The American people do not want this war. Washington is an occupied government. Right wing Israeli Zionists own Trump and most American politicians. There will never be peace in the Middle East so long as Israel is an apartheid racist murdering state. Gaza and the West Bank deserve peace and equality and freedom and food.
Hard sometimes to wake up isn't it? To look in the mirror and see who it is you've been for so long?
What frightens this elderly Canadian, is that I'm pretty sure the entire world is seeing now....what good American citizens are just beginning to discern. The United States of America is the evil Empire.
Truth is "apartheid racist murdering state" also applies to the U.S. Founded in genocide and slavery, the evil effects still with us and have never been fully acknowledged. Together an axis of the same evil, vastly confident in their arrogant sense of superiority.
I agree with you completely. For a few hundred million dollars to buy pro Zionists elections they receive billions in bombs, jets and protections against UN sanctions and ICC sanctions and can genocide an entire people. A very sick arrangement but they have lost the support of most of the world including Americans. A reckoning will come soon we hope.
That's the interesting thing...or to be more precise: I agree with you that most of the world's people are horrified and shocked violently awake....but their silence, likely reinforced by msm's silence about anything they try to do......is also awesome.
In fact......it almost makes a sound, it is so quiet.
I sent an article to a few friends I suspect might be on side, saying if you don't want to hear about this I'll never post to you again...
Out of about 20 messages sent.......4 responded....all with articles of their own.
So we are reading...drawing obvious conclusions..........but still not wanting to commit to anything too radical or personal. We're taking comfort in experts who agree with us.........but other than that???
WE need new leaders...but so far, none are emerging where I live....we continue to pursue local politics as if that were our only immediate need or concern.
Alas, for citizens of those countries, the 'they' is now 'we'. When governments go to war, they effectively make all their people legitimate targets. They have, by supporting Israel, made it clear that they have no problem with civilians being slaughtered. They have, by supporting Israel, made it clear that no target is off limits. No atrocity too obscene. Any and every one of us, wherever we are, can be sacrificed. For Zionism. For Israel. Because our governments support racism. Our governments, by deciding we should be the enemy of their enemy, have made themselves our enemy.
Not the people I suspect.........but their sniveling leaders, for the most part yes.
We have to understand how neoliberal lap dogs work covertly to remove real leaders.....like Jeremy Corbyn in the UK.........and install false flag leaders, who when it comes down to it, will take their orders from the covert US operators who helped remove the real leaders.
Poor Jeremy....anti-semitism was what he demonstrated when he stood up for the Palestinians.
It's up to the people of the United States to get their covert curs out of other people's countries. You American have no idea how many dirty strings your dirty government, has to Big Shots in most countries.........but in particular, in the countries of her 'allies'. Canada, Britain, France etc. etc. suffer the most foreign interference from your empire........soft power they call it.
Bring those 'sponges' back home and you'll be doing us a big favour.
If you followed the attacks on Jeremy......which came primarily from the upper echelons of his own party I do believe....you'll remember that antisemitism was a big charge against him.
Jeremy also opposed the coalition of the willing that decimated Iraq....and his speeches then were spot on and inspiring.
I'm not being sarcastic...or satiric or anything else. Its' pure fact. If you stand up for the Palestinians, in any real way, you're political career is going to hit a brick wall.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT OUR OWN SUPPORT FOR A GENOCIDAL STATE...that we don't get??? The US of A is hand in glove with Zionist Israel.......and anyone criticizing the right of 'us people of the good book' to eliminate evil wherever we perceive it to be..........is going to be ostracized.
Much like Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky and a host of others are ostraciszed.
We're dreaming in technicolour if we think any kind of international fairness gets in the way of global capitalism.......and the American exceptionalism it has served.
We also are in denial if we still think we've done what we've done to the Middle East for any other reason than stealing their oil with the help of our outpost, Zionist Israel.
You can't name that black elephant in the room and stay anywhere near actual power.
Trying to keep up, but the rest of life just keeps getting in my way.
Indeed, I did follow the outrageous attacks on Jeremy Corbin. When I originally read your post, the second part of the sentence jumped out at me. I initially saw "anti-semitism was what he demonstrated when he stood up for the Palestinians" as a a statement... one that I was confident that you knew was patently untrue. Hence, in trying to make sense of it, I took a stab... perhaps it was sarcasm (also noting, that it didn't work as such). Perhaps analogous to someone saying (sarcastically), "Poor Trump, everyone's accusing him of of being a fascist dictator".
