Collapsing Under the Weight of Hubris and Hypocrisy
“It is a tragic and potentially lethal irony that those who most despise science and the method of free inquiry should have been able to pilfer from it and annex its sophisticated products to their sick dreams.” Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
It’s a wonder to me that the U.S. doesn’t collapse under the weight of its own hypocrisy, hubris, and stupidity. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. The House of Representatives recently approved a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, on top of the funds previously authorized by President Biden. (As of this writing, the Senate hasn’t passed the measure due to the grandstanding of Rand Paul, the pipsqueak from Kentucky. But once Paul’s hissy fit ends the bill will go forward, because war spending always enjoys bipartisan support.) The justification for the enormous price tag is that the U.S. is supporting Ukraine’s fight for freedom against the evil Vladimir Putin. There’s no question that Putin is a brutal dictator and kleptocrat, but breaking news it is not. (Putin may also be a war criminal, but by the time the international criminal court formally charges him he will have departed this life.) Curiously, one “freedom” enjoyed by Ukrainian women is abortion health services upon request. At the same time our illegitimate and corrupt Supreme Court is poised to strip the right to abortion health services from millions of American women, our government is giving Ukraine billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid.
Just another day in the fetid swamp that is Washington D.C.
Money for war can always be found, conjured out of thin air, like magic, but when it comes to spending on health care, climate mitigation, education, children or the elderly, all we hear is wailing about deficits and profligacy and waste — and the moral hazards of creating an “entitlement” society, as if our politics and media, our entire technological, unequal and miswired society, hadn’t already built one for the wealthy. In the U.S. people get mental about race, not class, missing the larger picture.
But let’s be very clear about the intent behind U.S. aid for Ukraine. It has far less to do with supporting freedom for Brave Ukraine than it does with bare-knuckle geopolitics. The U.S. is still a global hegemon, albeit one in terminal decline, and the real aim behind helping Ukraine is to weaken Putin and Russia. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin admitted as much a few weeks ago. The U.S. habitually dresses its foreign interventions and financial assistance in humanitarian or democratic garb. You see, we’re for freedom, liberty, justice and democracy — just not at home. On the desiccated and contaminated soil of this fruited plain freedom and liberty and justice are reserved for the wealthy, while democracy is simply a nuisance to be circumvented by corrupt institutions like the U.S. Senate.
Unlike Ukraine, America will soon have a patchwork of abortion statutes, legal and available in some states, illegal and unavailable in others. In considering this absurd situation I was reminded of the African-American soldiers who fought to free Europe from Hitler’s grip in World War Two, only to return home to find themselves trapped by rigid Jim Crow segregation, ever separate and unequal. Thank you for your service, now get off the sidewalk and don’t even think of looking for a house in a white neighborhood. This is America! All men are created equal, except for those who look like you.
If it wasn’t all so serious and fraught and morally infuriating it would be comical.
Putin’s troops may not have achieved a clear victory in any part of Ukraine, but a protracted war of attrition suits the aims of the Russian dictator. The longer the conflict drags on the more likely cracks will appear in European unity and resolve. Sacrifice is a hard sell. Hungary is a kleptocracy with ties to Putin, Turkey has its own agenda. But of one thing we can be certain, Boeing and Lockheed Martin win either way.
War, oil and its strange bedfellows.
Speaking of which, another prominent journalist has been murdered, this time Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American who reported for decades for Al-Jazeera. A total professional, a household name in the Middle East, she was shot in the neck by an Israeli Defense Force sniper. At the time of her killing, Abu Akleh was wearing a flak vest and a helmet emblazoned with “Press”. The bullet struck her between the edge of the helmet and the flak vest — a marksman’s achievement. Denied, obfuscated, by Israel, naturally; the U.S. will provide any needed amplification and cover until the initial furor fades from public consciousness. Mohammad bin Salman, defacto ruler of the Saudi Arabian monarchy, has still not been held to account for his part in ordering the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post. Two high-profile journalists murdered with impunity. This is our world. These bedfellows on whom we turn a blind eye, like a Mob wife who ignores all the horrific, cruel, illegal, and reprehensible acts committed by her husband. “He’s really very sweet. He loves dogs.” These are the friends and allies of the U.S.
Heavy weight, indeed.
