I agree with much of this, however, “…foreign governments waging war against their chosen enemies…”? Is that really what happened? Israel, just out of the blue, decided to start a war on Gaza? No instigating event occurred prior to Israel deciding to “rain destruction and death” on Hamas (which entered from and is sheltering in Gaza). Questioning Kemp’s purchase of bonds is fair; this depiction is not.
This is not our war. This is Israel's war. It has gone on for thousands of years.
I showed you the not-so-coincidental fact that the funding for American defense industries in Ukraine effectively collapsed the morning of the evening of the attacks on Israel. So there are many interests involved here. Those particular industries profit from war, death and destruction. And that is what we have now, with no end in sight. That is what they want and would support whatever side most expeditious to initiate a conflict. And while you see the struggle one way, others see it entirely the other. Our governor has no authority to pick a side and use GA tax dollars to support foreign war, I don't care what war or what side he chooses. There are peaceful people living as Georgia citizens who support the other side. So there is a conflict of interests when the state picks one side or the other, when the money comes from an entire population with diverse views. And I doubt this use of taxpayer funds is constitutional.
Agree. The Founders did not want us involved in these conflicts. It is wrong to use taxpayer funds this way - but of course our government has been abusing our rights as citizens for decades now so it is no surprise. Thank you for this piece Hank.
It's Israel's war? So, Hamas did not precipitate this particular battle on Oct. 7th by invading Israel and mass raping, torturing and murdering innocent civilians including children and, yes, babies. Parading their dead and mutilated bodies in the back of their pickups, posting the photos on social media and taking hundreds of others hostage? And by the way, 30 American citizens were killed and 12 taken hostage. Are you trying to say that the defense industries somehow convinced Hamas to do these depraved acts to gin up their stock prices? Or somehow they got Israel to provoke Hamas into these atrocities because it would be good for business? You are right that the state has no business getting involved with foreign policy or funding wars, and it is a horrific thing to see any innocent civilians killed in war. And I sympathize with those GA citizens of any heritage who suffer because they have loved ones who are affected. But it seems to me you are making a moral equivalence ("both sides") between a random, barbaric massacre and a country's response to that attack on its people. Whether and how the defense industry is involved is a legitimate but different issue.
I'm not sure why you question my use of "Israel's war." Yes, it's Israel's war against Hamas, and I understand they have made air strikes in Syria. I use that term the same way I refer to Ukraine's war against Russia. Israel is a warring party. I said nothing about who is right or wrong. I am making no moral equivalences. But it is not preposterous that interested parties could have, and likely did, participate in promoting it. The same formula for war has been used over and over. Look up "Remember the Maine." America started a war against Spain and blamed Spain.
Why was America fighting a war in Afghanistan for 20 years with no declared enemy? Why did America invade Iraq in 2003 against no declared enemy? Why is America's military fighting all across the belt of Africa? Why did America depose the Democratically-elected government of Iran in 1953? The list goes on. The answers are that America was serving PRIVATE interests in these wars and geopolitical events. Private interests promote these wars. They conspire to start them. And Americans fund them and Americans even die fighting them.
The US under Carter created al Qaeda. The US under Obama created ISIS. Then the US warred against them both. Who profited? War is a game for these people.
Benjamin Netanyahu has been a provocateur of war as long as he has been in Israeli leadership. Read the article to which I referred at the outset. Watch the video of Netanyahu I posted, testifying to the US Congress in 2002 claiming, “There is no question whatsoever, Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing toward the development of nuclear weapons, NO QUESTION WHATSOEVER,” insisting, “If you take out Saddam’s regime, I guarantee that you will have an enormous positive reverberations on the region.” Knowing it was not true, why did he testify as he did? Did he not know Americans and innocent Iraqis would lose life and limb invading Iraq? Of course he knew. Did not know Iraq would become a geopolitical quagmire? Of course he knew. Did he not know that the war in Iraq was about the private ownership and control of Iraqi oil fields and the US dollar? Of course he knew.
America's war in Iraq was all about serving private interests. And this war is too. With that kind of track record, why should we allow ourselves to be sucked into believing any different? Netanyahu surely didn't care if my friends and yours didn't come home from Iraq. So I will not be holding him up as a standard-bearer for everything right and holy. This is Israel's war to fight, not yours or mine, and not with Georgia tax dollars.
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." ~ Smedley Butler
All wars including this one today are banker's wars
"There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights." ~ Smedley Butler
I don't just question Kemps purchase of Israel war bonds, I denounce it! The state of Georgia needs to MIND ITS OWN BUSINESS, such as maintaining and improving our infrastructure of roads, such as replacing our easily hackable Chinese voting equipment with its secret backdoors that easily enable votes to be switched from one candidate to another. We need to spend money on bringing to justice those who perpetrated voting fraud. We need to return excess tax dollars to GEORGIANS who are suffering under the burden of inflation. We need to help the homeless and the working poor.
It's bad enough that our US representatives are voting to send weapons and money (that's created out of thin air) to this conflict. But our own governor has proved once again that he doesn't give a damn about We the People in his own state!
