1953 - 2014: 61 years of US subverting democratic regimes

No country on Earth has a sorrier record of undermining democratically elected governments than the US. It has been a bi-partisan approach to America's warped sense of national self interests for many decades and shows no inclination of ending. Let us count the ways.

In 1953, the Eisenhower administration conspired with the Brits to overthrow the democratically elected President of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh because he wouldn't support US and British oil interests and possibly have aligned Iran with the USSR. That action has poisoned US-Iran relations to this day, with our 2014 version of American war mongers itching for another chance to oust a legitimate Iranian regime.

Just a year later the US did the same to the government of Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala. The Dulles Boys: Allen and John Foster, who together ruled over US foreign policy under Ike, engineered the coup to benefit the United Fruit Company, making millions off favorable land deals granted them by Guatemala's previous military rulers. Guatemalan coup fun fact? The Dulles Boys were big investors in United Fruit Company.

Fast forward to 1973, when Tricky Dick Nixon, just a year before resigning in disgrace, green lighted the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende. Elected on the socialist ticket in 1970, Allende promoted reforms making the Chilean working class more equal. In Washington, D.C. Nixon said "Nyet", allowing the CIA to assist the military coup that deposed Allende in September, leading to 17 years of brutal military rule under Gen. Augusto Pinochet who murdered thousands of Allende's supporters. Allende didn't wait for the ax to fall on him, committing suicide after vowing never to resign.

Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide has the distinction of over being overthrown twice with Uncle Sam's help; first in 1991, then in 2004 after winning a second election in 2000.

Let's not forget Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, whose brief 2002 ouster was aided by US operatives in the George W. Bush administration. Even though the US instantly recognized coup strongman Pedro Carmona as the legitimate Venezuelan leader, Chavez was returned to power by popular support within two days. Red faced Uncle Sam said, "Excuuuuse Me!"

In 2009, the Obama administration got into the "dump elected leaders not towing the US line" act when it stood by during the coup that ousted Honduras President Jose Manuel Zelaya under the pretense it really wasn't a coup, when all the evidence screamed "COUP" in unmistakably clear terms. Since US didn't like Zelaya's reforms, it simply pretended the coup wasn't a coup.

Don't forget last year's coup against elected Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi. While the US claimed neutrality in the effort to oust Morsi in 2013, we now know US activist organizations associated with the State Department, like National Endowment for Democracy, bankrolled numerous opposition leaders in the run up to Morsi's removal in likely violation of Egyptian law and contrary to US governmental regulations banning the use of taxpayers' money to finance subversive activities targeting democratically elected governments.

And it took just a few weeks in 2014 for Uncle Sam to add another notch on his belt of elected leaders sent packing when the Ukraine government wouldn't play ball under Uncle's rules. The next time a faux super patriot chimes "America - love it or leave it", remember the real slogan is from whoever rules in Washington: "America - obey it or be deposed".