Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
I was watching Congressman Ro Khanna question Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on 2/29 about Israel’s demolition of Gaza when Austin uttered a humdinger about trusting Israel to “utilize weapons that we provide them in a responsible way.” He said that after noting that Israel has already killed more than 25,000 women and children in Gaza.
U.S. weapons shipments and transfers to Israel are couched as “security assistance,” and these weapons are often paid for by the American taxpayer, or put on the national credit card for future generations to pay. When Americans get antsy about being complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the Biden administration, supported by many Republicans, remind them that allegedly these weapons for Israel create jobs in the USA.
“Genocide creates jobs” is not exactly a healthy slogan.
Of course, Lloyd Austin alone isn’t the problem here. The entire Biden administration supinely supports Israel and Bibi Netanyahu. Donald Trump, Biden’s most likely opponent this fall, is even more slavishly pro-Israel.
And so the nightmare in Gaza continues as Israel utilizes its “Made in USA” bombs and missiles “in a responsible way.” Responsible in this case meaning the killing and injuring of more than 100,000 Palestinians and the destruction of Gaza’s ability to sustain human life for the remaining two million Palestinians there.
William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views.
I can’t wait until Hezbollah teaches the Israelis how to use military hardware “in a responsible way.” According to Crooke, the Golani Brigade is already conducting probing attacks into Lebanon – and were stopped by Hezbollah. Israel will soon make the greatest mistake in its existence – short of its founding, which was its greatest mistake – and will pay the price.
The “army of g-d” has been quite controlled. So has Iran. Israel is counting on American boots on the ground (just like there are in Ukraine) to bail them out.
Austin needs to retire from his post and see if he can hook up with Saturday Night Live. F*cking joke.
Genocide Don is likely to become the next POTUS. Genocide Joe is losing votes that he won four years ago.
Biden only wants pauses in the war so aid can get into Gaza but he wants the war to continue, Trump wants no pauses and both of them want the war and genocide to continue until the last Gazan is dead and Israel destroys evidence they lived there and repopulates the area and it wants to do the same thing in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and possibly other places.
As of this morning, 270 To Win shows Biden with 232 electoral votes firmly in pocket, another 30 in the “likely” category, and 5 in the “lean” category, for a total of 267 electoral votes, with Trump having 121 safe and 97 likely (total 219).
Which means that, unless something changes, Biden has to win precisely one of the four “toss-up” states — Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, or Georgia — to get past the 270 mark and win the election.
In every presidential election, whoever won Ohio won the final election. That will be the case unless it’s the first time a candidate wins without winning in Ohio.
And in every presidential election, a non-incumbent who won the Iowa caucus didn’t win the GOP nomination. Until this one.