When the US decides to back the genocidal quest by Israel, the entire world has to pay the price of the evil of the 2 countries.
There is something about George Lucas’s seminal classic, Star Wars (1977), that easily connects to the Second World War, as most film fans and critics know, and to what’s happening now, thanks to the US and Israel.
It’s no secret that George Lucas’ Star Wars films (the original three) used Nazis as the models for the bad guys.
It’s no secret that the bunch of rebels against them were not too far removed from the ragtag bunch of Jewish resistance fighters that existed then.
It’s no secret that the evil emperor was modeled after Hitler (initially it was supposed to be Darth Vader, but when the whole dad-son plot came into being and redeemed Vader, the sneering emperor was kept as evil as possible).
It’s no secret that the wars took place in the desert in Star Wars, which is not unsimilar to the Middle East terrain.
It’s no secret that those rag tag rebels get the biggest AID from some foreign force (the Jedis) who uses …. The force. Or in Israel’s case, their own Jedi master, the US, which has three different forces (Air, sea and land) in fact.
It is no secret too that in the 80s Ronald Reagan, the president of the mother hen of a country that kept little chick like Israel by its wing, started a military program called Strategic Defence Initiative which is also referred to as …
It’s no secret at all.
Hitler’s Army
In fact, even the Stormtroopers, the evil soldiers in the Lucas films, were the name of Hitler’s army. How blatant is that?
But Lucas may be on to something there. The good guys, led by the swaggering, hatless cowboy Han Solo, is America herself (himself?). The Americans, forever thinking of themselves as the white-hat cowboys walking into some town and saving the town from some black-hat baddies, are still in that mode in this age of social media, gender pronoun confusion, and millions of cat videos.
I went to AI chat (on the Bing browser) and tried to query about the connection between the non-stop war and the US military industrial complex, but instead it gave me a Namaste (Indian/Southeast Asian welcoming and goodbye gesture), see for yourself:
Either it really sincerely didn’t want to talk about it, or the son of a gun was being sarcastic. So, I said “screw you, AI” in my best Schwarzenegger voice and did the old-fashioned googling.
The search result revealed pretty much what you expect and more. You see, the Gringos had given altogether more than US 260b since 1948 (the year of the formation of Israel), as it says here that the US has ”committed over $3.3 billion in foreign assistance to Israel in 2022, the most recent year for which data exists… About $8.8 million of that went toward the country’s economy, while 99.7% of the aid went to the Israeli military.”
Here’s a chart from USA Facts:
That’s overall aid; some of it may have been used to create pageant beauties, future Wonder Women, or both. How about the military, precisely?
I may be colour blind, but boy, I sure can see the length of the dark side of the force. Since 2000, over 86% of annual American aid to Israel has been used to fund military efforts.
Aid for Gaza?
And when talking about the military and Israel, thoughts will go to Gaza? Of course, US does contribute some aid to Gaza—a couple of million here and there, pocket changes for the Yanks. This will not occupy much space in this article. We all know how it has been difficult for Aid to reach the Gazans. And Gaza has been refused those aids, no thanks to Israel. In fact, even medical equipment like bloody scissors was turned away at the posts. Perhaps they are worried that some Hamas terrorists might creep up on some orthodox Jews and snip their side curls away.
What will all this amount to—apart from a dead Gazan or 35,000? Why? The entire world is in peril, of course. How can the US military industrial complex affect an ordinary Malaysian who’s currently, as you are reading, is taking a snapshot of his meal for Instagram?
Pollution
It is established that the US is the biggest polluter, especially with the military industrial complex, which is said to pollute more than 140 countries put together. And we don’t even know what exact amount of throat choking, lung puncturing poisons the Yankees are putting away because, at their own “behest,” the military emissions were exempted from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty where the member countries signed commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile, take a gander at this:
Look at that again. That’s not the US country. That’s pollution from her military alone that’s being compared to other nations.
It certainly makes one wish that Gretha Thunberg— that finger-pointing kid —would turn to the West and, instead of berating the third and developing world, yell “How dare you?” facing the turret of a M1 Abrams tank.
This is why the whole boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement is about as effective as yelling at the sky for rain. Instead, it may do damages, like killing businesses that are operated by locals and deprive employment for those who need it, like the disabled and elderly who work at McDonalds, for instance.
This needs a stronger voice from leaders, not those who throw stones and hide their hands. There must be constant bombardment of protesting words, like Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who probably has a pair of male vital organs made of brass, to the point that the US’s Bruce Wayne has to send his Robin the Wonder boy down to calm the Brazilian president down..
You see, this is not only a humanitarian issue, it’s also about physical global health. Everyone has the right to speak out about the spread of war and the growth of the military industrial complex, which exists only for one reason and one reason alone: death and destruction. Sacrificing Prosperity Burgers ain’t gonna cut it. – NMH
Articles by the same writer:
The Boycott Issue: More Than Just Socks!
Greenwashing: Consigning Conscience to Consumers
A movie buff, as opposed to film connoisseur or aficionado, because the last two words are hard to spell, Rakesh has been in the field of writing for more than two decades and hopes that one-day movie “buff”ing is lucrative enough to afford him a Batmobile, the Michael Keaton one.
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