I hesitated to read this. I hated to read this. I had to read this. Now I will do my best to make others do the same, by sharing with people less fortunate in their choices than Chris Hedges readers.
The film mentioned, “The Act Of Killing”, was so horrific that I couldn’t watch more than ten minutes or so. But, like any student of human nature, I have always to bear in mind deeper truths:
“I am human. Nothing human is alien to me.” Attributed to Roman playwright Terrance
“No person is more different from another than they are from themselves at another time” Pascal
Sera, I understand well your concerns and hate to divert to this question, but I'm at a loss, can you please tell me how to log out of a Substack session and then log in at another time? Many thanks.
Biden has always been a war monger.........I remember when he was in the Senate and yelling for Bush Jr to start the war on Iraq....there is a reason he is the highest receiver of AIPAC $$.
I'm an American and I am not fond of Americans either - for being so stupid and gullible for so long - connect the dots - what D-leaders say we are isn't the same as what we are. I'm continually told - "vote Blue, the other side is worse." These same Blue supporters seem unwilling and afraid to hold their inauthentic opposition party to account in an honest effort to reform and improve the party. Instead, they continue on a rightward slide; while those of us that do not support these charlatans are then blamed for Democratic loses because we MADE a CONSCIOUS CHOICE to NOT VOTE FOR THEM.
I am old enough to remember when the D Party was the self proclaimed party of free speech, and anti-war. They are probably more captured by the Zionist money than the Rs at this point, but that’s probably just splitting hairs at this point. When 70% of our federally elected officials are receiving sizable Zionist donations, and large numbers have dual citizenship with Israel, is there any doubt who owns this country?
Thomas Massie has repeatedly tried to get a bill out that would force any member of Congress, who has dual citizenship to report that publicly.
Which Nixon sought to win by by expanding the war into Laos and Cambodia. If you are intent on parsing the subject values of the two fake parties, you will miss the overwhelming evidence that renders that exercise pointless.
What you say is true. I am no admirer of the duopoly. I generally vote Green and will be voting for Jill Stein in this election. It would be good if we could make the Greens a viable party for winning elections. My comments on Democrats getting us into wars and Republicans eventually getting us out was as a retired professor of U.S. history. Nixon indeed was responsible for expanding the Vietnam War, but because of the immense growth of the antiwar movement, he felt he had to get us out of the war, which he started to do with his so-called "Vietnamization" program, wherein he withdrew several hundred thousand troops while trying to turn the conduct of the war over to the South Vietnamese. This did not work, but it gave him a fig leaf which he called "peace with honor." I did not support Nixon in the Vietnam War. I voted for George McGovern in 1972, the peace candidate. McGovern, a genuinely good man who hated the war, won only my home state of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Eliminating choice is something they absolutely have to do....and it is interesting that the only choice now is to not vote.....or perhaps vote for a crazy person and speed the dissolution of your own republic.
Then we must act to disempower those that scapegoat us for their failures to select with us in open conventions wise savy presidential candidates and work harder to 1/demolish obstacles to recognizing third and more parties 2/ dismantle the electoral college 3/ cap wealth accumulation 4/ vivify on going civic engagement 5/ fuel the reach and power of today’s “alternative media” 6/ influence alternative media to include for every critique of current failure (governmental -legislative, executive and or judicial) an inspired vision of a more just form 7/ ….you add to this…
Exactly correct. Actually creating and expanding antisemitism, especially for folks who have a limited understanding of the issues. All they see is “the Jewish state” torturing, raping and murdering everything in sight.
The Jewish state, Israel, has never represented the support and loyalty of anywhere near all Jews. Many Orthodox Jews, for example, opposed its creation and continue to oppose it today. Also Jews whose personal philosophy tends toward pacifism oppose Israel, which has waged continuous wars instead of conducting diplomacy.
One caveat to my statement about Israel's wars. President Jimmy Carter, a strong Christian, was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, bringing Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat together to sign the Camp David Accords. It took great energy and skill for Carter to accomplish this peace. It is too bad that we now have Neocon warmongers festering American politics. They are the very opposite of Jimmy Carter. Carter is often called a weak president. That assessment could not be more wrong. We need more presidents like him if we are to ever have real peace and avoidance of nuclear war. God bless Jimmy Carter, as he nears 100 years old.
Jimmy hit 100 on October 1st. He's the longest living President. And had been married for 77 years, when his wife, Rosalynn, died. He made mistakes as President, but I will always honor his memory for issuing the unconditional amnesty for Vietnam War draft evaders, giving the Panama Canal back to Panama, and signing the Salt II nuclear arms treaty, with Breshnev. I can't imagine either of this year's two major party candidates doing any of those acts. We've been going downhill, rapidly, since Reagan. It's so sad.
I appreciate your comments on the Carters, two wonderful people. In the Seventies I visited Americus, Georgia, next to Plains, where the Carters had their peanut farm. It was in Americus that an attorney, Millard Fuller, started Habitat for Humanity (building houses for the poor). I remember Carter's working on those homes, putting in"sweat equity." Habitat is still going strong. Thanks for reminding me of some of the great accomplishments of Jimmy Carter's presidency. He has never been adequately appreciated. He was a good president and is a fine man who lives his Christian faith.
I have life-long Jewish friends. I do not broach this topic with them. It bothers me considerably how anti-Semitism is on the rise. It is created through a false narrative and a host of lies and misrepresentation. The growing Christo-Fascism in the U.S. is not helping.
It has to be possible to oppose what Israel is doing without being charged with anti-Semitism. Perhaps more of us should look up the meaning of Semitic...tell everyone we know that Palestinians...and Arabs...qualify.
It's one more reason why I despise Zionism and all its supporters. The arrogance and stupidity involved in taking an ethnic label and insisting it only applies to Jews.
Truth likely is that the people who never left Palestine are more Semitic than European/American Jews who left that homeland region centuries ago.
The anti-Semites are the warmongers allowing a genocide in Gaza to expand to another Semitic people in Lebanon. In that sense, Zionists are the purest form of anti-Semite.