I now can see how you intended that sentence to read. In all fairness, written words, without the benefit of tone of voice or emphasis, can be innocently misinterpreted. Cheers.
Right. According to Reuters, they’ve all put out statements chastising Iran, and this includes the statement of the EU’s spokeswoman. Not a word of criticism of Israel or the U.S. Venezuela and Cuba issued the most truthful statements.
not surprising. Both Venezuela and Cuba know what it is to have the fascistic American empire use sanctions and theft of assets against any country that has another vision for its people besides being lap dogs to the jingoistic US of A.
We have relatives through marriage in Cuba.........and how they've treated Cuba since the revolution makes it clear what America can't tolerate close to its border.
But NATO nuclear missiles on Russia's border with Ukraine????
What was Putin's problem???
America has such a double standard built into its nationalistic mind set that they actually can't see it. The world increasingly can though.
I think an increasing number of Americans are beginning to see it too. According to polls, most Americans disapprove of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and don’t want to fund it. The problem is, politicians here don’t respond to the voters, they respond to the donors. And we have a corrupt Supreme Court that has legalized political bribery. Our absence of a true democracy has been revealed. The question is, what to do about it.
I know. We're caught on the horns of the same dilemma in Canada....and I'm pretty sure a new string of 'smart boy' are stepping up, convinced we're going to vote for change, so positioning themselves to be that change.
Chances are, most of them are decoys from the same too big not to fail monsters we've been electing for the last decade.
“European allies, whom Israel and Trump have alienated with these air assaults, are in no mood to cooperate with Washington.”
No Chris, they are European “slaves” of America, and they cheer and applaud the crimes of US and Israel everywhere and all the time.
You said it in The Last Days of Gaza. The West has sent its clear message to the Global south: “It is unequivocal. You do not matter. Humanitarian Law does not apply to you. We do not care about your suffering, the murder of your children. You are vermin. You are worthless.”
Thing is........if the world is "getting it"....and I somehow think they are.........cooperation with China, Russia, the Brics....is going to increase, though perhaps covertly at first.
If everyone can be a target.......the potential targets have every incentive to get together.
THE LONG RANGE HOPE IS AMERICA IS DIGGING HER OWN GRAVE....sad for my country that we'll likely stay tied to America's hip...........inspite of the lying elbows up the Carney right wing Liberals spewed during the election.
Exactly. When one 'sacrifice zone' is nearly liquidated, it is necessary to designate another.
The most horrible part of it all is the many Americans........and Canadians too.........who will one more time buy the bilge they flood the airwaves with:
That’s because a lot of people, if not most, don’t want the responsibility that a democracy entails. Too much work. They’d rather have someone else tell them what to do and even how to think. That’s why uncritical cults have been built around both the Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S.
We have it in Canada too.......funny sometimes how progressives actually behave when the war drums start beating...seems like, past a certain border point, most of us embrace fascism. Says something ugly about our culture.
I mean that a large percentage of educated people, who are progressive voters on a lot of local issues..........jump on the war wagon most times it rolls by.
I know from sites I comment on.......more good people than I expected knew 0 about covert American operations in Ukraine prior to Putin's invasion. Most of them dismissed Russia's fears of NATO missiles on their border if Ukraine joined that supposed 'defensive' military alliance.........and most know next to no history of the military engagements NATO has been involved in since WWII.......
So they are progressive domestically.......but as willing to blame and hate Russia as any right wing Trumpster. Plus: it turns out if you point out the west's covert crimes........they don't discuss it with you, they name call and insult you instead.
To me, name calling and insult are ignorant tools used by uneducated, angry people. Surprisingly enough.........some progressive virtues are mostly good for virtue signalling..........on topics where we all share consensus.
Or as W.H.Auden put it in a poem: "When there was peace, he was for peace/
When there was war, he went"
Many of us are more conventional than we like to think we are...we like a good fight as much as the next guy, when it comes right down to it.
I know that you are well read and extremely knowledgable about the issues at hand. Still, I challenge your claim that "...a LARGE PERCENTAGE OF educated people who are PROGRESSIVE VOTERS... JUMP ON THE WAR WAGON MOST of the time..." Or that there are large numbers domestically progressive voters who mindlessly and rabidly ( à la "any right wing Trumpster") hate Russia and just as rabidly name-call and insult everyone and anyone who attempts to discuss the facts. I don't doubt that these people exist, just not in the numbers you imply. You paint with a pretty broad brush.
