US should exit lost Ukraine war, obsolete NATO

 US should exit lost Ukraine war, obsolete NATO

 
President Trump appears to relish killing innocents worldwide. He’s still enabling the Israeli genocide in Gaza that has killed over 100,000. He’s obliterated 20 little unarmed boats in the Caribbean killing over 80 hapless innocents. He’s bombed imagined bad guys in Somalia 111 times in 10 months. Why? Because he wants to and can.
 
But one killing field Trump wants out of is Ukraine. His predecessor Biden provoked the war there 4 years ago. It has largely destroyed Ukraine as a viable state with millions fled, dead, injured, with a shattered economy propped up by US, NATO treasure.
 
Trump is working with Russia to end the war largely on Russia’s sensible terms. No NATO for Ukraine which will remain neutral between Europe and Russia. No return of the seized territory containing the Russian speaking Ukrainians their government was systematically destroying. End of sanctions allowing reintegration of Russia into the European political economy.
 
This is good for Ukraine, good for Russia, good for Europe.
 
For Ukraine it ends further destruction which will alas, now be a rump state of its former self. Had Ukraine not allowed the US and NATO to sabotage the April, 2022 Istanbul peace agreement, Ukraine could have achieved peace then with no loss of territory and its economy largely intact.
 
For Russia, its security concerns regarding NATO encroachment allowing NATO nukes on its borders, and further destruction of Russian leaning Donbas Ukrainians will achieved be.
 
For Europe, peace will allow redirection of squandered treasure to the commons, ward off right wing political movements likely to topple pro war leaders, and buy cheap energy from Russia to revitalize their stagnant economies.
 
While Russia is on board, neither Ukraine nor Europe will have any of this sanity. Ukraine wants to fight on to regain lost territory that will forever be part of Russia. Hurling teens and grandfathers into the cauldron of lost war further cements Ukraine's destruction.
 
European NATO pretends defeating Russia in Ukraine is critical to preventing Russia from attacking NATO countries in their imagined obsession Russia is recreating the Soviet Union.
 
Ukraine and Europe continue in their delusions in spite of Trump’s clear message that the war is lost and must be ended to prevent further disintegration of Ukraine. Neither Ukraine nor Europe has anywhere near the military resources to continue the war largely financed by the Russophobic Biden administration.
 
Trump must not weaver in his efforts to exit the money pit of senseless war in Ukraine. But he should go further and exit NATO, allowing Europe to provide for their own defense. No US Sugar Daddy might be just the tonic to dissuade foolish European leaders like UK’s Starmer, France’s Macron and Germany’s Merz from endlessly screaming ‘The Russians are coming, the Russian’s are coming.’
 
Congress is starting to recognize the need to exit NATO. House Republican Thomas Massie and Senate Republican Mike Lee have both introduced legislation to end US membership in NATO.

Their common sense justification is long overdue fresh air. Massie noted, “NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed over thirty years ago. Since then, U.S. participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk US involvement in foreign wars. Our Constitution did not authorize permanent foreign entanglements, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against. America should not be the world’s security blanket—especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense.”
 
Lee observed, “America’s withdrawal from NATO is long overdue. NATO has run its course – the threats that existed at its inception are no longer relevant 76 years later “If they were, Europe would be paying their fair share instead of making American taxpayers pick up the check for decades. My legislation will put America first by withdrawing us from the raw deal NATO has become.”
 
Trump must support this legislation as he works with Russia to end the carnage that addresses Russia’s valid security concerns. Ending this war and exiting NATO will bring peace to Europe and revitalize the economies of all combatants. It might also avert something infinitely more ominous…nuclear war.

Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL 

Dold’s statement supporting death of death penalty missed a major justification.

 

The Chicago Tribune obituary for legendary editor/publisher Bruce Dold laudably highlighted his 2007 Board editorial supporting abolishment of the Illinois death penalty with this justification: “The evidence of mistakes, the evidence of arbitrary decisions, the sobering knowledge that govern­ment can’t provide certainty that the innocent will not be put to death — all that prompts name.”

 

That was an obvious justification in a country that has executed hundreds of innocents during our 250 years. Since 1973, over 200 people sentenced to death in America have been freed, but the Death Penalty Information Center lists Carlos DeLuna and Cameron Todd Willingham as "possibly innocent" after execution. For every 8 people executed in the U.S., one person on death row has been exonerated. 

