The Untold History of the United States

by Oliver Stone

  73 David Kilcullen and Andrew McDonald Exum, “Death from Above, Outrage down Below,” New York Times, May 17, 2009.

  74 Saed Shah and Peter Beaumont, “Human Face of Hellfire—Hidden Cost of America’s Remote-Controlled Missiles,” Guardian (London), July 18, 2011; Jemima Khan, “Under Fire from Afar: Harrowing Exhibition Reveals Damage Done By Drones in Pakistan,” Independent (London), July 29, 2011.

  75 Mehdi Hasan, “U.S. Drone Attacks Are No Laughing Matter, Mr. Obama,” Guardian (London), December 29, 2010.

  76 Glenn Greenwald, “Bravery and Drone Pilots,” July 10, 2012, www.salon.com/2012/07/10/bravery_and_drone_pilots.

  77 Nico Hines, “Obama Schmoozes the Fourth Estate with Gags and Gaffes at Charity White House Bash,” Times (London), May 3, 2010; Jamie Crawford, “Pakistani View of U.S. Reaches New Low,” CNN, June 29, 2012, security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/29/pakistani-view-of-u-s-reaches-new-low/?iref=allsearch.

  78 Scott Shane, “C.I.A. Is Disputed on Civilian Toll in Drone Strikes,” New York Times, August 12, 2011.

  79 Chris Woods and Christina Lamb, “Obama Terror Drones,” Bureau of Investigative Journalism, February 4, 2012, www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals.

  80 Karen DeYoung, “Secrecy Defines Obama’s Drone War,” Washington Post, December 20, 2011; Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,” New York Times, May 29, 2012.

  81 Tom Junod, “The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama,” Esquire, July 9, 2012, www.esquire.com/features/obama-lethal-presidency-0812-3.

  82 Ibid.

  83 Akbar Ahmed and Frankie Martin, “Deadly Drones Come to the Muslims of the Philippines,” Al-Jazeera, March 5, 2012; Tom Engelhardt, “Obama’s Bush League World,” July 12, 2011, www.tomdispatch.com/post/175416/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_making_earth_a_global_free-fire_zone.

  84 Glenn Greenwald, “Excuses for Assassination Secrecy,” July 12, 2012, www.salon.com/2012/07/12/excuses_for_assassination_secrecy.

  85 Glenn Greenwald, “Obama’s Killings Challenged Again,” July 18, 2012, www.salon.com/2012/07/18/obamas_killings_challenged_again.

  86 Greg Miller and Julie Tate, “Since Sept. 11, CIA’s Focus Has Taken Lethal Turn,” Washington Post, September 2, 2011.

  87 Michael Hastings, “The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret,” Rolling Stone, April 26, 2012, www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-rise-of-the-killer-drones-how-america-goes-to-war-in-secret-20120416?print=true.

  88 Charlie Savage, “Relatives Sue Officials Over U.S. Citizens Killed by Drone Strikes in Yemen,” New York Times, July 18, 2012.

  89 Sudarsan Raghavan, “In Yemen, U.S. Airstrikes Breed Anger, and Sympathy for Al-Qaeda,” Washington Post, May 29, 2012.

  90 “As Nature Is Displaying More Bipolar Behaviour—Floods One Day, Drought the Next—and Man Is Traversing More into the Realm of Boundless Greed and Shamelessness, Mutants Calling Themselves Politicians Are Saying Things Unplugged from Logic and Unlinked,” Nation (Thailand), December 15, 2011.

  91 John Markoff, “War Machines: Recruiting Robots for Combat,” New York Times, November 29, 2010.

  92 Tom Engelhardt, The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2010), 172–174; Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shaker, “War Evolves with Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs,” New York Times, June 20, 2011.