As for Putin's invasion of Ukraine - again, I acknowledge that you are extremely knowledgable about the history of events. And while I've not done deep research myself, I don't doubt that the US and NATO are guilty of all that you say. However, I find that some commenters damn the US & NATO to the point that they imply that Putin is an innocent victim and no matter how many civilians are killed his course of action is understandable. The governments of Russia and the US are despicable and tyrannical. There comes a point where who did what-to-whom when, becomes almost irrelevant. It likely doesn't matter to the starving, the injured, the dead or their families.
I’ve read that “experts” on genocide, that us, those who have spent lifetimes studying it, have said that genocide is the ultimate expression of fascism. I don’t think most U.S. voters think in those terms. They have disconnected genocide from the things they think impact them personally in a negative way. They’ve separated it out. That’s why so many Democrats were willing to vote for a candidate whose administration funded and otherwise supported genocide, one who refused to denounce it and who instead criticized the protesters. I think all of those voters would say they’re against fascism.
However we attempt to explain it though.........not seeing what Israel is doing as an obvious war crime is a sign of some kind of political retardation.
And I know we're not supposed to use that term, politically incorrect and all.
But quibbling about the definition of a word...while what the word points to is going on night and day before our eyes is a disconnect so vast that either the person making that break with reality is simple minded..........or the obverse...pig headed.
My country right or wrong, comes to mind. A racism bred in the bone comes to mind. The last judgement, which so many seem to still believe in, won't let them off the hook.........winking at genocide is a damned poor behavior to begin with.......if its salvation you're focused on.
It’s clear that the human race is accelerating its demise with the lowest form of vibrational strategy…. No one “wins” anything. But I will continue to choose kindness to the stranger I meet regardless of the sorrow and deep sadness I carry within my mind as a result of man’s shitty choices to dominate another deemed “inferior”. In the end it’s all I can control and even then I’m reminded I shouldn’t believe I can control anything.
I'm with you Kathy. Sick of heart and trying to keep the hatred that often wells up when you see A...holes playing stupid adolescent games with the world's real children.
War is good for absolutely nothing........and the monsters who play at it may look human. But in the end they're not.
Wishful thinking is not a strategy. The sociopaths who run things are unimpressed by our clever word games, our cute memes, our tightly reasoned arguments and close readings of texts, unmoved by facts, logic, evidence or morality, as long as they have force on their side, as long as the cops and army will shoot when ordered to do so.
It's like trying to reason with a schoolyard bully. Truly, this never grows old:
"A WOLF, meeting with a lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea, which should justify to the lamb himself, his right to eat him.
He then addressed him: Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.
Indeed, bleated the lamb in a mournful tone of voice: I was not then born.
Then said the wolf: You feed in my pasture.
No, good sir, replied the lamb: I have not yet tasted grass.
Again said the wolf: You drink of my well.
No, exclaimed the lamb: I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me.
Upon which the wolf seized him and ate him up, saying: Well! I won't remain supper-less, even though you refute every one of my imputations.
Moral: The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust."
Exactly, Iran knew before and surely knows now: negotiating would serve no purpose. They could promise no enriching uranium, we will give up our first borns.....still they will get bombed.
Feral Finster: Today I read a lot of negative commentary and articles trashing Iran.
Even that Bibi's popularity has gone up due to his handling of Iran and now he has more leverage to deal with the war on Gaza. !!!!!!!!!!!!
Great that our Pres. who has the maturity of a 7 year old playing with toy metal soldiers....is claiming victories.
what I want to know: WTF is happening in Gaza? I thought that Iran was in a good place and would demand cessation of the killings in Gaza and supplies going in before they stopped bombing Israel. So far, no.
I did figure out a few years ago that humans were the bad animals.
Initially, I the world of wars and general destruction on the men, having too much free time to play war, with sticks and stones, then with the big toys they have now...
The females who end up NOT being able to play house and take care of the offspring...ending up in refugee camps or worse.....they should have made the men STAY HOME.
.Then I realized, Nope, it's the whole human race. No other mammal, or fish or insect has a life style that f**ks it up for their species......
