In his masterwork, “On War,” published in 1832 after his death, you can almost feel the Prussian general and life-long soldier Carl von Clausewitz as he searches for logic in the endeavor to which he dedicated his life. In Chapter One, Section 2, he gives us this definition of war:
The world knows that Netanyahu is the handmaiden of, and is dependent upon the political support of, the most fanatically fundamentalist orthodox Jews in Israel, and the most fanatical right-wing militarist elements of the society.
This alone makes their cause distasteful at best to people outside of that part of the world, despite the horrific atrocities inflicted upon them by other fanatical, hateful terrorists.
And, of course, since antisemitism is an evergreen hatred, those are inclined to it have their hatred stoked to an ever hotter flame, by the fact that the leader of the country is such a distasteful and despicable person.
As a person in my mid 60s, who has always been sympathetic to Israel as a sanctuary for the persecuted millions whom Hitler did not manage to eradicate, my sympathy has been pushed to the limit by the fact that the current leadership of the country is so awful.
And if someone like me feels this way, I can only imagine how little sympathy Israel is getting from the billions of other people on the planet who are much less inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Wars are almost always waged by men who never saw combat themselves. They tell themselves lies about the nature of war, and spread the lies to such a degree that the lesson of Vietnam wasn't "don't invade sovereign countries you know nothing about;" instead, it's " remember to say thank you to anyone in the armed forces "
it is said the first casualty of war is truth, but I think truth is never a factor at all. Remember the Maine!
Tim O'Brien summed it up well:
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.
Had a chance to meet and chat with Tim at a book signing event in Minnesota back in the 80's. I remember it as a good conversation with couple of vets with a few war stories thrown in.
I’m experiencing the same unease. I do think Israel can survive - but only if rational leadership is reestablished. I hope enough Israelis understand the stakes.
I do not think Israel will continue to exist as a separate sovereign state. There, I said the quiet part out loud. There needs to be a total realignment (listening Egypt and Jordan) of boundaries that respect historical and cultural realities. Radical, I know, but the current arrangement of chess pieces has not worked from Day 1 - 1948 or so.
Could you explain that concept, of a "separate sovereign state" no longer existing, with the specific application to Israel's ten million or so citizens? Meaning, for instance, (1) Where are going those citizens to be located, and (2) Are they going to be allowed to choose their own representatives?
I heard some unorthodox theories in various philosophy courses and other classes over the years, but this is a new one for me - it seems on the face of it to violate the U.N. Charter's most basic principles, so I am wondering if you have arrived at some way around that. Thanks in advance, I ask in good faith and for some enlightenment as to possible variations in the placement of the chess pieces, anything from the equivalent of Alapin's Opening to the Zukertort Defense, A to Z, to play along with the international chess board metaphor.
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll.
Israel could be expelled from the General Assembly - theoretically, anyway. Is that what you mean? Or Israel could be invaded by a U.N. multinational force, if that was authorized by the Security Council, in theory - the US and possibly another permanent member would veto that as of now, but are you contemplating a regime in the U.S. that would endorse that?
I won't be coy about my own views in general: I think it's far more likely that the Palestinians are going to be eventually forced by their own population to agree to peace terms outlining a two-state solution, hammered out in extended, grueling negotiations, after Netanyahu is long gone, and the Israelis are going to agree to bulldoze many illegal settlements, they've done that before; it will come down to a "land for a guaranteed peace" trade, with perhaps a UN multinational force on a rotating basis, helping to both keep the more fanatical ultra-orthodox Jewish settlers from trying to violate the pact, and prevent Hamas, the Al-Aqsa Brigades (also terrorists) and Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah, etc. from persisting in launching strikes from Gaza, the new State of Palestine, Lebanon, or from anywhere else.
Something to contemplate surely. With modifications perhaps but it’s not going anywhere. Inextricably attached to Palestine, Jerusalem. Sides will be taken but which chess piece will decide to move.
You are absolutely correct, time is not going to be kind, the Israel that comes out of this crucible will be changed, and not in the way the PM had envisioned. Those watching know that he added a ton of fuel to the fire, karma is catching up with him.
What often gets forgotten is that the "sanctuary for the persecuted millions" was established by dispossessing other millions who had minimal say in the matter, thanks to the machinations of the Western powers, particularly Britain and France. Those dispossessed millions were used as pawns by most of the neighboring Arab states because assimilating them would have meant acknowledging that Israel now existed and was not going away -- and the backing of the USSR sure didn't hurt.
The more you know, the messier it gets. Hamas did not come out of nowhere. The Israeli military may destroy Hamas, but it cannot destroy the roots from which it grew. Meanwhile Hezbollah is alive and well in the north and backed by Iran, as Hamas has been -- Shi'a and Sunni seem to get along OK when they have the common goal of destroying Israel.
I agree and I think they are in this together, and there are others involved who are pushing the agenda.
I worry about several things:
-the “dark money” people, No Labels, and the very rich will get the orange idiot back in office no matter what.
