If something doesn’t look right …

If something doesn’t look right … that’s because it isn’t. Many of you…

LGBTIQA+ Action Plan important to close health gaps,…

Public Health Association of Australia Media Release Australia’s peak body for public health,…

Sustainable Productivity: Australians’ Role in Change

By Denis Hay Description: Learn how sustainable productivity can shape Australia’s future by driving…

Health groups call for dying patients to receive…

Palliative Care Australia Media Release Key health organisations have released an 11 point…

UniSA shark scientist lands a super catch for…

University of South Australia (UniSA) Media Release University of South Australia environmental psychology…

Ding Dong, Australia’s Misinformation-Disinformation Bill is Dead

Regulating speech at law is much like regulating breath. At what point…

Corporate Propaganda and The Death of Brian Thompson:…

In the wake of the murder of United Health CEO Brian Thompson,…

New data shows huge rise in working people…

Council to Homeless Persons Media Release The number of working Victorians seeking homelessness…

«
»
Facebook

The Second Casualty

By James Moore

“In war, truth is the first casualty.” – Aeschylus, Greek Dramatist

One morning in the spring of my twentieth year, I awoke in a tent on the east bank of the Potomac River. The sun had not yet transited the horizon but there was enough light for people to begin moving and talking and cooking. Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protestors had gathered at Potomac Park, camping just a short walk from the Lincoln Memorial. We had been drawn to Washington, D.C. to participate in a May Day March down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, hoping our discontent and disgust with the Southeast Asian conflict could be expressed in mass numbers, and maybe even influence the President.

I had hitchhiked down from Michigan and had arrived late the previous night and struggled to set up my tent. When I crawled out between the unzipped flaps, an older man with gray in his long beard, appeared to have been waiting for me. A stack of poster boards were loaded into his arms, and each was attached to a wooden stick. I assumed he was offering them to marchers to mark up with their own protest messages.

“Hey kid,” he said. “Can you carry one of these in the march?”

“Yeah, sure. Be glad to.”

“Great thanks. Been having troubling giving them away.”

I took the wooden stick and saw the blank white poster board and then turned it over as he walked down through the sleeping bags and U-Haul trucks and VW vans. There was a photograph, blown up to fill the board, and the image was horrifying. I called after him.

“Hey, mister, I can’t carry this. Come back and get it. Let someone else.”

All I saw was his hand raised in the air and waving, a gesture he performed without turning back in my direction.

 

Napalm Explosion in Vietnam

 

After I dropped the poster, the image I confronted was the result of napalm, a jellied gas that burned at as much as 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. American aircraft had been dropping the weapon on jungles and villages and humans in Vietnam, and many of them were children. A single napalm bomb was capable of completely incinerating 2500 square yards, and anything within that perimeter, including people. The picture laying at my feet was of four victims, children burned beyond what was recognizably human, their limbs drawn and gnarled, stretches of bone exposed, fingers and toes missing. The efficient killing was made possible by Dow Chemical of Michigan and was part of the reason 84,000 estimated children were killed in the conflict.

 

Vietnamese Children Running from a Napalm Bombing of Their Village

 

Children always die in war, of course, victims of the geography into which they were born. Their loss ought to subtract more from our humanity but we grow inured to the reductions, as if it were an unavoidable fact of living in this world. A few shocking photographs, seconds of video, and we are compelled to turn away and try not to think about what is unfolding in our sometimes hideous existence. We cannot often see these tragedies. Editors protect us from the imagery and facts. Death and war get sanitized.

In the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, however, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reports 3900 children dead and 7695 injured. These are numbers verified by admissions to hospitals in the Gaza strip. Another 1200 are reported missing under the rubble of bombed out structures, which has also been the primary cause of the death of children. The charity, Save the Children, says its numbers show that about 400 children are killed or injured every day the bombing continues.

When Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, it is estimated there were more than 1400 dead, a number which included 30 Israeli children. Israel says there are still at least 20 Israeli children being held hostage in Gaza. The slaughter of innocents and the truth was sufficiently horrifying without subsequent distortions from political leaders, who passed on unverified information. Even the American President spoke of the beheadings of 40 Israeli babies, a story extrapolated from a field reporter who said IDF soldiers had spoken of babies being killed and beheaded. No evidence has ever been produced to indicate such violence happened, but it was an early outrage that ended many international sentiments for Hamas, brutal killers and rapists, seemingly lacking all humanity. But the fallacy of the beheaded babies helping nothing. Disinformation can be as deadly as a gun.

Estimates from the U.N. and authorities in Gaza say that about 40 percent of the dead are under the age of 18. The U.N. and the World Health Organization report women, children, and newborn babies represent 67 percent of all Gazan casualties in the war. Those are only numbers, though, not the names of toddlers or mothers or sisters or wives or grandmothers. Hamas is said to have kidnapped 240 people from Israel and taken them back to hidden captivity while families suffer endless anxiety and the IDF continues to focus on the terrorists’ outposts.

The history of the clash of religions and cultures in Israel has been deconstructed by thousands of writers and historians. Treaties and accords and dreams of two-state solutions continue to get side-tracked by the realities of everyday life, which includes terrorism and intergenerational anger. Palestinians deal with about 50 permanent and manned checkpoints, two international crossings to Egypt and Jordan, and more than 600 unmanned barriers as they try to move from Gaza and the West Bank to other locales for work and familial interactions. The impact on how they live and the simple logistical challenges is difficult to describe or understand for outsiders with no sense of what happens in the occupied territories, nor is it possible to relate to Israelis’ fears of terrorism or attacks by Palestinians. The anger, though, and its causes, are clear.

The mantra repeated by the U.S. and its allies, though, “Israel has a right to defend itself,” is beginning to be shouted down by critics claiming the IDF’s response to Hamas has been far too disproportionate. The IDF has bombed six refugee camps, the latest being Jabalia, which took 195 lives. Israeli military spokesmen said Hamas maintains tunnels under the camps and they must be destroyed. The Office of the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk recently was quoted as saying the overwhelmingly disproportionate response could amount to war crimes. What is even more confounding is that leadership on both sides of the conflict lacks respect from their citizenry. Palestinians disdain Hamas as much as many Israelis despise Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, a man as divisive as Donald Trump.

The present accusation against Netanyahu being heard in many locations around the world is that he is trying to affect a genocide of Palestinians. If the bombing continues to be overwhelmingly destructive, there will be nothing to rebuild, much less the will to try. Gaza residents who survive are likely to leave the hellscape and may create a new diaspora, spread across the Mideast and Europe without a homeland, their numbers dramatically reduced by the IDF’s assault on their narrow strip of land. Israel may also be creating a new generation of terrorists, young fighters who join Hamas or Hezbollah with no intentions or plans for their lives other than vengeance.

We are not strangers in this country to the concept of genocide, and used it extensively to facilitate expansion westward. When the various American Indian tribes living on the Central Plains refused to be constrained by the boundaries of a reservation, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman began executing tactics to end their existence. Orders were given to Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer to patrol the plains and eliminate tribes that were still hunting buffalo and visiting depredations upon settlers and railroad builders. Custer, always eager to kill for glory, was excited about his new orders and began his battle march in the winter when he knew the Indians would be camped, waiting for warmer weather.

A preview of the slaughters to be perpetrated by Custer had been seen at Sand Creek in Southeastern Colorado four years previous. A U.S. Cavalry detachment from Denver rode out to a peaceful encampment of about 750 Cheyenne and Arapaho. One of the chiefs, Black Kettle, had been seeking peace and an end to fighting with the overwhelming whites and had negotiated an agreement to continue hunting buffalo while it existed, a permission granted by the U.S. government as long as the tribes moved to reservations after their chief source of food was hunted to extinction. In what became known as the Sand Creek Massacre, however, U.S. troops rode into a sleeping village and gunned down hundreds of women and children, gutting pregnant women with their sabres, decapitating little boys trying to flee, and girls clinging to their mothers. Many of the warrior braves escaped. Children and their mothers were the easiest to kill, and meant there would be fewer to force onto a reservation.

