University Protests against the Israeli Incursion into Palestine

[Belacqua]

The way some Media sources are talking about these University protests is also a bit concerning. Here is a quote from The Telegraph:[/size]
 
It call the peaceful protesters “a pack of brainwashed, Jew-hating apologists for terrorism.”
 

It's very sad, but not surprising, that the protestors are being accused in this way. Of course there is real antisemitism in the world, but the fact that the current protests are in response to specific actions -- not simply Jewishness -- should be completely obvious. And of course there are plenty of Jews among the protestors. Equating violent Zionism with Jewishness is itself antisemitic. 

I saw a cringe-making video earlier today -- somebody stopped Richard Dawkins in a lobby before or after a speech, and asked him what he thought of the protestors. He said they were obviously antisemitic. When the interviewer said don't you think maybe they oppose the bombing of children, Dawkins suddenly realized that the object in front of him was a smart phone, and claimed he had a "no-recording policy." And ran away. 

That's just disgusting. 

 
On Iraq and Afghanistan: 

 
Saddam’s regime was like a buffer zone that helped to control Iran. A bit like Kaddafi was the only person able to keep Libya together. And on Afghanistan: Many Western troops left their lives there, all of it to give the country back to the Taliban 20 years later. 
 
Especially on the latest: I was hoping for something like south-Korea or post WWII Japan in both of these countries. In Iraq the elections are being held between Sunnite political Islamists and Iran backed political Islamists.
 
G.W. Bush had said that the middle-east would look better once this operation is over. Well, it doesn’t. The only difference here is that the Taliban had only Russian weapons in the 00’s. Now it has Hummers and other vehicles abandoned by the US and its allies.
 

I don't quite know how Americans handle the cognitive dissonance here. They lost big time in Afghanistan. They lost big time in Iraq. They ruined Libya. With millions of lives ruined, and untold trillions of dollars wasted, it's just clear as can be that they've made the world far worse. 

Yet apparently no one will be held responsible. 

I think there are some people over there who are making huge amounts of money from all of these wars.

Sometimes people talk as if the weapons industry people are just storekeepers, who sit at the counter and wait for orders to come in. Hey, if there's a war, they don't mind a bit. 

This completely ignores the constant revolving door policy in Washington. The current Secretary of Defense, for example, is on the board of Raytheon --- one of the companies that benefits most from more war. When the policy-makers are also the profit-makers, it shouldn't be surprising that endless war is policy.