As a writer of articles reporting news events of the world, I often seek to expose the concealed truth beneath the layers of a monolithic state sponsored propaganda machine called mainstream media that simply spreads the lies our leaders tell. And as perilously out of control the earth appears to be spinning this year, no events or developments cut to the core of what it means to be human than responding to what has been taking place this summer in Gaza.
Unfortunately the human condition has never been lifted by significant enough evolutionary advancement to end genocide, war and violence on this planet. One glance at the world condition today and one might wonder if that lofty utopian-like goal and ideal to end war and violence may ever be achieved by mankind. Today’s cultural climate appears to breed extreme polarization in people and nations’ rush to war to demonize a chosen enemy through willful deceit used to justify bloodshed on a global scale. What is happening today bodes a forbidding dark cloud over humanity still early in the twenty-first century.
2014 may go down in history as the year that the West initiated the Second Cold War on its way to initiating the Third World War. Spearheaded by arrogant American Empire power lusting desperately for global hegemonic control, this year the US rush to war is backed by its usual suspects, Europe-NATO-British Commonwealth, and its usual Middle East partners-in-crime Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Right on cue the war drums are sounding the alarm, ramping up the red line in the shifting sands of tit-for-tat rhetoric. The US government has been pushing its nemesis the Russian bear’s back up against the wall with missiles on its every doorstep border. With February’s US staged coup in Ukraine, installing a corrupt and violent neo-Nazi US puppet government, Russia in defense hastily retook its old territory back after Crimean citizens voted for annexation.
The US was beaten to the punch in its obviously foiled land and sea grab for Black Sea control on the geopolitics chessboard. Putin asserted his regional dominance reclaiming control over his naval fleet long stationed in Crimea, much to the embarrassed chagrin of the sole global superpower the US. State Department neocon Victoria Nuland and President Obama misjudged the cagey bear the US thought they had effectively caged in.
But in recent weeks the fighting between the ethnic Russian separatist residents has only intensified in eastern Ukraine. Just in the last two weeks alone the death toll in the region has nearly doubled since the conflict began in mid-April. UN human rights officer Cecille Pouilley offered her “conservative estimate” that as of August 10th at least 2,086 people have been killed on both sides, up from only 1,129 as of July 26th. Nearly 5,000 Ukrainians have been wounded.
Ukraine military’s rocket attacks on the rebel controlled cities of Donetsk and Luhansk have intensified this last week, destroying several high rise apartment buildings in a Donetsk neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the city. The government troops have the two largest cities in eastern Ukraine under siege with daily artillery strikes on both residential areas housing civilians as well as power plants and pipelines, wiping out access to electricity and gas for most city residents. Water supply is also nonexistent and only the basic foodstuffs are sold in the few stores that still remain open. Humanitarian conditions are fast becoming more dire for the hapless victims whose only crime is living in separatist strongholds and supporting their desire like their fellow ethnic Russians in Crimea to be annexed as part of the Russian Federation.
In a recent admission of the truth this week by the New York Times, the strategy of the Ukraine government is to lay siege to Luhansk and Donetsk by thoroughly pulverizing the cities with artillery rocket firepower prior to sending in overly zealous paramilitary forces to conduct “chaotic, violent assaults” in a mop up campaign. The government military forces then plan to follow the paramilitary as a final push to quell the revolt and restore order.
The militia groups are apparently volunteers mostly from inside Ukraine numbering about 7,000. Many are known neo-Nazis. One of the paramilitary forces known as the Azov battalion led by a commander named Andriy Biletsky proudly displays his battalion banner the World War II German SS Wolfsangel flag. Members of the volunteer militias fighting alongside the government army in eastern Ukraine regard ethnic Russians as “Untermenschen” or subhuman. In a recent British Telegraph article, Biletsky is quoted:
“The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen.”
Apparently the Ukraine civil war is attracting Nazis from all over Europe into supporting America’s “good guys” in Kiev by fighting in these extremist militia groups. According to Biletsky, he commands volunteers from Ireland, Italy, Greece and Scandinavia. The US and Kiev governments know that political right wing extremists from Nazi hate groups are participating in the anti-ethnic Russian conflict but maintain that since they are on the right side “fighting for Ukraine’s freedom,” their particular taste for ethnic cleansing and anti-Slavic and anti-Semitic mindset matters very little.
But then the US has a long track record financing, training and supporting thugs and killers all over the globe, whether they are al Qaeda terrorist mercenaries acting as US hired guns fighting our proxy wars in the 90’s Bosnia, or during this decade in Libya, Syria or Iraq, all their war atrocities aside, they remain on the “right side” with US backing. Anyone willing to fight against any designated US enemy, and since right now enemy number one is Russia, then they are the US buddies.