-they have been working on their agenda for a long time and now they have found an idiotic puppet, serial liar, and incredible con man who tapped in to underlying hate and racism in this country. Opening of Pandora’s Box.
-even if they lose the election, they have put so many people in place at local and state levels THEY will have rigged the election, and the goals they have set will be a success. Jan 6 was just a dress rehearsal and a test to see what the MAGA people will do, and the violent rhetoric being spit out is like getting ‘treats’ to keep the base interested.
-I worry that with all the grass roots efforts, GOTV, post cards, letters, phone calls, canvassing, etc, is useless, as THEY have too much power now to be stopped.
-to many Americans never leave their zip codes and are oblivious to current events and history! Like my 3 sisters who are ‘cult’ members and have made my relationships with them miserable.
I would love to read some comments about what I just wrote. Anything will be helpful. Thx
And the Mango Mamzer is their “retribution.” A second Trump presidency will include prosecution of Democratic leaders as we rapidly slide into autocracy.
"It is eminently clear ... that mankind is struggling with life-threatening outcomes. Who is to blame; anyone you care to name? Far better to assign shame to someone else, especially those whose participation is far from innocent. It’s always the fault of “the other." Let's examine the failure to balance the power. Now when the scales of justice swing back and forth, and someone’s hands are always tilting it in favor of one side or the other.
You read heart-rending reports of senseless death, and feel that a conclusion must be reached as to the cause. That’s when it gets complicated. And you shake your head and walk away with a pain swelling in your chest. What can I do, I’m only one person? How can I facilitate justice, and the healing of old wounds to begin. Then suddenly another fissure in the body politic explodes. Here we go again! . . ."
-from Recreation Myth: Revised, soon to appear on Substack
Be careful about type-casting. We Jews are hard-wired to argue with each other.
Even the milkman in Fiddle on the Roof, argued with G-d.
Netanyahu, as onerous has he is, has a honored family history. His brother, Jonathan was killed in the attack to free 107 hostages in Entebbe Airport in 1976.
We don't want your sympathy. We want your understanding.
When someone vowed to wipe you off the face of the earth, believe them!
No more waiting in line for the gas chambers this time.
Hamas made a serious miscalculation on October 7th. If they expected to get away with murder, they were horribly mistaken.
When a single, 19-year old, kidnapped Israel soldier was freed in exchange for 1,000 convicted troublemakers, some years back, that should tell you something about the odds. They will leave no stone unturned and no option unexplored to secure the return of those ripped from the safety of Israeli territory.
We've all heard Clausewitz's comment that "war is politics by other means." Michel Foucault said that the reverse is also true: "politics is war by other means." I am a political scientist who has worked in marketing most of my career, so you might not be surprised at my own twist on this statement (and I am not happy to say it): war is advertising by other means.
Edward Bernays classic study of Propaganda, written in 1928, boils down the formula.
One of his claims is that church doctrine was the first organized effort of propagandistic manipulation.
Might as well bring it back to Moses whose freeing of the slaves did have unintended consequences in the region. Certainly the removal of Palestinians to make room for displaced European Jewish survivors has had ongoing repercussions. Fact is, Jews were expelled from Israel by the Romans and have been denied entry for many, many centuries.
Do we every really own the land, or are we just stewards, responsible for living on the land and maintaining the fragile balance of nature?
“Almost nothing that goes by the name of Historic Rights or Historic Wrongs can be called a truly objective view of the past. Take, for example, the Franco-German debate about Alsace-Lorraine. It all depends on the original date you select. If you start with the Rauraci and Sequani, the lands are historically part of ancient Gaul. If you prefer Henry I, they are historically German territory; if you take 1273 they belong to the House of Austria; if you take 1648 and the Peace of Westphalia, most of them are French; if you take Louis IV and the year of 1688 they are almost all French. If you are using the argument from history you are fairly certain to select those dates in the past which support your view of what should be done now.”
Q: Do we every really own the land, or are we just stewards, responsible for living on the land and maintaining the fragile balance of nature?
A: [Good] Stewards.
Can't own something you can't take with you whether it be land, water, or air. Remains a first principle to and of (sad to have to add this caveat, traditional) aboriginal and indigenous.
"Fact is, Jews were expelled from Israel by the Romans and have been denied entry for many, many centuries."
First time in recorded history a name change accompanied a diaspora, Israelites to Jews. Whether intentional or not, one yield of diasporas includes weakening all the way up to wiping out an identity, culture, and history.
"...propagandistic manipulation."
One notable flaw in the human condition is falling victim to the sound of things w/o first weighing its soundness. For example, the effectiveness of hundreds of 3-word phrases aka emotional hooks.
By way of a compliment, you get comments saying that "everyone should read" something you've written. Not this one: it should be re-read, more than a couple of times, and thought about. The last quote you included from von Clausewitz is the sound of a mournful bell, tolling in this country for thee and me. The "Lost Cause" of the racist South was turned into the jaunty, defiant, "the South will rise again," which it has, and metastasized into the Midwest, Plains, and Mountain states.
