[Orig to FB]
Maybe it’s just the shingles vax kicking in, but I feel increasingly uncomfortable with how the US populace — very much including people I respect and care about — is dealing with this war. “I stand with the people of Iran” is formulaic and almost homeopathically weak. How about some of that Big Charlie Hebdo energy, like je suis iranien?
I’ll say it: JE SUIS IRANIEN. I’m vehemently opposed to this war of choice, and I firmly believe the people responsible for it — Trump, his cabinet, his advisors, and any military officers who knowingly committed illegal acts (usually called “crimes”) — should be extradited to Iran to do with as they will.
But my views aren’t at issue and have no consequence. What matters is this: Objectively speaking, the US is a rogue nation, the Trump administration is a criminal regime, and they’re acting with resources we pay for, on our authority, and in our name. Sorry, but saying “he’s not my president” isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. He is our president so we are responsible. None of this vague, Rube Goldberg–style mummery about “complicity.” We are GUILTY.
You’d never know it, though. Do you see even a fraction of the outrage that was directed at Israel over Gaza? At Venezuela, even?! I don’t — and I don’t expect to, either. There may be a thousand reasons for that, but they all feel like excuses. Go ahead: list them off and after each one ask yourself reason or excuse?
I don’t know what to do, but I do know this. This war marks the decisive end of the US as an empire. Life here will never return to any vestige of the normality we’ve known. The world will turn its back on the US politically, diplomatically, and economically. And they’ll be right to. We will pay very, very dearly for this, more dearly than any of us can imagine. And, as a nation, we’ll deserve it.