  93 William Wan and Peter Finn, “Global Rush Is On to Match U.S. Drones,” Washington Post, July 5, 2011.

  94 Becker and Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will.”

  95 Thom Shanker, “Joint Chiefs Chairman Readjusts Principles on Use of Force,” New York Times, March 3, 2010.

  96 Richard A. Oppel, Jr., “Tighter Rules Fail to Stem Deaths of Innocent Afghans at Checkpoints,” New York Times, March 26, 2010; Ben Kiernan and Taylor Owen, “Roots of U.S. Troubles in Afghanistan: Civilian Bombing Casualties and the Cambodian Precedent,” Asia-Pacific Journal, June 28, 2010, www.japanfocus.org/-Ben-Kiernan/3380.

  97 Peter Baker, “How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan,” New York Times, December 6, 2009.

  98 Steve Rendell, “In Afghan Debate, Few Antiwar Op-Eds,” FAIR, December 2009, www.fair.org/index.php?page=3949; “Wavering on Afghanistan?” Washington Post, September 22, 2009.

  99 Craig Whitlock, “Gen. Cartwright, Poised to Lead Chiefs, Had His Shot Derailed by Critics,” Washington Post, May 28, 2011.

  100 World Food Program data, www.wfp.org/countries/afghanistan; Anthony H. Cordesman and Adam Mausner, “Is a ‘Population-centric’ Strategy Possible?” Center for Strategic & International Studies, April 26, 2010, csis.org/publication/agriculture-food-and-poverty-afghanistan; John Hanrahan, “About Living Standards in Afghanistan,” December 3, 2009, niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00435; Karin Brulliard, “Affluent Afghans Make Their Homes in Opulent ‘Poppy Palaces,’ ” Washington Post, June 6, 2010.

  101 David Wildman and Phyllis Bennis, Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer (Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2010), 72–74.

  102 Anthony H. Cordesman, “What’s Our Long-Range Afghan Plan?,” Washington Post, September 23, 2011.

  103 Atiq Sarwari and Robert D. Crews, “Afghanistan and the Pax Americana,” in The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan, ed. Robert D. Crews and Amin Tarzi (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), 315–16.

  104 “Afghan Life Expectancy Rising as Healthcare Improves, Survey Shows,” Guardian (London), November 30, 2011.

  105 Wildman and Bennis, Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer, 88–90, 94; Dana Burde, “It Takes a Village To Raise a School,” New York Times, September 17, 2010.

  106 Karl Eikenberry, memo to Hillary Clinton, November 6, 2009, documents.nytimes.com/eikenberry-s-memos-on-the-strategy-in-afghanistan.

  107 Nicholas D. Kristof, “The Afghanistan Abyss,” New York Times, September 6, 2009.

  108 Andrew Shurtleff, “Former CIA Station Chief in Afghanistan Calls for Withdrawal,” Daily Progress, www.votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=3419.

  109 Conn Hallinan, “Afghanistan: Killing Peace,” January 12, 2011, dispatchesfromtheedgeblog.wordpress.com; Wildman and Bennis, Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer, 160.

  110 Alissa J. Rubin, “Girl, 12, Killed in NATO Raid on Wrong Afghan Home,” New York Times, May 13, 2011.

  111 Tariq Ali, “Operation Enduring Disaster: Breaking with Afghan Policy,” November 16, 2008, www.tomdispatch.com/post/175003/tariq_ali_flight_path_to_disaster_in_afghanistan.

  112 Matthew P. Hoh, letter to Ambassador Nancy J. Powell, September 10, 2009, Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/ssi/wpc/ResignationLetter.pdf?sid=ST2009102603447.

  113 Chris Hedges, “Opium, Rape and the American Way,” November 2, 2009, www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091102_opium_rape_and_the_american_way/.

  114 “Losing Afghanistan?” Economist, August 20, 2009, www.economist.com/node/14258750?story_id=14258750

  115 “UN Afghanistan Survey Points to Huge Scale of Bribery,” BBC News, January 19, 2010, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8466915.stm; Alfred W. McCoy, “America and the Dictators: From Ngo Dinh Diem to Hamid Karzai,” April 16, 2010, www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175233.

