The Shame of Being an American
By Paul Craig Roberts*
07/22/06 -- Gentle reader, do you know that Israel is
engaged in ethnic cleansing in southern Lebanon? Israel has ordered
all the villagers to clear out. Israel then destroys their homes and
murders the fleeing villagers. That way there is no one to come back
and nothing to which to return, making it easier for Israel to grab
the territory, just as Israel has been stealing Palestine from the
Palestinians.
Do you know that one-third of the Lebanese civilians murdered by
Israel's attacks on civilian residential districts are children?
That is the report from Jan Egeland, the emergency relief
coordinator for the UN. He says it is impossible for help to reach
the wounded and those buried in rubble, because Israeli air strikes
have blown up all the bridges and roads. Considering how often
(almost always) Israel misses Hezbollah targets and hits civilian
ones, one might think that Israeli fire is being guided by US
satellites and US military GPS. Don't be surprised at US complicity.
Why would the puppet be any less evil than the puppet master?
Of course, you don't know these things, because the US print and TV
media do not report them.
Because Bush is so proud of himself, you do know that he has blocked
every effort to stop the Israeli slaughter of Lebanese civilians.
Bush has told the UN "NO." Bush has told the European Union "NO."
Bush has told the pro-American Lebanese prime minister "NO." Twice.
Bush is very proud of his firmness. He is enjoying Israel's rampage
and wishes he could do the same thing in Iraq.
Does it make you a Proud American that "your" president gave Israel
the green light to drop bombs on convoys of villagers fleeing from
Israeli shelling, on residential neighborhoods in the capital of
Beirut and throughout Lebanon, on hospitals, on power plants, on
food production and storage, on ports, on civilian airports, on
bridges, on roads, on every piece of infrastructure on which
civilized life depends? Are you a Proud American? Or are you an
Israeli puppet?
On July 20, "your" House of Representatives voted 410-8 in favor of
Israel's massive war crimes in Lebanon. Not content with making
every American complicit in war crimes, "your" House of
Representatives, according to the Associated Press, also "condemns
enemies of the Jewish state."
Who are the "enemies of the Jewish state"?
They are the Palestinians whose land has been stolen by the Jewish
state, whose homes and olive groves have been destroyed by the
Jewish state, whose children have been shot down in the streets by
the Jewish state, whose women have been abused by the Jewish state.
They are Palestinians who have been walled off into ghettos, who
cannot reach their farm lands or medical care or schools, who cannot
drive on roads through Palestine that have been constructed for
Israelis only. They are Palestinians whose ancient towns have been
invaded by militant Zionist "settlers" under the protection of the
Israeli army who beat and persecute the Palestinians and drive them
out of their towns. They are Palestinians who cannot allow their
children outside their homes because they will be murdered by
Israeli "settlers."
The Palestinians who confront Israeli evil are called "terrorists."
When Bush forced free elections on Palestine, the people voted for
Hamas. Hamas is the organization that has stood up to Israel. This
means, of course, that Hamas is evil, anti-Semitic, un-American and
terrorist. The US and Israel responded by cutting off all funds to
the new government. Democracy is permitted only if it produces the
results Bush and Israel want.
Israelis never practice terror. Only those who are in Israel's way
are terrorists.
Another enemy of the Jewish state is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a
militia of Shi'ite Muslims created in 1982 when Israel first invaded
Lebanon. During this invasion the great moral Jewish state arranged
for the murder of refugees in refugee camps. The result of Israel's
atrocities was Hezbollah, which fought the Israeli Army, defeated
it, and drove it out of Lebanon. Today Hezbollah not only defends
southern Lebanon but also provides social services such as
orphanages and medical care.
To cut to the chase, the enemies of the Jewish state are any Muslim
country not ruled by an American puppet friendly to Israel. Egypt,
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the oil emirates have sided with Israel
against their own kind, because they are dependent either on
American money or on American protection from their own people.
Sooner or later these totally corrupt governments that do not
represent the people they rule will be overthrown. It is only a
matter of time.
Indeed Bush and Israel may be hastening the process in their frantic
effort to overthrow the governments of Syria and Iran. Both
governments have more popular support than Bush has, but the White
House Moron doesn't know this. The Moron thinks Syria and Iran will
be "cakewalks" like Iraq, where ten proud divisions of the US
military are tied down by a few lightly armed insurgents.
