Hello, this is Eve. This article paints a sobering picture of how disconnected Democratic Party insiders are from the dangerous conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and how little they understand the declining status and military power of the United States. There is one thing about this article that is jarring: a recent report in the Washington Post claims that Ukraine and Russia are in negotiations to end their energy war. Both Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zarakhova and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov deny this. At best, these “negotiations” are low-level probing.
By Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. DaviesThe Ukraine War: Understanding a Pointless ConflictIt will be published by OR Books in November 2022. Medea Benjamin is CODEPINK for Peaceand author of several books, Inside Iran: The True History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of IranNicholas J.S. Davies is an independent journalist and researcher at CODEPINK. Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq
Democratic National Convention delegates unfurl a banner during Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Photo by Essam Borey
The 2024 Democratic National Convention will be haunted by an Orwellian disconnect: In the secluded confines of the convention center, sealed off from the outside world by thousands of armed police, few delegates seem aware that their country is on the brink of being directly drawn into a major war with Russia and Iran, either of which could escalate into World War III.
At the venue, the massacres in the Middle East and Ukraine were treated only as “problems,” The biggest military The “worst attack on Israel in the history of the world” is surely an issue Democratic lawmakers could address. When lawmakers held up a banner reading “Stop Arming Israel” during Biden’s Monday night speech, they were quickly subdued by DNC staffers, who instructed other lawmakers to cover the banner with “We ❤️ Joe” signs.
In the real world, the most explosive flashpoint right now is the Middle East, where American weapons and Israeli forces are massacring tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly children and families, at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And yet in July, Democratic and Republican lawmakers rose to their feet in 23 standing ovations to praise Netanyahu’s warmongering. speech To a joint session of Congress.
The week before the Democratic National Convention began, the Biden administration announced it would approve $20 billion worth of arms sales to Israel, locking in U.S. military ties between the two countries for years to come.
Netanyahu’s determination to continue the unrestrained killing in Gaza, and Biden and Congress’ willingness to continue to supply him with the weapons to do so, always risked escalating into a larger war, but the crisis has reached a new climax: having failed to kill or expel Palestinians from Gaza, Israel is now trying to draw the United States into a war with Iran, a war to weaken Israel’s enemies and restore the illusion of military superiority it squandered in Gaza.
To achieve its goal of sparking a broader war, Israel has assassinated Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas political leader and chief ceasefire negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran has vowed to respond militarily to the assassinations, but Iranian leaders have A difficult positionThey do not want war with Israel or the US and have acted with restraint throughout the massacres in Gaza, but a failure to respond strongly to these assassinations will likely encourage Israel to launch further attacks against Iran and its allies.
The assassinations in Beirut and Tehran were clearly designed to provoke a reaction from Iran and Hezbollah and draw the US into war. Can Iran find a way to attack Israel without inviting a US reaction? Or, if Iranian leaders don’t think that’s possible, will they decide now is the time to actually fight an inevitable war with the US and Israel?
This is an extremely dangerous moment, but a ceasefire in Gaza would resolve the crisis. The United States has sent CIA Director William Burns, the only professional diplomat in the Biden administration, to the Middle East to resume ceasefire negotiations, and Iran is awaiting the outcome of those talks before responding to the assassination.
Burns is working with Qatari and Egyptian officials to hammer out a revised cease-fire plan that both Israel and Hamas can agree to. But Israel has consistently rejected proposals for more than a temporary halt to its attacks on Gaza, while Hamas will only agree to a substantially permanent cease-fire. Did Biden send Burns simply to buy time so that a new war would not erode Democratic support in Chicago?
The United States always had the option of halting arms shipments to Israel to force it to agree to a permanent ceasefire, but it has refused to use its influence, apart from halting one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs in May. Already sent Israel has 14,000 of these horrific weapons and is using them to systematically shatter living children and families into unidentifiable fragments of flesh and bone.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region has taken a dangerous new turn in the war with Russia. Some analysts They believe this is just a diversionary tactic before a more dangerous Ukrainian attack on the Russian-held Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Ukrainian leaders sense the worsening situation and are increasingly ready to take any risk to improve their negotiating position before being forced to sue for peace.
However, the recent Russian aggression in Ukraine, while praised by many in the West, actually makes negotiations less likely. In fact, talks between Russia and Ukraine on energy issues were supposed to begin within the next few weeks. The idea was that both sides would agree not to target each other’s energy infrastructure, which would hopefully lead to more comprehensive talks. However, after Ukraine invaded the Kursk region, Russia withdrew from what was meant to be the first direct talks since the weeks following the Russian aggression.
President Zelensky is still in power three months into his final term and a great admirer of Israel, so will Biden follow Netanyahu’s lead and take provocative steps that could draw US and NATO forces into a potential nuclear war with Russia? Promised To avoid?
2023 United States Army War College study The report found that a non-nuclear war with Russia could result in as many American casualties every two weeks as occurred in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over two decades, and concluded that such a war would require the reinstatement of military conscription in the United States.
As Gaza and eastern Ukraine burn under a firestorm of American and Russian bombs and missiles, and the war in Sudan continues unchecked, the entire planet is plunging toward catastrophic temperature rise, ecological collapse and mass extinctions, yet the Chicago delegation is also daydreaming about American responsibility for the crisis.
Even under the sophisticated climate change plan that President Obama sold to the world in Copenhagen and Paris, Americans’ per capita carbon dioxide emissions would still be double China, the UK and European neighbours are oil and gasProduction volume reached an all-time high.
of Combined The Doomsday Clock has ticked to 90 seconds before midnight, with the risks of nuclear war and climate catastrophe. Yet Republican and Democratic leaders are in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and the military-industrial complex. In an election year, while the focus is on the differences between the two parties, it is the corrupt policies they agree on that are the most dangerous.
President Biden recently Claimed He is “manipulating the world.” No American oligarch would profess to be “manipulating the world” to the brink of nuclear war and mass extinction, but the tens of thousands of Americans marching in the streets of Chicago and the millions who support them know that this is what Biden, Trump and their cronies are doing.
It’s time for those in this room to shake off their complacency and listen to the people in the streets, for therein lies any real hope, perhaps the only hope, for America’s future.