The vast majority of Christians are not fascists. Indeed, fascism and Christianity are opposites. Thus Hitler substituted a perverse version of Norse war gods (Wotan) for Christianity. Fascism is based on power and domination of as much of the world as possible. It is wholly given to aggressive war. No true Christian is a fascist. Christianity is based on humility and love of all being.
While that should be true.......you've got a lot of fundamentalist Christians down in the US of A backing a genuine fascist in Donald Trump....and I'm afraid more nominal Christians than you might imagine resent being called out on residential schools or any of the crimes of colonialism...........from which primarily the Christian nations benefited.
Inga, both parties are fascist by the dictionary definition. One party has rainbow flags, but the difference between the two is slim. If you abide by the adage ‘by their works you shall know them’ the Gazan genocide is a powerful indicator as to which side our leaders are on. Hint: it’s not our side.
Why I said a few weeks ago it doesn't really matter who wins the election in Nov. from a planetary perspective. By the time Americans have to call all their military bases home, our natural world will likely be in free fall. Wars are fun for a certain demographic.......but deadly for rising greenhouse gases.
American's penchant for world domination is going to leave us all cooked.
The issue is controlled by a powerful political group of people who impose a childhood mentality on us. There's nothing objectionable about us saying the political wing of Judaism has corrupted our government and society, through its irresistible Jewish Lobby. This does not mean we hate individual Jews. The same thing is when we say that our country is committing genocide. We don't hate individual Americans when we say that. We know it's the leaders, and unfortunately they have influenced the entire nation. But we can condemn this country for it the same as we can condemn Judaism for its wrongdoing, which is the same way many Jews condemned Germany for its Holocaust.
This might sound shocking to those of us who are brainwashed into believing that Judaism has nothing to do with politics. It's absurd when people say that Jews have no political power. Could they be brainwashed also into believing that the US has nothing to do with politics? Probably not, but you see how ridiculous this whole thing is. That's only once you enable yourself to think beyond the level of a six-year-old.
But the Jewish leaders have accomplished such an amazing thing and discovered a way to control our thinking so that they are now unaccountable for their political wrongdoing. Even worse, they have convinced us to punish any among us who point out these truths. They've convinced both Jews and non-Jews.
This simple truth - that the Jewish political leaders are the source of all this ethnic cleansing, murder, and genocide - is so powerful and devastating that these people have invested everything into maintaining its cover up. It will get much worse before it can improve.
Zionism is entirely a political movement involving loyalty to a secular state, Israel, created three years after WW2 ended. While the movement has nineteenth century roots, it did not come to fruition until 1948. It was and is a secular movement. I believe the evangelical Christians who see it as a fulfillment of scriptural prophesy are probably incorrect. The traditional Orthodox Jewish belief is that the re-creation of Israel, as prophesied in the Bible would only be true if the Messiah leads the Jewish people there. This was not the sentiment of those who created the state of Israel, who spoke for the very secular Zionist movement.
The reason antisemitism is rising is because, with the media and Israel Lobby's great influence, Judaism has been conflated with Zionism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Judaism is a great religious/moral tradition, the original monotheistic religion born in the Middle East (Fertile Crescent). Zionism is Jewish nationalism and has nothing to do with real Judaism. It is a movement started in the late nineteenth century for a modern Jewish state. That was to be and is a wholly secular state. Some Israelis like to conflate Zionism with Judaism because it sanctifies a secular nationalistic movement.
Well, you can call it a great religion, and I suppose it is from a historical perspective. But when I heard it said that Jewish men thanked Jehovah every day for not being born a woman, they lost me.
Caregivers are the holy people; that patriarchy turned them into some dorks free housekeeper still riles me.
Yes it certainly is. And it is so utterly unnecessary. We need diplomacy and love of life. Irrational aggressive behavior does not come from Eros, or love of life, but Thanatos, the death wish.
Remember Blinken is a neocon, a full fledged neocon, as was Biden's under secretary of state, Nuland, you know the one on the phone deciding who will be the next president of Ukraine after the US during the Obama administration helped implement a coup in Ukraine. The neocons moved over to the democrats during the Trump years, and there they remain. Nuland by the way is married to a very influential, rich neocon, Robert Kegan, another pimp for war. So as a result of their influence and continued influence on our political policies we have something like this. https://www.aljazeera.com/videos/documentary/
Biden is lapsing into dementia. You could see that at the so-called debate. Harris, who stands for the same warmongering policies as Biden, is the one has replaced him. She was given a coronation without ever entering a primary by the War Party Democrats. Harris will of course fully support Netanyahu's continuous atrocities against the Palestinian people (not just Hamas).
I wrote this in 2014: “In Gaza the cycle of violence and retribution has no end. The United States and Europe could intervene, if they had the will, but no point holding our collective breath. Israel has a blanket pass and a get-out-of-jail-free card with no expiration date. Even when Israel’s policies are dead wrong, they are deemed right because the lives of Jews have been weighed and metered and determined to be of more value than the lives of Palestinians.”
Every day I feel shame for the complicity of the US in this genocide, and every day I know we will do nothing to stop it, and every day I marvel -- that's the only word that fits -- at how thoroughly Israel, a tiny country, has captured the US political system. It just boggles my mind that we allow, encourage, Bibi Netanyahu to yank our chain and make us dance.
Israeli Middle East policy is American policy. It's that simple. Israel is a limb of the United States. They see it as another state and they see this as part of their persistent effort to maintain hegemony across the entire globe. So it's not Bibi Natenyahu yanking the chain, it's the Americans and it's the Israelis and it's been this way since America decided to make Israel its pet project.
It used to be said that Israel was a “client state” of the US. I think we can more accurately say, today, that the US is little more than Israel’s bitch.
You seem blind to the US Jewish Lobby, a humongous lobby made up of the leaders of over 450 US Jewish political organizations that are funded to billions of dollars by the US Jewish community and Israel.