See, for cats, the toms mostly roam, fight and fornicate. Queens are responsible for the instruction and correction of kittens. They also tend to be better hunters.
I know cats. Our family has had dozens...now I have a 12 yr. old Yucatecan male, smart and considerate Diego, my son has 2, my X has 6.
Here in Merida, Mexico, I have had several street cats neutered. I am feeding several from my front yard. The males fight, get infected and die. The females breed and if they don't get a lot of nutrition, the kittens use them up. Life exp. about 3 years. BUT, in the wild, or living in the streets, the males do not cause the females and their offspring to be destroyed.
I hope that as many have predicted our evil empire claimed to be failing: fails fast and hard. And make than a multipolar DEI world emerges from the ashes
Not a doubt in my mind that Congress would have approved the bombing. They’re just angry because they weren’t in the loop. Not much of a doubt that Harris would have done the same thing, and no doubt about Biden.
I’ve followed you for a long time, Mr. Hedges Now, what do the people do, what do I do about this horrific situation? Please print an article with advice for your readers. Any ideas?
“The Pentagon, even if it wanted to, does not have the hundreds of thousands of troops it would need to attack and occupy Iran -- the only way Iran might be subdued.”
Total, delusional fantasy. Two million imperial troops couldn’t subdue Iran. Why do you persist with such rhetorical nonsense?
Anyone who has read Frances Fitzgerald’s book, “Fire in the Lake,” realizes that precious few in the United States had any relevant cultural understanding about
Vietnam. The Vietnamese were not buying American interest group politics. They wanted unity under an emperor figure, namely, Ho Che Minh. Our dearth of knowledge about actual Vietnam made our entire effort completely ineffectual. We have not changed, or learned, a damn bit. Read also the book written by Andrew Bacevich, entitled “America’s War for the Greater Middle East.” Over the past several decades we have intervened here, there, and everywhere throughout the Middle East, spent trillions of dollars, and have achieved virtually nothing of lasting value. Why? Because we view everything through an American lens, and therefore do not comprehend local realities, and we have a bizarrely naive faith in the efficacy of military action. Our dear President has shown himself to be a card carrying member of small, self perpetuating, group of nitwits foisting their cluelessness on American foreign policy. If he wanted to guarantee Iran did not get the bomb, then he should have forcefully told Israel to get rid of its nuclear weapons. Make the Middle East a nuke free region. What is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander. His empty attack on Iran absolutely will result in Iran developing nuke weapons, and delivery systems.
I have a question for our political leaders. Do you ever tire of tip toeing around the mountain of hypocrisy and transparent deceit surrounding Israel’s possession of nukes? Come clean, grow a spine, and rid the region of all nukes. Try genuine peace, for a change.
The US and Israel are the two most hated countries in the world. I long to see the overthrow of both Capitalism and Zionism.
Israel in particular sees hate as a feature, not a bug, a pretext to demand double standards and special treatment.
The American people do not want this war. Washington is an occupied government. Right wing Israeli Zionists own Trump and most American politicians. There will never be peace in the Middle East so long as Israel is an apartheid racist murdering state. Gaza and the West Bank deserve peace and equality and freedom and food.
Nobody cares what the American people want.
OMG! I posted, then saw yours. Of course, my comment will drive down since you have 25 likes.
I agree. Netanyahu is a fascist whose regime carried out a heinous genocide. That America is supporting this criminal regime is despicable.
Hard sometimes to wake up isn't it? To look in the mirror and see who it is you've been for so long?
What frightens this elderly Canadian, is that I'm pretty sure the entire world is seeing now....what good American citizens are just beginning to discern. The United States of America is the evil Empire.
Truth is "apartheid racist murdering state" also applies to the U.S. Founded in genocide and slavery, the evil effects still with us and have never been fully acknowledged. Together an axis of the same evil, vastly confident in their arrogant sense of superiority.
No body cares what the American people want.
Sure says something about yer empire, if a pea sized colony like Isreal can take you over though, does it not?
I agree with you completely. For a few hundred million dollars to buy pro Zionists elections they receive billions in bombs, jets and protections against UN sanctions and ICC sanctions and can genocide an entire people. A very sick arrangement but they have lost the support of most of the world including Americans. A reckoning will come soon we hope.
