Watching Genocide

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Most of us, when in school, learned at least something about the genocide of the Jews during the 1930s and 1940s. Six million Jews were killed as Hitler tried to eliminate the Jewish population from the earth. Most young students were horrified that such a thing had occurred so recently in history, and couldn’t imagine it ever happening again. But happen again it did, numerous times, since the latter part of the twentieth century.

Korea: When war between North Korea and South Korea began, the U.S. intervened. At least 800,000 military personnel and more than 1,500,000 civilians were killed. The follow is part of a quotation from the U.S. military leader of that war, Curtis Lemay:  “So we went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea…Over a period of three years or so, we killed off-what-twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure.”

Indonesia: Under the thirty-year rule of the brutal General Suharto, who came to power following the U.S.-led overthrow of his democratically-elected predecessor, between 400,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed. Suharto “launched an army-sponsored massacre of the very large but mostly unarmed Communist opposition,” resulting in these deaths. Suharto’s rule is considered one of the most brutal of the twentieth century.

Vietnam: The U.S., once again, launched its killing machine in Vietnam in the 1950s, killing at least 2,000,000 civilians and over 1,000,000 soldiers over a period of twenty years.

Cambodia: Between 1976 and 1979, between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 people were killed by the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge came to power after the defeat of the U.S. in Vietnam.

Iraq: The U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,000,000 innocent civilians.

There were others, of course. Bangladesh, East Timor, Guatemala and others most of which barely made the news, and many people in the Global North were hardly even aware of them. But what most of them have in common is the United States, which will go to any lengths to assure that the leaders of any country are willing to do its bidding.

Today, as this is being written, another genocide is taking place, and this one has been publicized all over the world. Israel has, to date, killed at least 30,000 innocent Palestinians, over 70% of them women and children. People around the world have demonstrated in support of the Palestinian people, yet the U.S., once again, is leading the way in fostering genocide. On February 20, the U.S. once again, for the third time, vetoed a United Nations Security Council Resolution that would have demanded a ceasefire. But no; Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said this: “Any action this council takes right now should help, not hinder these sensitive and ongoing negotiations, and we believe that the resolution on the table right now would in fact negatively impact those negotiations.” Let’s not forget that the United States, in addition to preventing a ceasefire by vetoing this and earlier resolutions, is financing this genocide, with $4 billion annually to Israel, and billions more in weaponry since this murderous onslaught began. The U.S. has no need to ‘negotiate’; it could simply tell Israel that it was cutting off the unending stream of money. In order to get the hostages released, it could promise to completely fund, with billions of dollars, the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip, where it is estimated that over 70% of the infrastructure has been destroyed. It could also promise to recognize the nation of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders (it could be argued that Palestine should be re-established on the pre-1948 borders, but that is a topic for another essay).

These actions would bring peace to the Middle East, but obviously that is not what ‘Genocide Joe Biden’, or any previous U.S. president has wanted. With billions of dollars in weapons sales as stake, why would the U.S. government want a peaceful Middle East? And why would Congress stop the flow of money to Israel, when doing so might jeopardize the flow of pro-Israel lobby money to members of Congress? In the 2023-2024 election cycle alone, that total is $10,495,254, and there are still several months before the 2024 elections are held. Would the illustrious members of Congress want to jeopardize those campaign contributions? What’s a little genocide, when financial donations are at stake? And who has been the top recipient of pro-lobby dollars since 1990? None other then ‘Genocide Joe’ himself, having received at least $5,223,313 from these disgraceful lobbies. No wonder he keeps vetoing resolutions that would reign in apartheid Israel.

With each election cycle, we hear rumors of Russian meddling in U.S. elections. Why, this writer wants to know, do members of Congress never talk about Israeli meddling in U.S. elections? Is it because the Zionist regime’s meddling is right out there in the open, hiding, as it is said, in plain sight? For the answer to why Israeli interference isn’t questioned, please refer back to the information above about campaign contributions.

So with the money flowing, are we, the common man and woman, expected to ignore genocide as our elected officials do (this writer does not refer to them as ‘representatives’; they only represent the lobbies that have bought and paid for them)? It seems unlikely, since around the world, in every major city, there have been and continue to be massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations. ‘Genocide Joe’, in his senile, doddering way, seems to think that, by November, the general populace will have forgotten about Gaza. He is in for a rude awakening that will result in his election night concession speech. Unlike earlier genocides, many of which were supported and financed by the United States, this one is being viewed in real time on social media. The voters will not soon forget the infant who legs had to be amputated after being crushed in a bombed building, amputated without anesthesia. We will not forget the children eating animal feed, or desperately scooping up flour that spilled out of a broken bag. We will remember Hind, the 6-year-old girl calling desperately for her mother after her uncle’s car was shot at and everyone else in the car was dead. Fearful, alone, with only dead relatives for company, darkness surrounding her, her mother was able to get rescue workers to her. But without hearing from her or them for days, her mother feared the worst. This young girl and those sent to rescue her had been killed by Israeli forces. No, we will not forget.

The efforts of tens of millions of people around the world may not stop this genocide, and Israel’s annexation of the Gaza Strip. But those government officials, in any nation, who have allowed it, must be held to account. The International Court of Justice must act, and those mass murderers must pay for their crimes.

Robert Fantina’s latest book is Propaganda, Lies and False Flags: How the U.S. Justifies its Wars.