It’s been a year since Israel attacked Lebanon (with extensive diplomatic and military assistance from the US), killing over 1000 civilians, causing massive destruction to infrastructure, and intentionally saturating the country with hundreds of thousands of unexploded cluster bombs in order to punish the survivors. So how is the US commemorating this dark anniversary?
As you’ve probably read, Israel is going to receive a major boost in military funding from the US over the next ten years (as part of a military aid package for various US-friendly Middle Eastern countries)–a 25% increase over the already lavish $2.4 billion per year the US currently gives it to fund its atrocities. But you may not have seen the specific reason for this largess:
A senior official in the Bush administration said the sizable increase was a result of Israel’s need to replace equipment expended during the Second Lebanon War last summer, as well as to maintain its advantage in advanced weaponry in the face of other regional countries’ modernizing their forces.
I can barely imagine what it must be like for people in Lebanon to read that the US is sending Israel $600 million more per year in order to replace the weaponry that was used to shatter their lives. I’m always ashamed of this country, but at times like this it reaches its zenith.
The Distant Ocean 