Do you think this political activity is just to organize Seders? Follow the money. This lobby has been working for 75 years towards their accomplishment today, in which we are now committing genocide for them. They are even so good, we cannot even acknowledge that they exist as a political force by using the proper name to describe them. We are instructed to say, "The Israel Lobby," instead of "The Jewish Lobby." See?
We cannot bring a perpetrator to justice if we don't identify who it is.
I know about the lobby. The lobby cares about the US's existence and power as much as Israel's. They're on and the same. Israel doesn't exist without the US.
Very sad and very true. Their pet project is to drag us into multiple wars to make the Middle East safe for Zionism. I had a colleague at the university where I taught U.S. history. She taught Jewish history. We were in complete agreement that the state of Israel has been bad for the Jews.
The Israel lobby is extremely powerful. They influence American politics by getting any senator or Congress member who speaks out against Israel's excesses out of office. If our politicians in Washington were interested in espousing truth and good legislative and executive policy, they would not merely be interested in getting reelected. Our founders did not see politics as a profession but as a public service.
Israel, especially with Netanyahu, who is using the war to escape being tried for corruption, is nothing but a racist warfare state. The U. S. uses Israel as its hammer in the Middle East.
This will be remembered by the world as the beginning of the end for the US. Unless, we use our wisdom and compassion, like Eisenhower said, “beware of the military industrial complex…”. He had vision.
Agreed, the beginning of the End, however, Eisenhower never mentioned the dangers of over-consumption of Blue-Kool-Aid and herd like behavior of the American public. I'm not so sure about our supposed wisdom or compassion - not seeing that in the land of Me & we're number 1 - a lifetime of twisted propaganda.
I’ve given up on humanity as a whole. While there are those who have empathy and kindness for others, they are certainly in the minority with little to no power to make the world better as a whole. When you have the USA giddily cheering on and enabling genocide there is no hope left. For me genocide is the absolute worst crime humans can do to one another. And here we are now with genocide being normalized. I wouldn’t be here on earth if it wasn’t for my mother’s parents who literally escaped the Armenian genocide. I take the act of genocide more personally than many others given my family history. Call me a misanthrope if you wish, but I think extinction is the best outcome for humanity as we apparently refuse to learn how to get along with each other in this day and age. And the one worse crime humans can do over and above genocide is ecocide to all flora and fauna and we are certainly rampaging along that track as well now. That old saying about the meek inheriting the earth forgot to say that the earth will be uninhabitable by that point. What a waste of a species humans turned out to be. Good riddance to humans, and I say that from a place of compassion and kindness in a most paradoxical way.
I am an atheist, but I always interpreted “the meek shall inherit the Earth” as only insects will be left, because we have destroyed everything else. It is depressing to see how little we have done to make this world a compassionate place for all living beings. Hope is hard to come by. America is depraved, and I am ashamed of much of our true History. The first step is admitting what you are, then work on changing it. Most Americans can’t even take that first step, they are in denial. We are the monsters, you are fooling yourself if you can’t see that.
Oddly, that is not the actual meaning of meek. Meek, as in Jesus's statement that the meek shall inherit the Earth, means those who love God and one's neighbor and keep the Commandments. An atheist could be meek by being helpful, kind and gracious to others.
The U.S., my country, murdered 90% of its indigenous population and settled the remainder on reservations. It enslaved millions of Africans and treats non-white citizens with contempt. Endless wars are waged to dominate and subdue other nations. Martin Luther King was most vilified for speaking out against the Vietnam war (and war in general). Now we are cranking up the nuclear weapons machine, an unimaginable stupidity. Those who oppose the hatred, racism and cruelty often despair for a lack of progress against the hideous death machine, but the most important thing is not whether we win or lose, but that we do the right thing, and live to tell our children and grandchildren that we did and that it is their legacy to live lives of honesty, integrity and kindness to all peoples. Rage against the darkness, and light a candle, my friends.
I hope you are right in thinking that there will eventually be consequences for these atrocities, perhaps even some justice. In the meantime, as an American whose views align with those in this article, I feel utterly disempowered and unable to do anything that might help those that are being slaughtered.
"We are as depraved as the killers in Indonesia and Israel. We mythologize our genocide of Native Americans, romanticizing our killers, gunmen, outlaws, militias and cavalry units. We, like Israel, fetishize the military."
I was just reading more about the Oklahoma land rush, mythologized in several Hollywood movies. Recall the the justifications for stealing Native lands and forcing their children into Christianity and English-speaking was that they were "heathens" in the eyes of the manifest-destiny-spouting land rushers -- similarly to the status of Palestinians as subhumans in the eyes of the chosen of Israel. It almost always boils down to our god's better than your god. Ironic as hell, considering that Native American turn out to be prescient in their respect and honoring of All That Is, the Great Spirit of Nature, which we are now destroying as a prelude to our own destruction.
The cruel irony is that after murdering hundreds of thousands of Natives, the Euro-Americans forced many of the survivors into the Oklahoma Territory. But then, at the end of the nineteenth century, the federal government backed the Oklahoma Land Rush, where the "Sooners" (whites who got their first) got to steal most of the land from the tribes.
I don’t think the geography of Palestine and their multitude of neighbours is comparable to the large American continent, where those within it were isolated from any allies. That, plus the several hundred years ago mentality, were what allowed the Americans to do their land grab.
It's odd that you're being this aggressive but the politics of the region are different and much more public nowadays. Even if Israel exterminates everyone in Gaza, there are still 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and 2 million in Israel proper and occupied Palestine and Israel has no plan on how to get rid of these people. In many ways Gaza is easier because they're isolated. The West Bank they've integrated Jewish settlements throughout it. There are also about 4 million Palestinians who were pushed into Jordan just across the border from the West Bank, about a million in Lebanon and Syria (Palestine as an idea will not go anywhere). It's not easy for them to exterminate the Palestinians and create their Jewish majority. Especially so that Palestinians have more children than Jews.
