The Veterans We Dare not Remember on Memorial Day

The Veterans We Dare not Remember 

on Memorial Day 

By Michael Hoffman 

www.RevisionistHistory.org 

The Memorial Day holiday originated in upstate New York, in the village of Waterloo, after the War Between the States, not far from the Scythe Tree Farm, where a boy stuck a scythe into a tree on his parents’ land shortly after he was drafted into the Union Army, hoping he would return to retrieve it.  As an adolescent history buff I visited the farm and one could glimpse the handle of the otherwise overgrown scythe protruding from the tree.

May 31, 2021 is a day when numerous blowhard enthusiasts for wars like the carnage George W. Bush needlessly inflicted in Iraq, profess their alleged patriotic love of America’s military vets. In many cases that profession is as fork-tongued as the ones that take place in November on Veteran’s Day. 

Those willing to fight and die for the continuing security of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Saudi supremacy in Yemen and Bahrain, and the profits of Bechtel corporation (in which Dick Cheney was invested) and the Carlyle Group (George H.W. Bush’s cash cow), are praised and hallowed. Yet seldom are the laurels accompanied by a pledge to diminish the military-industrial complex and free our nation from war profiteers and save American lives. 

Veteran’s Day was founded after the end of the fratricidal First World War as “Armistice Day,” as a pledge to remember never to fight such a war again. But instead of a peace day it became a warriors’ day and Americans marched to the fratricidal Second World War, and then the no-win “police action” in Korea, followed by the more familiar disastrous quagmires of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

As you peruse your newspapers, Internet and TV today, veterans of the Federal government’s various wars will be honored, as all the front line grunts should be. My eighteen year old immigrant maternal great-uncle, upon arriving in America, was conscripted and dispatched in 1918 to the killing fields of Europe where he was awarded the Silver Star and the battlefield rank of sergeant. He was so humble our family didn’t learn of his medal for heroism until he passed away and willed it to this writer.  

My father was a Navy corpsman attached to the Marines in the Pacific theater in 1945. My father’s naively patriotic brother, David, after 20 years in the Navy, shortly thereafter joined the army at age 38, so he could “fight the Communists” in Vietnam. He died of exposure to Agent Orange when he was not yet 70.

All of my relatives, as well as my high school buddies who perished in Vietnam, have my respect and devotion, in that it is my desire to see that no other Americans fight and die in bankers’ wars.

I have a story to recount that is worse than dying to make the world safe for plutocracy. It’s one you won’t see in the media today, or hear out of the mouths of the politicians seeking to exploit sacred Memorial Day gatherings, for the sake of their venal ambitions and agendas.

On June 8, 1967 our nation’s naval ship, the USS Liberty, was attacked by the Israeli air force for much of that horrible day. 34 of our sailors were killed. 174 were wounded. This was an intentional massacre by America’s “Israeli allies,” intended to sink the Liberty because it had military intelligence on Israeli movements during the Six Day War. The plan was to blame the Arabs of Egypt for the attack. 

The USS Liberty did not sink however, but its May Day calls went unanswered. Navy fighter jets, under orders from President Lyndon Johnson, were commanded to stand down as American sailors were killed and maimed. Mr. Johnson was quoted as having said, “I want that goddamned ship on the ocean floor.” Yes, Lyndon Baines Johnson was a traitor to the men of our armed forces. 

What lessons are to be learned from this betrayal? You’ll never know because it cannot be broached in the corporate news, on Memorial Day, Veterans Day or this coming June 8, the 54th anniversary of the slaughter. The Israeli bombing of the Liberty is kryptonite to the would-be Supermen who rule us, and consequently it has been sent down the memory hole.

Before you commence to cursing Biden in this regard, be mindful of Trump’s disgusting masquerade as a super-patriot. If one is a patriotic Commander in Chief (never mind “super”), the first order of business would be to award medals for bravery both posthumously and to the forgotten living survivors of the USS Liberty massacre, and initiate hearings in Congress on the betrayal of the sailors by President Johnson and navy officials (with the honorable exception of Admiral Thomas Moorer). 

Donald “Israel First” Trump kept the Israeli war crime against our USS Liberty sailors under wraps, as have all previous administrations. Don’t be hoodwinked.

Survivors of the Israeli slaughter aboard the Liberty are aging and soon they will all be gone. Light a candle this Memorial Day to their memory and contemplate what it means to reside in the United States of Amnesia, where the memory of our fallen is cravenly captive to the needs of the Israelis—blowhard declarations of patriotism notwithstanding.

For further research: 

Admiral Thomas Moorer, “Betrayal behind Israeli attack on U.S. ship,” Houston Chronicle, January 11, 2004

James M. Scott, The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel’s Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship (Simon and Schuster, 2010)

Michael Hoffman is the author of nine books of history and literature and the editor of the newsletter, Revisionist History®

Copyright©2021 Independent History and Research

Box 849, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83816 USA

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Zionists fear Ron Paul’s influence on Romney

Editor’s Note: Zionists are often exceedingly vigilant and alert for the slightest sign of potential opposition, however remote. Here below is an alarm in the New York newspaper Forward, over the prospect of an “anti-semitic" Ron Paul presidency, which might force the Israelis to make peace instead of war: "Israel can’t be defeated if America is actively behind it. Take that away and Israel is just a middle-sized regional power.” Correct. Under a Paul presidency the Israelis would have to learn to live with their neighbors rather than bombing them; what a frightening prospect. There’s more: elephant-memory recall of former George Herbert Walker Bush’s chief of staff, John Sununu, along with bigoted racial paranoia over his Arab roots and possible influence on Romney.

