Americans Are Being Misled to War.
by Paul Craig Roberts.
A terrible thing is happening, and not enough Americans are aware to be able
to do anything about it. Zionists in Israel and in the Bush administration
are leading America into war with Iran, Syria, Hizbollah in Lebanon and
Hamas in Palestine.
The consequences for America, Israel and the Middle East will be disastrous,
but as long as Washington is in thrall to Zionist paranoia, nothing can be
done about it. Bush made this clear on July 14 when he rejected the plea
from Lebanon's prime minister to pressure Israel to stop its attack on
Lebanon.
The war began when Bush's neoconservative government invaded Afghanistan and
Iraq under the pretense of "fighting terrorism." Neither front has gone well
for America. The Israelis, seeing the growing domestic opposition to Bush's
wars of choice, concluded that they are in danger of losing America's
military intervention in behalf of their Middle East interests. Israel
decided to force the issue.
Israel did this by bombing and invading Gaza, from which they had just
withdrawn as part of a "Palestinian settlement." Israel's pretext was the
capture of one Israeli soldier in Gaza in retribution for Israel's genocidal
policies toward Palestine. Few Americans know that Israel has forced
Palestinians into ghettos and walled them off from their farm lands,
schools, and medical treatment.
By slaughtering scores of civilians and destroying the infrastructure of the
fragile land in response to the capture of one Israeli soldier, Israel has
made it clear that its policy is fire and sword.
Under international law – the identical law that was used to try Nazi war
criminals after World War II – Israel's invasion of Gaza is a monstrous war
crime. The United Nations top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said that
Israel's attacks on civilians and infrastructure violated international law.
On July 13, the UN Security Council tried to condemn Israel for its criminal
invasion of Gaza, but US Ambassador John Bolton, a rabid pro-Israeli zealot,
vetoed the Security Council resolution that would have required Israel to
halt its illegal and criminal actions in Gaza. Bolton is the UN ambassador
who could not get confirmed even in a Republican Senate and was given a
recess appointment by Bush in defiance of Congress.
On July 12, Israel invaded Lebanon. The pretext was the capture of two
Israeli soldiers in Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory by Hizbollah. In two
days Israel has slaughtered scores of Lebanese civilians, destroyed bridges
and power plants, attacked the Beruit International Airport and blocked
Lebanese ports.
Israel's over-reactions are calculated to start a wider war. Israel has
asserted that the two soldiers captured by Hizbollah are being held in Iran.
Israel blames Syria for Hizbollah's acts. Both Israel and its neoconsevative
allies in the Bush government blame Iran and Syria for "attacks on Israel"
by Hamas and Hizbollah. No one, least of all Bush, blames Israel's
Palestinian policy.
Israel's American agents, the neoconservatives, have made it clear for years
that their goal is to eliminate every Middle Eastern government that is not
ruled by an American puppet friendly to Israel. The people who hold the
important positions in Bush's government have frankly stated this position
over and over.
For example, a decade ago in 1996 a group of American neoconservatives who
have comprised much of the sub-cabinet in the Bush administration wrote that
Israel could gain American sympathy by blaming aggression on Hizbollah,
Syria, and Iran and then seizing the strategic initiative by "engaging
Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran as the principal agents of aggression in
Lebanon."
[http://www.newamericancentury.org]
First, however, Iraq would have to be taken out. The first focus, said the
neocons, should be "on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq – an
important Israeli strategic objective in its own right."
Gentle reader, does it not strike you as strange that US citizens, most of
whom have held presidential appointments in the Bush administration, are so
concerned to plan how Israel can draw upon US blood and treasure to achieve
Israel's objectives in the Middle East?
We certainly have to hand it to Israel and its American neoconsevative
agents. They have succeeded on entirely false pretenses in launching two
wars in the Middle East and now they have prepared the ground for a general
conflagration.
Who is to stop them? The Condi Rice State Department? Be serious.
The Democratic Party? What a laugh!
The power mad Republicans who have sold their souls?
The Christian Evangelicals who believe the destruction of huge numbers of
people in the Middle East is the lead up to "the Rapture" in which they will
be wafted up to Heaven?
The UN Security Council, where the US never fails to veto any resolution or
sanction against Israel?
The US and Israel haven't the troops needed to defeat and occupy Syria,
Hizbollah and Iran with conventional forces. Pentagon documents have
described two ways in which the Middle East can be secured for Israel. One
is the use of nuclear weapons. The other is the destruction of all
infrastructure – power plants, water and sewage systems, hospitals, schools,
roads, bridges, ports, and a reduction of much housing to rubble by powerful
conventional bombs. In other words, an air war that never ends.
Most Americans are incapable of identifying their own US Representative and
Senators. Everything they "know" about the Middle East comes from Israeli
propaganda: Israel is the innocent victim, and all Arabs are terrorists with
suicide bombs.
America is being led by a handful of traitors into participating in "regime
change" that might succeed or might dethrone our bought and paid for puppets
in Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. If Pakistan were to fall to
Islamist forces, Muslims would have a nuclear capability as a counterpart to
Israel's and America's.
Muslims have many reasons to hate us for generations of oppression and
interference in their internal affairs. As Iraq has proven, it is not easy
to break their spirit. Out-gunned and out-manned, they still resist,
motivated by anger and pride.
Many Americans may think that "ragheads" mean nothing to them. But when $200
oil means Americans cannot commute to their jobs in their gas-guzzlers from
their far-flung suburbs, or Russia and China intervene because
American-Israeli interests conflict with their own, the world becomes a
different place for inattentive, uninvolved, complicit Americans.
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