Chief Black Kettle survived Sand Creek and was camped with other tribes on the Washita River in what is now Western Oklahoma, during the winter of 1868, four years after the massacre at Sand Creek, when Custer’s regiment came up over a snowbank and encircled the teepees. The Cheyenne camp had expected to spend a quiet winter and could not have anticipated being tracked through deep snow by the U.S. military. Custer led the charge into the village, which had only about 250 people, and an estimated half were women and children. They died in great and bloody numbers. Estimates vary on the slaughter’s toll of dead but most witnesses suggested Custer’s 574 troopers killed about 75 women and children, and captured more than 40 to be used as protective shields and hostages for negotiation. Soldiers riding with Custer later described the bright white snow as a sea of red and mutilated bodies. Chief Black Kettle, almost the only Indian leader seeking peace, had also been killed.

Nothing seems to have changed in the subsequent century and a half. Humans are still killing other humans because of their differing gods or how they look, or the things they believe, and the children still fall first. We are only more efficient at our killing. Bullets and bombs are more deadly than swords and arrows, and if Israel is attempting genocide, we may not know until it is a fait accompli, but we will be complicit with our billions in military aid. Hezbollah, backed by Iran, may also be prompted to enter the war, and Israel could be more endangered and seek increased American support, maybe even troops. What then? Will the American president not call for a cease fire? When will it be too late? Or is it already?

There are parents on both sides of the conflict who already have an answer to that last question.

 

This article was originally published in Texas to the World.

James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.

He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).

His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.

Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”

 

Like what we do at The AIMN?

You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.

Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!

Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.

You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969

Donate Button

8 comments

Login here Register here
  1. Michael Taylor

    Outstanding, James. The brutal truth in your words.

  2. New England Cocky

    Funny how the Zionists are always ”the victims” and never ”the oppressors”.

    The American interests are endeavouring to drag Australia into the ”new Vietnam” in the Middle East. Given the inability of the USA (United States of Apartheid) to win any conflict since 1945, history suggests that the only ”winners” will be the US NE military industrial complex shareholders supplying war armaments to the Israeli Defence Force AT ENORMOUS COST TO AMERICAN TAXPAYERS.

  3. Clakka

    The plain, simple and blood curdling truth.

  4. Canguro

    America’s success in the world has always been predicated on its willingness and wishfulness for wanton murder; whether of its original inhabitants, an obstacle in the westward spread of the white settlers that needed the solution be painted in blood and horror, or of the Mexicans who inhabited a large region of the southwest and were deemed to be in the way of lands required by the merciless mercenaries of this so-called Christian community of colonists, or, for that matter, any other people in any other region of the planet as the murderous mentality that dominates the psyches of the capitalist emperors of that thuggish empire seeks to rape, burn & pillage across all landscapes in its inveterate and never-satisfied lust for power and dominance along with anything else that can be of utility for that soulless and unfortunate northern American continent.

    If there is such a thing as karma, there exist no more deserving of its just desserts than the protagonists and authors of much of the planet’s suffering – those northern American mechanics responsible for the egalitarian distribution of grief, destruction, death, poverty, war, societal breakdown, ecological collapse and more. It’s little wonder that a sizeable proportion of the planet’s population hate Americans… how could they not? The biblilcal injunction to turn the other cheek is utterly inapt when you’ve been napalmed, raped, disembowelled by bloodthirsty goons, or had your duly-elected government overthrown by CIA instigated coups, or … or…, or…

    I bought a copy of RIchard Flangan’s most recent book today; Question 7. For those of you familiar with this fine writer, you’ll be aware that his father was a Japanese POW, first on the Burma Railroad, as was my own father, and then shipped to Japan to work as a slave labourer in a coal mine in Ohama, eighty miles south of Hiroshima. On the second page of the book he relates the dropping of the first bomb, after which forty-three seconds later 60,000 lay dead, and then three days later, the second bomb, after which 40,000 lay dead, with, inevitably, in both cases, thousands more to die in the hours, days, weeks, months and years ahead. Harry Truman, by all accounts, was very pleased with this gross display of technological carnage, gloating that it was a just and necessary action that saved the lives of thousands of American soldiers should they have invaded Japan to bring an end to the second world war. The hundreds of thousands of casualties of these two atomic bombs were, of course, not soldiers but civilians, but to the pitiless American psyches already hardened after a couple of centuries of practical genocide this was merely incidental… a fact not to be too concerned about.