  116 Scott Shane and Andrew W. Lehren, “Leaked Cables Offer Raw Look at U.S. Diplomacy,” New York Times, November 28, 2010; Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti, and Dexter Filkins, “Cables Depict Afghan Graft, Starting at Top,” New York Times, December 2, 2010; Declan Walsh, “Flower Power,” Guardian, August 16, 2008, www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/16/drugstrade.afghanistan; Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, and James Risen, “Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by C.I.A.,” New York Times, October 28, 2009.

  117 Alissa J. Rubin and Matthew Rosenberg, “U.S. Efforts Fail to Curtail Trade in Afghan Opium,” New York Times, May 26, 2012.

  118 James Risen,
“Propping Up a Drug Lord, Then Arresting Him,” New York Times, December 11, 2010; “New Measures Against the Afghan Opium Tsunami,” United Nations Information Service, October 31, 2007, www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/pressrels/2007/unisnar1013.html; Alfred W. McCoy, “Can Anyone Pacify the World’s Number One Narco-State? The Opium Wars in Afghanistan,” March 30, 2010, www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175225.

  119 Walsh, “Flower Power”; Brulliard, “Affluent Afghans Make Their Homes in Opulent ‘Poppy Palaces.’ ”

  120 Jean MacKenzie, “Funding the Afghan Taliban,” August 7, 2009, www.globalpost.com/dispatch/taliban/funding-the-taliban; Hugh Gusterson, “Why the War in Afghanistan Cannot Be Won,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 21, 2009, www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/hugh-gusterson/why-the-war-afghanistan-cannot-be-won.

  121 Dexter Filkins, “Convoy Guards in Afghanistan Face an Inquiry,” New York Times, June 6, 2010.

  122 Rod Nordland, “Afghan Bank Commission Absolves President’s Brother in Fraud Case,” New York Times, May 29, 2011.

  123 Ben Farmer, “U.S. Diplomat Claims UN Tried to Gag Him,” Telegraph (London), October 4, 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6259530/US-diplomat-claims-UN-tried-to-gag-him.html.

  124 Rod Nordland, “Afghan Votes Come Cheap, and Often in Bulk,” New York Times, September 17, 2010.

  125 Bob Woodward, “Military Thwarted President Seeking Choice in Afghanistan,” Washington Post, September 27, 2010.

  126 Bob Woodward, “Biden Warned Obama During Afghan War Review Not to Get ‘Locked into Vietnam,’ ” Washington Post, September 28, 2010; Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 247, 311.

  127 “Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States,” www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Exec.htm.

  128 Paul R. Pillar, “Who’s Afraid of a Terrorist Haven?,” Washington Post, September 16, 2009.

  129 “Fareed Zakaria Criticizes ‘Disproportionate’ Afghanistan War on CNN,” July 4, 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/04/fareed-zakaria-criticizes_n_635170.html.

  130 George F. Will, “The War That Wasn’t,” Washington Post, May 3, 2011.

  131 Andrew J. Bacevich, “Obama’s Afghanistan Speech and Strategy,” Washington Post, December 2, 2009.

  132 Christopher Drew, “One Million Dollars to Keep One Soldier in Afghanistan for One Year,” New York Times, November 16, 2009.

  133 Robert Dreyfuss, “Getting Out in 2010,” Nation, June 17, 2010, www.thenation.com/blog/getting-out-2011.

  134 Dana Milbank, “A Deadline Written in Quicksand, Not Stone,” Washington Post, December 3, 2009.

  135 Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 354.

  136 Karen DeYoung and Scott Wilson, “With bin Laden Dead, Some Escalate Push for New Afghan Strategy,” Washington Post, May 11, 2011; Wildman and Bennis, Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer, 72–74.

  137 David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, “Military Seeks to Make Case Against Too-Hasty Reduction of Troops,” New York Times, June 7, 2011; Thom Shanker and John H. Cushman, Jr., “Reviews Raise Doubt on Training of Afghan Forces,” New York Times, November 6, 2009.

