Moment innocent civilian brandishing white flag in Gaza 'safe zone' is shot dead in the street
Moment innocent civilian brandishing white flag in Gaza 'safe zone' is shot dead in the street
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Well... I've moved all the way into "Fuck Israel" territory.
Is the reason we are showering Israel with weapons so that we can maintain a justified military influence in the middle east? And is the need for such influence because of fucking oil? Are we helping commit genocide because of oil? Again?!
because of oil?
Drone bases and regional hegemony, essentially. The Saudis, and Israel are who we use to try and keep Iran from controlling the region. I honestly don't understand how Turkey stays out of the proxy war. They play a similarly delicate game with Russia and the black sea by doing both proxy conflicts and cooperation. The Kurds and Hamas are kind of in a gray area.
As we've recently learned it isn't just about oil. It's about maritime trade more broadly. One of the explicit purposes of the US Navy is to defend maritime trade. The Suez canal and the Persian Gulf are two of the most important maritime trade routes.
We do not need Israel for that. We have bases in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Djibouti, UAE, and finally a peacekeeping force in the Sinai Peninsula.
There's also a strong element of religious fundamentalism. Certain sects of American Christianity believe that the existence of Israel is key to the end of the world coming, and they want that. Those sects are bizarrely popular and influential, and are happy to nudge American foreign policy in whatever ways keeps Israel existing and embroiled in war.
We absolutely do not need Israel for strategic purposes. If anything our ME policy is built around protecting them as much as it's built around oil producing countries.
"Every time anyone says that Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, I can't help but think that before Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East." -- John Sheehan, S.J.
It's an oversimplification but essentially true. The pissed off middle east we've known our whole lives is kind of because of this bullshit
I think it's mostly inertia
My theory is they want to nuke Iran right now and the west appeases them similar to China and North Korea
... Unsubstantiated of course
If they nuked Iran then the best thing we could do for world peace is immediately and publicly cut them loose.
All bets are off then, no one would care about public image any more
I mean, yeah dude. Legit tons of Americans consider gas prices when they decide how to vote - whether what they're voting on is even related or not.