That's the interesting thing...or to be more precise: I agree with you that most of the world's people are horrified and shocked violently awake....but their silence, likely reinforced by msm's silence about anything they try to do......is also awesome.
In fact......it almost makes a sound, it is so quiet.
I sent an article to a few friends I suspect might be on side, saying if you don't want to hear about this I'll never post to you again...
Out of about 20 messages sent.......4 responded....all with articles of their own.
So we are reading...drawing obvious conclusions..........but still not wanting to commit to anything too radical or personal. We're taking comfort in experts who agree with us.........but other than that???
WE need new leaders...but so far, none are emerging where I live....we continue to pursue local politics as if that were our only immediate need or concern.
“European allies, whom Israel and Trump have alienated with these air assaults, are in no mood to cooperate with Washington.”
This is patently untrue. UK, France and Germany are lovin’ it. They are all global pariahs now. They’ve tied their fates to the drowning US empire.
Alas, for citizens of those countries, the 'they' is now 'we'. When governments go to war, they effectively make all their people legitimate targets. They have, by supporting Israel, made it clear that they have no problem with civilians being slaughtered. They have, by supporting Israel, made it clear that no target is off limits. No atrocity too obscene. Any and every one of us, wherever we are, can be sacrificed. For Zionism. For Israel. Because our governments support racism. Our governments, by deciding we should be the enemy of their enemy, have made themselves our enemy.
Well said.
Not the people I suspect.........but their sniveling leaders, for the most part yes.
We have to understand how neoliberal lap dogs work covertly to remove real leaders.....like Jeremy Corbyn in the UK.........and install false flag leaders, who when it comes down to it, will take their orders from the covert US operators who helped remove the real leaders.
Poor Jeremy....anti-semitism was what he demonstrated when he stood up for the Palestinians.
It’s up to the people of France, Germany and the UK to not put war criminals in charge of their countries.
It's up to the people of the United States to get their covert curs out of other people's countries. You American have no idea how many dirty strings your dirty government, has to Big Shots in most countries.........but in particular, in the countries of her 'allies'. Canada, Britain, France etc. etc. suffer the most foreign interference from your empire........soft power they call it.
Bring those 'sponges' back home and you'll be doing us a big favour.
I’m not American. Fuck off.
GOTCHA!!
I know who you are.
You know who I am? What’s that supposed to imply? You assumed I’m American. I’m not.
I think that comment is terribly simplistic. Cheers.
"Poor Jeremy....anti-semitism was what he demonstrated when he stood up for the Palestinians."
Is that supposed to be sarcasm? If so, it's just not working for me. If not, then???
If you followed the attacks on Jeremy......which came primarily from the upper echelons of his own party I do believe....you'll remember that antisemitism was a big charge against him.
Jeremy also opposed the coalition of the willing that decimated Iraq....and his speeches then were spot on and inspiring.
I'm not being sarcastic...or satiric or anything else. Its' pure fact. If you stand up for the Palestinians, in any real way, you're political career is going to hit a brick wall.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT OUR OWN SUPPORT FOR A GENOCIDAL STATE...that we don't get??? The US of A is hand in glove with Zionist Israel.......and anyone criticizing the right of 'us people of the good book' to eliminate evil wherever we perceive it to be..........is going to be ostracized.
Much like Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky and a host of others are ostraciszed.
We're dreaming in technicolour if we think any kind of international fairness gets in the way of global capitalism.......and the American exceptionalism it has served.
We also are in denial if we still think we've done what we've done to the Middle East for any other reason than stealing their oil with the help of our outpost, Zionist Israel.
You can't name that black elephant in the room and stay anywhere near actual power.
Trying to keep up, but the rest of life just keeps getting in my way.
Indeed, I did follow the outrageous attacks on Jeremy Corbin. When I originally read your post, the second part of the sentence jumped out at me. I initially saw "anti-semitism was what he demonstrated when he stood up for the Palestinians" as a a statement... one that I was confident that you knew was patently untrue. Hence, in trying to make sense of it, I took a stab... perhaps it was sarcasm (also noting, that it didn't work as such). Perhaps analogous to someone saying (sarcastically), "Poor Trump, everyone's accusing him of of being a fascist dictator".
I now can see how you intended that sentence to read. In all fairness, written words, without the benefit of tone of voice or emphasis, can be innocently misinterpreted. Cheers.
I know...and its okay.
