US President Joe Biden has declared himself a `war president.’ He has ordered two US aircraft carriers, advanced missile systems and 2,000 Marines to the Mideast. It’s full-force war fever in Washington.
Does this seem like overkill considering Hamas has not much more than lightly armed teenagers with AK-47 rifles and some home-made bombs? Of course not. It’s the old ‘bomb them back to the Stone Age’ mentality.
What’s behind this militaristic display is, of course, imminent US elections. Staunchly pro-Israel American voters are only 2% of the electorate, but their influence is profound and pervasive. Pro-Israel voters are believed to be one of the most important political donors to the Democratic Party. Add Christian Evangelicals who venerate Israel as the modern Promised Land.
America’s small numbers of Muslims and liberal thinkers have gone into hiding after the massacre of Israelis in Gaza. The always pro-Israel US media equates the Hamas movement with the old Nazi Party for beastly behavior.
One is reminded of Talleyrand’s famous quip about Napoleon’s murder of the Duc d’Enghien as ‘worse than a crime, a mistake.’
What we saw was not a political act but a ghastly jailhouse riot by Palestinian refugees caged up in the awful Gaza open-air prison for over 60 years.
Biden, who looks on his last legs, is in full panic mode, and rightfully so. Donald Trump is closing in like a giant storm cloud and way ahead in the polls. Trump is no spring chicken but compared to the doddering Biden, he looks like a political Adonis.
Trump had the guts and smarts to end the calamitous Afghan War while America’s bemedaled generals and politicians were too scared to do so, fearing they would be blamed for the Afghan fiasco.
The US had few compunctions about sending B-1 and B-52 heavy bombers to carpet bomb Afghan villages but was suddenly outraged by the attacks on civilians in Gaza.
As the US stumbles into yet another military conflict, we should remember that run amok spending is the greatest threat to US security, not Hamas, al-Qaida, Taliban, Vlad Putin nor any other of our favorite enemies. Biden now wants to spend an additional $105 billion on his pet wars in Ukraine and Israel, both of which are already awash in US dollars.
Many Americans go hungry or lack medical care while Washington lavishes money on these two pet causes. Biden’s aid proposals have unmasked the secret alliance between Israel and Ukraine. Some Israelis even speak of Ukraine as a ‘second Israel.’ America’s Israel lobby is the prime motivator of intense support in Congress and the media for the Ukraine War. The two conflicts are merging into one very expensive pre-election campaign.
To be fair, Trump and Bush also said they wanted to be war presidents. All politicians know that the fastest way to boost their ratings is to start a small war. American industry often looks dependent on ever-increasing military spending, particularly so in key electoral states. Afghanistan cost over $1.2 trillion but it all went on the national credit card.
The US national debt is now $33.6 trillion, a monster deficit that threatens to capsize the economy and crash Wall Street. Yet the Biden administration keeps spending like drunken sailors. It’s all ok provided Americas taxpayers never bear the real cost of their jolly little wars.
Meanwhile, the Biden White House keeps stumbling ever closer to war with Russia that could easily go nuclear. The ‘war president’ now risks a global disaster over obscure places in Ukraine that are of no importance at all to the United States – but essential to Biden’s potential re-election.