Disillusion

Many of us grew up believing in the greatness and goodness of our beloved country, America. We believed that in America, the great melting pot, immigrant citizens shed former allegiances and became loyal Americans. Now we find that there are Americans belonging to a powerful Israel Lobby whose loyalty is to Israel, not America. We also were led to believe that our government of the people represented the American public. Now we find that our congressmen only represent those special interest groups whose money funds their election campaigns and who therefore are able to dictate foreign policy. Paramount among these groups is the Israel Lobby which leads us into wars for Israel to the detriment of America. As America goes into bankruptcy borrowing $3 billion per week to fund the Iraq war, we should reflect upon instances of third world debt also incurred by self-serving leaders. Many of these countries have never recovered.

Peace Talks vs the War on Terror

It is hard to hold peace talks when one party, namely Israel, has no interest in even discussing the vital components of peace. Since Israel illegally occupies Palestinian land, illegally colonizes that land, and clearly plans to illegally annex that land, it is inconvenient for Israel to jeopardize the status quo with a peace plan. The Arab League Peace Plan offers Israel comprehensive peace and normalized relations with all Arab states in return for an end to the occupation and a just solution for the refugees. Israel is delighted to normalize relations by sitting at the table for meaningless peace talks with the Arab states, but of course Israel refuses to give up the occupied land. As usual, Israel hopes to get something for nothing. The Israel Lobby, dominated by those who favor Israeli expansionism, also has no interest in peace talks and instead is happy to bankrupt America by dragging us into war after war to fight those who oppose Israeli expansionism. Those who fight against Israeli expansionism are conveniently and simplistically labeled "terrorists." Thus, instead of meaningful peace talks, we have the never-ending so-called "war on terror."

Speaking Out

Speaking on Jim Lehrer's PBS NewsHour on October 1, 2007, presidential candidate Mike Gravel, former senator from Alaska, denounced the September 26 Senate resolution which designated the Iranian Guard a terrorist group. Indeed Seymour Hersh, writing in "The New Yorker," October 8, 2007, notes that the Bush administration keeps changing excuses for war and is now planning strikes against the Iranian army. Just as the excuse for war with Iraq kept changing from WMD (non-existent), to links to 9/11 (non-existent), to spreading democracy (read spreading civil war leading to break-up of Iraq), excuses for war with Iran now are also changing.

Apparently Americans don't buy the notion that the incipient Iranian nuclear energy program is an imminent US threat, so now the excuse is changing to a charge that Iran is meddling in our occupation. General Petraeus, a big supporter of escalating our involvement in Iraq's civil war, in which we are fighting both Shiites and Sunni's, (Petraeus expects we will be there as long as ten years), is now the point man on talking up Iranian interference. Of course there is no evidence that the Iranian government is involved, and arms smuggling is omnipresent from all sides, not just Iran.

Mike Gravel, however, hit the nail on the head. He pointed out that Senator Joe Lieberman was the sponsor of the infamous October 2002 resolution giving President Bush a blank check for war with Iraq. Lieberman also sponsored this recent Senate resolution on Iran, and Gravel said that AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, put Lieberman up to it. The Israel Lobby is railroading us into another unnecessary, unwinnable, and unending war. Although all Muslim nations, including Iran, would accept the Arab League Peace Plan, thus negating all potential threats to Israel, the Israel Lobby prefers wars. One wonders how many of ithe Lobby's financiers are war profiteers. At any rate, it's clear they have zero loyalty to America and care even less about America's future.