Editor,

Recently, several writers have compared the sound of military machinery to the “sound of freedom.”

Historical amnesia is encouraged by official culture, so I believe it is worth listing a few of the most violent episodes involving the United States that marked the second half of the 20th century:

•Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Death toll: 200,100. Death from after effects: not computed.

•The destruction of every building in North Korean War. Death toll of Koreans: 900,000.

•The Vietnam War, fought with regular use of chemical weapons. Death toll: 50,000 U.S. soldiers, 2 million Vietnamese.

•The third oil war, 1990. Death toll: between 50,000 and 100,000 Iraqi soldiers.

•The effects of sanctions against Iraq. Death toll: up to 1 million.

Of course, we are all painfully aware of the cost of imperial intervention over the last 10 years.

From the Central Intelligence Agency helping remove Iranian Democrat Mohammad Mosaddegh from power as punishment for nationalizing the country’s oil in 1953 to the 2002 U.S.-Spanish-backed coup attempt against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the defacto U.S. protectorates through the second half of the 20th century have constituted some of the most vicious dictatorships in the world.

Obviously, the so-called “sound of freedom” would more appropriately be the sound of fascism.

MATT LINDER

Freeland