I agree with much of this, however, “…foreign governments waging war against their chosen enemies…”? Is that really what happened? Israel, just out of the blue, decided to start a war on Gaza? No instigating event occurred prior to Israel deciding to “rain destruction and death” on Hamas (which entered from and is sheltering in Gaza). Questioning Kemp’s purchase of bonds is fair; this depiction is not.
This is not our war. This is Israel's war. It has gone on for thousands of years.
I showed you the not-so-coincidental fact that the funding for American defense industries in Ukraine effectively collapsed the morning of the evening of the attacks on Israel. So there are many interests involved here. Those particular industries profit from war, death and destruction. And that is what we have now, with no end in sight. That is what they want and would support whatever side most expeditious to initiate a conflict. And while you see the struggle one way, others see it entirely the other. Our governor has no authority to pick a side and use GA tax dollars to support foreign war, I don't care what war or what side he chooses. There are peaceful people living as Georgia citizens who support the other side. So there is a conflict of interests when the state picks one side or the other, when the money comes from an entire population with diverse views. And I doubt this use of taxpayer funds is constitutional.
Agree. The Founders did not want us involved in these conflicts. It is wrong to use taxpayer funds this way - but of course our government has been abusing our rights as citizens for decades now so it is no surprise. Thank you for this piece Hank.
It's Israel's war? So, Hamas did not precipitate this particular battle on Oct. 7th by invading Israel and mass raping, torturing and murdering innocent civilians including children and, yes, babies. Parading their dead and mutilated bodies in the back of their pickups, posting the photos on social media and taking hundreds of others hostage? And by the way, 30 American citizens were killed and 12 taken hostage. Are you trying to say that the defense industries somehow convinced Hamas to do these depraved acts to gin up their stock prices? Or somehow they got Israel to provoke Hamas into these atrocities because it would be good for business? You are right that the state has no business getting involved with foreign policy or funding wars, and it is a horrific thing to see any innocent civilians killed in war. And I sympathize with those GA citizens of any heritage who suffer because they have loved ones who are affected. But it seems to me you are making a moral equivalence ("both sides") between a random, barbaric massacre and a country's response to that attack on its people. Whether and how the defense industry is involved is a legitimate but different issue.
I'm not sure why you question my use of "Israel's war." Yes, it's Israel's war against Hamas, and I understand they have made air strikes in Syria. I use that term the same way I refer to Ukraine's war against Russia. Israel is a warring party. I said nothing about who is right or wrong. I am making no moral equivalences. But it is not preposterous that interested parties could have, and likely did, participate in promoting it. The same formula for war has been used over and over. Look up "Remember the Maine." America started a war against Spain and blamed Spain.
Why was America fighting a war in Afghanistan for 20 years with no declared enemy? Why did America invade Iraq in 2003 against no declared enemy? Why is America's military fighting all across the belt of Africa? Why did America depose the Democratically-elected government of Iran in 1953? The list goes on. The answers are that America was serving PRIVATE interests in these wars and geopolitical events. Private interests promote these wars. They conspire to start them. And Americans fund them and Americans even die fighting them.
The US under Carter created al Qaeda. The US under Obama created ISIS. Then the US warred against them both. Who profited? War is a game for these people.
Benjamin Netanyahu has been a provocateur of war as long as he has been in Israeli leadership. Read the article to which I referred at the outset. Watch the video of Netanyahu I posted, testifying to the US Congress in 2002 claiming, “There is no question whatsoever, Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing toward the development of nuclear weapons, NO QUESTION WHATSOEVER,” insisting, “If you take out Saddam’s regime, I guarantee that you will have an enormous positive reverberations on the region.” Knowing it was not true, why did he testify as he did? Did he not know Americans and innocent Iraqis would lose life and limb invading Iraq? Of course he knew. Did not know Iraq would become a geopolitical quagmire? Of course he knew. Did he not know that the war in Iraq was about the private ownership and control of Iraqi oil fields and the US dollar? Of course he knew.
America's war in Iraq was all about serving private interests. And this war is too. With that kind of track record, why should we allow ourselves to be sucked into believing any different? Netanyahu surely didn't care if my friends and yours didn't come home from Iraq. So I will not be holding him up as a standard-bearer for everything right and holy. This is Israel's war to fight, not yours or mine, and not with Georgia tax dollars.
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." ~ Smedley Butler
All wars including this one today are banker's wars
"There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights." ~ Smedley Butler
Leslie M
I don't just question Kemps purchase of Israel war bonds, I denounce it! The state of Georgia needs to MIND ITS OWN BUSINESS, such as maintaining and improving our infrastructure of roads, such as replacing our easily hackable Chinese voting equipment with its secret backdoors that easily enable votes to be switched from one candidate to another. We need to spend money on bringing to justice those who perpetrated voting fraud. We need to return excess tax dollars to GEORGIANS who are suffering under the burden of inflation. We need to help the homeless and the working poor.
It's bad enough that our US representatives are voting to send weapons and money (that's created out of thin air) to this conflict. But our own governor has proved once again that he doesn't give a damn about We the People in his own state!