Two Knuckleheads Versus A Near-Peer

So once again I'm so out of touch with the rest of the world that a couple of acquaintances had to tell me today that the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran before I became aware of this fact.  Why have I chosen to isolate myself to such a degree that I'm not aware of breaking news? Simply because I already know that the world is a messed-up place, and that this is due in no small part to the United States of America.  We are now reaping the chaos that results from over 45 years of behind-the-scenes machinations by white supremacists and American exceptionalists.  The combination of white supremacy and American exceptionalism has worked synergistically to produce an extremely potent social toxin.  That toxin produced Trumpism, but it certainly did not begin with Trump.  Rather, there is an entire cabal of damnably malignant men to blame, an entire coterie of rich and powerful people, an entire demographic of people whose souls are a pile of garbage.

I'll say at the outset that from my limited reading of the situation, the attack against Iran was unprovoked.  It was not an act of retaliation against any Iranian attack on Israel or the U.S.   In other words, Iran did not throw the first punch.  This shows that the regimes of both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are guilty of a criminal act.  (Regarding Israel, my last shreds of sympathy for Israel are evaporating right now.  Netanyahu seems like a singularly rigid, unimaginative, and brittle head of state in such times as these.)  The problem for both nations is that Iran is much closer to a near-peer to the U.S. than Venezuela was, and is much more populous than Israel.  Attacking Iran has probably erased any fault lines that previously existed in Iranian society, and the attack will harden anti-Israel sentiment across the entire Mideast. Israel, having managed to alienate many people by its actions in Gaza, seems bent on escalating the alienation still further.  As for Iran, it has defensive and offensive missile capabilities which pose a serious threat to U.S. military assets in the region.  It has begun to use those capabilities.  And those capabilities are about to be augmented.

It's time for the rest of the world to recognize that the United States is now itself a rogue state.  The rest of the world does indeed have the collective power to bring this rogue state to heel, but only if it presents a united or nearly united front.  As for whether bringing the U.S. to heel involves military responses, I will reserve any comment or opinion.  However, the rest of the world can definitely impose the kinds of steps of economic noncooperation (including even sanctions) that can render the U.S. powerless.  Please decouple from the U.S. - completely.

I'll also say that those members of the U.S. military who choose to obey Trump's orders are men without conscience.  They may be merely people who have chosen to indulge in what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil, or they may have chosen more enthusiastically to support the Trump/America First agenda, but either way they are people who have thereby forever lost my respect.  Right now I don't support our troops.

An additional problem for the U.S. is that this nation's malignant narcissism - expressed through the potent poison of white supremacy and American exceptionalism - may damage and erode the capability of the leaders of the U.S. to discern reality to such an extent that they will choose to launch unprovoked military attacks on nations that are even closer to near-peer status than Iran.  This could result in disastrous consequences for the world in general and for the U.S. in particular.  These consequences may last a very long time.

The "Principled" Boneheads

Today I ran into some members and organizers of the protests against Israeli violence in Gaza.  I had known about the war between Israel and Hamas, and had heard of the extremely disproportionate response of Israel, but I had not been personally involved in any protest action.  And on a certain level, today was no different for me in that my contact with the protesters was entirely a chance encounter that came about because we just happened to be in the same place at the same time.  During my encounter I saw that the protesters had printed a bunch of flyers urging voters in the Democratic primary to write "Uncommitted" in the ballot choice for the Presidency of the United States.

Now I can quite understand public outrage among many people in the United States over Israel's actions in this present war.  I can also understand why many people would characterize those actions as attempted genocide.  The brunt of Israel's violence has fallen on poor Palestinian civilians, especially women and children, and Israel has caused many tens of thousands of casualties among these.  Let me say right now that although I am a Christian and I believe Israel is God's earthly people, I most emphatically do not believe that God has created Israel to be a special pet who gets to trash the other peoples of the earth.  There is no nation on earth that has a right to make itself great by oppressing the powerless.  Therefore to the extent that I can, I am committed to such things as researching the country of origin of the things that are offered to me for sale, so that I can boycott those products which are made by nations that oppress.  That includes boycotting Israel.

However, when protesters in this country begin to urge withdrawing support from the Democratic party as a means of pressuring the Biden administration to withdraw military aid from Israel, I am reminded of how Russian operatives and propaganda organs managed to weaken and depress the Democratic vote in 2014 and 2016 by promoting "principled" spokespersons who pointed out to us all the weaknesses of Barack Obama and of Hillary Clinton.  I am also reminded of how the candidacy of Bernie Sanders weakened the candidacy of Hillary Clinton in 2016.  (Although Hillary won the 2016 popular vote by 2.7 million, evidently this was not enough of a margin to prevent Donald Trump from capturing the White House.  Go figure!)  I am also reminded of how operatives from the Right used mouthpieces such as Umair Haque in 2020 to try to do the same thing to Biden.

Such things as this make me wonder what it is that some of the present protesters really want.  If they really want to put the powerless into a better position to resist the predations of the powerful, they should consider what will happen to the powerless in the United States in the event of a wave of Republican victories in the November elections.  Among the things we are all likely to receive from such victories are the following:

• The continued erosion of the rights of women and dark-skinned ethnic minorities in the United States
• The continued concentration of wealth and corruption among the richest Americans
• The continued impoverishment of the poor and the continued expansion of economic precarity in the United States
• The continued expansion of fascism and the continued development of an American police state
• The continued erosion of American democracy
• The continued expansion of Russian power (including the possible loss of Ukraine to Russia)
• Oh, and by the way: the Republicans will also continue to support Israeli militancy, in case no one noticed.

Given these possible outcomes, why are the antiwar protesters trying to tamper with the 2024 American elections?  I can think of only two possible reasons.  First, they may be incredibly stupid in their idealism.  It is far too easy to make an emotional, yet senseless response to an evil situation.  Then, when one's emotional response turns out to have evil consequences, the person who made the response can try to comfort himself by claiming that he is paying the price of martyrdom.  To such people I say, please go to school and enroll in a crash course in strategic thinking.  Then think of some other way to put irresistible pressure (including economic pressure) on the powers that be in this country to force them to withdraw military support for Israel without engaging in actions that endanger the 2024 U.S. elections.  Just to be clear: I am all for pressuring the powers that be to withdraw military support for Israel as long as Israel continues to attempt genocide against the Palestinian people.

But maybe the attempt to tamper with the 2024 elections is itself an example of fine strategic thinking - although the strategy in question has an actual aim that is very different from the aim which its creators claim they want to see.  In that case, maybe some of the antiwar protesters are themselves being disingenuous.