Remember the Maine! And the Other Ships Sunk To Start a War

February 15, 1898: "Remember the Maine." Mysterious explosion rocks the battleship MAINE in Havana Harbor, Cuba. 266 men were killed. Initally it was believed a torpedo or mine caused the explosion. On April 25, 1898 the US declared war on Spain. A 1976 investigation found that the Maine was sunk due to a self-inflicted blast, probably as a result of coal bunker fire on board.

May 7, 1915: The British steamship Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo on the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean. 100 Americans lost their lives. The result was the the US was brought into WWI. It was not revealed at the time that the Lusitania, a passenger boat, was carrying arms.

December 7, 1941: How was President Roosevelt going to convince the American public to enter into war with the Japanese when they were wrapping up their war in Europe? Japanese bombers, launched from aircraft carriers, bombed Pearl Harbor and sunk the US Pacific Fleet. Over 2000 died. The US knew of the threat of war and had intercepted the "East-Wind Rain" secret code of the Japanese Pacific fleet. Japan had closed all its embassies in the Pacific rim the week prior to Pearl Harbor, which is an overt sign of war. The US aircraft carriers had been removed from Pearl Harbor days before the bombing.

Admiral Kimmell in Hawaii was intentionally kept in the dark that the Japanese fleet was nearby. President Roosevelt appeared before Congress, declared Pearl Harbor a "day in infamy," and the rest is history.

August 5, 1964: President Johnson orders the US to take retaliatory action against Vietnam after "renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf on Tonkin" (Vietnam). There were no new attacks against American ships.

The news media reported a lie, leading over 50,000 Americans to their death and millions of casualties.

October 12, 2000: USS COLE, an American destroyer, docking in Yemen to re-fuel, was approached by a small docking vessel that carried a bomb. 18 sailors are believed dead and 35 others were wounded. The bombing occurs on the eve of the Presidential debates, and as rumors that Iraq is moving troops in the Middle East, as well as riots in Jerusalem. Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister of Israel, says during television interview that the same people who conducted terrorism in Jerusalem bombed the USS Cole.

Don't be duped into going to war solely over reports of bombings of US Navy boats in far off lands where we the facts of the event are completely controlled by one source, the government. Remember the Maine!

October 16, 2000

Bill Sardi is a journalist residing in Diamond Bar, California. His new book is Big God vs. Big Science (Here & Now Books, 107 pages, illustrated, $7.00) at www.hereandnowbooks.com.