Finally, your paragraph about killing as an act of subtraction is stunning to contemplate. Yes, we don't know "what cures for disease lay locked within the bodies lying dead in Ukraine, Israel, or Gaza..." or what smile of love, one for another, what pleasures there could have been taken at life's "ordinary" moments.
As uncomfortable as it might be and I'm not being sarcastic or ironic when I write that I believe the sole purpose of Netayahu's continuing the war is to literally decimate and destroy Gaza so that nobody can live in it again. He wants to obliterate the Palestinian people so that they will never dare 'wage war' on the Israelis, and that they will trouble him no longer.
It's called genocide and it's not ironic that the people who were the victims of the 20th century's Holocaust should be perpetrating another one on a people they feel and believe should not exist.
It's criminal and the Israeli people should remove him as quickly as they can. He is no better than those who did it to millions of European Jews, gypsies, and others.
I once read a soldier from the first World War sum up war in this sentence:
"War is legalized murder".
I haven't seen a better definition in my entire life.
If this really is his sole purpose, he seems to have forgotten the Palestinians in the north, or the Palestinians in the West Bank. Destroying Gaza isn't going to "obliterate the Palestinian people," and the Palestinians, like the Israelis (and so very many others), have long memories.
You can kill terrorists and militants on and on and on, but you can never kill an ideology. There will be hate and racism in the world as long as humans occupy it.
(1) "War is legalized murder". I haven't seen a better definition in my entire life.
War is legal. Murder can be committed in war yet overall killing in war is justified homicide. Hamas used the WW1 soldier's definition.
(2) Bibi.
Everything you wrote about Bibi may be true. That said, Bibi is not running the war. The War Cabinet is. Bibi is not the CinC as a US President is. And a War Cabinet is not same-same w/his Cabinet nor with a US Cabinet.
(3) A reminder, on 7October Hamas-Islamic Jihad brought war into and onto Israel and her most peaceful people, those at the southern border who employ Gazans to establish bonds between the 2people, They didn't just kill or murder, they tortured, they raped, they enaged in overkill, they pillaged, they taunted family members of the survivors, they burned bodies beyond recognition with thermobaric weapons, they enaged in beheadings and attempts of the dead, they took some dead with them as trophies, and took >200 hostages from 2scores of foreign countries.
Hamas is responsible for the safety and security of Gazans as well as foreign nationals within Gaza, not Israel. Hams knew once they crossed back into Gaza they were bringing war back with them.
To date Hamas claims more than 12000 Gazan civs have been killed to the outside world yet internally call them willing martyrs. To date, Hamas has not once said a single Hamas fighter/barbarian has been killed or martyred. Hamas could allow the International Red Cross access to the hostages yet refuses to do so. Hamas also claims dozens of hostages were killed by Israel strikes yet not once identified a single one. The IRC doesn't have legal authority to access the hostages however it is the IRC that provides and trains Gaxan health care providers, ambulances/drivers, medical supplies and assists in other areas.
Hamas is prolonging the war and so too are Gazan civs for NOT turning on Hamas. Gazan civs no who Hamas is and some know where Hamas and Islamic Jihad is. All sides, all parties, and all people have a say in war. That includes the WW1 soldier.
An interesting study of wars and the motivation behind them. It does seem that civilians suffer more than anyone. Civil wars as in Sudan are just as bad. I don't know what it was like for occupying troops after the war was over for Germany and Japan, if there was a lot of resentment or not. I was in Germany 6 years after wwII and Germany civilians as far as I could see just went about their daily lives and paid us no attention, I didn't detect any hostility. This was in a city called Goslar and seemed to me to have been untouched by war, no destruction that I could see. I was in charge of cigarette rations and made a little money on the side selling cigarettes to the Germans. We used to ski in the Harz mountains in winter and and ride horses for recreation in the summer. This was the British army.
I suspect. there will be tremendous resentment in the civilian population in Gaza after the war, breeding further hostilities as the young men come of age.
True Janice, but in previous times the well being of the entire planet was not also on the table. It would appear that the most urgent threat globally as fundamentalist right wing fear mongering opportunists like Netanyahu, Orban, Meloni, and now Milei in Argentina take charge is not political stability, but environmental stability. For them and their followers the unwoke wrecking of the planet is a badge of honor. The wanton destruction of war itself is just the in your face precursor. I feel your despair.
Human beings feel the need to control others for their personal well being. Parents try to control their children. Priests & police try to control neighborhoods. Ideologues & police/militaries try to control a nation. It’s never ending.
“Kill them all” has often been considered the only means of stopping an opposition. It only takes one to rekindle hate of being oppressed. There are some in the U.S. South that have never accepted the loss of the Civil War…
“The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace.” Said by none other than your brilliant relative, Thomas Jefferson to George Washington in December of 1788. These words are immortalized on the West Point library wall. Some Genius on the wages of war is timeless.