 

But Dold’s Trib Board omitted an overwhelming moral justification for death penalty abolishment. Execution represents immoral killing that serves no public purpose other than to satisfy the bloodlust of a citizenry the state concurs must be satisfied. One can argue that executions represent state sponsored murder no better than murder by an individual executed.

 

It may even be worse in the sense that individual murder is often motivated by mental defect or overwhelming outrage triggered by a real or imagined injury inflicted by the victim. But the state commits their murders under the guise of law after lengthy self-righteous deliberation. The executioner who administers the lethal drugs, sends current to the electric chair, or fires the firing squad gun, is considered a faithful public servant rather than just another cold blooded killer. So Is everyone in the state who participates in this barbarity still practiced by 23 states, thankfully not Illinois.

 

Tho based on just one rationale, Bruce Dold deserves the recognition noted in his storied career for his principled opposition to the Illinois death penalty which he championed 4 years before its enactment in 2011. 

substack.com/@waltzlotow

Grossman’s commentary on Trump’s peace plan misreads both history and current events involving war in Ukraine

 

Grossman’s commentary on Trump’s peace plan misreads both history and current events involving war in Ukraine

 

Ron Grossman spent most of his Chicago Tribune ommentary “There are echoes of World War II in Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine” comparing Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine with Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 peace plan for Czechoslovakia at Munich. But not only isn’t history repeating itself in Ukraine, it isn’t even, as Grossman alludes to, rhyming.  

 

No esteemed historian or political scientist would make that comparison. Alas, it’s the easy ‘go to’ argument for those seeking to keep the war in Ukraine raging till the last Ukrainian soldier is dead. That is the inevitable outcome if a sensible peace settlement is not quickly achieved. With Russia on the cusp of victory on the battlefield, Trump’s recognition of that reality should be supported, not denigrated.

 

The history Grossman should have provided was the 23 years of NATO encroachment to Russia’s borders beginning under Bill Clinton in 1999. Russia spent that entire time asking, begging, pleading with the US not to isolate, indeed threaten Russia by bringing NATO membership and NATO nukes to Russia’s borders. That was not Hitlerite aggression. It was endless, methodical diplomacy that was dismissed out of hand by an arrogant America under 5 presidents preceding Trump’s pivot to peace in term two.

 

Besides misreading history, Grossman appears oblivious that Ukraine is on the cusp of collapse with no prospects whatsoever of reversing their impending loss. Is he even aware that over 10 million Ukrainians have fled a Ukraine with a shattered economy, a million casualties, and rampant corruption that has convinced Trump to pull out? There is sound reason for Trump excluding Ukraine President Zelensky from the peace talks. Zelensky rejected Trump’s peace plan, demanding he must get back all lost territory that will forever be Russian, even demanding Crimea back lost 11 years ago. That is not statecraft. That is delusion.

 

History tells us the US and NATO provoked the 2022 Russian invasion, indeed made it inevitable after 23 years of failed Russian diplomacy. Current events tell us that Ukraine is defeated and loses more soldiers and more land every day it continues to press on to unachievable victory.

 

Walt Zlotow   West Suburban Peace Coalition,  Glen Ellyn IL

Maybe Hegseth should have stuck with drinking instead of sobriety induced murder in the Caribbean

Maybe Hegseth should have stuck with drinking instead of sobriety induced murder in the Caribbean

 

To get confirmed as Trump’s Secretary of Defense (War to Trump), Pete Hegseth had to swear off drinking, with which he clearly had a major problem. Senate Republicans believed his promise to abstain (no Democrat would vote to confirm such a reprehensible pick) and installed him as the 29^th Defense Secretary since its inception in 1947.

 

Alas, Hegseth’s career as an infantry officer in Afghanistan and Iraq, then as a talking head on military affairs for Fox News, ill prepared Pete to run our trillion dollar Defense Department which ostensibly is designed to promote peace, not war.

 

He’s absolutely ghoulish in his love of war. He re christened service members as “war fighters” and warned potential enemies about “FAFO” (Fuck Around and Find Out). He relished Trump’s directive to start obliterating small unarmed boats in the Caribbean off Venezuela. All this as he poured ships, planes and thousands of war fighters to prepare for the criminal invasion of Venezuela to topple hated socialist President Nicholas Maduro and steal Venezuela’s oil and other valuable resources.

 

Hegseth’s mass murder of 80 hapless souls on 20 little boats was largely ignored by our war loving Congress. But Hegseth committed an atrocity too heinous to ignore when he ordered his war fighters to murder 2 survivors clinging to the wreckage of Hegseth’s bombed boats. Congress’ conscience has awakened with cries of “murderer” and “war criminal” being hurled at a sitting US cabinet member for the first time in US history.