  138 Thomas L. Friedman, “What’s Second Prize?” New York Times, June 22, 2010.

  139 Rod Nordland, “Afghans Plan to Stop Recruiting Children as Police,” New York Times, January 29, 2011; Ernesto Londono, “Afghanistan Sees Rise in ‘Dancing Boys’ Exploitation,” Washington Post, April 4, 2012.

  140 Tony Perry, “U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Suffer More Catastrophic Injuries,” Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2011.

  141 T. Christian Miller and Daniel Zwerding, “Brain Injuries Remain Undiagnosed in Thousands of Soldiers,” June 7, 2010, www.propublica.org/article/brain-injuries-remain-undiagnosed-in-thousands-of-soldiers.

  142 Wildman and Bennis, Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer, 28.

  143 Leo Shane III, “Study: Wars Could Cost $4 Trillion to $6 Trillion,” Stars and Stripes, September 29, 2010, www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/study-wars-could-cost-4-trillion-to-6-trillion-1.120054.

  144 James Risen, “U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan,” New York Times, June 13, 2010.

  145 George A. Dorsey, “Ikyber Pass Key of Nations’ Fate,” Chicago Tribune, January 24, 1911.

  146 “Americans Acquire Afghanistan Oil,” New York Times, May 8, 1928.

  147 James Risen, “World’s Mining Companies Covet Afghan Riches,” New York Times, June 17, 2010.

  148 Joshua Partlow, “Afghan Minister Accused of Taking Bribe,” Washington Post, November 18, 2009.

  149 Jane Perlez, Eric Schmitt, and Carlotta Gall, “Pakistan Is Said to Pursue Foothold in Afghanistan,” New York Times, June 24, 2010; Joshua Partlow, “Haqqani Insurgent Group Proves Resilient Foe in Afghan War,” Washington Post, May 29, 2011; Jane Perlez, “Official Admits Militancy’s Deep Roots in Pakistan,” New York Times, June 2, 2010.

  150 Alissa J. Rubin, “Pakistan Urged Afghanistan to Distance Itself from the West, Officials Say,” New York Times, April 28, 2011.

  151 Michael Cooper, “Mayors See End to Wars as Fix for Struggling Cities,” New York Times, June 18, 2001.

  152 Jane Perlez, David E. Sanger, and Eric Schmitt, “Nuclear Fuel Memos Expose Wary Dance with Pakistan,” New York Times, November 30, 2010.

  153 John T. Bennett, “Pressure Builds to End Afghan War,” May 4, 2011, thehill.com/homenews/administration/159123-pressure-builds-to-end-the-afghan-war.

  154 George Zornick, “Senator Dick Durbin Questions Sending ‘One More’ Soldier to Die in Afghanistan,” May 3, 2011, www.thenation.com/blog/160377/senator-dick-durbin-questions-sending-one-more-soldier-die-afghanistan.

  155 Rod Nordland, “Karzai Takes Another Shot at NATO Coalition,” New York Times, June 19, 2001.

  156 Ray Rivera and Ginger Thompson, “Karzai Is Testing U.S. Patience, Envoy Says,” New York Times, June 20, 2011.

  157 Ray Rivera and Ginger Thompson, “U.S. Envoy Responds to Karzai’s Criticisms,” New York Times, June 19, 2011.

  158 Laura King, “Karzai Quote Taken Wrong Way, Aide Says,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2011.

  159 Alissa J. Rubin and Taimoor Shah, “Attack Kills Police Officers in Afghanistan,” New York Times, September 29, 2011.

  160 “NATO: Militant Attacks in Afghanistan Up 11 Percent in Past Three Months,” Washington Post, July 27, 2012.

  161 Human Rights Watch, “Afghanistan: Rein in Abusive Militias and Afghan Local Police,” September 12, 2011, www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/12/afghanistan-rein-abusive-militias-and-afghan-local-police.

  162 UN News Centre, “Systematic Torture in Afghan Detention Facilities—UN Report,” October 10, 2011, www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39985.

