(November 22, 2023)
Israel is not attacking hospitals in Gaza because they are “Hamas command centers.” Israel is systematically and deliberately destroying Gaza’s medical infrastructure as part of a scorched earth campaign to make Gaza uninhabitable and escalate a humanitarian crisis. It intends to force 2.3 million Palestinians over the border into Egypt where they will never return.
In diesem Beitrag Die Neuauflage der ethnischen Säuberung – Steinmeier nickt das ab hatten wir am 27. November angekündigt, eine Übersetzung des Artikels von Chris Hedges nachzuliefern. Diese Übersetzung liegt jetzt vor. Großen Dank an Susanne Hofmann, die diesen Text über schreckliche Ereignisse und Einschätzungen übersetzt hat.
Der US-amerikanische Pulitzerpreisträger und ehemalige Korrespondent der New York Times im Nahen Osten, Chris Hedges, prangert an: Israel gehe es darum, den Gazastreifen unbewohnbar zu machen. Dazu zähle die Zerstörung aller Krankenhäuser dort. Israels Botschaft sei eindeutig: Es gibt keine Sicherheit. Wer im Gazastreifen bleibt, stirbt.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a war crime, although one that was provoked by NATO expansion and by the United States backing of the 2014 “Maidan” coup which ousted the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych wanted economic integration with the European Union, but not at the expense of economic and political ties with Russia. The war will only be solved through negotiations that allow ethnic Russians in Ukraine to have autonomy and Moscow’s protection, as well as Ukrainian neutrality, which means the country cannot join NATO. The longer these negotiations are delayed the more Ukrainians will suffer and die. Their cities and infrastructure will continue to be pounded into rubble.
America is a stratocracy, a form of government dominated by the military. It is axiomatic among the two ruling parties that there must be a constant preparation for war. The war machine’s massive budgets are sacrosanct. Its billions of dollars in waste and fraud are ignored. Its military fiascos in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East have disappeared into the vast cavern of historical amnesia. This amnesia, which means there is never accountability, licenses the war machine to economically disembowel the country and drive the Empire into one self-defeating conflict after another. The militarists win every election. They cannot lose. It is impossible to vote against them. The war state is a Götterdämmerung, as Dwight Macdonald writes, “without the gods.”
(Mar 19, 2023)
A national reckoning with the military fiascos in the Middle East would expose the self-delusion of the ruling class. But this reckoning is not taking place. We are trying to wish the nightmares we perpetuated in the Middle East away, burying them in a collective amnesia. “World War III Begins With Forgetting,” warns Stephen Wertheim.
The celebration of our national “virtue” by pumping weapons into Ukraine, by sustaining at least 750 military bases in more than 70 countries and by expanding our naval presence in the South China Sea, is meant to fuel this dream of global dominance.
Award-winning actor and activist Danny Glover and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges will speak at The People’s Convention on August 30 from 4-7 p.m. Eastern Time. They will be joined by two former Democratic Congressional candidates from New York, Lauren Ashcraft and Isiah James. Also joining are the Host of Act Out Eleanor Goldfield and leading basic income expert Scott Santens.
Hosts Krystal and Saagar take a closer look at their conversation with Chris Hedges on the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party, their discussion with Matt Stoller about remarks Jamie Dimon made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland earlier this week, and their chat with Kyle Kulinski about brewing „“war““ between the progressive and establishment factions of the Democratic Party.
We must now all resist. We must in every way possible put pressure on the British government to halt the judicial lynching of Julian Assange. If Assange is extradited and tried, it will create a legal precedent that will terminate the ability of the press, which Trump repeatedly has called “the enemy of the people,” to hold power accountable. The crimes of war and finance, the persecution of dissidents, minorities and immigrants, the pillaging by corporations of the nation and the ecosystem, and the ruthless impoverishment of working men and women to swell the bank accounts of the rich, and consolidate the global oligarch’s total grip on power, will not only expand, but will no longer be part of public debate. First Assange. Then us.
In the weeks preceding the rally, prominent independent journalists, artists and defenders of democratic rights issued endorsements of the event. Those who lent their support included filmmaker John Pilger, singer-songwriter Roger Waters, civil rights advocate Professor Stuart Rees, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, Elizabeth Vos, editor-in-chief of Disobedient Media, Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, filmmaker Curtis Levy, Terry Hicks and Christine Assange, Julian’s mother.