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Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad July 26, 2006 LETTER: at length Israel is out of line It’s characteristic for Americans to view overseas crises with detachment. It takes a 9/11 to bring crisis home. A current instance of this truth is the Israeli war on the people of Lebanon and the already Israel-starving, Israel-oppressed people of Gaza. Israel is playing the same game as since 1948 of proxy, for U.S. interests, that is, corporate capitalist imperialistic. An enlightening book to mention here, which is a summation of Chomsky and that finds the Marxist trail to explanation of current history: “Naked Imperialism” by John Bellamy Foster; Monthly Review Press. American interests in that sense are at very high risk in the Middle East. The initial gambit, meant to harden the U.S. claim to planetary hegemony towards eternity by destroying Iraq and simultaneously seizing control of its oil fields as war booty has foundered. Thus Israel’s pitiless, and seemingly safe attacks, for Israeli soldiers if not civilians, appears to be a flank action, muddying the world-wide picture of conflict either to give the U.S. military a strategic re-grouping opportunity, or an excuse for using its obscenely superior military strength against Syria and Iran — maybe North Korea, and possibly even Cuba. Whatever the many uncertainties of the future may bring, one thing seems absolutely certain: the olympian detachment of a majority of the American people, so long nurtured by the media, both major parties, and other forces, is going to end. The still popular notion that the country can step out of the Iraqi quagmire easily simply by “bringing the troops home now” is like a desert mirage. Bush and company have staked the dreams of hegemony on force, with the main target initially being Iraq, already softened up by sanctions and bombing. So our master of hypnosis in the White House led the country into the Iraqi quagmire. But there are more fronts around the globe than the myriad of U.S. foreign military bases, where rebellion against U.S. dominance may occur, once the chink of weakness exposed in Iraq opens wider. What we pushed well along by brandishing nuclear weapons, first at Hiroshima, threatens to become a reverse apocalypse that will, as one result, consign the ambition for world hegemony, pursued so avidly since August 1945 by both major parties, to the dust bin of history (to use an expression favored by Karl Marx). Hal Jamison Ashland The Tidings gives priority to letters on local and regional topics of current interest. It seeks to encourage thoughtful, well-reasoned letters and to discourage personal attacks, repetitive messages and personal disputes. Form letters are not published in the Tidings, nor are letters identified as having been published in other publications. Contributions to the Opinion page should be e-mailed in text-only format to [email protected]. Please include your address and a daytime phone number where you can be reached for confirmation. Letters are limited to 250 words. At Length submissions are limited to 400 words. Submissions may be edited for length, content and clarity. See www.dailytidings.com for our expanded letters and opinion section. . Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.