or "radicals". For some, this meant that we were not at war with any particular sect of Islam but rather with Islam itself.
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No greater lie has been spread since that fateful September.
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Now we face a sect of Westerners that have "radicalized" as once again the world they knew changed... and abruptly at that. The conservative values of even liberal Muslims are now subjected to Western prejudice while Mormons are allowed to abuse their children. Lies about Islam are born and bread by people who have not even once read the Koran. Let alone the fact that most of us here in the United States know absolutely nothing about the Muslim's traditions or even their religion.
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But this is a potential pogrom in the making. We don't have a government these days that will allow the masses to arm themselves and thus descend upon the Muslim community to "wreak havoc". Thank God.
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We do however have a government that will not, mainly due to conservative fears, more aggressively identify "hate groups". Therefore the government can not nor will not prosecute hate group members for hate crimes when they do in fact happen. And for this reason the rise of violence against Muslims and their mosque continues.
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A true pogrom against the Muslims in America would and could happen if the far right were allowed to organize a political party without public condemnation. Like the "brown shirts" in Washington during World War Two, this party would rise upon the growing prejudice against "common foes" such as the Muslims or Latinos. Ascending in power the group would need to quench the thirst of hatred amongst it members. So like other public figures, this group would allow publicly or in party memos the organized chaos that would follow. Like Krystalnaucht, the violence would be backed by the politician yet carried out by the people. Attacks would break out with true "havoc" being achieved almost over night. Only due to opposition by the Left, hopefully, the violence would end with the targeted community bloodied and in hiding.
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I know that most reading this are probably upset that I am using America as my example while Europe is currently in the midst of government backed pogroms... but we must never forget just how vulnerable to Hitler's lures we truly are.
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We have in our past raised hidden camps in isolated places in attempts to demoralize and destroy targeted communities. Like it or not, we have proven time and time again that we as Americans are far more than capable of uniting as the Nazis did in our hatred.
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Indiana was once the site of a Osama like figure. Tecumseh, the military side of "radicalized" native society, led a "holy war" against the invading whites. Relentless in his attempts to destroy or at least demoralize the white Americans, Tecumseh launched, at times suicidal, attacks on much larger foes. His prejudice were of course formed out of his realization that the world as he knew it was changing... shrinking.
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In my opinion, Islam has only radicalized due to... in part, the shrinking of the world the Middle Eastern Muslims once knew. The other factors are of course the many promises the West has made and broken (another link in my mind to Tecumseh). Then you have the exploitation of the Middle Easterners' resources (again Tecumseh). And finally the fact that Western ideals are being and have been forced upon the Arab world for decades now (most of which are incompatible with Islam itself).
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Attacking Pigeon Roost, a band of natives linked to Tecumseh, massacred the local citizens without resistance. The fact that they then sliced the gut of a white women who was pregnant to make certain her baby was dead only galvanized the white Americans' hatred. So in response, orders were given to the Indiana Rangers to take no prisoners and spare nothing... woman, child, or animal.
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The war from this point was one of burning abhorrence for the enemy on both sides. And in each camp the orders were interpreted to include the use of "pogroms" to strip the enemy of its will to fight.
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Tecumseh would go on to target white settlements he knew to be unarmed and without young men to protect them. White men we here in Indiana hail as heroes made names for themselves by slaughtering Native American women and children while the "braves" were away. In both camps these were known as "targets of opportunity".
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Pogroms are often carried out against "targets of opportunity". They are carried out by people who are either well armed or just plain better armed than their targets (in Rwanda the pogroms that grew into genocide were often carried out with machetes). In every case the targets most harassed are women, children, and old men. Young men that can fight back are mainly attacked when they are severely out numbered or unarmed. These tactics are almost universal in both pogroms carried out under the fog of war and pogroms that are carried out ahead of war or genocide.
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At Wounded Knee the American cavalry and light infantry used the fog of war to cover up their genocidal acts. Knowing that the "enemy" or "target of opportunity" was vulnerable in the dead of winter the American Army attacked. In the same fashion of Hitler's Blitz, the Army made certain to shoot every woman and child they could find (in my opinion this was to force the tribe's men to fight since their families were now dead). It was then recorded that American soldiers walked among the dead with pistols in hand. Shooting those who survived the initial blitz... these SS like warriors finished the job.
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The goal of a pogrom is simple. The perpetrators want one of two things. They either want the targeted community to leave the claimed territory or to gather in designated community areas. In the second of these two the goal is to form ghettos. Next, once ghettos are formed, the pogroms intensify and the genocide officially begins.
