After a half-hour ride from the Serena Hotel, our driver stopped shy of the Nairobi airport.
“Everybody out!”, he insisted.
Perplexed at this odd order, we exchanged glances.
“Are we there?”, we wondered.
“No. You must walk thru security”, he said while pointing toward a roadside structure. “I’ll meet you on the other side.”
“Do we bring our bags?”
“No. Bring nothing.”
Confused, we walked off… realizing we’d left our passports and valuables with a total stranger on a Nairobi bus. I kept an eye on it as we entered the small building beside the road.
I’d retained my wallet and phone, which I placed on the conveyor as I walked thru the detector. As it did for everyone who preceded or followed me, the screener beeped incessantly… like a fire alarm in an active volcano. With nary a glance, the indifferent “guard” waved us thru.
Re-boarding the bus, we rode further… into a collection of cars resembling cattle crammed in a crowded chute.
Having ridden as far as we could, it was time to walk. We dragged our luggage around the lot, about half a mile toward the entrance to the airport.
At the door, we endured another checkpoint. Passports were examined. Shoes and belts had to come off. All possessions and bags went into a bin. Having entered the concourse, we checked our luggage, and proceeded toward the plane.
Around a corner, we scanned our boarding passes to clear a turnstile. After we did, we joined another line… which carried us thru security again!
Same drill: passports out, belts removed, shoes off, bags conveyed, pockets emptied, questions asked. Having passed thru, repacked our bags, and gotten re-dressed, we approached the last leg of this endless gauntlet.
At the gate, we were forced again to present passports and brandish boarding passes. Receiving clearance, we finally made our way on the plane. I half expected the stewardess to check ID before I could take my seat.
Twenty-three hours later… after a five-hour layover in Paris… we landed in Atlanta.
Sipping Sludge
We’ve spent several weeks assiduously avoiding the news. I was hoping that tendency would harden into a habit.
But… like a recovering alcoholic hopping off the wagon…. when we hit the tarmac I grabbed my phone, popped the cork, and started sipping the sludge we’ve managed to miss.
Like a mild hangover, we nursed remnants of the fading tiff between Trump and Musk. I couldn’t get too worked up about the fight. It seemed irrelevant, like something designed to throw us off the scent.
We were gone only two weeks, and almost missed the entire kerfuffle. By the time we read about it, even the antagonists didn’t seem to care.
This reminded me that we’re manipulated to consume “news” that’s a deliberate distraction. Whenever such silly stories dominate headlines, it’s wise to wonder what important topics aren’t being discussed.
Within a few days, we had some answers. The largest landed in the Middle East.
Enormous Albatross
So much for “no new wars”. Since Trump took office, conflicts have continued in the Ukraine, resumed in Yemen, persisted in Gaza, and (now) started in Iran.
Each atrocity is conducted with American weaponry, funding, assistance, and consent. None were approved by Congress, and all would immediately stop if U.S. support ceased.
Yesterday, financiers, munitions makers, and other warmongers got their wish… when the state of Israel attacked Iran. In the White House, Israel’s puppet says the United States will “defend itself and Israel, if Iran retaliates.”
Last night, Iran did… as any country would after being attacked. Tehran lobbed missiles into Tel Aviv, affirming the Mideast theater of the Third World War.
The first act opened more than a decade ago, across the Bosporus. How long till it bridges the Atlantic, and opens on Broadway? Or in Boston… or Boise… or Birmingham?
And for what? Some intractable skirmishes six thousand miles away?
The U.S. has no responsibility to defend Israel or the Ukraine, and would have no reason to “defend itself” if only its reckless government minded its own business.
America’s “greatest ally” is an enormous albatross. It does nothing to enhance our prosperity or security. To the contrary, it compromises both, by cultivating endless enemies we don’t need.
Its prime minister is a war criminal. Its government corrupts our congressmen, interferes in elections, foments ruinous wars it expects Americans to fund, spies on its benefactors, and exposes them to deadly attacks (including from itself).
Right to Exist
We often hear of Israel’s “right to exist”. But no government, including Israel’s, has a “right” to exist… and no foreign regime has a claim on American lives and loot to ensure it does.
Did the Syrian government not have a “right to exist?” How about Libya? Afghanistan? Iraq? The Carthaginians? The Confederacy?
What about Iran?
If not, why not?
But even if Israel had such a “right”, why is it Americans’ job to preserve it? How does the existence of a small Mid-eastern country benefit residents of Mid-western states?
If Israel went away, what difference would it make to the average Oregonian, Arkansan, or Michigander? Aside from fewer wars ending the lives of their sons and extinguishing the value of their dollars, would they even notice?
American money and military should only defend American borders and citizens. It’s astounding this even needs to be said.
Propagandists like Douglas Murray insist that American survival is contingent on Israeli existence. As Murray put it regarding Islamists: “One of the reasons they go for Israel is they realize that if you take this out, you cut the tree at the root.”
This is self-evidently preposterous. If anything, the dependency works the other way. Obviously. Contemporary Israel isn’t the Israel of the Bible. It sprouted from European Zionists planting themselves into Palestinian soil.
The United States existed for almost two centuries before modern Israel was proclaimed. Europe has survived even longer. Despite the deficiency, they did just fine.
Especially Imbecilic
War with Iran is manifestly moronic. Unlike Syria, Libya, Kuwait, or Iraq, Iran isn’t some artificial construct carved in European boardrooms. Persia is a large country with an ancient pedigree. And a proud one.
Stupid as American involvement would be at any time, it’s especially imbecilic now. The United States is a deeply divided union, overrun by unassimilable aliens, cultural conflict, and more than $100T in unfunded liabilities. Unlike in 1917 or 1941, there’s no support for a stupid war.
To the contrary.
Donald Trump inherited a mess (partly from himself). But, as in the Ukraine, he now owns this disaster. He came to office with as much political capital as any president in recent memory. And he’s squandering all of it.
He could’ve and should’ve requested Congress (where his worthless party has a slim majority) rescind all funding to Israel and the Ukraine. Let those countries commit suicide on their own dime.
But the president hasn’t done it because he doesn’t want to. He’s no different than his predecessors he pretends to loathe.
