by achrilock
Tell me, who else is the enemy? Who else will you teach a lesson to? What lessons will you teach them?
The Chemical Brothers – Block Rockin’ Beats
| https://theconversation.com/israeli-invasion-of-gaza-likely-to-resemble-past-difficult-battles-in-iraq-and-syria-216317 | Israeli invasion of Gaza likely to resemble past difficult battles in Iraq and Syria |
[…] “No one knows precisely how events will unfold in the coming days. If Israel does indeed mount a ground campaign, the resulting fight between the Israeli military and Hamas will almost certainly be violent and difficult.
Casualties on all sides of the conflict will be high, and will include innocent Palestinians who have not left the northern part of Gaza for the southern end of the strip, where humanitarian aid and relief is beginning to arrive. The ensuing urban battles may resemble those in Fallujah in the mid-2000s or ISIS stand-offs a decade ago.”
And no military campaign is ever going to ‘destroy’ a militant group, particularly if that campaign is waged among people who were initially uninvolved, where they live, and especially if the underlying grievances are not dealt with alongside the military policing action itself. The Taliban rules Afghanistan now, after twenty years of war. The Iraqi insurgency became ISIS. This approach elevates extremists and destroys any possibility of reconciliation in the near future. Is that the plan?
| https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/24/yuval-noah-harari-backs-critique-of-leftist-indifference-to-hamas-atrocities | Yuval Noah Harari backs critique of leftist ‘indifference’ to Hamas atrocities |
[…] “there is no contradiction between staunchly opposing the Israeli subjugation and occupation of Palestinians and unequivocally condemning brutal acts of violence against innocent civilians. In fact, every consistent leftist must hold both positions simultaneously.” |
Absolutely fair point, but “leftists” aren’t, for the most part, supporting Hamas, but condemning bad actions on the part of the people who are supposedly ‘the good guys.’ “Leftists” didn’t build a huge city-size ghetto, build a wall around it, and trap 2 million people inside. “Leftists” didn’t run global smear and silence campaigns against anyone calling for introspection and reason. “Leftists” didn’t practice systemic ethnic cleansing in the West Bank for decades. “Leftists” didn’t kill over 5,000 people in the last couple of weeks and level entire neighborhoods. If you’re going with ‘leftists are the real problem’ then you might have bigger problems than Hamas at home. And a historian, of all people, should know that things like this don’t happen out of nowhere.
This is so similar to the situation in the early 2000s. A far-right administration presides over an attack that they were warned about, uses it as an excuse to unleash hell on thousands of civilians who had nothing to do with it, the UN is turned into a joke and a tool to facilitate the atrocities, dissenting voices are cut from the mainstream press and run off of the internet wherever possible, people get fired for speaking out. It’s just like Iraq/Afghanistan but unfolding much faster.
Death Cab for Cutie – An Arrow In The Wall
In other words, no rules apply to us and if you point out that rules do apply to us you are the real problem. This just keeps getting better. How far down you all gonna follow these guys? Edge of my seat lol 🍿
No practical point in getting bent out of shape over all of it, though. Not much has changed in twenty years. They didn’t listen then and they won’t now. This place ain’t ever gonna change, because the people allowed to speak and be heard either participate in the crimes of the empire or depend on them for their comfort and social station. That’s how empires work. They lie to themselves until a historical force comes along large enough to show the lie, and then they end.