They also have internal demographic problems like the fact that mainstream religious and secular Jews have much lower birthrates than Orthodox Jews and the latter will make up a significant part of the demographic of Israel in a decade or two. And the Orthodox don't do military service. They have many problems in Israel that will not be solved as much as they'd love to solve them.
They can exterminate Gaza (they won't even do that, they'll clear the north and call it a victory and the 1.5 million that remain after the war will make up the next wave of Hamas who are numbered in the 100s of thousands as opposed to the measly 40k they were numbered at at the start of this slaughter). Israel has done itself no service.
Of course they're powerful with the support of the US but you also have global political power shifting West to East again and you have other major geopolitical players in the game that also have interests in the Middle East. And you also potentially have the Iran wildcard which, in the event Israel attacks Iran, and depending on the severity of this attack, may doom us all with a nuclear world war.
I try to be a realist, even if I'd prefer to believe in comforting lies.
The Nazis managed to exterminate millions of people living in various nominally sovereign countries. I am sure that the Israelis, backed up by their American thug, can accomplish similar.
But the Nazis ultimately didn't succeed (although they may have shape shifted).
Of course if Israel manages to exterminate all 7 million Palestinians in the region then they might "succeed" but I'm not so sure. That's a lot of people to kill and that'll turn them into more of a pariah state and one that's economically decrepit. I don't think it's that simple in this case.
Thank you, Chris. You're one of the few people I know who put humanity's inhumane so powerfully, trenchantly, and painfully into print. I find it so heartbreaking to read, and feel mostly helpless to do anything to stop the ongoing horrors; which means that I am complicit in what the US is doing. But reading what you write is one thing I can do. Along with weeping, wailing, and raging. You penetrate my denial and thus enable me to join the heartache of the Soul which I believe yearns for islands of hope and peace. Thanks for the risks you take to write like this!
Excellent analysis, as always. I live in Greece and would like to say that Israel is, as you say, is internationally despised for the atrocities it commits. The Greek government is absolutely committed to grovelling before Israel, presenting this alliance as crucial for our national security opposite Turkey and citing profitable common oil interests. With few exceptions, the Greek media are mere translators of American and Zionist narratives. Hence the pitiful turnout at our demonstrations.
"We [US in Vietnam] ... deliberately maimed, abused, beat, tortured, raped, wounded and killed hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians, including children. "
Poisoned - must not forget the poison - Agent Orange, DDT, Dioxin are still there and poisoning people and wildlife.
I could never forgive Israel her genocide, since my mind is so full of pictures of the many savage atrocities she has implemented. Hard to watch those pictures, but I witness them everyday and I think there are many in the world that do, and what she has done can never be forgotten, or forgiven. I didn't approve of what Hamas did, but in no way is it justification for the slaughter Israel is implementing on the people of Gaza, and most must know it is simply used as and excuse to rid their land of Palestinians which dishonors those Israeli's who died that night, or held captive because Israel turned their lives into an excuse to implement mass murder. I think people are also aware of how bought America is by the AIPAC lobby which no doubt they were ignorant of before. That Israel should own our political agenda on this level infuriates me. and hopefully others will come to feel the same. I certainly don't think this is over, and things may get a lot worse. It seems it is no more then the same agenda initiated in the beginning of the 21st century by the US. Interesting that both America and Israel got their New Pearl Harbor to move forward with an agenda of overthrowing Muslim countries and killing and displacing millions of Muslims.
I don't believe Kamala has anything different to offer. She is yet another Neocon who will continue and perhaps expand the warfare state. I am very, very tired of the warmongers, most of whom have now migrated to the Democratic Party, of which I was a member during most of my sixty odd years of voting. But the Neocons have driven me out. It is too bad the duopoly cannot absorb any of the wisdom of someone like Jill Stein and the Green Party.
Sorry girl, but I hit the damn CR too fast --- so here are your MARCHING ORDERS to WIN:
Use your strength GIRL, and KICK both DUMB DUMB TRUMP, the MEGALOMANIAC -- and NUTANYAHU, the GENOCIDAL PRICK IN THEIR BALLS --- to really SHOW how YOU can RULE THE ROOST.
BTW, this will really show your STRENGTH, GIRL, ---- which will also actually SHOW THEIR DUAL NUDITY OF TRYING TO START WW3 --- which was really started by the ZIONIST JEW BITCH, VICTORIA NULAND, who yelled into the phone about her successful 'WAR GINNING' in 2014 of starting the UKRAINE WAR with her OPEN QUOTE AND THREAT:
"FUCK THE E.U.", PNAC, KAGAN --- [Robert Kagan] who was responsible for every WAR, since the fist ATTACK of the IRAQ WAR 'Shit Storm' over THREE FUCKING DECADES!
BTW2, here's a little song and pat on the BACK SIDE to give BYE BYE Biden:
I hesitated to read this. I hated to read this. I had to read this. Now I will do my best to make others do the same, by sharing with people less fortunate in their choices than Chris Hedges readers.
The film mentioned, “The Act Of Killing”, was so horrific that I couldn’t watch more than ten minutes or so. But, like any student of human nature, I have always to bear in mind deeper truths:
“I am human. Nothing human is alien to me.” Attributed to Roman playwright Terrance
“No person is more different from another than they are from themselves at another time” Pascal
Sera, I understand well your concerns and hate to divert to this question, but I'm at a loss, can you please tell me how to log out of a Substack session and then log in at another time? Many thanks.
Netanyahu is on a tear, and Biden is coaxing him onward. As I see this, it is increasing the hatred of Jews; and, Americans.
Biden has always been a war monger.........I remember when he was in the Senate and yelling for Bush Jr to start the war on Iraq....there is a reason he is the highest receiver of AIPAC $$.
Very true.
Well, in fairness regarding Iraq: One cannot omit Dick Cheney from that conversation.
I'm an American and I am not fond of Americans either - for being so stupid and gullible for so long - connect the dots - what D-leaders say we are isn't the same as what we are. I'm continually told - "vote Blue, the other side is worse." These same Blue supporters seem unwilling and afraid to hold their inauthentic opposition party to account in an honest effort to reform and improve the party. Instead, they continue on a rightward slide; while those of us that do not support these charlatans are then blamed for Democratic loses because we MADE a CONSCIOUS CHOICE to NOT VOTE FOR THEM.