In America’s wars, there is no sense of ethics, rules or code of conduct, least of all a moral compass guiding US war policy, not when it comes to geopolitics. Customarily violating all international laws under the UN Charter or Geneva convention rules with impunity makes America exceptional, and a very hypocritical and poor example to the rest of the world. After all, Obama believes that if he keeps repeating his mantra lie enough that he and Americans are “truly exceptional,” then he and the rest of the world should also believe it. But at this point, Obama has no more credibility and is not fooling anyone but himself.
Meanwhile, the US this week goes from supporting Nazi hate groups on the ground in Ukraine to halting a humanitarian aid convoy consisting of 242 white trucks filled with 2,000 tons of canned meats, generators and sleeping bags being sent by Russia that it maintains have been cleared to enter Ukraine by the International Red Cross. Despite the Ukraine government initially agreeing to the aid delivery allowing the convoy to pass from Russia into Ukraine through the relatively peaceful region at the Kharkiv border, both Kiev and Washington now suddenly have backed off, suspecting that it is Putin’s Trojan Horse trick transparently concealing his actual intention to invade eastern Ukraine.
So it’s okay for Nazi hate groups to fight on the US side but when charity relief from the big bad enemy Russia arrives, it’s got to be categorically denied. The supposed change of mind and heart now prohibits the Russian convoy from serving the people living in eastern Ukraine who are in desperate need as the convoy sits idly to the south in the Russian city of Voronezh awaiting further instructions. Speculation over which border gate the convoy will be allowed to enter is the big question that no one seems to answer. Russia has said that it will cooperate with the mandated Red Cross inspection once inside the Ukraine border. But Kiev is adamantly opposed to letting Russian efforts gain access into Ukraine at a checkpoint controlled in the south by the rebel forces.
And then the latest in a series of East vs. West economic sanctions are unfurling in a game of one-upmanship that now has the US-EU once again coming out on the apparent losing end. This week’s Russian boycott of all European produce and meat exports hurt Europe the most, especially the already decimated EU nation Greece as Russia simply turns to South America for its food source with its new Bolivian trade partner.
Once Putin chooses to utilize the ace up his sleeve and threaten to cut off the gas-oil lifeline to Europe, the EU-NATO as US puppets will most likely suddenly cease their empty bandwagon rhetoric and abandon Obama once again with egg on his face. It was nearly a year ago when Obama was outwitted by Putin credited with possibly saving the world when Putin brokered the last minute deal to ward off what may have ended up World War III, leaving the lone fool, egg-faced Obama calling for air strikes on Syria over another shameful US false flag with the chemical weapons attack that the US created and backed al Qaeda rebels perpetrated against innocent Syrians in a Damascus suburb last August.
Each time Putin the shrewd former-KGB operative out-maneuvers the deceitful paper tiger Obama, the world loses even more respect for the US President who the rest of the world secretly has come to resent. His exceptionalism got him caught red-handed spying on the rest of the world. And this year with Osama leading the “hate Putin” charge, Obama has Europe inching closer to fighting Russia on their own turf and soon will be left with fruit rotting on its vines and likely freezing cold homes this winter. Let’s hope that Washington does not push Europe and America into an all out nuclear or even a conventional ground troop war with Russia for all of our sake.
In the meantime, in the face of the US-EU-NATO unsuccessful ploy to demonize Putin into becoming the aggressor and thereby justify the start of that same WWIII that got away from Obama last year, Putin has once again in self-defense rapidly rallied solidarity support from its powerful neighbor to the East, its old Communist ally Red China securing a $400 billion gas pipeline deal.
Putin then seized the opportunity to hit the US where it will hurt the most in his quest to kill the US dollar as the international fiat currency for good by coalescing an emerging, sleeping giant BRICS coalition into forming a powerful economic partnership with nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa all going off the US dollar. The American Achilles heal will be its likely economic collapse and severest depression with the fast approaching death of the US dollar. But as the only world superpower operating on steroids with false senses of security and immunity, the seemingly out of control American Empire’s nonstop global aggression (dancing to the tune of its oligarch puppet master), bullying, extorting and destroying so much of the world for such a long time is directly leading America to its own epical karmic downfall. What goes around comes around and America’s all too eminent doom and gloom is accelerating at the same freefall speed that the neocons took down building seven on 9/11.
