I don’t want the following to turn into a partisan bickering match. All president’s claim they want peace, but, Democrat and Republican alike, they all engage in war–all war should be condemned. My intent here is to address the current situation. The current “anti-war” President does not appear to be anti-war, afterall.
U.S. airstrikes in Yemen have killed dozens, perhaps hundreds of Yemenis’ civilians. Democratic Senators have challenged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide a full accounting of civilian deaths due to the U.S. bombing. Their concern, the bombing and the resultant civilian deaths undermines the promotion of “U.S. values”.
The bombing of Yemen actually represents U.S. values fairly accurately: the U.S., like all empires, willingly sacrifice innocent lives for commercial, ideological, and perceived security purposes. The U.S. attacks on Yemen are an effort to prevent Houthi attacks on western commercial and military targets in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The other concern expressed by the Senators is that the use of war materiel depletes the U.S.’ arsenal at a time when the U.S. is in preparation for potential war with China–so much for the “U.S.’ values” argument, innocents will always be killed in war.
Speaking of China; the U.S., the Philippines, Japan, and Australia, alongside of roughly a dozen and a half or so observer states, are currently engaged in the Balikatan naval drills in and near the disputed South China Sea. This, in support of the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. China views the expanded annual naval drills as a provocation to the Chinese state.
Oh, and lest we forget, due to the lack of corporate press coverage proportional to the significance of the event, the Israeli siege of Gaza, in effect since March 2, has cut-off food, fuel, and medicine to the Gaza strip. The Israeli bombing of the enclave, with U.S. produced bombs, continues. According the The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), an estimated 100 children die or are injured daily as a result of these actions. U.S.’ war supplies continue unimpeded to the Israeli State.
There are also the implied and direct threats of military actions in order to pry Greenland away Denmark, and previously the Panama Canal from Panama. The President has also threatened to bomb nuclear related facilities in Iran.
The U.S. President’s efforts to end the War in Ukraine should be applauded, his commitment to otherwise prevent war, is murky, at best.
Ultimately, it is up to the People to demand an end to war. When the People lead: Democrat, Republican, or otherwise; the leaders will follow.