“The principles of the justice of war are commonly held tobe: having just cause, being a last resort, being declared by a proper authority, possessing right intention, having a reasonable chance of success, and the end being proportional to the means used.The principles of the justice of war are commonly held to be: having just cause, being a last resort, being declared by a proper authority, possessing right intention, having a reasonable chance of success, and the end being proportional to the means .
I could argue that Ukraine followed the definition of a Just War. I have not heard anyone advance the argument that the war in Israel fits the definition.
I have no intention of arguing, but I will say the term is “A Just War” seeks to define what could constitute a just war in the realization we not likely to ever stop war, despite all the posters and signs in the 70s. If we cannot stop it, how can we differentiate between unjust actions and just ones? How can leaders about to enter into a war evaluate their own and their adversaries’ actions and motives and outcomes. I am of the opinion that Israel’s intention and proportionality are not just at this time. Hamas met none of the criteria, and worse has exposed thousands of innocents to death, torture, and devastation.
Reading through the comments, I am greatly saddened. Yes, a Palestinian in '47 would be horrified by the fact that s/he suddenly was told the house, the land, the place lived upon by ancestors for literally millennium now had to be given to Jews. No thinking person can say the land was "the promised land" given by god. And so they resisted. But that was more than seventy years ago but not forgotten. Add in the attacks by the Arab nations, the constant attacks by terrorists on Israel, the refusal of Israel to give back land captured in war, the illegal settlements by Israel on the West Bank, the open air prison of Gaza, all have thrown fuel on the fire of hatred on both sides.
I feel like many readers want to take a side, forgetting that there are very legitimate grievances! I do not see a solution since both show great intransigence.
Then Lucian, your use of von Clausewitz makes some sense but often wars of human history were not done out of hatred for the other side, or vengeance or to settle disputes but purely for conquest. Hence Genghis Khan, Alexander and others waged war even on nations they knew little or nothing about.
I agree with your last paragraph - definition of nation was infinitely more tribal, too fluid for modern warfare and much less secure. Ghengis Khan was no statesman, but a war leader. Was Alexander seeking world peace when he decided to outdo his father’s conquests? Doubtful. They were born into it - It was a bloody career. And it glorified them.
On the other hand peace brought expanding populations and a need to sustain that population - so there’s a justification right there. The Vikings embraced it when they went looking for farmland and gold. It wasn’t only the humiliation of an enforced reduced military that spurred Japan. It was a need for resources and the management of an expanding population that brought about its invasion of China.
In any case, Great Britain’s legacy of a screwed up Middle East continues apace. But it can not be argued that Jews had no attachment to the land that todays Palestinians lived on- of course it has and had for centuries. The Palestinians came after. History.
Jerusalems population during the decade before the establishment of a Jewish homeland was a majority Jewish btw.
I think Hamas has a clear endgame and it has nothing to do with the Palestinian people. Or even with the unachievable goal of destroying Israel. The goal of Oct 7 was to cause a brutal Israeli overreaction. Check! Further dehumanize Israeli and Palestinian perceptions of the other so peace is forever impossible. Check! And make impossible Israeli detente with the wider Arab and Islamic world. Check! And, through the Israeli overreaction, stain the US and divide the Western alliance. Check! And, a nice stretch goal, divide the Democratic coalition and pave the way for what all of America’s enemies want, a return to power for Donald Trump. Working on it!
Hamas is merely a pawn of America’s enemies, Iran, Russia and China. Through this lens their actions are very logical and, to this point, have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, with nice assists from Israeli and US governments.
I wish I was smart enough to engage in all this high-brow debate over why wars are fought. I just think we need better kindergarten teachers who are paid properly. Look how much money and lives would be saved, if just one kindergarten teacher would say, "Just throw the necklace down onto the 101 and you will be sent to detention for 2 weeks while your mother is in labor." Comes down to brass tax in kindergarten.
I would guess Mr. T. is the only newsman who could double as a war historian. And I can't remember if Clausewitz was the guru of Superkraut. (Kissinger to you.)
"War is a mere continuation of policy by other means…" seemed to me to be both simple and profound.
That was superb Lucian, I have never read his masterwork, although I have lived some of it. Your West Pointe education continues to pay dividends, and we are the beneficiaries, thank you for sharing that with us, I have often heard it quoted but never explained.
The world knows that Netanyahu is the handmaiden of, and is dependent upon the political support of, the most fanatically fundamentalist orthodox Jews in Israel, and the most fanatical right-wing militarist elements of the society.
This alone makes their cause distasteful at best to people outside of that part of the world, despite the horrific atrocities inflicted upon them by other fanatical, hateful terrorists.
And, of course, since antisemitism is an evergreen hatred, those are inclined to it have their hatred stoked to an ever hotter flame, by the fact that the leader of the country is such a distasteful and despicable person.
As a person in my mid 60s, who has always been sympathetic to Israel as a sanctuary for the persecuted millions whom Hitler did not manage to eradicate, my sympathy has been pushed to the limit by the fact that the current leadership of the country is so awful.