I'm a retired English teacher, so get a bit riled up by the misuse of language.
Palestinians are more Semitic than most Jews returning to the Middle East after centuries in Europe.
But as one of our Canadian poets wrote during the Iraq killings: The first casualty of war, is language.
Right. According to Reuters, they’ve all put out statements chastising Iran, and this includes the statement of the EU’s spokeswoman. Not a word of criticism of Israel or the U.S. Venezuela and Cuba issued the most truthful statements.
not surprising. Both Venezuela and Cuba know what it is to have the fascistic American empire use sanctions and theft of assets against any country that has another vision for its people besides being lap dogs to the jingoistic US of A.
We have relatives through marriage in Cuba.........and how they've treated Cuba since the revolution makes it clear what America can't tolerate close to its border.
But NATO nuclear missiles on Russia's border with Ukraine????
What was Putin's problem???
America has such a double standard built into its nationalistic mind set that they actually can't see it. The world increasingly can though.
I think an increasing number of Americans are beginning to see it too. According to polls, most Americans disapprove of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and don’t want to fund it. The problem is, politicians here don’t respond to the voters, they respond to the donors. And we have a corrupt Supreme Court that has legalized political bribery. Our absence of a true democracy has been revealed. The question is, what to do about it.
I know. We're caught on the horns of the same dilemma in Canada....and I'm pretty sure a new string of 'smart boy' are stepping up, convinced we're going to vote for change, so positioning themselves to be that change.
Chances are, most of them are decoys from the same too big not to fail monsters we've been electing for the last decade.
All settler colonial states.
All this is entirely intentional. What Israel wants, Israel gets.
Surely I am not the only cat who recalls a couple weeks ago how Musk let slip that Trump is mentioned in the Epstein Files.
...mentioned...He's probably featured. They were buddies for years.
“European allies, whom Israel and Trump have alienated with these air assaults, are in no mood to cooperate with Washington.”
No Chris, they are European “slaves” of America, and they cheer and applaud the crimes of US and Israel everywhere and all the time.
You said it in The Last Days of Gaza. The West has sent its clear message to the Global south: “It is unequivocal. You do not matter. Humanitarian Law does not apply to you. We do not care about your suffering, the murder of your children. You are vermin. You are worthless.”
Thing is........if the world is "getting it"....and I somehow think they are.........cooperation with China, Russia, the Brics....is going to increase, though perhaps covertly at first.
If everyone can be a target.......the potential targets have every incentive to get together.
THE LONG RANGE HOPE IS AMERICA IS DIGGING HER OWN GRAVE....sad for my country that we'll likely stay tied to America's hip...........inspite of the lying elbows up the Carney right wing Liberals spewed during the election.
She's going to be the big Loser in all of this...
But "we" (meaning only the profiteering few) care very much about having your natural resources.
How else is the U.S. to perpetuate endless war now that Israel is cleaning up the remains in Gaza than to bomb Iran?
Exactly. When one 'sacrifice zone' is nearly liquidated, it is necessary to designate another.
The most horrible part of it all is the many Americans........and Canadians too.........who will one more time buy the bilge they flood the airwaves with:
Calling it News.
That’s because a lot of people, if not most, don’t want the responsibility that a democracy entails. Too much work. They’d rather have someone else tell them what to do and even how to think. That’s why uncritical cults have been built around both the Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S.
We have it in Canada too.......funny sometimes how progressives actually behave when the war drums start beating...seems like, past a certain border point, most of us embrace fascism. Says something ugly about our culture.
Hi Ingamarie,
"...funny sometimes how progressives actually behave when the war drums start beating..."
I don't understand what you mean by this, specifically with regards to the discussion at hand.
Thanks
I mean that a large percentage of educated people, who are progressive voters on a lot of local issues..........jump on the war wagon most times it rolls by.
I know from sites I comment on.......more good people than I expected knew 0 about covert American operations in Ukraine prior to Putin's invasion. Most of them dismissed Russia's fears of NATO missiles on their border if Ukraine joined that supposed 'defensive' military alliance.........and most know next to no history of the military engagements NATO has been involved in since WWII.......
So they are progressive domestically.......but as willing to blame and hate Russia as any right wing Trumpster. Plus: it turns out if you point out the west's covert crimes........they don't discuss it with you, they name call and insult you instead.
