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