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Since the nation's founding, American leaders, journalists, and ordinary citizens have used words to describe enemies designed not only to dehumanize them, but also to delegitimize. Whether bandits, savages, guerrillas, or terrorists, if our foes are beyond the pale, then the U.S. government doesn't have to follow the law either, a pattern that has been repeated in many overseas military interventions up to and including the global war on terrorism. This pattern is important to recognize as the Trump administration blows up alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean while threatening regime change in Venezuela. Historian Michael Neagle says we can see how we got to this point by looking to the past, in the Philippines, Mexico, and Nicaragua, to name three examples. Through a historical lens, we can question the necessity and costs of the GWOT.
Recommended reading:
Chasing Bandits: America's Long War on Terror by Michael Neagle
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