With war and genocide raging in eastern Ukraine, Syria and now Gaza, and East versus West hotspots heating up on every corner of the globe, that apocalyptic Armageddon bloodbath that Christians have long been waiting for (with the promise of Jesus’ return right afterwards complete with rapture for God’s chosen ones), has jarred awake citizens around the world bracing for its feared end as we know it. Others mostly in America are sticking their heads in the sand while playing their escapist video games or too preoccupied with the latest Hollywood tragedy and/or scandalous gossip.
Meanwhile, the global stage continues unraveling for the ultimate bloodbath currently being set into motion. This week reminded the world of the atrocities of atomic warfare committed 69 years ago when America’s obsession for ultimate destruction and lies have now unequivocally been let out of the bag. In August 1945 President Truman knew Japan was desperate to surrender, yet went ahead anyway dropping the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of course accompanied by the diabolical lie that it was only done as a last resort to save lives. In the same way that the American Empire today seems bent on plunging us headlong into World War III, America had to show the world who the boss was back in 1945 and having never learned from history, the US today even at risk of committing suicide is still determined to show the rest of the world who the boss is in 2014.
The lie-hard diehards still believe that needlessly and senselessly massacring up to a quarter billion innocent human beings in August 1945 was the required sacrifice to hold humanity in check from ever using nuclear bombs again. They still feebly maintain that those shameful events forty-nine years ago have successfully prevented human extinction on planet earth, still desperately trying to justify that heinous US crime against humanity by holding onto the belief that those Japanese sacrificial lambs did not die in vain. What will their excuse be when the next nukes are launched as Obama and the Pentagon to this day are plotting preemptive first strike scenarios against Russia. Oh, that’s right, there won’t be any more revisionists left alive to even bother rewriting their lies into US history – because the US will be history, along with the entire planet earth.
By definition genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group. Based on the aggressive, systematic and relentless attack against the Palestinian people living in Gaza since June, destroying their residential neighborhoods, their schools and their hospitals, including infrastructures like water treatment facilities and power plants, by any stretch of the definition, Israeli actions constitute genocide. Upwards of near 2,000 Palestinians have been killed compared to only 67 Israelis, all but three being soldiers. More than 10,000 Palestinians have been wounded and nearly 500,000 have been displaced. Though the Israeli government insists that at least 900 of the dead were members of Hamas, it seems far more probable that the vast majority have been innocent civilians, many of whom were women and children. Some sources claim up to 80% of the dead were civilians. The human suffering in Gaza is unimaginable.
The old biblical truism that violence begets violence comes to mind on the same ancient biblical stomping grounds where this Israeli slaughter of Palestinians is being perpetrated daily all summer long. Though through Egypt both sides agreed to a cease-fire proposal several days ago, typically it never lasts long before the killing is resumed. As the world watches in horror, Israel is taking advantage of US government’s complicit support by murdering as many innocent Palestinian people that the US and world will allow them to kill.
The June murder of three Israeli teenagers have led up to this present bloodbath unfolding on Gaza. It appeared that Netanyahu seized the moment knowing those responsible for murdering the Israeli boys were not operating directly under the Hamas authority. But the truth did not matter when the agenda was to kill Palestinians, any Palestinians.
This lopsided so called war illustrates the tragic insanity of violence, and how it never can be a just or worthy cause to making anything better. Another history lesson for the ages buried in all the lies, hatred and propaganda.
What is most clear is that war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is using this latest war for ethnic cleansing purposes. To critics who blast anyone calling Israel’s actions a genocide, they are quick to defend reasons it cannot be called genocide. One reason cited is that if the Israeli military wanted to get rid of all Palestinians in Gaza, they have the powerful means to do so. No argument there. But by definition genocide can include partial elimination of an ethnic group as well, not always total.
Defenders of Israel always use the worn out excuse that Israel is simply defending itself as a Jewish state, another variation of the childishly lame excuse when a bully attempts to justify its unwarranted aggression claiming a smaller child “started it.” Since the Israelis are fully aware that their rockets and bombs are killing scores of Palestinians seeking safety and refuge inside UN schools because their houses have already been destroyed, prior to launching their rocket attacks the Israelis know they will be cold-bloodedly massacring defenseless women and children. Willful murder of civilians constitutes crimes against humanity. Anyone who possesses a human heart would know better. Only people steeped in hatred without a heart would commit such egregious crimes.