I am old enough to remember when the D Party was the self proclaimed party of free speech, and anti-war. They are probably more captured by the Zionist money than the Rs at this point, but that’s probably just splitting hairs at this point. When 70% of our federally elected officials are receiving sizable Zionist donations, and large numbers have dual citizenship with Israel, is there any doubt who owns this country?
Thomas Massie has repeatedly tried to get a bill out that would force any member of Congress, who has dual citizenship to report that publicly.
He can’t even get it out of committee. QED
Leverage is worthless if they know you never will use it.
The Democrats are the war party back to Vietnam, which they escalated under LBJ. Republicans more often get us out of these wars.
Which Nixon sought to win by by expanding the war into Laos and Cambodia. If you are intent on parsing the subject values of the two fake parties, you will miss the overwhelming evidence that renders that exercise pointless.
What you say is true. I am no admirer of the duopoly. I generally vote Green and will be voting for Jill Stein in this election. It would be good if we could make the Greens a viable party for winning elections. My comments on Democrats getting us into wars and Republicans eventually getting us out was as a retired professor of U.S. history. Nixon indeed was responsible for expanding the Vietnam War, but because of the immense growth of the antiwar movement, he felt he had to get us out of the war, which he started to do with his so-called "Vietnamization" program, wherein he withdrew several hundred thousand troops while trying to turn the conduct of the war over to the South Vietnamese. This did not work, but it gave him a fig leaf which he called "peace with honor." I did not support Nixon in the Vietnam War. I voted for George McGovern in 1972, the peace candidate. McGovern, a genuinely good man who hated the war, won only my home state of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
My immediate family in Mississippi were McGovern supporters. He was an honorable man. Honorable men in congress are few!
Always glad to hear about old McGovern supporters.
Eliminating choice is something they absolutely have to do....and it is interesting that the only choice now is to not vote.....or perhaps vote for a crazy person and speed the dissolution of your own republic.
Then we must act to disempower those that scapegoat us for their failures to select with us in open conventions wise savy presidential candidates and work harder to 1/demolish obstacles to recognizing third and more parties 2/ dismantle the electoral college 3/ cap wealth accumulation 4/ vivify on going civic engagement 5/ fuel the reach and power of today’s “alternative media” 6/ influence alternative media to include for every critique of current failure (governmental -legislative, executive and or judicial) an inspired vision of a more just form 7/ ….you add to this…
We must have open ended consciousness raising groups on capitalism, socialism, variations thereof…
S U P E R B comment / great suggestions - thank you SS.
Exactly correct. Actually creating and expanding antisemitism, especially for folks who have a limited understanding of the issues. All they see is “the Jewish state” torturing, raping and murdering everything in sight.
The Jewish state, Israel, has never represented the support and loyalty of anywhere near all Jews. Many Orthodox Jews, for example, opposed its creation and continue to oppose it today. Also Jews whose personal philosophy tends toward pacifism oppose Israel, which has waged continuous wars instead of conducting diplomacy.
One caveat to my statement about Israel's wars. President Jimmy Carter, a strong Christian, was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, bringing Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat together to sign the Camp David Accords. It took great energy and skill for Carter to accomplish this peace. It is too bad that we now have Neocon warmongers festering American politics. They are the very opposite of Jimmy Carter. Carter is often called a weak president. That assessment could not be more wrong. We need more presidents like him if we are to ever have real peace and avoidance of nuclear war. God bless Jimmy Carter, as he nears 100 years old.
Jimmy hit 100 on October 1st. He's the longest living President. And had been married for 77 years, when his wife, Rosalynn, died. He made mistakes as President, but I will always honor his memory for issuing the unconditional amnesty for Vietnam War draft evaders, giving the Panama Canal back to Panama, and signing the Salt II nuclear arms treaty, with Breshnev. I can't imagine either of this year's two major party candidates doing any of those acts. We've been going downhill, rapidly, since Reagan. It's so sad.
I appreciate your comments on the Carters, two wonderful people. In the Seventies I visited Americus, Georgia, next to Plains, where the Carters had their peanut farm. It was in Americus that an attorney, Millard Fuller, started Habitat for Humanity (building houses for the poor). I remember Carter's working on those homes, putting in"sweat equity." Habitat is still going strong. Thanks for reminding me of some of the great accomplishments of Jimmy Carter's presidency. He has never been adequately appreciated. He was a good president and is a fine man who lives his Christian faith.
I have life-long Jewish friends. I do not broach this topic with them. It bothers me considerably how anti-Semitism is on the rise. It is created through a false narrative and a host of lies and misrepresentation. The growing Christo-Fascism in the U.S. is not helping.
It has to be possible to oppose what Israel is doing without being charged with anti-Semitism. Perhaps more of us should look up the meaning of Semitic...tell everyone we know that Palestinians...and Arabs...qualify.
It's one more reason why I despise Zionism and all its supporters. The arrogance and stupidity involved in taking an ethnic label and insisting it only applies to Jews.
Truth likely is that the people who never left Palestine are more Semitic than European/American Jews who left that homeland region centuries ago.
The anti-Semites are the warmongers allowing a genocide in Gaza to expand to another Semitic people in Lebanon. In that sense, Zionists are the purest form of anti-Semite.
Very, very true. I have said this for years (taught American Religious History) at Cal. State Long Beach.
The vast majority of Christians are not fascists. Indeed, fascism and Christianity are opposites. Thus Hitler substituted a perverse version of Norse war gods (Wotan) for Christianity. Fascism is based on power and domination of as much of the world as possible. It is wholly given to aggressive war. No true Christian is a fascist. Christianity is based on humility and love of all being.
