The Gods of War

 

Before I begin, let me make my position clear. I know that what I have to say will label me as anti-Semitic to some. But I am not. I do hold anti-Patriarchal religious views, including the one I was raised in. Because my family’s church was of the fundamentalist Christian kind, it preached something akin to what many fundamentalist Christian churches preach today; that one must simply wait and work for the “Rapture” to come. The Rapture is that time when Jesus will return to earth and the “saved” will be taken to heaven with him, and the “unsaved” will be cast into pits of different infernos depending on whatever church one belonged to. In the meantime they eagerly slap down anything that looks like racial equality, science, same sex anything, and women’s rights including abortion.

I am now ninety years old and sometimes think I am looking at old news reel re-runs when I watch the news. It doesn’t seem to matter that Charles Darwin settled the question a long time ago about how evolution made the world we live in, not some Biblical god who intervenes on the side of his favourite humans. The godly voices that the war-mongers hear, or claim they hear, tell them to tell others that God is on their side, and they are about to be attacked by those other godless beings who deserve death and destruction and must be attacked first.

And nothing is more detrimental to the earth and earthlings than war. Because most people - the world over - hesitate to kill other people, it takes some kind of group consensus, some whipping up of fear and hated in the human breast to get a good war going. The selling of a potential invasion of one country into another sovereign country takes a concentrated national effort. And the media must be on side. First, fear of the country to be invaded must be presented as monsters who are about to invade them. Patriotism must be invoked and laced with religion. Quoting sacred scriptures that assure the masses that god will be on their side, religion becomes the cherry on the top of the push for war. Still, as it is a bit difficult to preach that their god is love but still demands regime change which means killing a whole lot of people, some people have to be resented as sub-human. So, a selling point is that it is that it is god who demands regime change.

And oil. God apparently also loves oil. Whoever gets it, by whatever means, is the godliest. The US in its struggles to start bombing Iran appreciates any propaganda assistance from other countries that can be helpful in these desires. They just got a big assist from US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. As Israel considers Iran to be its biggest threat because it supports the Palestinians, it would not be displeased if the US made Iran disappear. Israel loves to parade the deep love between themselves and Americans, and their deep devotion to religion, while not exactly the same as American Christianity, does dovetail nicely. And David Friedman is a perfect conduit.

Friedman recently gave a speech at a ceremony in Jerusalem to commemorate the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem a year ago. In that speech Friedman stated that “Israel is on the side of God”, and that the US embassy is “a shrine that people could pray to and thank God for… the US and Israel need to get even closer in the coming months…and move toward even greater “holiness.” He went on to say that “The closer Americans get to Israel the holier they become”.

This is sheer madness. In fact, Israel is giving Americans a big push to becoming crazier by the day. And the Bolton bunch just love it. Watch the happy smile on Mike Pompeo’s face these days as he threatens Iran with absolute destruction. I think these men were born with a blood lust. What else would explain the raw hunger they exhibit to start bombing other countries they don’t like, especially Iran. And Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea. The ultimate goal? Russia and China. These US war-mongers are the craziest men in the entire world and they are running the show. They must know, and I am sure they do, that they are tampering with World War Three. And calling in the nuclear weapons.

Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons. But the Americans do. And so does Russia and China who will never permit Iran to go down. They know that if Iran goes, they are next. And don’t think we as Canadians are going to escape this kind of madness. If Netanyahu with the help of the Saudis manage to push Trump with complete US military compliance into attacking Iran nobody on the face of this earth may escape it. If we are going to survive as a nation, as a people, or even just survive, those of us who can read and write need to start exercising that ability. Let Trudeau know that the religious talk being weaponized to start a war with Iran is too dangerous to be borne. Our Prime Minister should give push back. Or is David Friedman speaking for us, too?