Today's Wars Need a Reframe
And our scope needs to be broadened
Paying attention to geopolitical issues, I can’t stop thinking about the bigger picture. What’s actually going on?
Here’s what we know:
Israel, supported by the USA and its allies, is bombing Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and other neighbouring countries.
On International Court of Justice ruled that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza.
When people in western nations protest against the ongoing genocide, they’re told that they’re anti-semitic or supporting the terrorists, meaning Hamas and Hezbollah.
In the USA, both presidential candidates pledge their allegiance to Israel as it commits atrocities.
The USA is regularly sending weapons and billions of dollars to Israel, and to Ukraine. Israel has been targeting civilians, and the USA has been fanning the flames of Ukrainian nazism for decades.
And, if we live in western countries, this is what our tax dollars are supporting.
Meanwhile, when I went to the grocery store the other day, a friend who works there said that food prices will soon be doubling or tripling.
Billions of our tax dollars fund wars, while life becomes unaffordable at home.
At the same time, AIPAC openly boasts about buying politicians, at the same time as politicians complain about foreign interference. Israel is a foreign country, and this is interference. Why is it not framed as such?
In some western countries reporters are being imprisoned for covering the Middle East and providing accurate information about it.
And Israel is turning international law on its head.
So our tax dollars are paying to fund genocide and war while our standards of living in the west are rapidly deteriorating. And reporters telling the truth about what’s happening on the ground are being muzzled, while citizens protesting genocide are being harassed.
For me this raises some questions:
Who benefits from this? And who are the beneficiaries actually at war with?
From my perspective, it feels like they’re at war with all of us.
No one gave them consent to invest our money into Israel’s genocide and endless wars. I don’t recall anyone voting for this.
We can’t forget that the war machine is very profitable to some. It’s hard to believe that all this destruction is a desirable way to make money. Couldn’t they find something constructive to turn a profit?
And how do we know what’s going on when reporters who tell the truth are imprisoned for doing so?
We’re being held hostage by the world’s wealthiest people as we play nuclear roulette while they support the killing of innocent people.
Most importantly, what do we do about it?
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I’ve been away from this post for a couple of days, and am noticing how many others are writing about the importance of getting over our differences, and acting in solidarity together.
All of us are under siege: terrified of military escalation between nuclear powers; witnessing genocide, and being dismissed and vilified when we protest it; being bombarded with fake news and censorship; harassment and imprisonment of reporters; escalating costs of living; experiencing environmental disruption.
We’re all experiencing these things, and we need to band together for peace, common sense, kindness and decency.
Maybe we need a colour revolution, only now with us picking the colours. I vote for red, green, black and white. And this time, it needs to be from the ground up, not imposed by the CIA.
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Here’s an online event on October 22nd that’s specific to Canada, but that could be useful to others in the world as well. It’s called The Many Can Defeat the Money.
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I love the BDS campaign and the effect it’s having on Israel’s economy.
Here's an excellent list of products from Israel: https://boycott.thewitness.news/browse/1
Here's a way to help others not in your bubble to boycott Israel: https://www.cjpme.org/stickies_2024_en
And here's where you can support Palestine by buying a keffiyeh: https://www.hirbawi.ps/
Diana, thank you for the very thoughtful and articulate presentation today. Your analysis was accurate, sensible and compassionate. I don’t know if we will change this insane and draconian state of affairs, but adopting your perspective is undoubtedly key. Thank you!
Thanks Diana. Sadly, this seems to summarise the basic problem illustrated by the aphorism "when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." When violence is the tool of choice, and when it is justified as part of one's identity/destiny, then the bigger hammer the better. Think of the uncountable trillions in wealth syphoned into the coffers of the US, even since WWII. Much of that was invested in its capacity to wage violent war and to metastasise across the globe, infecting countries or eating them out from the inside to leave only a fragile shell which disguises US interests. The aggression also caused non-conforming nations to 'weapon-up' as a deterrent to predation by the empire. Empires are rarely benevolent. They proceed and enlarge by might until they eventually reach some limit which is difficult to foresee. They weaken internally and become more vulnerable to corruption and decay. It's there now for anyone who wants to look. The problem we have today in a close-coupled globalised context, where all manner of WMD have proliferated, is that imperial conflict can no longer be a self-limiting clash or a contained demise. The unipolar US hegemon is fighting for its survival on multiple fronts. This will further impoverish the US populace while forcing its instruments of expressed power to act in more desperate ways (potentially adding to internal tensions - ref Blinken versus Pentagon). Pressurising the populace is a risk which can cut either way, and which will test the multi-generational indoctrination programs. The citizenry might be encouraged to blame others for their conditions and rally in support of the theatrical narrative of a venerable nation fighting external enemies. Or the citizenry might rise in revolt against the enemy within the gates. Or it might revisit the old wounds of civil war and racial conflict. Violent conflict has always been engineered by deception, false flags, covert infiltration, lurking threats. We are vulnerable to being deceived, even by our own investment in narrative and identity. If we can break free of that limited self-understanding, we will reframe conflict in the way you describe. May it happen before it's too late.