To me, name calling and insult are ignorant tools used by uneducated, angry people. Surprisingly enough.........some progressive virtues are mostly good for virtue signalling..........on topics where we all share consensus.
Or as W.H.Auden put it in a poem: "When there was peace, he was for peace/
When there was war, he went"
Many of us are more conventional than we like to think we are...we like a good fight as much as the next guy, when it comes right down to it.
I know that you are well read and extremely knowledgable about the issues at hand. Still, I challenge your claim that "...a LARGE PERCENTAGE OF educated people who are PROGRESSIVE VOTERS... JUMP ON THE WAR WAGON MOST of the time..." Or that there are large numbers domestically progressive voters who mindlessly and rabidly ( à la "any right wing Trumpster") hate Russia and just as rabidly name-call and insult everyone and anyone who attempts to discuss the facts. I don't doubt that these people exist, just not in the numbers you imply. You paint with a pretty broad brush.
As for Putin's invasion of Ukraine - again, I acknowledge that you are extremely knowledgable about the history of events. And while I've not done deep research myself, I don't doubt that the US and NATO are guilty of all that you say. However, I find that some commenters damn the US & NATO to the point that they imply that Putin is an innocent victim and no matter how many civilians are killed his course of action is understandable. The governments of Russia and the US are despicable and tyrannical. There comes a point where who did what-to-whom when, becomes almost irrelevant. It likely doesn't matter to the starving, the injured, the dead or their families.
.
I’ve read that “experts” on genocide, that us, those who have spent lifetimes studying it, have said that genocide is the ultimate expression of fascism. I don’t think most U.S. voters think in those terms. They have disconnected genocide from the things they think impact them personally in a negative way. They’ve separated it out. That’s why so many Democrats were willing to vote for a candidate whose administration funded and otherwise supported genocide, one who refused to denounce it and who instead criticized the protesters. I think all of those voters would say they’re against fascism.
However we attempt to explain it though.........not seeing what Israel is doing as an obvious war crime is a sign of some kind of political retardation.
And I know we're not supposed to use that term, politically incorrect and all.
But quibbling about the definition of a word...while what the word points to is going on night and day before our eyes is a disconnect so vast that either the person making that break with reality is simple minded..........or the obverse...pig headed.
My country right or wrong, comes to mind. A racism bred in the bone comes to mind. The last judgement, which so many seem to still believe in, won't let them off the hook.........winking at genocide is a damned poor behavior to begin with.......if its salvation you're focused on.
“They may hate the regime”
This is pure Hasbara. Show us some evidence, please.
It’s clear that the human race is accelerating its demise with the lowest form of vibrational strategy…. No one “wins” anything. But I will continue to choose kindness to the stranger I meet regardless of the sorrow and deep sadness I carry within my mind as a result of man’s shitty choices to dominate another deemed “inferior”. In the end it’s all I can control and even then I’m reminded I shouldn’t believe I can control anything.
I'm with you Kathy. Sick of heart and trying to keep the hatred that often wells up when you see A...holes playing stupid adolescent games with the world's real children.
War is good for absolutely nothing........and the monsters who play at it may look human. But in the end they're not.
She had Hope at the bottom of her box. What do we have?
Wishful thinking is not a strategy. The sociopaths who run things are unimpressed by our clever word games, our cute memes, our tightly reasoned arguments and close readings of texts, unmoved by facts, logic, evidence or morality, as long as they have force on their side, as long as the cops and army will shoot when ordered to do so.
It's like trying to reason with a schoolyard bully. Truly, this never grows old:
"A WOLF, meeting with a lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea, which should justify to the lamb himself, his right to eat him.
He then addressed him: Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.
Indeed, bleated the lamb in a mournful tone of voice: I was not then born.
Then said the wolf: You feed in my pasture.
No, good sir, replied the lamb: I have not yet tasted grass.
Again said the wolf: You drink of my well.
No, exclaimed the lamb: I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me.
Upon which the wolf seized him and ate him up, saying: Well! I won't remain supper-less, even though you refute every one of my imputations.
Moral: The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust."
Exactly, Iran knew before and surely knows now: negotiating would serve no purpose. They could promise no enriching uranium, we will give up our first borns.....still they will get bombed.
Feral Finster: Today I read a lot of negative commentary and articles trashing Iran.
