And We Watch
And We Watch
It’s Friday, the 13th, always a good time to reflect.
Over two years ago, Russia attacked Ukraine and we dithered, ‘deciding’ whether or not to come to its aid, eventually deciding yes. But we dither yet, balancing the delivery of long-range missiles against the reaction from Putin and the ability to get that help through our own divided congress. Ukrainian civilians are dying every day.
But the American public’s attention is elsewhere.
And we watch
Closer to home (because of America’s large Jewish population), a madman in Israel is committing the largest genocide in modern times. Worldwide, nations and politicians hold their breath, while Benjamin Netanyahu continues his attempt to eradicate an entire Palestinian population to defeat Hamas. Estimated at 40,000 Hamas fighters among over 5 million Palestinians (0.8%), Israel has already killed 40,005 civilians and wounded 92,401 as of a month ago. It’s a losing game. Each Hamas fighter killed recruits two more—or ten.
Without a second thought, without the slightest attention to unintended consequences, Joe Biden embraced this international Israeli criminal, and promised ‘whatever it takes’ in weaponry to defeat Hamas. Who knows the current total of dead, crippled and missing, but it brings a whole new meaning to the Israeli motto, Never Again.
Even so, the American public’s attention is elsewhere.
And we watch
Since the Second World War, the Military Industrial Complex President Eisenhower warned us about has grown to consume 42% of the national budget. The Pentagon that feeds it houses 23,000 military and civilian employees, as well as about 3,000 non-defense support personnel. Pentagon spending has totaled over $14 trillion since the start of the war in Afghanistan, with one-third to one-half of the total going to military contractors. But we don’t really know, because the Pentagon has been unable to pass an audit since its inception.
In its most recent attempt, the Pentagon was able to account for just half of its $3.8 trillion in assets (including equipment, facilities, etc.). That means $1.9 trillion is unaccounted for. They simply do not know where two thousand billion dollars went.
Who cares, the American public’s attention is elsewhere.
And we watch
Meanwhile, the world watches us.
Is this the America we once were, a beacon of fairness, and law, and welcome? The land most foreigners wished was theirs? It seems our own laundry is no longer clean. A nasty bit of over-reaction in a 20-year failed war in Afghanistan, with a bit of Bush-Cheney torture thrown in. Turning the other cheek to a Saudi murderer because, after all, he’s ‘our’ Saudi murderer, and has oil and buys our weapons.
And then, of course, there’s our upcoming presidential election, where one candidate is a proven liar, a bankrupt, convicted rapist and felon, yet who our news media tout as an even bet to win. In the eyes of the world today we’re no longer the savior of WWII, who rebuilt Europe with the Marshall plan, invented the United Nations and was first to appear in any natural disaster. That America is a faded memory in the outside world, and mostly here at home. We’re feared more often than admired, critics too often, helpful too little in a world that really needs the old America back.
And yet, America’s attention, like its memory, is fraying at the seams.
And we watch