And if someone like me feels this way, I can only imagine how little sympathy Israel is getting from the billions of other people on the planet who are much less inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I fear for their future ...
Wars are almost always waged by men who never saw combat themselves. They tell themselves lies about the nature of war, and spread the lies to such a degree that the lesson of Vietnam wasn't "don't invade sovereign countries you know nothing about;" instead, it's " remember to say thank you to anyone in the armed forces "
it is said the first casualty of war is truth, but I think truth is never a factor at all. Remember the Maine!
Tim O'Brien summed it up well:
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.
I love Tim O'Brien.
Had a chance to meet and chat with Tim at a book signing event in Minnesota back in the 80's. I remember it as a good conversation with couple of vets with a few war stories thrown in.
I’m experiencing the same unease. I do think Israel can survive - but only if rational leadership is reestablished. I hope enough Israelis understand the stakes.
I do not think Israel will continue to exist as a separate sovereign state. There, I said the quiet part out loud. There needs to be a total realignment (listening Egypt and Jordan) of boundaries that respect historical and cultural realities. Radical, I know, but the current arrangement of chess pieces has not worked from Day 1 - 1948 or so.
Could you explain that concept, of a "separate sovereign state" no longer existing, with the specific application to Israel's ten million or so citizens? Meaning, for instance, (1) Where are going those citizens to be located, and (2) Are they going to be allowed to choose their own representatives?
I heard some unorthodox theories in various philosophy courses and other classes over the years, but this is a new one for me - it seems on the face of it to violate the U.N. Charter's most basic principles, so I am wondering if you have arrived at some way around that. Thanks in advance, I ask in good faith and for some enlightenment as to possible variations in the placement of the chess pieces, anything from the equivalent of Alapin's Opening to the Zukertort Defense, A to Z, to play along with the international chess board metaphor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alapin%27s_Opening
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zukertort_Opening
UN CHARTER Section 2, (7)
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll.
Israel could be expelled from the General Assembly - theoretically, anyway. Is that what you mean? Or Israel could be invaded by a U.N. multinational force, if that was authorized by the Security Council, in theory - the US and possibly another permanent member would veto that as of now, but are you contemplating a regime in the U.S. that would endorse that?
I won't be coy about my own views in general: I think it's far more likely that the Palestinians are going to be eventually forced by their own population to agree to peace terms outlining a two-state solution, hammered out in extended, grueling negotiations, after Netanyahu is long gone, and the Israelis are going to agree to bulldoze many illegal settlements, they've done that before; it will come down to a "land for a guaranteed peace" trade, with perhaps a UN multinational force on a rotating basis, helping to both keep the more fanatical ultra-orthodox Jewish settlers from trying to violate the pact, and prevent Hamas, the Al-Aqsa Brigades (also terrorists) and Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah, etc. from persisting in launching strikes from Gaza, the new State of Palestine, Lebanon, or from anywhere else.
Something to contemplate surely. With modifications perhaps but it’s not going anywhere. Inextricably attached to Palestine, Jerusalem. Sides will be taken but which chess piece will decide to move.
You are absolutely correct, time is not going to be kind, the Israel that comes out of this crucible will be changed, and not in the way the PM had envisioned. Those watching know that he added a ton of fuel to the fire, karma is catching up with him.
What often gets forgotten is that the "sanctuary for the persecuted millions" was established by dispossessing other millions who had minimal say in the matter, thanks to the machinations of the Western powers, particularly Britain and France. Those dispossessed millions were used as pawns by most of the neighboring Arab states because assimilating them would have meant acknowledging that Israel now existed and was not going away -- and the backing of the USSR sure didn't hurt.
The more you know, the messier it gets. Hamas did not come out of nowhere. The Israeli military may destroy Hamas, but it cannot destroy the roots from which it grew. Meanwhile Hezbollah is alive and well in the north and backed by Iran, as Hamas has been -- Shi'a and Sunni seem to get along OK when they have the common goal of destroying Israel.
I get it.
Netanyahu represents ISL in the way tfg represents USA; and be not deluded, please, tfg might well be POTUS again.
JS
I agree and I think they are in this together, and there are others involved who are pushing the agenda.
I worry about several things:
-the “dark money” people, No Labels, and the very rich will get the orange idiot back in office no matter what.
-they have been working on their agenda for a long time and now they have found an idiotic puppet, serial liar, and incredible con man who tapped in to underlying hate and racism in this country. Opening of Pandora’s Box.
-even if they lose the election, they have put so many people in place at local and state levels THEY will have rigged the election, and the goals they have set will be a success. Jan 6 was just a dress rehearsal and a test to see what the MAGA people will do, and the violent rhetoric being spit out is like getting ‘treats’ to keep the base interested.
-I worry that with all the grass roots efforts, GOTV, post cards, letters, phone calls, canvassing, etc, is useless, as THEY have too much power now to be stopped.