Even that Bibi's popularity has gone up due to his handling of Iran and now he has more leverage to deal with the war on Gaza. !!!!!!!!!!!!
Great that our Pres. who has the maturity of a 7 year old playing with toy metal soldiers....is claiming victories.
what I want to know: WTF is happening in Gaza? I thought that Iran was in a good place and would demand cessation of the killings in Gaza and supplies going in before they stopped bombing Israel. So far, no.
ANGRY IS HELL!
This is how things always work. Humans are herd animals, and furthermore, they respect strength but pick on those weaker than them.
I did figure out a few years ago that humans were the bad animals.
Initially, I the world of wars and general destruction on the men, having too much free time to play war, with sticks and stones, then with the big toys they have now...
The females who end up NOT being able to play house and take care of the offspring...ending up in refugee camps or worse.....they should have made the men STAY HOME.
.Then I realized, Nope, it's the whole human race. No other mammal, or fish or insect has a life style that f**ks it up for their species......
See, for cats, the toms mostly roam, fight and fornicate. Queens are responsible for the instruction and correction of kittens. They also tend to be better hunters.
I know cats. Our family has had dozens...now I have a 12 yr. old Yucatecan male, smart and considerate Diego, my son has 2, my X has 6.
Here in Merida, Mexico, I have had several street cats neutered. I am feeding several from my front yard. The males fight, get infected and die. The females breed and if they don't get a lot of nutrition, the kittens use them up. Life exp. about 3 years. BUT, in the wild, or living in the streets, the males do not cause the females and their offspring to be destroyed.
No lesons learned.
War their answer to everything
I hope that as many have predicted our evil empire claimed to be failing: fails fast and hard. And make than a multipolar DEI world emerges from the ashes
Not a doubt in my mind that Congress would have approved the bombing. They’re just angry because they weren’t in the loop. Not much of a doubt that Harris would have done the same thing, and no doubt about Biden.
America attacks Iran. Russia attacks Ukraine. Who has the moral high ground now?
Whoever is stronger. Russia was foolish to dither.
I think Donald Trump is the perfect bull for this china shop.
I’ve followed you for a long time, Mr. Hedges Now, what do the people do, what do I do about this horrific situation? Please print an article with advice for your readers. Any ideas?
“The Pentagon, even if it wanted to, does not have the hundreds of thousands of troops it would need to attack and occupy Iran -- the only way Iran might be subdued.”
Total, delusional fantasy. Two million imperial troops couldn’t subdue Iran. Why do you persist with such rhetorical nonsense?
The point is not to subdue Iran but turn it into a failed state.
More delusional fantasy.
What, you think Iraq, Syria and Libya are "delusional fantasy"?
What, you think Iran is even vaguely comparable with those countries?
Obviously, the Pentagon thinks so.
Delusional fantasy.
WHy are you two fighting??? Prefer war at any cost to Peace???
It looks like it.
Iran will never give up. The people are united. They know they are in the right.
They know Israel will use nukes. They know they have friends with nukes. Bye Bye Israel.
Anyone who has read Frances Fitzgerald’s book, “Fire in the Lake,” realizes that precious few in the United States had any relevant cultural understanding about
Vietnam. The Vietnamese were not buying American interest group politics. They wanted unity under an emperor figure, namely, Ho Che Minh. Our dearth of knowledge about actual Vietnam made our entire effort completely ineffectual. We have not changed, or learned, a damn bit. Read also the book written by Andrew Bacevich, entitled “America’s War for the Greater Middle East.” Over the past several decades we have intervened here, there, and everywhere throughout the Middle East, spent trillions of dollars, and have achieved virtually nothing of lasting value. Why? Because we view everything through an American lens, and therefore do not comprehend local realities, and we have a bizarrely naive faith in the efficacy of military action. Our dear President has shown himself to be a card carrying member of small, self perpetuating, group of nitwits foisting their cluelessness on American foreign policy. If he wanted to guarantee Iran did not get the bomb, then he should have forcefully told Israel to get rid of its nuclear weapons. Make the Middle East a nuke free region. What is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander. His empty attack on Iran absolutely will result in Iran developing nuke weapons, and delivery systems.
I have a question for our political leaders. Do you ever tire of tip toeing around the mountain of hypocrisy and transparent deceit surrounding Israel’s possession of nukes? Come clean, grow a spine, and rid the region of all nukes. Try genuine peace, for a change.