If you are still a Proud American, consider that your pride is doing
nothing good for Israel or for America.
On July 20 when "your" House of Representatives, following "your" US
Senate, passed the resolution in support of Israel's war crimes, the
most powerful lobby in Washington, the American Israeli Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC), quickly got out a press release
proclaiming "The American people overwhelming support Israel's war
on terrorism and understand that we must stand by our closest ally
in this time of crisis."
The truth is that Israel created the crisis by invading a country
with a pro-American government. The truth is that the American
people do not support Israel's war crimes, as the CNN quick poll
results make clear and as was made clear by callers into C-Span.
Despite the Israeli spin on news provided by US "reporting," a
majority of Americans do not approve of Israeli atrocities against
Lebanese civilians. Hezbollah is located in southern Lebanon. If
Israel is targeting Hezbollah, why are Israeli bombs falling on
northern Lebanon? Why are they falling on Beirut? Why are they
falling on civilian airports? On schools and hospitals?
Now we arrive at the main point. When the US Senate and House of
Representatives pass resolutions in support of Israeli war crimes
and condemn those who resist Israeli aggression, the Senate and
House confirm Osama bin Laden's propaganda that America stands with
Israel against the Arab and Muslim world.
Indeed, Israel, which has one of the world's largest per capita
incomes, is the largest recipient of US foreign aid. Many believe
that much of this "aid" comes back to AIPAC, which uses it to elect
"our" representatives in Congress.
This perception is no favor to Israel, whose population is
declining, as the smart ones have seen the writing on the wall and
have been leaving. Israel is surrounded by hundreds of millions of
Muslims who are being turned into enemies of Israel by Israel's
actions and inhumane policies.
The hope in the Muslim world has always been that the United States
would intervene in behalf of compromise and make Israel realize that
Israel cannot steal Palestine and turn every Palestinian into a
refugee.
This has been the hope of the Arab world. This is the reason our
puppets have not been overthrown. This hope is the reason America
still had some prestige in the Arab world.
The House of Representatives resolution, bought and paid for by
AIPAC money, is the final nail in the coffin of American prestige in
the Middle East. It shows that America is, indeed, Israel's puppet,
just as Osama bin Laden says, and as a majority of Muslims believe.
With hope and diplomacy dead, henceforth America and Israel have
only tooth and claw. The vaunted Israeli army could not defeat a rag
tag militia in southern Lebanon. The vaunted US military cannot
defeat a rag tag, lightly armed insurgency drawn from a minority of
the population in Iraq, insurgents, moreover, who are mainly engaged
in civil war against the Shi'ite majority.
What will the US and its puppet master do? Both are too full of
hubris and paranoia to admit their terrible mistakes. Israel and the
US will either destroy from the air the civilian infrastructure of
Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Iran so that civilized life becomes
impossible for Muslims, or the US and Israel will use nuclear
weapons to intimidate Muslims into acquiescence to Israel's desires.
Muslim genocide in one form or another is the professed goal of the
neoconservatives who have total control over the Bush
administration. Neocon godfather Norman Podhoretz has called for
World War IV (in neocon thinking WW III was the Cold War) to
overthrow Islam in the Middle East, deracinate the Islamic religion
and turn it into a formalized, secular ritual.
Rumsfeld's neocon Pentagon has drafted new US war doctrine that
permits pre-emptive nuclear attack on non-nuclear states.
Neocon David Horowitz says that by slaughtering Palestinian and
Lebanese civilians, "Israel is doing the work of the rest of the
civilized world," thus equating war criminals with civilized men.
Neocon Larry Kudlow says that "Israel is doing the Lord's work" by
murdering Lebanese, a claim that should give pause to Israel's
Christian evangelical supporters. Where does the Lord Jesus say, "go
forth and murder your neighbors so that you may steal their lands"?
The complicity of the American public in these heinous crimes will
damn America for all time in history.
* John Craig Roberts is a former associate editor of the
Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for
National Review, and was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in
the Reagan administration. Dr. Roberts
is Chairman of the Institute for Political Economy and Research
Fellow at the
Independent Institute.