-to many Americans never leave their zip codes and are oblivious to current events and history! Like my 3 sisters who are ‘cult’ members and have made my relationships with them miserable.
I would love to read some comments about what I just wrote. Anything will be helpful. Thx
And the Mango Mamzer is their “retribution.” A second Trump presidency will include prosecution of Democratic leaders as we rapidly slide into autocracy.
Your first two paragraphs voice what I have been thinking, and it is the first time I have read it anywhere. Thank you.
"It is eminently clear ... that mankind is struggling with life-threatening outcomes. Who is to blame; anyone you care to name? Far better to assign shame to someone else, especially those whose participation is far from innocent. It’s always the fault of “the other." Let's examine the failure to balance the power. Now when the scales of justice swing back and forth, and someone’s hands are always tilting it in favor of one side or the other.
You read heart-rending reports of senseless death, and feel that a conclusion must be reached as to the cause. That’s when it gets complicated. And you shake your head and walk away with a pain swelling in your chest. What can I do, I’m only one person? How can I facilitate justice, and the healing of old wounds to begin. Then suddenly another fissure in the body politic explodes. Here we go again! . . ."
-from Recreation Myth: Revised, soon to appear on Substack
Be careful about type-casting. We Jews are hard-wired to argue with each other.
Even the milkman in Fiddle on the Roof, argued with G-d.
Netanyahu, as onerous has he is, has a honored family history. His brother, Jonathan was killed in the attack to free 107 hostages in Entebbe Airport in 1976.
We don't want your sympathy. We want your understanding.
When someone vowed to wipe you off the face of the earth, believe them!
No more waiting in line for the gas chambers this time.
Hamas made a serious miscalculation on October 7th. If they expected to get away with murder, they were horribly mistaken.
When a single, 19-year old, kidnapped Israel soldier was freed in exchange for 1,000 convicted troublemakers, some years back, that should tell you something about the odds. They will leave no stone unturned and no option unexplored to secure the return of those ripped from the safety of Israeli territory.
We've all heard Clausewitz's comment that "war is politics by other means." Michel Foucault said that the reverse is also true: "politics is war by other means." I am a political scientist who has worked in marketing most of my career, so you might not be surprised at my own twist on this statement (and I am not happy to say it): war is advertising by other means.
Edward Bernays classic study of Propaganda, written in 1928, boils down the formula.
One of his claims is that church doctrine was the first organized effort of propagandistic manipulation.
Might as well bring it back to Moses whose freeing of the slaves did have unintended consequences in the region. Certainly the removal of Palestinians to make room for displaced European Jewish survivors has had ongoing repercussions. Fact is, Jews were expelled from Israel by the Romans and have been denied entry for many, many centuries.
Do we every really own the land, or are we just stewards, responsible for living on the land and maintaining the fragile balance of nature?
“Almost nothing that goes by the name of Historic Rights or Historic Wrongs can be called a truly objective view of the past. Take, for example, the Franco-German debate about Alsace-Lorraine. It all depends on the original date you select. If you start with the Rauraci and Sequani, the lands are historically part of ancient Gaul. If you prefer Henry I, they are historically German territory; if you take 1273 they belong to the House of Austria; if you take 1648 and the Peace of Westphalia, most of them are French; if you take Louis IV and the year of 1688 they are almost all French. If you are using the argument from history you are fairly certain to select those dates in the past which support your view of what should be done now.”
— Walter Lippman, Public Opinion [1922]
Public Opinion is my bible. I love your quote here. Applies to Putin and Ukraine seamlessly.
Q: Do we every really own the land, or are we just stewards, responsible for living on the land and maintaining the fragile balance of nature?
A: [Good] Stewards.
Can't own something you can't take with you whether it be land, water, or air. Remains a first principle to and of (sad to have to add this caveat, traditional) aboriginal and indigenous.
"Fact is, Jews were expelled from Israel by the Romans and have been denied entry for many, many centuries."
First time in recorded history a name change accompanied a diaspora, Israelites to Jews. Whether intentional or not, one yield of diasporas includes weakening all the way up to wiping out an identity, culture, and history.
"...propagandistic manipulation."
One notable flaw in the human condition is falling victim to the sound of things w/o first weighing its soundness. For example, the effectiveness of hundreds of 3-word phrases aka emotional hooks.
By way of a compliment, you get comments saying that "everyone should read" something you've written. Not this one: it should be re-read, more than a couple of times, and thought about. The last quote you included from von Clausewitz is the sound of a mournful bell, tolling in this country for thee and me. The "Lost Cause" of the racist South was turned into the jaunty, defiant, "the South will rise again," which it has, and metastasized into the Midwest, Plains, and Mountain states.
Finally, your paragraph about killing as an act of subtraction is stunning to contemplate. Yes, we don't know "what cures for disease lay locked within the bodies lying dead in Ukraine, Israel, or Gaza..." or what smile of love, one for another, what pleasures there could have been taken at life's "ordinary" moments.
