The already infamous Bush regime is threatening CARICOM leaders that the USA would be unhappy should they attend a U. N. meeting in New York. Mr. Bush, we are not your slaves. US citizens have made the analysis and the case for us so powerfully that we must cite some of them today. None quoted below is a "terrorist" - however defined.

    "The greatest purveyor of war in the world today is my own government." (Martin Luther King). MLK must have so remarked in the wake of escalation of the Vietnam war (VN).

    But American-made wars, accompanied by corruption and deception, are not new. Before further discussion of VN, we can go back some one hundred sixty years for an example. History records Ulysses S. Grant, two-term eighteenth President of the United States, 1869 -1877, as "a man of scrupulous honesty."

    "After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial firm, which went bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had cancer of the throat. He started writing his recollections to pay off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to produce a memoir that ultimately earned nearly (US) $450,000. Soon after completing the last page, in 1885, he died" at the age of 63. (This data is all on the world wide web).

    In his memoirs he explained that Texas was not always an American state. It first belonged to Mexico. Mexico gave the Americans the authority to settle in Texas. The said Americans introduced slavery in Texas, even if the constitution of Mexico never approved of slavery. The same people Mexico had allowed to colonize, set up an independent government and active hostilities resulted between Texas and Mexico.

    The Texans offered themselves and Texas to the USA. Their offer was accepted in 1845. "The occupation , separation and annexation were from the inception of the movement to its final culmination a conspiracy to acquire territory out of which slave states might be formed for the American Union."

    "Even if the annexation itself could be justified, the manner in which the subsequent war was forced upon Mexico cannot."

    In taking military possession of Texas after annexation, the army of occupation, under General Taylor, was directed to occupy certain disputed territory. The army proceeded in manner that seemed calculated "to force Mexico to initiate war…"

    The American Civil War "was largely an outgrowth of the Mexican war. Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. We got our punishment in the most sanguiny and expensive war of modern times."

    As if former President of the US was not credentials enough, Ulysses S. Grant served as an officer in the Mexican American war, and was commander of the Union armies during the American Civil War. He described the Mexican war as the most unjust war ever waged against a weaker by a stronger nation. He provides unassailable evidence of the American legacy of unjust war. Such war is repugnant to our CARICOM conscience.

    This is the Vietnam circumstance summarized:

    The Gulf of Tonkin is a body of water that lies on the East Coast of "North Vietnam" and the West Coast of the island Hainan. On August 2, 1964, the American destroyer MADDOX was conducting an espionage mission to collect intelligence on radar and coastal defenses of North Vietnam. It is recorded that North Vietnamese torpedo patrol boats attacked the MADDOX. The US aircraft carrier TICONDEROGA sent aircraft to repel the North Vietnamese attackers and sunk one boat while damaging other vessels.

    In an attempt to possibly lure the North Vietnamese into an engagement the MADDOX and another American destroyer the C. TURNER JOY were in the gulf on August 4. "The captain of the MADDOX had read his ship's instruments as saying that the ship was under attack or had been attacked and began an immediate retaliatory strike in the night." The two destroyers began firing furiously into the night supported by American war planes. "The captain….concluded hours later that there might not have been an actual attack. The pilot of a Crusader jet undertook a reconnaissance flight over the waters that evening. He reported no Vietnamese attack vessels: "No boats, no wakes, no ricochets off boats, no boat impacts, no torpedo wakes - nothing but black sea and American firepower."

    "The entire event was purposely misconstrued when presented to Congress and the public by President Johnson and his administration, and on August 7, the "Tonkin Gulf Resolution" passed 416 to 0 by the House and 88 to 2 by the Senate". The resolution authorised the President could "take all necessary measure to repel armed attack against the forces of the United States, and to prevent further aggression".

    One year later the US had some 80,000 troops in "South Vietnam". By early 1969 there were 543,000 troops. And 400 tons of bombs per day were being dropped on Vietnam. The deceptive Gulf of Tonkin incident had opened the door to that massive US escalation of war. It was not the last time a President would make an ass of Congress and the American people.

    Former Weapons Inspector, American Scott Ritter reminded us that 2002/2003 was not the first time a President had lied to the American people in order to go to war. So when he cited the said Gulf of Tonkin incident he was infinitely more credible than all the members of the Bush regime combined.

    Robert S. Mc Namara was Secretary of Defense of the United States from 1961 to 1968. He wrote, inter alia, "IN RETROSPECT: THE TRAGEDY AND LESSONS OF VIETNAM." In retrospect, he appreciated the gravity of what happened; i.e., of his own mistakes.

    Mc Namara was quoted as saying that the number of Vietnamese who died was equivalent to 27 million Americans killed. I am unsure how he did his arithmetic so I tried a little of my own.

    The Economist Pocket World in Figures 2003 Edition records the population of the US as 283.2 million in 2000. That of Vietnam was 78.1 million. If 3.8 million Vietnamese died in the war, in terms of an equivalent percentage of its total population in current day figures, this translates to 13.7 million Americans killed. That is still plenty people. The 27 million may have resulted from the fact that the US had made Vietnam into two countries, North and South Vietnam.

    We must now review the current situation. A Bush doctrine has now been documented. It has certain characteristics:

• A belief that the US must maintain absolute military supremacy and by "Prevention" ensure that no other country can do likewise
• A belief in pre-emption before other countries can become an imminent threat
• A belief in unilateralism
• A repudiation of the international principle of taking nuclear weapons out of use, so that a nuclear weapon is seen as just another weapon to use.