 

It’s too early to determine if Hegseth and his mentor in mass murder Donald Trump will face retribution for their grisly conduct. But if Hegseth really did kick drinking so he could rampage in the waters off Venezuela, he clearly made the wrong choice. He should have stuck with Jack Daniels instead of playing Pirate of the Caribbean.

 

Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL

 

Substack.com/@waltzlotow

Will Trump/Hegseth war crimes obliterating small boats provoke Republicans to head off war with Venezuela?

Will Trump/Hegseth war crimes obliterating small boats provoke Republicans to head off war with Venezuela?

 

Last month 51 of 53 Republican senators voted to give Trump the green light to attack Venezuela. They voted down the bipartisan War Powers Resolution forbidding Trump’s planned criminal war to oust socialist president Nicholas Maduro. Trump wants a compliant US puppet to take over so the US can gobble up precious Venezuelan oil and other valuable resources.

 

Just 2 morally centered Republican senators, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voted with all 47 Democrats in their failed attempt to deter Trump’s dastardly planned invasion.

 

But the furor over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s grisly order to murder 2 survivors of the September 1st boat attack brings forth a renewed bipartisan War Powers Resolution which will be voted upon within 10 days.

 

The outrage over Hegseth’s grotesque war crimes in the Caribbean off Venezuela may be too much for the 51 loyal Trump Republicans to again flash the green light for Trump’s illegal invasion. It would just take 2 more principled Republicans to deep six Trump’s near certain attack if not prevented by Congress.

 

The 52 year old War Powers Resolution Act has never been invoked to prevent war. If passed Trump could simply ignore it and start his lusted after war since no mechanism in the War Powers authority exists to stop him.

 

However, passing it provides political risk to Trump if he ignores it and blunders into senseless war that will likely kill US service persons. It might give pause to even the most reckless president in US history when it comes to unleashing death and destruction on peaceful nations and peoples posing no treat whatsoever to the Homeland.

 

Come on Republican senators. Vote for peace instead of senseless war in Venezuela. .

First strike on small, unarmed boat off Venezuela, not second, makes Trump and Hegseth war criminals

First strike on small, unarmed boat off Venezuela, not second, makes Trump and Hegseth war criminals

Some sensible US congresspersons, government officials, pundits and others are furious over reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike on a mysterious little boat off Venezuela September 2 that killed 2 hapless souls clinging to the US inflicted wreckage.

They correctly point out that bombing survivors of a wrecked boat is against the Pentagon’s own Law of War Manual. “Persons who have been rendered unconscious or otherwise incapacitated by wounds, sickness, or shipwreck, such that they are no longer capable of fighting, out of combat. “It would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack.”

Hegseth initially denied there was a second bombing killing the survivors, invoking the Trumpian charge “fake news.” Under intense criticism Pete pivoted admitting it happened but only after he’d left the room following the first strike, giving him plausible deniability. Then, despicably, he blamed the fatal order on Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander of US Special Operations Command. Hegseth didn’t condemn Bradley for ordering the second strike. He praised him saying he’s “got his back.”

The second strike on survivors upset congressional Republicans and Democrats enough to consider investigating it as a possible war crime. What that implies is that the 22 boats sunk, killing over 80 unidentified soles is OK as long as the US does not bomb survivors clinging to the wreckage of America’s dastardly war crimes.

Hegseth, Trump and every officer involved in these strikes are war criminals. Every serviceman ordered to commit these dastardly crimes should refuse those orders. Recently 6 morally centered congresspersons publicly implored all service members to do just that, no doubt with the illegal Trump/Hegseth boat obliterations in mind. Trump’s response? Maybe these congresspersons should be executed.

Focusing on the murder of survivors clinging to wreckage detracts from the monumental war crimes Trump commits nearly every day of his presidency.

By providing the bombs that have killed over 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza, bombing Somalia over 100 times this year, bombing imaginary Iranian nuclear sites, and most recently sending 22 small unarmed boats with 83 innocents down to Davy Jones Locker, Trump and Hegseth deserve indictment and prosecution for directing the most murderous administration in America’s 250 years.

