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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 3, 2022

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Indeed, Mearsheimer discusses this. He argues that it was a small group of neocons who started the drive to war, that Israel then egged them on. But these neocons were in love with and beloved by Israel. They had a heavy Jewish presence within their ranks: they were led by people like Wolfowitz and Feith, both Jews, 2nd and 3rd ranking civilians in the Pentagon respectively. And then there are people like John Bolton:

So much so, in fact, that in May 2006, the Israeli ambassador to the UN jokingly described Bolton as "a secret member of Israel's own team at the United Nations." He went on to say that "the secret is out. We really are not just five diplomats. We are at least six including John Bolton.

In the spring of 2002 , the Forward pointed out that Wolfowitz is "known as the most hawkishly pro-Israel voice in the Administration," and it selected him later in 2002 as the first among fifty notables who "have consciously pursued Jewish activism.

At a key meeting with Bush at Camp David on September 15, 2001, Wolfowitz advocated attacking Iraq before Afghanistan, even though there was no evidence that Saddam was involved in the attacks on the United States and bin Laden was known to be in Afghanistan.99 Wolfowitz was so insistent on conquering Iraq that five days later Cheney had to tell him to "stop agitating for targeting Saddam."100 According to one Republican lawmaker, he "was like a parrot bringing [Iraq] up all the time. It was getting on the President's nerves.

It may well be uncharitable to say that Jews were using the Iraq War as a tool against whites. But there is a powerful pro-Israeli lobby group composed of Jews and gentiles with a fanatical love of Israel that ignores the interests of America to favour Israel's foreign policy interests. There are, as you said, gentiles who supported the Iraq War like CIA director Woolsey and Bennett. American Jews overall opposed the war more than the rest of America as of a 2007 aggregate of polls. But Israelis loved it, they were the only country that supported the war in polling. Would the otherwise inexplicable, illogical Iraq War have gotten off the ground if it weren't for encouragement from Israel and the Israel lobby? I think not.

Israel was the only country outside of the United States where a majority of politicians and the public enthusiastically favored war. A poll taken in early 2002 found that 58 percent of Israeli Jews believed that "Israel should encourage the United States to attack Iraq."4 6 Another poll taken a year later in February 2003 found that 77.5 percent of Israeli Jews wanted the United States to invade Iraq

If you look further, we have the Arabs causing the 1973 Oil Shock after the US bailed out Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Massive economic damage to the entire Western world. I won't say that the oil shock caused the whole 'what the hell happened in 1971' ongoing crisis but it certainly worsened things.