Why is the U.S. Giving More Money to Israel Focused on the Murder of Innocent People?

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart

 

I know this is controversial, but give me a chance to explain.

What the terrorist group, Hamas, did in Israel is horrific and unforgivable. I would love to see them all eliminated by any means, as I would any other terrorist group, foreign or domestic. However, retaliating by killing thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children is tantamount to a war crime. So, why is our government sending more money to Israel allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to continue his own form of genocide and placing the world in danger of WWIII?

The truth is simple. Our government and our military love wars and winning them at any cost. No country in the world has committed a greater atrocity than the United States when the ultimate weapon of mass destruction was dropped on the people who lived in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. Hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children were killed and thousands more maimed. The truth is that this was the last time in our nation’s history when we won a war by doing what was necessary and available. America has lost every war since WWII, although our military is five times larger than all others combined.

The justification for these two heinous acts was ending WWII quickly and saving lives of our own military. Not an action founded on the principles of the nation of the United States of America.

We remained at war in South Vietnam for 20 years, eventually retreating with our tails between our legs. Our government reminds us of the loss of more than 58,000 American lives, but no one mentions the thousands of Vietnamese who lost their lives, not soldiers, just everyday people.

American losses in Iraq and Afghanistan were approximately 7,000 military, and 8,000 civilian contractors. However civilian lives were much more devastating: Iraq: 267,792 — 295,170 deaths. Afghanistan: 147,124 deaths.

The truth is undeniable: the leaders of governments declare wars. Soldiers and their support groups die fighting those wars. But civilians suffer the greatest harm. “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nonthin.”

More facts: politicians win elections because of fallacious claims about wars: (George Bush in 2004). Politicians and the wealthy men and women who invest in the military industrial complex increase their personal wealth when war becomes a reality. You and I lose our loved ones, and governments waste trillions of dollars with the end of human life as the only objective.

We baby boomers receive a huge amount of undeserved criticism. We changed our country and the world with attempts to make love, kindness, and compassion the focus of our lives. We were forced to fight our government’s war in southeast Asia because the draft remained in existence. To this day there has been no explanation for our involvement in military action halfway around the world.

With each of my passing 77 years I have become more convinced that all wars a based on stupidity and greed. They are a display of complete failure. Nothing is accomplished by violence incited by people who harbor anger and hatred without reason.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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