But in truth Netanyahu has never accepted Palestinians’ right to live just as he claims they never accept Israel’s right to exist, which is wrong. If the Palestinians were finally given what is rightfully theirs on both historical and moral grounds, possessing their own land and nation as a sovereign independent neighbor to Israel, without the blockade embargo, without the occupation, and without the apartheid stranglehold over every aspect of their lives, the Palestinians, including Hamas, would not have nearly so much reason for violence against Israel.
Although if you are beaten and killed for as long as the Palestinians have been by Israel, it takes a spiritually forgiving, advanced soul to let go of their tremendous losses and suffering not to continue hating or wanting to seek revenge. And that’s if Israelis stopped all violence forever more today. The longer the killings drag on, the more anger and revenge it instills. One can never truly kill their enemy as an enemy replacement will always continue conflict acting in revenge. All this is such basic human understanding. Yet death and destruction continue unabated for millenniums with humans.
But at least living as a free nation, the Palestinian people would finally have a chance to be happy and prosper, reason enough to leave the Israelis alone. But as long as the oppressors oppress, the oppressed have every natural reason and every human right to fight back. The PLO before and now Hamas are the freedom fighters trying to liberate themselves and their people from their criminal oppressors. You can bet that if roles were reversed, and Israel was being oppressed, it would constantly be trying to kill their oppressors every chance it could get, except with America’s undying support and protection since its 1948 inception, Israel has never ever had oppressors in the Middle East.
Instead, every year when the US is spiraling downward deeper into recession on the brink of depression and collapse, American taxpayers continue to be burdened by having to fork over an insane annual bill of more than $3.1 billion dollars year in and year out to Israel when it as a nation is far more economically solvent and flourishing than the US. Moreover, the US breaks its own law every year because under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 America is prohibited from aid to any nation that violates international law. Over a quarter of the annual Israeli defense budget is also paid for by Americans who are clearly no longer able to afford it. And all those cowardly, shameful, chicken hawk US politicians continue kissing Israel’s ass while turning their back on the genocide just to ensure that their Jewish bribe money keeps flowing into their coffers to selfishly get them reelected. That in and of itself is a sinister crime against all of humanity. The shady evil that binds US to Israel is a disgrace to this entire planet. Evil is evil and must be confronted regardless of how much power the evildoers possess.
And now anyone in Hollywood who has the compassionate heart and courage to dare speak out like Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almadovar are now subject to being blacklisted by the pro-Israeli controlled entertainment industry. With claims they are anti-Semitic, as always befall anyone critical of Israeli policy, they more than likely will not be working again any time soon at least in Hollywood according to the Hollywood Reporter. Fortunately they are international stars from Spain and will not be so prone to punishment from other more objective countries.
It simply is no longer safe in America where the former bastion of free speech has always been a legal constitutional right to speak one’s mind, even if politically incorrect or offensive. No politician in Washington will even risk their political career by saying anything that might be remotely construed as anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic, proof that those anti forces wield absolute power over America, be it in Washington or Hollywood. The powerful Israeli lobbyist organization AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) buys off politicians. And should a member of Congress dare to criticize Israel, AIPAC will ensure that he or she quickly loses in their bid for reelection. A Nation article last month made the claim that with so much bloodshed inflicted on innocent Palestinians in Gaza, opposing the Israel lobby is not so likely to result in political suicide as it always has been in recent years.
One very negative repercussion of the recent Israeli aggression in Gaza is the apparent backlash of increasing hate crimes against Jewish residents throughout Europe. A British source noted that even prior to the Gaza conflict, hate crimes against Jews in Britain rose by a third. Netanyahu’s rigidly aggressive policies may in fact be designed to mobilize the Diaspora to emigrate to Israel, reinforcing the longtime “us versus the hostile world” view. It bears repeating that the vast majority of US citizens are not the US government that engages in war crimes against humanity in their name. And neither are the Jewish people around the world nor are the Israeli citizens the Netanyahu regime that is presently committing crimes against humanity. There have been protests by Israeli citizens against their government although pro-government supporters far outnumber critics.
Bigotry and prejudice are horrible injustices that should never be tolerated. Yet the global climate of political polarization and racial and ethnic hatred invariably continue to act as precursors of violence and war. The human species faces so many serious challenges threatening our very survival. To succumb to a culture of hate is succumbing to the oldest trick in the elitist playbook, a divide and conquer strategy that all through history appears to have gotten the better of humankind. It is time to finally take the lessons from history to heart and apply it to our lives each and every day. Understanding and communication are the keys to resolving our differences and conflicts. Before we kill ourselves and our planet, it would be monumental progress if the human species could finally evolve to peace.
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.” It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a masters degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field for more than a quarter century. He now concentrates on his writing.