    And now? The uncritical and all-embracing support offered to Israel by America sees a similar emboldened approach with respect to the occupied Palestinians… the problem that will never cease to be, and perhaps, from an Israeli perspective, one that can only be solved by the effective extermination of those people. And so it goes, in the lands of the maddened.

  5. Bruce White

    Congratulations. A good article from James Moore. As we say, the first casuality of war is truth. And certainly the propaganda war in the Middle East has ramped up and is running very hard. James seems to be saying that the second casuality of war is innocent civilians? My thought is that the second casuality of war is choice.The narrowing down of it. ‘Either you are with us or you are with the enemy’, is the narrative. Neutrality seems to be a dirty word. ‘You don’t care’ would be the retort. My thoughts on this go back to the Second World War, and the difficult balancing act of nations such as Switzerland and Sweden.The real heroes are People such as Raoul Wallenburg and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Nowadays it is Red Cross and Red Crescent, MSF, a number of other humanitarian organisations, individuals and of course the United Nations. The UN must be doing its job because the other week the Israeli government demanded the resignation of Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The solutions have to include empowerment of the Palestine Authority. Revitalisation of the Two State Solution,both Israel and an independent Palestine. Rebuilding of Gaza. The end of the economic embargo on Gaza imposed by the Israelis. The end of illegal settlements in the West Bank. And of course, the satisfactory long term settlement of Palestinian refugees from ‘camps’, both inside the Palestinian territories and in other countries (Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and others).

  6. Terence Mills

    Gaza residents who survive are likely to leave the hellscape and may create a new diaspora, spread across the Mideast and Europe…………..

    A good article but I have highlighted one issue that we all wish could be true. I have no doubt there are many Palestinian families and parents within Gaza who would jump at the opportunity of leaving the war zone but the horrible reality is that those who are destroying their homes and associated infrastructure are the same people who demanded that they leave Northern Gaza and yet will not allow them to cross the borders to start a new life.

    It is worth reminding ourselves, with all this talk about antisemitism that ‘Semites’ include any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language and this includes Jews and Arabs.

  7. Clakka

    In that territory, one might ponder the machinations of the French and British colonialists, followed in the second half of the 1940s by the manoeuvres of the entirety of Europe and America.

    Largely throughout the 19th century and following WWI, across the world, treaties were established, supposedly taking out the wiles of the old aristocrats and royals, and implementing borders based upon geography, and economic and entho-cultural stability. But in all of this, what of the substantial diaspora of Jews?

    The manoeuvres of the late 1940s were, to say the least, hasty, and improperly conceived. Without doubt, in its entirety, it was driven by ethno-cultural considerations, but for the benefit of whom? And at what cost?

    It would appear that wherever the colonialists have ventured, the results have been catastrophic for the lands and folk caught in their aspirations. Such was the brutality and didacticism of their incursions behind the barrels of guns.

    Today, a majority of the world’s continuing intransigencies are rooted particularly in the meddling of the anglosphere – Britain and the USA. Some may say, “But what about the brilliant structure of their Law?” A response may be, “They are brilliant at bending it, or completely ignoring it, along with the attendant truths.” Fewer and fewer are heeding their ‘political’ advice, because they understand the contemporary cause of the mess, and observe the increasing collapse of their political wisdom – if ever there were more than glimmers of it for brief moments in time.

    So it goes on for Israel / Palestine, and who knows what to expect for the burgeoning Africa?

  8. Douglas Pritchard

    I get a bit confused over the English language but if I spend time in front of TV I may learn stuff.
    “Hostages” are civilians taken by terrorists, and needs our attention heedless of numbers, and collateral damage.
    “Prisoners” are civilians routinely plucked out of the community, by the Zionists, and are not rated for anyones concern, and may one day be brought before a court….but no rush here.
    Any chance this could be an example of injustice, or have I mistaken the side I should be barracking for?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page