While that should be true.......you've got a lot of fundamentalist Christians down in the US of A backing a genuine fascist in Donald Trump....and I'm afraid more nominal Christians than you might imagine resent being called out on residential schools or any of the crimes of colonialism...........from which primarily the Christian nations benefited.
Inga, both parties are fascist by the dictionary definition. One party has rainbow flags, but the difference between the two is slim. If you abide by the adage ‘by their works you shall know them’ the Gazan genocide is a powerful indicator as to which side our leaders are on. Hint: it’s not our side.
Vote Green. They are the antidote to fascism, and Jill Stein is a fine woman and would make an excellent president.
Why I said a few weeks ago it doesn't really matter who wins the election in Nov. from a planetary perspective. By the time Americans have to call all their military bases home, our natural world will likely be in free fall. Wars are fun for a certain demographic.......but deadly for rising greenhouse gases.
American's penchant for world domination is going to leave us all cooked.
The issue is controlled by a powerful political group of people who impose a childhood mentality on us. There's nothing objectionable about us saying the political wing of Judaism has corrupted our government and society, through its irresistible Jewish Lobby. This does not mean we hate individual Jews. The same thing is when we say that our country is committing genocide. We don't hate individual Americans when we say that. We know it's the leaders, and unfortunately they have influenced the entire nation. But we can condemn this country for it the same as we can condemn Judaism for its wrongdoing, which is the same way many Jews condemned Germany for its Holocaust.
This might sound shocking to those of us who are brainwashed into believing that Judaism has nothing to do with politics. It's absurd when people say that Jews have no political power. Could they be brainwashed also into believing that the US has nothing to do with politics? Probably not, but you see how ridiculous this whole thing is. That's only once you enable yourself to think beyond the level of a six-year-old.
But the Jewish leaders have accomplished such an amazing thing and discovered a way to control our thinking so that they are now unaccountable for their political wrongdoing. Even worse, they have convinced us to punish any among us who point out these truths. They've convinced both Jews and non-Jews.
This simple truth - that the Jewish political leaders are the source of all this ethnic cleansing, murder, and genocide - is so powerful and devastating that these people have invested everything into maintaining its cover up. It will get much worse before it can improve.
https://iwasathought.substack.com/p/the-jewish-lobby
https://iwasathought.substack.com/p/the-ihra-jewish-leaders-insult-our
Zionism is entirely a political movement involving loyalty to a secular state, Israel, created three years after WW2 ended. While the movement has nineteenth century roots, it did not come to fruition until 1948. It was and is a secular movement. I believe the evangelical Christians who see it as a fulfillment of scriptural prophesy are probably incorrect. The traditional Orthodox Jewish belief is that the re-creation of Israel, as prophesied in the Bible would only be true if the Messiah leads the Jewish people there. This was not the sentiment of those who created the state of Israel, who spoke for the very secular Zionist movement.
The reason antisemitism is rising is because, with the media and Israel Lobby's great influence, Judaism has been conflated with Zionism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Judaism is a great religious/moral tradition, the original monotheistic religion born in the Middle East (Fertile Crescent). Zionism is Jewish nationalism and has nothing to do with real Judaism. It is a movement started in the late nineteenth century for a modern Jewish state. That was to be and is a wholly secular state. Some Israelis like to conflate Zionism with Judaism because it sanctifies a secular nationalistic movement.
Well, you can call it a great religion, and I suppose it is from a historical perspective. But when I heard it said that Jewish men thanked Jehovah every day for not being born a woman, they lost me.
Caregivers are the holy people; that patriarchy turned them into some dorks free housekeeper still riles me.
Yes it certainly is. And it is so utterly unnecessary. We need diplomacy and love of life. Irrational aggressive behavior does not come from Eros, or love of life, but Thanatos, the death wish.
Remember Blinken is a neocon, a full fledged neocon, as was Biden's under secretary of state, Nuland, you know the one on the phone deciding who will be the next president of Ukraine after the US during the Obama administration helped implement a coup in Ukraine. The neocons moved over to the democrats during the Trump years, and there they remain. Nuland by the way is married to a very influential, rich neocon, Robert Kegan, another pimp for war. So as a result of their influence and continued influence on our political policies we have something like this. https://www.aljazeera.com/videos/documentary/
Biden is lapsing into dementia. You could see that at the so-called debate. Harris, who stands for the same warmongering policies as Biden, is the one has replaced him. She was given a coronation without ever entering a primary by the War Party Democrats. Harris will of course fully support Netanyahu's continuous atrocities against the Palestinian people (not just Hamas).
I wrote this in 2014: “In Gaza the cycle of violence and retribution has no end. The United States and Europe could intervene, if they had the will, but no point holding our collective breath. Israel has a blanket pass and a get-out-of-jail-free card with no expiration date. Even when Israel’s policies are dead wrong, they are deemed right because the lives of Jews have been weighed and metered and determined to be of more value than the lives of Palestinians.”
Every day I feel shame for the complicity of the US in this genocide, and every day I know we will do nothing to stop it, and every day I marvel -- that's the only word that fits -- at how thoroughly Israel, a tiny country, has captured the US political system. It just boggles my mind that we allow, encourage, Bibi Netanyahu to yank our chain and make us dance.
Israeli Middle East policy is American policy. It's that simple. Israel is a limb of the United States. They see it as another state and they see this as part of their persistent effort to maintain hegemony across the entire globe. So it's not Bibi Natenyahu yanking the chain, it's the Americans and it's the Israelis and it's been this way since America decided to make Israel its pet project.
It used to be said that Israel was a “client state” of the US. I think we can more accurately say, today, that the US is little more than Israel’s bitch.
And what exactly has “America’s greatest ally” ever done for us?
I’m waiting…
Zip.
You seem blind to the US Jewish Lobby, a humongous lobby made up of the leaders of over 450 US Jewish political organizations that are funded to billions of dollars by the US Jewish community and Israel.
https://iwasathought.substack.com/p/the-jewish-lobby
Do you think this political activity is just to organize Seders? Follow the money. This lobby has been working for 75 years towards their accomplishment today, in which we are now committing genocide for them. They are even so good, we cannot even acknowledge that they exist as a political force by using the proper name to describe them. We are instructed to say, "The Israel Lobby," instead of "The Jewish Lobby." See?
