The American Genocide

All of us are aware of what Gaza looks like. It is rubble, bones and dust. What we don't get to experience is how we could ever live in such an environment. Or how we would protect our family and loved ones. There are 20 thousand Palestinian children who will never grow up, and each one is a tragedy for some extended family. How would we cope? Would our lives ever be whole again?

The Old Dutch Church in Kingston presented a play this Friday that is made up of the real text messages sent to a family friend in the United States. There is a Palestinian father who spends his days looking for a few cups of water. There are words of encouragement and empathy that he gets from his friend in return. Finally, there is a news reporter who covers the facts and figures of who gets hit by shrapnel, and who is dying of starvation.  

Will future history books call this the American Genocide? Will we, peace loving and enjoying our own lives, ever be blamed for these war crimes? These are all questions that this theater production brings up. Congratulation to the Old Dutch Church for this thought provoking theater event. 

Fred Nagel

Film Screening of "Jenin's Freedom Theatre"

Live theater presentation of “One Family in Gaza”

Friday, April 3 at 7 pm, at the Old Dutch Church, 272 Wall St., Kingston, NY. Live theater presentation of “One Family in Gaza,” a screenplay that follows the emails of a family caught in the Gaza Genocide. Written by Crystal Zevon. Cosponsored by: Middle East Crisis Response mideastcrisis.org, Veterans For Peace, and Women In Black - New Paltz. Contact: mecr@mideastcrisis.org or 845 876-7906

Sweet Land of Liberty

Sweet land of liberty. These were the words sung to our elementary school class as the US flag went up the pole, snapping in the morning breeze. Maybe it was Memorial Day, or Flag Day. It doesn't matter. I remember thinking that my country must be an amazing place if grownups choke up about it. I was proud to be part of a country that even sang these words.

So many years later, my basic beliefs in these words and the country that still sings them, are gone. The US is the mightiest nation the world has ever seen.  We are starving two million people in Palestine. We are bombing Iran. We are kidnapping world leaders, or assassinating them along with their families. We threaten the rest of the world with endless wars, and our implacable war machine is on the move, looking for more victims.

Is there anything sweet about US militarism? Is there any liberty after the US and its reprehensible ally in crime, Israel, have murdered millions of people? Those stars and stripes don't bring me any assurance. The reasons for our perpetual invasions of other countries have turned out to be transparent lies. Were they always? Was there ever a time when our country was a sweet land of liberty, free from Zionist manipulation and its million dollar payoffs to members of Congress?

I don't think that the US and Israel can conquer the rest of the world. Their heinous crimes against humanity will be our epitaph.  

Germany Over All in the World

"Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt." So begins the German national anthem, which was used by the Nazis as a declaration of world hegemony. No international laws could hold Germany back. No sense of decency or morality would alter its drive for military dominance.

The same ultra nationalist thinking now controls our own White House. We bomb, we starve, we invade any country that gets in our way. We laugh at the rules that have held us back since World War II. Any world leader who resists will be assassinated or captured. With 800 military bases in the rest of the world, we will crush all dissent both home and abroad.

How did Germany think it could control the world? Racism convinced Hitler that Germany would prevail against all other ethnicities. Also, Hitler ruled by hunches and constantly went against his generals. By the time he invaded Poland, there was nobody in the press, or the courts, or the universities who could stand up against him.

Our own Hitler is busy crushing dissent and destroying our Constitution. His billionaire class has bought up all the media. He controls what is taught in our colleges, and simply ignores the courts when they urge caution. Finally, he is deeply racist and has energized the white Christian nationalists.

He is talking about taking a third term, and has ICE as his private Storm Troopers. Unless we stop Trump now, we will have to fight him in the streets.

Fred Nagel

Some Sort of Perspective

How can we put America's starvation of Gaza in some sort of perspective? Do we write songs about it? Do we hold up signs? How do we get beyond what our country is capable of doing? Has it always been that way and we didn't notice?

The pictures are already upon us. The skeletal bodies and shrunken eyes. There are 90,000 children under imminent threat of starvation. The trucks are only a few miles away, but Israel, backed by its partner in crime, the United States, has decided not to let them through.

Do you think we live in a humane society? That we follow some sort of moral code? Do we believe in a God that doesn't slaughter children? How did we end up in a country that always puts money and power before its basic humanity?

We the people forced an end to our invasion and occupation of Vietnam. Not in time to save the lives of 58,000 US troops and over two million Vietnamese people. We worked at it, defying the police and the college administrators that kept telling us to shut up and be patriotic. It turned out that the war resisters were the patriots. Those in power were the liars and the murderers.

Today, we must overcome the apartheid state of Israel, a toxic mixture of religious fanaticism and wanton cruelty. We must end our support of this genocide against the Palestinian people. The battle is for the soul of our democracy, just as it was in Vietnam.

Touching the humanity of the American public

Venezuela's president sits in a US jail, having been abducted by a military invasion. There is no doubt that what the US has done violates the UN Charter as well as any number of international laws. How did Trump pull it off?

Maybe he was just being an imperialist like his predecessors. According to research at Boston College, the US has attempted regime change 72 times since World War II. A little less than half were successful. Most notable overthrows include: Iran, Guatemala, Congo, South Vietnam, Brazil, Ghana, Chile, Panama. Haiti, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Honduras, Libya, and Venezuela. Thousands have perished in these assassinations and coups. And millions more have been slaughtered in the decades of human rights abuses that have inevitably followed.

How is it that the citizens of our democracy have let these war crimes go on for 80 years? Is it just ignorance, which our schools, political parties and mass media are only too willing to perpetuate? Our nation's billionaires have bought up most sources of actual information, so we can't expect too much help there.

What may finally shame the US public into action is the blatant genocide our government is waging in Palestine. There is no attempt to hide the 20,000 children who have been murdered. We can see the rest in their makeshift tents, without food, water, or electricity. The US is the driving force behind the worst bloodbath of the 21st century. Maybe that will finally touch the humanity of the American public.

Fred Nagel

Without Ethics or Empathy

Donald Trump has always considered himself above the law. Much of his bravado comes from his mentor and father figure, the infamous lawyer of the McCarthy Era, Roy Cohn. A man without ethics or empathy, Cohn could be counted on to always take the low road. He never admitted to being wrong, and invariably counter attacked when his misconduct was exposed. He worked tirelessly to get gays fired from their government position, all the while being a closeted gay himself. He died of AIDS, after having been disbarred for unethical and unprofessional conduct.

Few international leaders have been influenced by a more conniving person than the likes of Roy Cohn. Only Hitler had a worse gang of sycophants. Goebbels, the Minister of German propaganda, considered lying to the public a form of art. Goring, was notorious in his theft of fine art and jewelry, much of it stolen from his Jewish victims. And Himmler ran the SS, the group responsible for the "Final Solution."

Surrounding oneself with liars, thieves and miscreants makes one vulnerable to making terrible decisions. Hitler tried to conquer the world in a mixture of racism and poor judgement. And it looks like Trump may do the same. He has threatened almost every US ally with military invasions. He has sent his fleet of aircraft carriers around the world to prove his dominance and masculinity. From the genocide of the Palestinian people to the war crime of threatening other sovereign nations, Trump is a clear and present danger to life on Earth.    

Fred Nagel