From USS Maine to MH17

http://watchingamerica.com/News/243370/from-maine-to-mh17/

From USS Maine to MH17
Imerisia, Greece
By G.Kapopoulos
Translated By Eva Zoutsou
22 July 2014
Edited by Brent Landon

The U.S. has a firm, unquestionable pre-eminence in using communication in order to handle issues that raise public awareness, facilitating the pursuit of foreign policy objectives and using military force. This ascertainment concerns existent, alleged or fabricated responsibilities of the other side, with the tragedy of flight MH17 belonging, as it seems, to the first category.

When public opinion is hesitant and allies waver, an event is required, which in the American political terminology is called a “game-changer” and, loosely translated, means a catalyst that changes the game.

In 1898, Washington was looking for the opportunity to wage war on Spain, an easy target, in order to show its power on the international political stage. The news reports orchestrated by press baron Hearst on the violation of human rights by the Spanish colonial rule in Cuba were not enough, until an explosion destroyed the U.S. battleship Maine, which was located in Havana Harbor. The Spanish-American War that occurred resulted in Spain’s overwhelming defeat and people not ever knowing what exactly happened. This was a war that in Spanish historiography is called "El Desastre" (The Disaster) and in the United States, it is recorded as the first humanitarian intervention through which the U.S. got the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and some island groups in the Pacific as a reward.

~snip~

Let’s backtrack to the case of the blast on the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898; it is worth being reminded of the dialogue, which occurred through the exchange of telegrams between Hearst - who has gone down in history as the character Citizen Kane from the eponymous play by Orson Welles - and the young reporter from his working for his newspapers sent to Cuba, who could not find evidence incriminating the Spanish side. The press baron re-assured him with the following phrase, which went down in history, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”