We cannot bring a perpetrator to justice if we don't identify who it is.
https://iwasathought.substack.com/p/the-jewish-lobby
I know about the lobby. The lobby cares about the US's existence and power as much as Israel's. They're on and the same. Israel doesn't exist without the US.
Very sad and very true. Their pet project is to drag us into multiple wars to make the Middle East safe for Zionism. I had a colleague at the university where I taught U.S. history. She taught Jewish history. We were in complete agreement that the state of Israel has been bad for the Jews.
Absolutely.
The Israel lobby is extremely powerful. They influence American politics by getting any senator or Congress member who speaks out against Israel's excesses out of office. If our politicians in Washington were interested in espousing truth and good legislative and executive policy, they would not merely be interested in getting reelected. Our founders did not see politics as a profession but as a public service.
Israel, especially with Netanyahu, who is using the war to escape being tried for corruption, is nothing but a racist warfare state. The U. S. uses Israel as its hammer in the Middle East.
This will be remembered by the world as the beginning of the end for the US. Unless, we use our wisdom and compassion, like Eisenhower said, “beware of the military industrial complex…”. He had vision.
Agreed, the beginning of the End, however, Eisenhower never mentioned the dangers of over-consumption of Blue-Kool-Aid and herd like behavior of the American public. I'm not so sure about our supposed wisdom or compassion - not seeing that in the land of Me & we're number 1 - a lifetime of twisted propaganda.
I’ve given up on humanity as a whole. While there are those who have empathy and kindness for others, they are certainly in the minority with little to no power to make the world better as a whole. When you have the USA giddily cheering on and enabling genocide there is no hope left. For me genocide is the absolute worst crime humans can do to one another. And here we are now with genocide being normalized. I wouldn’t be here on earth if it wasn’t for my mother’s parents who literally escaped the Armenian genocide. I take the act of genocide more personally than many others given my family history. Call me a misanthrope if you wish, but I think extinction is the best outcome for humanity as we apparently refuse to learn how to get along with each other in this day and age. And the one worse crime humans can do over and above genocide is ecocide to all flora and fauna and we are certainly rampaging along that track as well now. That old saying about the meek inheriting the earth forgot to say that the earth will be uninhabitable by that point. What a waste of a species humans turned out to be. Good riddance to humans, and I say that from a place of compassion and kindness in a most paradoxical way.
I am an atheist, but I always interpreted “the meek shall inherit the Earth” as only insects will be left, because we have destroyed everything else. It is depressing to see how little we have done to make this world a compassionate place for all living beings. Hope is hard to come by. America is depraved, and I am ashamed of much of our true History. The first step is admitting what you are, then work on changing it. Most Americans can’t even take that first step, they are in denial. We are the monsters, you are fooling yourself if you can’t see that.
Oddly, that is not the actual meaning of meek. Meek, as in Jesus's statement that the meek shall inherit the Earth, means those who love God and one's neighbor and keep the Commandments. An atheist could be meek by being helpful, kind and gracious to others.
The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a case with the ICC against 1,000 Israeli soldiers for war crimes in Gaza.
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org/perpetrators/hind-rajab-foundation-files-historic-icc-complaint-against-1000-israeli-soldiers-for-war-crimes-in-gaza
I think they might could use our help. Please read the article and join me in making a contribution. https://buy.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
The U.S., my country, murdered 90% of its indigenous population and settled the remainder on reservations. It enslaved millions of Africans and treats non-white citizens with contempt. Endless wars are waged to dominate and subdue other nations. Martin Luther King was most vilified for speaking out against the Vietnam war (and war in general). Now we are cranking up the nuclear weapons machine, an unimaginable stupidity. Those who oppose the hatred, racism and cruelty often despair for a lack of progress against the hideous death machine, but the most important thing is not whether we win or lose, but that we do the right thing, and live to tell our children and grandchildren that we did and that it is their legacy to live lives of honesty, integrity and kindness to all peoples. Rage against the darkness, and light a candle, my friends.
I hope you are right in thinking that there will eventually be consequences for these atrocities, perhaps even some justice. In the meantime, as an American whose views align with those in this article, I feel utterly disempowered and unable to do anything that might help those that are being slaughtered.
"We are as depraved as the killers in Indonesia and Israel. We mythologize our genocide of Native Americans, romanticizing our killers, gunmen, outlaws, militias and cavalry units. We, like Israel, fetishize the military."
I was just reading more about the Oklahoma land rush, mythologized in several Hollywood movies. Recall the the justifications for stealing Native lands and forcing their children into Christianity and English-speaking was that they were "heathens" in the eyes of the manifest-destiny-spouting land rushers -- similarly to the status of Palestinians as subhumans in the eyes of the chosen of Israel. It almost always boils down to our god's better than your god. Ironic as hell, considering that Native American turn out to be prescient in their respect and honoring of All That Is, the Great Spirit of Nature, which we are now destroying as a prelude to our own destruction.
The cruel irony is that after murdering hundreds of thousands of Natives, the Euro-Americans forced many of the survivors into the Oklahoma Territory. But then, at the end of the nineteenth century, the federal government backed the Oklahoma Land Rush, where the "Sooners" (whites who got their first) got to steal most of the land from the tribes.
with the Osage murders as add-ons.
Much as I may wish otherwise, extermination simply works, unless the Natives are on the cusp of retaking North America.
I don’t think the geography of Palestine and their multitude of neighbours is comparable to the large American continent, where those within it were isolated from any allies. That, plus the several hundred years ago mentality, were what allowed the Americans to do their land grab.
And diseases such as smallpox that were unknown in the native population.
Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better.