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To better understand what the Roma in Europe are going through I decided before writing this brief history and introduction into "pogroms" that we should first understand how they work. I fully believe that we should be aware of this and understand that in no way are we here at home immune to such acts.
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I will be writing more this month on clear cut cases of "pogroms" and genocide due to the Roma in Eastern Europe who are undergoing a clear cut case of "government backed pogroms". I hope you understand that I am not targeting America or Americans for any undue criticism. I believe that as Americans we should recognize both the great wonderful things we have accomplished and the nightmares we have wrought upon others. In this belief, I therefore believe other nations and peoples should do the same... i.e. Turkey and the Europeans at large.
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My next example will be the Armenian Pogrom in Baku during January 1990. This will be an example of a pogrom being used to "expel the undesirables". And it will be only a temporary break from my look at American pogroms and genocides.
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Please keep reading and please have an open mind when it comes to this rather unpleasent part of our history. After all, if we do not learn from our past we are damned to repeat it.
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You can read brief updates and follow future post on our Facebook group page by searching Alder's Ledge on Facebook. Make sure to click on the group page and feel free to click "like" on our information page as well.
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A Brief History of Pogroms and Organized Chaos
-
-
American Style
-
-
The very word Pogrom means to literally "wreak havoc". It is a relatively new Russian word with ancient roots in human history. And in most incidents it is used to describe organized killings of Jewish communities in highly antisemitic cultures. Yet for the most part these sorts of attempts to "demolish violently" in part or in whole have been used against any minority.
-
In the United States we have witnessed these sorts of "state sponsored terrorism" in our recent past... we far to often ignore them and hide them. Under General Custer's dirty flag of freedom we marched into the West with one goal... "to demolish violently" the native way of life. Like the Spanish Conquistadors that came before us, we introduced a way of thinking not to different from the natives. The only difference was that we had the "human waves" to back our hatred and annihilate the peoples of the plains.
-
If you talk to very many average blue color working Americans you will find that the "Arab" is our new Native American. Among the liberal "upper crust" the Muslim is a novelty to be admired from afar... still not to be fully embraced. Among the conservative "working class" Islam is a foreign invader ready to rape and pillage... in much the same way they painted the Native American. And yet we hide away our animosity in much the same manner as our forefathers did; silently waiting for the opportunity to launch our assault.
-
The Hispanic community has gotten even less respect in recent history. But that is even more taboo to bring up than the "Arab". Yet here I go...
-
With a broad brush we often paint with fabricated numbers and bloated statistics the entire Latin community as "illegal aliens". When we feel generous we give them the titles of "immigrant", "migrant workers", or simply "illegals". But for the most part the goal is segregation. We seem to willfully forget that if you go back far enough even the Native American is an immigrant to this continent.
-
Forget about how we treated the blacks, gypsies, Japanese, Chinese, gays, or Jews. The cases for the Native Americans, Muslims, and Hispanics most clearly make my case for why we here at home are far from exempt from the hatred that feeds widespread "havoc". After all, we have made our own concentration camps... we have organized government to slaughter the weak... and we have washed our hands of innocent blood.
-
So how do pogroms get started?
-
"Where one or more are gathered..." evil will always be lingering close behind. After all, we are a species born to sin and to sin we so often turn. This just happens to be the worse form of sin we far too often take to. With our prejudice always at the front of our arsenals we take up arms when the world offers us "change".
-
With the harsh introduction of "radical Islam" we took up arms for good reasons against foreign foes. But for those left behind to fight upon the home front... we needed a face to a foe who dared not raise its head in public. For this we painted all Muslims as al-Quada or "radicals". For some, this meant that we were not at war with any particular sect of Islam but rather with Islam itself.
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No greater lie has been spread since that fateful September.
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Now we face a sect of Westerners that have "radicalized" as once again the world they knew changed... and abruptly at that. The conservative values of even liberal Muslims are now subjected to Western prejudice while Mormons are allowed to abuse their children. Lies about Islam are born and bread by people who have not even once read the Koran. Let alone the fact that most of us here in the United States know absolutely nothing about the Muslim's traditions or even their religion.
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But this is a potential pogrom in the making. We don't have a government these days that will allow the masses to arm themselves and thus descend upon the Muslim community to "wreak havoc". Thank God.
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We do however have a government that will not, mainly due to conservative fears, more aggressively identify "hate groups". Therefore the government can not nor will not prosecute hate group members for hate crimes when they do in fact happen. And for this reason the rise of violence against Muslims and their mosque continues.
