Steve, first you ask a question, then you answer it… “How does America, say, see itself? The greatest nation on Earth, right? A bastion of democracy and freedom. A country that, of only it could spread its values across the globe, would usher in a new era of human flourishing.”
Now it’s my turn to answer your question.
America still sees itself as a Christian nation and behaves accordingly (see Doctrine of Discovery and Christian Zionism). To paraphrase your answer… America is a country that believes, that if only it could spread its ‘Christian values’ across the globe, they could usher in a new era of human flourishing – at the point of guns and bombs if necessary.
For Christians, proselytizing is their purpose in life, and their way of life. Hence, losing their freedom to proselytize at will, anytime, anyway, and anywhere they please, would be to lose the faith itself. Unfortunately, these wholly Christian ambitions have been so deeply rooted in western cultures for so long now, westerners consider these ambitions “human” – as though all humans think and act just like they do. Harder still, people raised in Christian cultures are rarely able to identify, let alone separate, Christian and secular motivations within their own countries.
Until westerners confront Christian ambitions that are driving their country’s behaviour, religious wars will continue. It’s long past time, westerners and western nations confront the right and wrong of Christian proselytizing. For example, has Christian proselytizing been beneficial? If so, who has benefited? Who has it harmed? Was Christian proselytizing conducted peacefully, or did it require physical and/or psychological force, like guns, armies, fear, torture, and displays of violence the instilled a paralyzing fear of Christians? Was Christian proselytizing conducted solely for Jesus, or in partnership with those seeking only wealth and power?
Today, the rise of Christian Nationalism is a fear-based reaction to the decline of Christian adherence among the American people. If the non-Christian population should rise above 50%, Christians fear the loss of their power to proselytize at will.
Personally, I’ve always taken offense at Christians’ claim to Judeo-Christian values. Judaism is not a proselytizing faith, there are no decrees or dictates to spread the faith – in fact, quite the opposite. The only way Judaism spreads, is when Jews have babies.
Steve, we are talking about a proxy war. If not for its oil fields, American presidents would have bombed Iran to smithereens a long time ago. Instead, Iran and America fight proxy wars. Just as the Israelis are proxies for American Christians, Palestinian fighters are proxies for Iranian Muslims. That’s the reason, I object to efforts that divert attention away from the source of the problem – which is America and Iran (and all their supposed allies).
America and Britain are responsible for the brutal theocratic regime in Iran. The 1953 Iranian coup d’état was the U.S. and British-instigated, Iranian army-led overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh… in favor of strengthening the autocratic rule of the voter ousted President Mohammad Reza Pahlavi… with the objectives being to protect British oil interests in Iran after its government refused to concede to western oil demands. This began a period of dissolution for Iranian democracy and society whose effects on civil rights are prevalent to this day. (thank you Wikipedia).
Steve, I want to stop the genocide as much as you do. But I am also interested in stopping it from happening again. Unfortunately, even if all the Palestinians and Israelis left Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, it would not stop the proxy war between America and Iran. America and Iran would just provoke, pay, or recruit, other proxies to fight on their behalf. To keep genocide from happening again, we must find a way to stop the 71-year long proxy war between America and Iran.
Steve, you are focused on the symptoms, and I am focused on the disease. For 71 long years, Russian, American, Iranian, and British proxy fighters have been murdering, torturing, raping and starving innocents. Stopping a handful of proxy fighters now will not end this war.
Not that long ago, Afghanistan and Iran were modernizing nations. When Russian proxies failed to control Afghanistan, the Russians invaded and they too failed. I recoiled in shock and horror, when I heard, then President George Bush, frame his response to 9/11 in religious terms. I could not believe anyone could be so stupid, ignorant, or vile, they would ignite a religious war. The American invasion of Iraq failed, then the Afghanistan invasion failed. Hundreds of thousands of dead innocents later, neither, Russia, America, Iran, nor Britain have learned the lesson.
Bernie Sanders moved in the right direction, with the introduction of legislation that would have halted the sale of some US weapons to Israel, plus joint resolutions of disapproval, that sought to block the Biden administration’s recent sale of $20bn in US weapons to Israel. Of course, Sanders’ legislation failed, but his efforts proved he was not alone.
This week, Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico, reminded Trump of the deadly and violent impact that the illegal trafficking of American manufactured guns and ammunition into her country – and – the American people’s insatiable demand for drugs was having on Mexico and their people.
As the old sayings go. You reap what you sow. What goes around comes around. F-ck around and Find Out. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
Steve, I'm not playing the whack-a-mole anymore. If we don’t dig out the root cause of genocidal behaviour, it will happen again and again and again.