 Trump’s buried complicity in lost US proxy war against Russia

Trump boasted he’d end the war destroying Ukraine in one day if re-elected. He claimed it was all Biden’s war that Trump had nothing to do with. If only Trump had been reelected in 2020, he claims, there would have been no war gutting Ukraine as a functioning state with tens of millions fled, dead, deserted, injured. The US wouldn’t have squandered over $180 billion to achieve this dubious Biden achievement.   

Trump, like every world leader, gets to make history but not rewrite history. Joe Biden was president when Russia launched its Special Military Operation to liberate the Donbas Ukrainians from destruction by Kyiv and keep NATO missiles off Russia’s borders. Biden essentially triggered that totally unnecessary war now in the final stages of Ukraine’s collapse. Biden also sabotaged the peace deal nearly achieved two month in that would have ended the war with no new lost Ukrainian territory. 

That will get Biden history’s everlasting condemnation.   But Trump also deserves history’s condemnation for ramping up the conditions that led to war under successor Biden. During his first term from 2017 to 2021 Trump kept alive long standing US dream of bringing Ukraine into NATO, a red line Russia warned America not to cross for over a decade prior. Trump authorized repeated NATO military exercises in Ukraine, which effectively made Ukraine a de facto NATO member. Trump allowed new NATO bases in Poland and Romania, adding to Russian angst over NATO encroachment. Trump reversed a sensible Obama policy of not arming the Kyiv government to complete its destruction of Donbas Ukrainian separatists. In his 4 years Trump oversaw a fourfold increase of Kyiv military might.   Had Trump simply reversed senseless US expansion of NATO beginning under Bill Clinton in 1999, and forced Germany, France and UK to honor the Minsk Agreements granting regional autonomy to Donbas Ukrainians, Biden may not have had the conditions or momentum to provoke the February 2022 Russian invasion.   

Trump pretends he’s the White Knight bringing peace to a Ukraine wrecked solely by Biden’s perfidy. He should own up to his first term complicity and make peace to atone for his own sins destroying Ukraine as well as those of Joe Biden.

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL

substack.com/@waltzlotow

Manfred right, Franklin wrong on Rose, Jackson Hall of Fame eligibility

 Manfred right, Franklin wrong on Rose, Jackson Hall of Fame eligibility

 

Dr. Cory Franklin’s commentary ‘The lessons of ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and the MLB’s rewriting of history’ completely misses the point of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s reinstatement of Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and 16 other banned major leaguers to eligibility in the Hall of Fame.

 

Franklin’s hyperbolic focus on Shoeless Joe makes a specious argument that his reinstatement will fuel revisionist history that Jackson was an innocent bystander to the fix. Then Franklin spends most of his commentary proving Jackson did aid the fix. That is totally unnecessary since the verdict of history is clear that Jackson participated. Franklin somehow missed that Manfred’s decree said nothing about Jackson’s guilt or innocence since that was irrelevant to his reasoning. Jackson is eligible simply because he’s dead and no longer a danger to America’s pastime.

 

What’s worse is Franklin’s personal attack on Manfred. He did it to suck up to the gambling industry. He did it to suck up to Trump. Pure speculation.

 

Worse yet, Franklin then i makes the outrageous claim that while at Harvard Law “history’s lessons failed to make (Manfred’s) curriculum.” Good grief, can Franklin stoop any lower to demean Manfred?

 

Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe both belong in the Hall, and hopefully their descendants will live to see their enshrinement. Rose’s astonishing 4,256 hits, most of over 23,000 to play, should put him there. Jackson’s place should be sealed by fourth best career .356 batting average, just 10 points behind Ty Cobb’s career leading .366.

 

It’s Franklin, not Manfred rewriting history. Leaving both out is the rewriting of history we should oppose. When Rose and Jackson are enshrined, their involvement with illegal gambling (Rose), and fixing a World Series (Jackson) should be prominently displayed in their history.

 

Both their inspiring accomplishments and their sorrowful misdeeds are part of their legacy and should be presented to visitors viewing their story at the Hall of Fame. That, and not their erasure from the game, is worthy history.

Walt Zlotow   Glen Ellyn IL 

substack.com/@waltzlotow

Some US military orders that should be disobeyed

 Some US military orders that should be disobeyed

Loading up or flying planes to Israel with tons of weapons that have already killed over 100,000 Palestinians. Any service member doing that is guilty of assisting genocide…the worst crime any servicemember can commit.


Loading up or flying planes bombing small, unarmed boats near Venezuela. This is premeditated mass murder of unknown persons. US makes sure all the boaters are killed so no record of their innocence is retained. Every one of the hundred or more boaters killed in 20 such sinkings emanated from military orders that were illegal and should have been resisted.