Thank you, Lawrence Dietz. My thoughts precisely.
As uncomfortable as it might be and I'm not being sarcastic or ironic when I write that I believe the sole purpose of Netayahu's continuing the war is to literally decimate and destroy Gaza so that nobody can live in it again. He wants to obliterate the Palestinian people so that they will never dare 'wage war' on the Israelis, and that they will trouble him no longer.
It's called genocide and it's not ironic that the people who were the victims of the 20th century's Holocaust should be perpetrating another one on a people they feel and believe should not exist.
It's criminal and the Israeli people should remove him as quickly as they can. He is no better than those who did it to millions of European Jews, gypsies, and others.
I once read a soldier from the first World War sum up war in this sentence:
"War is legalized murder".
I haven't seen a better definition in my entire life.
If this really is his sole purpose, he seems to have forgotten the Palestinians in the north, or the Palestinians in the West Bank. Destroying Gaza isn't going to "obliterate the Palestinian people," and the Palestinians, like the Israelis (and so very many others), have long memories.
You can kill terrorists and militants on and on and on, but you can never kill an ideology. There will be hate and racism in the world as long as humans occupy it.
But can we limit the deaths and destruction by ending factional (IE, religious) wars?
"My god is bigger than your god, so you get to die for it."
(1) "War is legalized murder". I haven't seen a better definition in my entire life.
War is legal. Murder can be committed in war yet overall killing in war is justified homicide. Hamas used the WW1 soldier's definition.
(2) Bibi.
Everything you wrote about Bibi may be true. That said, Bibi is not running the war. The War Cabinet is. Bibi is not the CinC as a US President is. And a War Cabinet is not same-same w/his Cabinet nor with a US Cabinet.
(3) A reminder, on 7October Hamas-Islamic Jihad brought war into and onto Israel and her most peaceful people, those at the southern border who employ Gazans to establish bonds between the 2people, They didn't just kill or murder, they tortured, they raped, they enaged in overkill, they pillaged, they taunted family members of the survivors, they burned bodies beyond recognition with thermobaric weapons, they enaged in beheadings and attempts of the dead, they took some dead with them as trophies, and took >200 hostages from 2scores of foreign countries.
Hamas is responsible for the safety and security of Gazans as well as foreign nationals within Gaza, not Israel. Hams knew once they crossed back into Gaza they were bringing war back with them.
To date Hamas claims more than 12000 Gazan civs have been killed to the outside world yet internally call them willing martyrs. To date, Hamas has not once said a single Hamas fighter/barbarian has been killed or martyred. Hamas could allow the International Red Cross access to the hostages yet refuses to do so. Hamas also claims dozens of hostages were killed by Israel strikes yet not once identified a single one. The IRC doesn't have legal authority to access the hostages however it is the IRC that provides and trains Gaxan health care providers, ambulances/drivers, medical supplies and assists in other areas.
Hamas is prolonging the war and so too are Gazan civs for NOT turning on Hamas. Gazan civs no who Hamas is and some know where Hamas and Islamic Jihad is. All sides, all parties, and all people have a say in war. That includes the WW1 soldier.
An interesting study of wars and the motivation behind them. It does seem that civilians suffer more than anyone. Civil wars as in Sudan are just as bad. I don't know what it was like for occupying troops after the war was over for Germany and Japan, if there was a lot of resentment or not. I was in Germany 6 years after wwII and Germany civilians as far as I could see just went about their daily lives and paid us no attention, I didn't detect any hostility. This was in a city called Goslar and seemed to me to have been untouched by war, no destruction that I could see. I was in charge of cigarette rations and made a little money on the side selling cigarettes to the Germans. We used to ski in the Harz mountains in winter and and ride horses for recreation in the summer. This was the British army.
I suspect. there will be tremendous resentment in the civilian population in Gaza after the war, breeding further hostilities as the young men come of age.
This thing will never end. And we supply the weapons for it.
I've never been more in despair for the human race. But, I guess people of the previous generations must have felt the same during every war....
True Janice, but in previous times the well being of the entire planet was not also on the table. It would appear that the most urgent threat globally as fundamentalist right wing fear mongering opportunists like Netanyahu, Orban, Meloni, and now Milei in Argentina take charge is not political stability, but environmental stability. For them and their followers the unwoke wrecking of the planet is a badge of honor. The wanton destruction of war itself is just the in your face precursor. I feel your despair.
I too feel your despair. You left the orange idiot out of that happy crowd.
Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, not Reconciliation. Corrected.
h/t Eric Helin
Human beings feel the need to control others for their personal well being. Parents try to control their children. Priests & police try to control neighborhoods. Ideologues & police/militaries try to control a nation. It’s never ending.
“Kill them all” has often been considered the only means of stopping an opposition. It only takes one to rekindle hate of being oppressed. There are some in the U.S. South that have never accepted the loss of the Civil War…
“The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace.” Said by none other than your brilliant relative, Thomas Jefferson to George Washington in December of 1788. These words are immortalized on the West Point library wall. Some Genius on the wages of war is timeless.
