American Subsidized War
The breaking news all this week has been the war waging between the Israeli’s and the Palestinians of the Gaza strip. As a true believer in the non-aggression axiom I cannot accept either side’s claim of self defense, as both sides have been launching rockets indiscriminately into each other’s territory. When firing a weapon of that sort (missiles, rockets, mortars ect) without a clear military target (i.e. making sure there would be no civilian casualties) it is considered a war crime and punishable under the Geneva convention. So in that respect both sides are guilty and deserve no pity.
But we as rational individuals need to pull ourselves back from the awful horrors and pictures coming out of this region in order to look objectively at the events going on, and to determine what the real motives of the actors involved are. We need to state some facts and see where they lead us. First, we must realize it is the governments (or wannabe government in the case of Hamas) of each side that are ordering these actions against each other, not the innocent individuals of each country. Government by its nature is violence, and when it is confronted with a problem, this is the only tool it knows how to use. So we should not be surprised by the actions taken by either side, because when your only tool is a hammer (violence) every problem begins to look like a nail (war).
Second we must look at and understand the huge discrepancy in the firepower being used by each side. Israel has the most modern military in the Middle East and it is the only country in that region to obtain nuclear weapons (I consider Pakistan and India to be part of the sub-continent and not really a part of this conflict, yet). Israel is able to afford this type of military because the US federal government subsidizes Israel heavily. Since Bush has taken office, the feds have given Israel nearly $20b in military aid. Hamas on the other hand is using homemade rockets and old soviet weaponry that has been smuggled in and modified over the years.
Third, when governments are involved, we have to look closely at the politics associated with them. The first thing to know is that Hamas was created by the Israeli government to be an opposition to Arafat’s PLO in the 90′s. Also it is interesting to note that the Israeli government is holding its elections in little under 6 weeks from now. From past experiences in the politics of this country, as well of those in Israel, it is easy to see that when a conflict such as this is foisted upon the public, they go running to mommy government to protect them. The approval ratings for the current administration go up, and the polls start to look more favorably towards them as well. If there are still some secret ties between Hamas and the Mossad (Israeli equivalent to the CIA) it could be an easy possibility that this whole thing has been nothing but a political stunt to raise poll numbers, and an excuse for the racists on both sides to start killing each other again.
I oppose all wars, but I especially oppose the wars that I am forced to pay for. Do not think for a moment that a portion of Arab people does not think that this is a US funded war against them. There is a huge possibility that this will lead to violence and blowback against US citizens the world over. While the Israeli’s are claiming self defense, the amount of death and destruction caused by their response is well in excess of what is justified. Violence always begets more violence, and this time will be no different. This will lead to more suicide bombings, more military action, and more death of innocents on both sides. The only way out of this as far as I can see is for the US government to stop funding to all sides of this conflict. Let the Israelis pay for their own war and then see how well they do. Let’s see how the citizens of Israel feel when they are taxed to death in order to kill innocents. Unfortunately by the looks of it I doubt that will happen any time soon.
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Author: renniks (15 Articles)
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