The US military is not content with illegal orders to support Israeli genocide in Gaza and obliterating small unarmed boats off Venezuela. Their Commander In Chief Trump has ordered 100 bombing strikes on imagined bad guys in Somalia this year. Does even one American in a million believe the lies emanating from Trump’s military that this mass murder in Somalia is crucial to protect the Homeland. Orders to relentlessly bomb a pitifully poor country 7,800 miles from America, posing no threat whatsoever, are illegal and should be disobeyed.


Granted its not easy to risk banishment from service, possibly even being imprisoned for disobeying these illegal orders. But one service member took such resistance to heroic status. In February 2024 U.S. Air Force serviceman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. to protest US support of Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Refusing to obey illegal orders to commit premeditated murder is the least that patriotic service members can do to end Uncle Sam’s worldwide killing rampage. We should commend the 6 members of Congress for reminding and supporting them to do that.

What I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving

 What I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving

 

When I enjoy Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday, my 81st in a long and peaceful life, I'll be thankful the world has not stumbled into nuclear war.

 

Don't remember my first Thanksgiving, November 22, 1945, as I was only 8 months old. But on that day Japanese civilians were still dying, suffering horribly amid their  ruined cities from America’s unnecessary atomic bombings.

 

Learned about them in 1951 and have been haunted by their images ever since. We were warned by our government that nuclear war could break out any moment with new US arch enemy Soviet Russia. We practiced Duck and Cover in school, a well-intentioned but ludicrous exercise in futility.

 

Still remember the 13 days of Cuban Missile Crisis as a high school senior. Pondered if I’d get thru the school day without mushroom clouds appearing, and whether I’d awake the next morning.

 

Welcomed JFK’s pivot to peace and disarmament afterwards. Some progress with nuclear treaties followed. The Soviet Union dissolved. Both presaged less likelihood of nuclear Armageddon

 

But America squandered that momentum. Today, the risk of nuclear war may be greater than any time since that 1962 Missile Crisis. The US dumped 3 nuclear treaties with Russia and on the cusp of exiting the last one, New Start, next February. We’re at war with Russia in Ukraine for 4 years as well. Even tho Ukraine is doing all the dying, our near $200 billion in weapons and support keep the specter of it going nuclear every day it continues.

 

What’s changed since I listened to our government warn me about imminent nuclear war back in 1951? The saddest, most irresponsible thing of all….it’s no longer warned about; indeed not even mentioned.

 

So this Thanksgiving I’ll pause for just a moment amid the family camaraderie and give thinks we’ve dodged the nuclear bullet once again to enjoy another Thanksgiving.

 

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL

Thanks to US, in Gaza it’s death by a thousand planes

 Thanks to US, in Gaza it’s death by a thousand planes

In 1948 the US launched an airlift of food and supplies to keep Berliners fed and healthy during the Soviet blockade of allies from Berlin. During the airlift’s 15 months, US planes delivered over 1,800,000 tons of life sustaining material…a humanitarian gesture for the ages.

Twenty-six months ago the US embarked on another airlift. Alas, this one was not humanitarian. It was to further Israeli genocide that has largely obliterated Gaza’s 139 square miles. Even with the not so peaceful ceasefire, America keeps airlifting in supplies to keep killing and degrading hapless Palestinians trapped in the ruins. Over 300 slaughtered and 900 wounded since ceasefire began 45 days ago. Israel just received planeload number 1,000. Along with 150 cargo ships, the US air/sea lift has poured into Israel over 120,000 tons of advanced munitions, weapons, armored vehicles, medical equipment, communications systems, and personal protective equipment.

Besides destroying Gaza, US war material supports Israel’s destruction of Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, West Bank; even bombing imagined bad guys in US ally Qatar.

Whew! That takes a lot of US treasure that could be used to provide health care for all, end food insufficiency for 50 million sufferers, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, convert to green energy, among other critically needed uplifting of the commons. How much treasure squandered on all that death and destruction? Over $21 Billion for Gaza alone with another $12 billion for Israel’s other bombing and terror campaigns.

