July 22-23, 2006
The
Shame of Being An American
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
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 Hizbollah 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 Community “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 neighbourhoods 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 favour 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 the Jewish state. 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 Hizbollah. Hizbollah is a militia of Shia
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 Hizbollah, which fought the Israeli
army, defeated it, and drove it, with its tail between its legs, out of Lebanon.
Today Hizbollah 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.
Hizbollah is located in southern Lebanon. If Israel is targeting Hizbollah, 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 favour 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 Shia 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 neighbours
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.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan
administration. He is co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be
reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com
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