“The principles of the justice of war are commonly held tobe: having just cause, being a last resort, being declared by a proper authority, possessing right intention, having a reasonable chance of success, and the end being proportional to the means used.The principles of the justice of war are commonly held to be: having just cause, being a last resort, being declared by a proper authority, possessing right intention, having a reasonable chance of success, and the end being proportional to the means .
I could argue that Ukraine followed the definition of a Just War. I have not heard anyone advance the argument that the war in Israel fits the definition.
I disagree. Except for proportionality Israel has those elements on their side. But I also think the phrase « justice of war » is an oxymoron.
Ukraine has it’s defense against an armed invader. Israel has the objective of stopping another promised invasion (terrorist attack).
We can argue until we’re blue on the subject but nothing we say matters, it’s all punishment at the end of the day.
I have no intention of arguing, but I will say the term is “A Just War” seeks to define what could constitute a just war in the realization we not likely to ever stop war, despite all the posters and signs in the 70s. If we cannot stop it, how can we differentiate between unjust actions and just ones? How can leaders about to enter into a war evaluate their own and their adversaries’ actions and motives and outcomes. I am of the opinion that Israel’s intention and proportionality are not just at this time. Hamas met none of the criteria, and worse has exposed thousands of innocents to death, torture, and devastation.
It’s descended into something neither wanted. Least of all the dead.
Reading through the comments, I am greatly saddened. Yes, a Palestinian in '47 would be horrified by the fact that s/he suddenly was told the house, the land, the place lived upon by ancestors for literally millennium now had to be given to Jews. No thinking person can say the land was "the promised land" given by god. And so they resisted. But that was more than seventy years ago but not forgotten. Add in the attacks by the Arab nations, the constant attacks by terrorists on Israel, the refusal of Israel to give back land captured in war, the illegal settlements by Israel on the West Bank, the open air prison of Gaza, all have thrown fuel on the fire of hatred on both sides.
I feel like many readers want to take a side, forgetting that there are very legitimate grievances! I do not see a solution since both show great intransigence.
Then Lucian, your use of von Clausewitz makes some sense but often wars of human history were not done out of hatred for the other side, or vengeance or to settle disputes but purely for conquest. Hence Genghis Khan, Alexander and others waged war even on nations they knew little or nothing about.
I agree with your last paragraph - definition of nation was infinitely more tribal, too fluid for modern warfare and much less secure. Ghengis Khan was no statesman, but a war leader. Was Alexander seeking world peace when he decided to outdo his father’s conquests? Doubtful. They were born into it - It was a bloody career. And it glorified them.
On the other hand peace brought expanding populations and a need to sustain that population - so there’s a justification right there. The Vikings embraced it when they went looking for farmland and gold. It wasn’t only the humiliation of an enforced reduced military that spurred Japan. It was a need for resources and the management of an expanding population that brought about its invasion of China.
In any case, Great Britain’s legacy of a screwed up Middle East continues apace. But it can not be argued that Jews had no attachment to the land that todays Palestinians lived on- of course it has and had for centuries. The Palestinians came after. History.
Jerusalems population during the decade before the establishment of a Jewish homeland was a majority Jewish btw.
I think Hamas has a clear endgame and it has nothing to do with the Palestinian people. Or even with the unachievable goal of destroying Israel. The goal of Oct 7 was to cause a brutal Israeli overreaction. Check! Further dehumanize Israeli and Palestinian perceptions of the other so peace is forever impossible. Check! And make impossible Israeli detente with the wider Arab and Islamic world. Check! And, through the Israeli overreaction, stain the US and divide the Western alliance. Check! And, a nice stretch goal, divide the Democratic coalition and pave the way for what all of America’s enemies want, a return to power for Donald Trump. Working on it!
Hamas is merely a pawn of America’s enemies, Iran, Russia and China. Through this lens their actions are very logical and, to this point, have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, with nice assists from Israeli and US governments.
I wish I was smart enough to engage in all this high-brow debate over why wars are fought. I just think we need better kindergarten teachers who are paid properly. Look how much money and lives would be saved, if just one kindergarten teacher would say, "Just throw the necklace down onto the 101 and you will be sent to detention for 2 weeks while your mother is in labor." Comes down to brass tax in kindergarten.
Motherhood.
Educators.
Poets.
Now skip down +/- 100,000 lines to where war theorists rank on their positive contributions to hoomankind.
Am grateful for your post, Carolyn. Re-centered me on what matters the most.
I would guess Mr. T. is the only newsman who could double as a war historian. And I can't remember if Clausewitz was the guru of Superkraut. (Kissinger to you.)
"War is a mere continuation of policy by other means…" seemed to me to be both simple and profound.
great piece
thank you
That was superb Lucian, I have never read his masterwork, although I have lived some of it. Your West Pointe education continues to pay dividends, and we are the beneficiaries, thank you for sharing that with us, I have often heard it quoted but never explained.