If my editors emailed a sign-up sheet soliciting volunteers to go overseas to cover the war in Israel, I wouldn’t even click the link.
I have zero interest in being a war correspondent.
But when they’ve asked me to jump on a plane and head for the front lines, I’ve always said yes. Why? Because in this business, that’s the right answer.
It was that twisted logic that put me on the ground in three different battlefields — Angola, Somalia and Iraq.
And while I never had much love for the military, I gained enormous respect for the soldiers, even if they couldn’t always tell me what they were fighting for.
Now, there are two wars waging on the other side of the world, one in Ukraine and a new one in Israel, where a hospital was blown up and little kids have been kidnapped by murderous terrorists.
President Joe Biden went to Israel last week to express America’s unwavering support, and upon his return he renewed his commitment to keeping U.S. troops out of both conflicts.
Instead, Biden asked Congress for billions of dollars in military support for both Israel and Ukraine, which he said were “vital for America’s national security.”
“History has taught us when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction,” he said last week in a rare Oval Office address. “They keep going. And the cost and the threat to America and the world keep rising.”
Biden asked Congress for $105 billion, including $60 billion for Ukraine, much of which would replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles provided earlier.
The request also includes $14 billion for Israel.
The rest of the money sought would go toward unspecified humanitarian efforts, U.S.-Mexico border management and fentanyl trafficking — a renewed war on drugs, as it were.
And, while Biden should be applauded for doing everything possible to keep American soldiers out of harm’s way, there is a disturbing air of moral superiority that goes along with this approach to war.
Biden told “60 Minutes” that he was confident that Israel would act in accordance with the “laws of war,” as if such a thing has ever existed in the history of violent conflict.
Exactly what law is it that allows the U.S. to wage war on two separate battlefields without getting its own hands dirty?
Almost as disturbing as the battles on the ground abroad is the war of rhetoric on social media and in American streets, hate speech that has laid landmines for antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Pro-Israeli protesters are saying Palestinians are evil.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are saying Israelis are wicked.
And the mask-wearing pro Hamas demonstrators are shamelessly celebrating, saying Israel got what it deserved.
But where are the real protesters, the righteous ones, who say war itself is wrong? Where are they?
Both sides in both battles will start claiming victory in wars no one can win. How can anybody say they won when a 6-year-old boy half a world away from the fighting is killed?
Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian-American boy, was stabbed 26 times by his suburban Chicago landlord who was angry at the child’s family over the events in Israel.
The little boy was not at war.
“Israel and Palestinians equally deserve to live in safety, dignity and peace,” Biden said in his address before calling Wadea’s family.
“To all you hurting, I want you to know I see you. You belong. And I want to say this to you. You’re all Americans.”