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A true pogrom against the Muslims in America would and could happen if the far right were allowed to organize a political party without public condemnation. Like the "brown shirts" in Washington during World War Two, this party would rise upon the growing prejudice against "common foes" such as the Muslims or Latinos. Ascending in power the group would need to quench the thirst of hatred amongst it members. So like other public figures, this group would allow publicly or in party memos the organized chaos that would follow. Like Krystalnaucht, the violence would be backed by the politician yet carried out by the people. Attacks would break out with true "havoc" being achieved almost over night. Only due to opposition by the Left, hopefully, the violence would end with the targeted community bloodied and in hiding.
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I know that most reading this are probably upset that I am using America as my example while Europe is currently in the midst of government backed pogroms... but we must never forget just how vulnerable to Hitler's lures we truly are.
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We have in our past raised hidden camps in isolated places in attempts to demoralize and destroy targeted communities. Like it or not, we have proven time and time again that we as Americans are far more than capable of uniting as the Nazis did in our hatred.
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Indiana was once the site of a Osama like figure. Tecumseh, the military side of "radicalized" native society, led a "holy war" against the invading whites. Relentless in his attempts to destroy or at least demoralize the white Americans, Tecumseh launched, at times suicidal, attacks on much larger foes. His prejudice were of course formed out of his realization that the world as he knew it was changing... shrinking.
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In my opinion, Islam has only radicalized due to... in part, the shrinking of the world the Middle Eastern Muslims once knew. The other factors are of course the many promises the West has made and broken (another link in my mind to Tecumseh). Then you have the exploitation of the Middle Easterners' resources (again Tecumseh). And finally the fact that Western ideals are being and have been forced upon the Arab world for decades now (most of which are incompatible with Islam itself).
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Attacking Pigeon Roost, a band of natives linked to Tecumseh, massacred the local citizens without resistance. The fact that they then sliced the gut of a white women who was pregnant to make certain her baby was dead only galvanized the white Americans' hatred. So in response, orders were given to the Indiana Rangers to take no prisoners and spare nothing... woman, child, or animal.
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The war from this point was one of burning abhorrence for the enemy on both sides. And in each camp the orders were interpreted to include the use of "pogroms" to strip the enemy of its will to fight.
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Tecumseh would go on to target white settlements he knew to be unarmed and without young men to protect them. White men we here in Indiana hail as heroes made names for themselves by slaughtering Native American women and children while the "braves" were away. In both camps these were known as "targets of opportunity".
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Pogroms are often carried out against "targets of opportunity". They are carried out by people who are either well armed or just plain better armed than their targets (in Rwanda the pogroms that grew into genocide were often carried out with machetes). In every case the targets most harassed are women, children, and old men. Young men that can fight back are mainly attacked when they are severely out numbered or unarmed. These tactics are almost universal in both pogroms carried out under the fog of war and pogroms that are carried out ahead of war or genocide.
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At Wounded Knee the American cavalry and light infantry used the fog of war to cover up their genocidal acts. Knowing that the "enemy" or "target of opportunity" was vulnerable in the dead of winter the American Army attacked. In the same fashion of Hitler's Blitz, the Army made certain to shoot every woman and child they could find (in my opinion this was to force the tribe's men to fight since their families were now dead). It was then recorded that American soldiers walked among the dead with pistols in hand. Shooting those who survived the initial blitz... these SS like warriors finished the job.
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The goal of a pogrom is simple. The perpetrators want one of two things. They either want the targeted community to leave the claimed territory or to gather in designated community areas. In the second of these two the goal is to form ghettos. Next, once ghettos are formed, the pogroms intensify and the genocide officially begins.
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To better understand what the Roma in Europe are going through I decided before writing this brief history and introduction into "pogroms" that we should first understand how they work. I fully believe that we should be aware of this and understand that in no way are we here at home immune to such acts.
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I will be writing more this month on clear cut cases of "pogroms" and genocide due to the Roma in Eastern Europe who are undergoing a clear cut case of "government backed pogroms". I hope you understand that I am not targeting America or Americans for any undue criticism. I believe that as Americans we should recognize both the great wonderful things we have accomplished and the nightmares we have wrought upon others. In this belief, I therefore believe other nations and peoples should do the same... i.e. Turkey and the Europeans at large.
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My next example will be the Armenian Pogrom in Baku during January 1990. This will be an example of a pogrom being used to "expel the undesirables". And it will be only a temporary break from my look at American pogroms and genocides.
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Please keep reading and please have an open mind when it comes to this rather unpleasent part of our history. After all, if we do not learn from our past we are damned to repeat it.
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