avoidable unless you were on a mission from god;

This was all so, so avoidable. The US and Israel sprinted straight at this war, cruising past off-ramp after off-ramp. The Iran nuclear deal was working as intended. Israel could have negotiated an agreement with the Palestinians, thereby cooling things off with both the Palestinian resistance and with Hezbollah long before October 7. The US empire didn’t have to insist on hegemonic control over the entire region.

There was no good reason there couldn’t have been peace. It was right there, ripe for the picking. Begging to be picked. Practically leaping into our hands. It was only by the most tenacious of efforts by the very worst people in the world that we wound up here. It is only by those same efforts by those same terrible people that we continue along this horrifying trajectory instead of taking the final off-ramp.

Peace is still there for the taking. It’s being actively sabotaged by the very worst among us..........more........