  163 Jack Healy, “Afghanistan Sees Increase in Cultivation of Poppies,” New York Times, October 12, 2001.

  164 Tim Arango, “Premier Places Power-Sharing at Risk in Iraq,” New York Times, December 22, 2011; “Iraq Withdrawal: After Troops Leave, A Substantial American Presence,” International Business Times News, December 9, 2011; Farirai Chubvu, “Iraq—Uncle Sam’s Unfinished War,” Herald (Harare, Zimbabwe), December 15, 2011; Michele Keleman, “Huge Embassy Keeps US Presence in Iraq,” National Public Radio, December 11, 2011.

  165 David Brown, “Study Claims Iraq’s ‘Excess’ Death Toll Has Reached 655,000,” Washington Post, October 11, 2006.

  166 David Gilmour, The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002), 251.

  167 “Obama’s Speech to Troops at Fort Bragg,” New York Times, December 15, 2011; Michael S. Schmidt, “Junkyard Gives Up Secret Accounts of Massacre,” New York Times, December 15, 2011.

  168 Greg Jaffe, “A War Without an Iconic Ending,” Washington Post, December 25, 2011.

  169 Thom Shanker, “Warning Against Wars Like Iraq and Afghanistan,” New York Times, February 26, 2011.

  170 Helene Cooper and Ethan Bronner, “Focus Is on Obama as Tensions Soar Acr
oss Mideast,” New York Times, May 19, 2011.

  171 David D. Kirkpatrick and Michael Slackman, “Egyptian Youths Drive the Revolt Against Mubarak,” New York Times, January 27, 2011.

  172 Helene Cooper and Mark Landler, “Obama’s Peace Tack Contrasts with Key Aide, Friend of Israel,” New York Times, May 22, 2011.

  173 Thomas L. Friedman, “The Arab Awakening and Israel,” New York Times, November 30, 2011.

  174 Ira Chernus, “Israel and the Palestinians Through the Looking Glass,” May 26, 2011, www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175397/tomgram%3A_ira_chernus,_ass-backwards_in_the_middle_east.

  175 Ethan Bronner, “A Former Spy Chief Questions the Judgment of Israeli Leaders,” New York Times, June 4, 2011; Gareth Porter, “Obama Seeks To Distance U.S. from Israeli Attack,” January 3, 2012, ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106361.

  176 Shibley Tehlami and Steven Kull, “Preventing a Nuclear Iran, Peacefully,” New York Times, January 16, 2012.

  177 Simon Romero, “Colombia Leader Seeks Wide-Ranging Changes, and Looks Beyond the U.S.,” New York Times, March 5, 2011.

  178 Tom Phillips and Virginia Lopez, “US Not Invited as Chávez Launches Latin Group,” Guardian (London), December 3, 2011; “Venezuela: New Regional Group Meets,” New York Times, December 3, 2011; “New Americas Summit Dominated by Criticism of US,” Agence France Press, December 2, 2011.

  179 Sibylla Brodzinsky, “Cuba and Drug Policy Headline Summit of the Americas,” Christian Science Monitor, April 16, 2012; Scott Wilson, “Americas Summit Ends Without an Agreement,” Washington Post, April 16, 2012; Noam Chomsky, “Cartagena Beyond the Secret Service,” In These Times, May 2, 2012, inthesetimes.com/article/13136/cartagena_beyond_the_secret_service_scandal.

  180 Francisco Toro, “The Incredible Shrinking State Department,” International Herald Tribune, July 5, 2012.

  181 Nick Turse, “Empire of Bases 2.0,” January 9, 2011, www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175338; Engelhardt, The American Way of War, 53.

  182 David Vine, “The Lily-Pad Strategy,” July 15, 2012, www.tomdispatch.com/post/175568/tomgram%3A_david_vine%2C_u.s._empire_of_bases_grows/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=d027c16bb5-TD_Vine7_15_2012&utm_medium=email#more.