Israel's Gaza Atrocities Recall America's Atrocities in Vietnam

The "Ebay economy" of virtual wealth we Americans thought we had in our homes and our 401(k) funds will not bounce back in coming years, because it was all a fake. When this recession finally ends, we Americans will find that recovery will mean a much lower standard of living than we have become used to. (Just one example of the problem: The Fed has printed $2 trillion of new dollars over the last two months. When you do that, you inevitably debase the currency. We are doomed to see the dollar plummet in value over the next few years, and because the US doesn't make anything anymore, all the goods we need, including even the bulk of the things that go into making our cars, are imported and will soar in price. It will be even worse if, as is likely, oil producers stop pricing oil in dollars.)

It all points to a major pull-back, probably sooner rather than later, I in America's role in the world.

There can be no restoration of the American economy, even marginally, without an end to this country's decades-long obsession with militarism. The US spends more on its military--a trillion dollars a year counting veterans benefits and interest on the borrowed money) than the rest of the world combined. That situation cannot continue, for objective reasons even aside from the moral ones.

When the public finally realizes this, the politicians will have to respond, and we will see a dramatic shrinking of the military budget and of America's militarism abroad.

At that point, Israel will have to face the music, and either settle with the Palestinians, or try to soldier on on its own (and good luck to that).

It would make much more sense for Israel, which still has solid, if
shrinking, public US support, to work out a permanent solution through the creation of a genuinely viable Palestinian state, right now, than to wait until such a solution is forced on it when it is in a much weaker bargaining position.
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DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006, available now in paperback edition). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net

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