It's odd that you're being this aggressive but the politics of the region are different and much more public nowadays. Even if Israel exterminates everyone in Gaza, there are still 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and 2 million in Israel proper and occupied Palestine and Israel has no plan on how to get rid of these people. In many ways Gaza is easier because they're isolated. The West Bank they've integrated Jewish settlements throughout it. There are also about 4 million Palestinians who were pushed into Jordan just across the border from the West Bank, about a million in Lebanon and Syria (Palestine as an idea will not go anywhere). It's not easy for them to exterminate the Palestinians and create their Jewish majority. Especially so that Palestinians have more children than Jews.
They also have internal demographic problems like the fact that mainstream religious and secular Jews have much lower birthrates than Orthodox Jews and the latter will make up a significant part of the demographic of Israel in a decade or two. And the Orthodox don't do military service. They have many problems in Israel that will not be solved as much as they'd love to solve them.
They can exterminate Gaza (they won't even do that, they'll clear the north and call it a victory and the 1.5 million that remain after the war will make up the next wave of Hamas who are numbered in the 100s of thousands as opposed to the measly 40k they were numbered at at the start of this slaughter). Israel has done itself no service.
Of course they're powerful with the support of the US but you also have global political power shifting West to East again and you have other major geopolitical players in the game that also have interests in the Middle East. And you also potentially have the Iran wildcard which, in the event Israel attacks Iran, and depending on the severity of this attack, may doom us all with a nuclear world war.
I am not aggressive, at least not trying to be.
I try to be a realist, even if I'd prefer to believe in comforting lies.
The Nazis managed to exterminate millions of people living in various nominally sovereign countries. I am sure that the Israelis, backed up by their American thug, can accomplish similar.
But the Nazis ultimately didn't succeed (although they may have shape shifted).
Of course if Israel manages to exterminate all 7 million Palestinians in the region then they might "succeed" but I'm not so sure. That's a lot of people to kill and that'll turn them into more of a pariah state and one that's economically decrepit. I don't think it's that simple in this case.
They did succeed at exterminating about 90% of eruopean Jews.
Israel is more interested in land than extermination, but that's all beside the point. The point is what industrial-scale methods are capable of.
They've already got large numbers of Israelis migrating out of the country.
Thank you, Chris. You're one of the few people I know who put humanity's inhumane so powerfully, trenchantly, and painfully into print. I find it so heartbreaking to read, and feel mostly helpless to do anything to stop the ongoing horrors; which means that I am complicit in what the US is doing. But reading what you write is one thing I can do. Along with weeping, wailing, and raging. You penetrate my denial and thus enable me to join the heartache of the Soul which I believe yearns for islands of hope and peace. Thanks for the risks you take to write like this!
Excellent analysis, as always. I live in Greece and would like to say that Israel is, as you say, is internationally despised for the atrocities it commits. The Greek government is absolutely committed to grovelling before Israel, presenting this alliance as crucial for our national security opposite Turkey and citing profitable common oil interests. With few exceptions, the Greek media are mere translators of American and Zionist narratives. Hence the pitiful turnout at our demonstrations.
"We [US in Vietnam] ... deliberately maimed, abused, beat, tortured, raped, wounded and killed hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians, including children. "
Poisoned - must not forget the poison - Agent Orange, DDT, Dioxin are still there and poisoning people and wildlife.
I could never forgive Israel her genocide, since my mind is so full of pictures of the many savage atrocities she has implemented. Hard to watch those pictures, but I witness them everyday and I think there are many in the world that do, and what she has done can never be forgotten, or forgiven. I didn't approve of what Hamas did, but in no way is it justification for the slaughter Israel is implementing on the people of Gaza, and most must know it is simply used as and excuse to rid their land of Palestinians which dishonors those Israeli's who died that night, or held captive because Israel turned their lives into an excuse to implement mass murder. I think people are also aware of how bought America is by the AIPAC lobby which no doubt they were ignorant of before. That Israel should own our political agenda on this level infuriates me. and hopefully others will come to feel the same. I certainly don't think this is over, and things may get a lot worse. It seems it is no more then the same agenda initiated in the beginning of the 21st century by the US. Interesting that both America and Israel got their New Pearl Harbor to move forward with an agenda of overthrowing Muslim countries and killing and displacing millions of Muslims.
These aggressive wars are literally psychopathic.
Dear Chris, I'm recommending this to Kamala as the only way to win:
Dear Kamala --- WTF-UP.
Your poles are declining to hell --- Seriously Girl!
The only effin way your can take charge and win is to show your STRENGTH Girl. Period, Full Stop!
That you think Harris will say, much less do, anything that offends AIPAC is touching.
I don't believe Kamala has anything different to offer. She is yet another Neocon who will continue and perhaps expand the warfare state. I am very, very tired of the warmongers, most of whom have now migrated to the Democratic Party, of which I was a member during most of my sixty odd years of voting. But the Neocons have driven me out. It is too bad the duopoly cannot absorb any of the wisdom of someone like Jill Stein and the Green Party.
Sorry girl, but I hit the damn CR too fast --- so here are your MARCHING ORDERS to WIN:
Use your strength GIRL, and KICK both DUMB DUMB TRUMP, the MEGALOMANIAC -- and NUTANYAHU, the GENOCIDAL PRICK IN THEIR BALLS --- to really SHOW how YOU can RULE THE ROOST.
BTW, this will really show your STRENGTH, GIRL, ---- which will also actually SHOW THEIR DUAL NUDITY OF TRYING TO START WW3 --- which was really started by the ZIONIST JEW BITCH, VICTORIA NULAND, who yelled into the phone about her successful 'WAR GINNING' in 2014 of starting the UKRAINE WAR with her OPEN QUOTE AND THREAT:
"FUCK THE E.U.", PNAC, KAGAN --- [Robert Kagan] who was responsible for every WAR, since the fist ATTACK of the IRAQ WAR 'Shit Storm' over THREE FUCKING DECADES!
BTW2, here's a little song and pat on the BACK SIDE to give BYE BYE Biden:
"BYE BYE BIDEN
THE EMPIRE'S
GOT YOU NOW
BYE BYE BIDEN
YOU'RE A REAL
COW-WARD