Back in 1948 the beleaguered Berliners proclaimed the US Berlin airlift heaven sent. Seventy-seven years on, desperately starving and sick Palestinians not yet killed under American bombs dropped from US plans view the US genocidal airlift as arising from the lowest level of hell.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 

Israel’s unrelenting, underreported ethnic cleansing of West Bank Palestinians

 Israel’s unrelenting, underreported ethnic cleansing of West Bank Palestinians

Israel’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza is obvious to all with a moral conscious. Killing upwards of 100,000 Palestinians under 50,000 tons of US bombs obliterating Gaza’s 139 square miles is easy to process. Denying food, water, medicine , housing causing degradation and death to the remaining 2,200,000 Palestinians reinforces that genocidal reality.

But many remain unaware of Israel’s relentless policy to ethnically cleanse the 3.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem annexed by Israel in 1967. Israel is positively gleeful about bringing the West Bank entirely into Greater Israel for Israelis only. In July the Israeli Knesset passed a symbolic motion that the West Bank is “an inseparable part of the Land of Israel, the historical, cultural and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people” and that “Israel has the natural, historical and legal right to all of the territories of the Land of Israel.”

Folding the West Bank and East Jerusalem into Greater Israel, with or without (preferably without) those pesky Palestinians, has been the Israeli dream since that illegal 1967 annexation. A decade later Prime Minister Began initiated an inexorable settlement policy to implement that dream. Jewish settlement rose from just a few thousand in the late 70’s, to over half a million by the October, 2023 Hamas attack in Gaza.

The now two year Gaza genocide coincided with accelerated settlements, attacks on Palestinians, their homes, villages, harvests making life horrendous for the West Bank and East Jerusalem’s 3,300,000 Palestinians. Israeli settlement now approaches 750,000. With the world fixated on the horror perpetrated in Gaza, West Bank ethnic cleaning proceeds under the radar.

Israel pretends to oppose Israeli settler violence when in fact they both ignore an encourage it. Case in point is Zvi Sukkot, former head of settler terrorist organization The Revolt who had been marginalized by the Israeli government. Sukkot was arrested in 2010 for possible involvement in a mosque arson in the West Bank but released. By early 2023 he joined the Israeli Knesset. After the Hamas attack Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed him chair of the Knesset Subcommittee for Judea and Samara (Israel’s name for the West Bank). The leap from heading up a terrorist group to heading up a governmental agency tasked with Palestinian removal tells you everything about Israel’s agenda for the West Bank.

Is Israel determined to drive out West Bank Palestinians to fold that Palestinian land into Greater Israel? With America’s unrelenting support you can bank on it.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 

Trump stupidly brags about committing war crimes against Iran

 Trump stupidly brags about committing war crimes against Iran      

                      

Rule 1 for leaders committing war crimes is to refrain from bragging about them. President Trump jettisoned that wise rule regarding his criminal involvement in Israel’s 12 day war on Iran last June. 

When Israel attacked, Trump trotted his obedient Secretary of State Marco Rubio who issued this lie to America and world. “Israel had taken unilateral action to defend itself. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel."

Of course Iran had every right to target US interests and personnel since the US knew about and aided Israel’s crazed war that backfired on Israel. How so? Iran was wise to ignore US perfidy to launch a massive rocket attack on Israel that could not be defended against. After 12 days Israel threw in the towel. Israel now knows Iran will never be a genocidal punching bag like the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. 

US involvement was overt and covert. The former included refueling Israeli bombers during the entire 12 day war. The covert consisted of holding fake negotiations with Iran about their nuclear program to lull them into false security that no attack, which the US knew about, was imminent. Just 2 days beforehand Trump scheduled another negotiation and proclaimed “I am committed to a “diplomatic solution” with Iran.”

The US maintained the ‘not involved’ charade for nearly 5 months. Alas, Trump, an inveterate braggart on everything he maliciously touches from business partners, women wishing to be left alone, political enemies among others, just couldn’t contain his glee in assisting Israel’s unprovoked, murderous attack. ”Israel attacked first. That attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that. When Israel attacked Iran first, that was a great day for Israel because that attack did more damage than the rest of them put together.”

Iran took note of Trump’s confession of international criminality. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi fired off a letter to UN officials demanding the US be held to account for enabling Israel’s attacks on Iran that killed more than 1,000 people. In the letter Araghchi cited Trump’s recent comments about how he was "in charge" of the Israeli attacks. “The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its full and unimpeachable right to pursue, through all available legal means, the establishment of accountability for the responsible States and individuals and to secure compensation for the damages sustained.”

 

Araghchi can Faggedaboudit. If the UN and the International Criminal Court can do nothing Trump’s complicity in Israel’s monstrous genocide in Gaza, there is zero chance they will even glance at his war crimes in Iran.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL