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The U.S. government (not necessarily the U.S. people) has a history of thinking that violence is the answer.

The U.S. government killed at least 2,100,000 people in Vietnam. The June 20, 1997 CNN article, U.S., Vietnam examine why peace was elusive [cnn.com] says 3,000,000 Vietnamese were killed. The lowest figure sometimes quoted, including only deaths due to military action, is 1.740,000. This does not include deaths from Agent Orange, a very toxic chemical containing Dioxin that was used to make the leaves fall off jungle plants. This book is not the place for a complete discussion of the exact number. The numbers only need to be close enough to make the point.   

Here are more quotes from the Chronicle article:

The People's Army newspaper estimated 300,000 tons of old bombs, artillery shells and land mines remain from the estimated 15 million tons of explosive devices used by American forces and their allies.

A major removal campaign in 1975-77 in the south cleared 3 million explosives. A clearance program in the northern provinces in 1991-98 found 2.3 million -- and resulted in the deaths of 37 soldiers.

The May 3, 2000 St. Petersburg Times [Florida, U.S.A.] article Remembering the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians [sptimes.com] says "It is estimated that some 150,000 Cambodians were killed by more than 500,000 tons of U.S. bombs." Numerous books and articles say that the U.S. government so destabilized the region with bombing that the U.S. can be said to have caused the deaths of many, many more. The St. Petersburg Times article says, "In 1974, Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by Lon Nol, a U.S. supported general." This event started a huge amount of killing.

The U.S. killed an estimated 100,000 soldiers in Iraq, according to U.S. Department of Defense statistics. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency says the figure could be as high as 120,000.

The U.S. has bombed 14 countries in 30 years, killing at least 3,000,000 people. None of the people who were killed in any way directly threatened the U.S. These people had mothers and fathers, wives and families and friends.

The number of people estimated killed has been the subject of controversy by people who have read this book. Hopefully more links can be added here in the next few weeks.

Most of the citizens of the U.S. had, and have, no idea of the beliefs of the people that their government killed. Most people in the U.S. cannot even locate the countries the U.S. government bombed on a map of the world. People cannot be thought to have chosen violence when they do not come close to understanding the issues. It is often the U.S. government that chooses violence, not the American people.

No matter how violent a country is, or how many people a violent country kills, there is still an inexhaustible supply of people in other countries who also want to engage in violence. Violence can be un-ending. Does the U.S. want that?

No matter how angry an American may be, there are thousands of people who are more angry than that. Do Americans want them to attack?

As was mentioned above, the Bush administration recently increased U.S. support for the violence of the Israelis. This was sure to make the people being killed by the Israelis unhappy. Is it surprising that some of them are motivated to violence also?

There are many countries where people are severely distressed by Israeli violence. Recently there was a TV news story about street violence in which Israelis were killed. The Israeli counter-attack was shown on TV: A helicopter fired rockets at a building, causing huge explosions. In a sense, it is not important whether the Israelis are the aggressors. What is important is that a significant number of people in the world think they are the aggressors.

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