Reporter J.J. Goldberg fears that Romney will "need Paul not to mount a third-party run, as he did in 1988. An independent Ron Paul campaign would guarantee Obama’s reelection...Romney will need to appease Paul with...promises of administration positions for his allies. A stronger Romney could simply ignore Paul’s surge. But Romney isn’t strong...”

Ron Paul is a populist in touch with the foreign policy thinking of many Americans, while hawkish Zionists (and that includes all of the other Republican candidates) are out to lunch on foreign policy. One of Goldberg’s charges against Sununu is that he described the 1967 Israeli attack on the naval ship U.S.S. Liberty as “vicious and unprovoked.” This was also the view of America's highest ranking naval officer, Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with the sailors who were on board the U.S.S. Liberty and witnessed the brazen Zionist massacre. Was Admiral Moorer “anti-semitic”?

Personally I don’t think Mr. Goldberg has much to worry about. If Ron Paul fades in the primaries in the South under withering fire from the Establishment media, Romney can ignore him; and a third party run by Paul could seriously undermine his Republican son Rand’s future in the U.S. Senate. As for Romney himself, no Zionist need be anxious over his supposed tepid allegiance to the Israeli lobby. Romney called on Sununu in order to build his New Hampshire political base, not to begin to craft an even-handed, peace-loving foreign policy in the Middle East. Romney is the quintessential opportunist and no president of that stripe has ever significantly bucked the media influence and Congressional power of The Lobby, and that includes George H.W. Bush.

Mr. Goldberg’s column is intended to stoke the fires of an even more intense Ron Paul incineration on the part of Zionist media executives. Hopefully they will overplay their hand and the American people will see the degree to which Paul scares the pants off the covert terrorism-industrial complex which continues to bog us down in useless, wastrel foreign wars while making America more enemies around the world.

Calling the Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty a “mistake” is all we need to know about the truthfulness and objectivity of J.J. Goldberg.

Watch What You Wish For, GOP

Ron Paul Could Wind Up As Man Behind Mitt's Curtain

By J.J. Goldberg

Forward | January 12, 2012

Now that the New Hampshire GOP primary results are in, pro-Israel Republicans might want to sit back, take a deep breath and do some long, hard thinking. As much as they’d like to see President Obama booted from the White House next fall, they’d be wise to be careful what they wish for. Especially if they were watching television on victory night.

The operating assumption on the pro-Israel right — and, to be fair, in a healthy chunk of the center — is that Obama is no friend of the Jewish state. If Israel’s vulnerability keeps you awake at night, it’s natural to want a president who knows how to back our friends and oppose our enemies. That’s certainly how the Republican field presents itself, with the obvious exception of Ron Paul. The narrowing of the field, therefore, has to be a welcome thing for opponents of Obama.

If you’re accustomed to voting for Democrats, it’s probably a relief to see Mitt Romney emerge as the clear front-runner, given his background as a pro-choice Massachusetts moderate. Conservative Republicans still suspect he has adopted their language for marketing purposes and remains at heart the liberal he was in the Massachusetts governor’s mansion. If so, that should help disaffected Democrats feel comfortable with him.

After New Hampshire, though, the picture is getting a bit murkier. True, Romney appears all but unbeatable. He’s won twin victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, a one-two punch that no non-incumbent Republican has ever achieved before. None of his rivals seems even remotely positioned to overtake him.

On the other hand, he remains a weak favorite, disliked by his party’s powerful evangelical and conservative wings. The fact that he couldn’t break the 40% mark in New Hampshire, right on his home turf, after four years of nonstop campaigning, suggests he’s going to remain the candidate of last resort right up to the convention. A lot of Republicans just don’t like him.

Which brings us back to Ron Paul. Romney’s weakness gives Paul an unexpected measure of clout. For all his eccentricity, he’s been the surprise of the campaign, electrifying crowds of adoring young enthusiasts and crusty independents who’ve never followed politics before. His impressive showings, a strong third-place in Iowa and second-place in New Hampshire, prove he has the strength to stay in the race racking up delegates until the end. He’ll come to the convention in Tampa next summer well positioned to make demands.

Romney will ultimately win the nomination. Republicans will decide they have no alternative. To win the general election, though, he’ll need some enthusiasm from the party base. He’ll need his defeated rivals to bring their followers around and unite behind him. Most acutely, he’ll need Paul not to mount a third-party run, as he did in 1988. An independent Ron Paul campaign would guarantee Obama’s reelection.

In other words, Romney will need to appease Paul with platform planks and perhaps promises of administration positions for his allies. A stronger Romney could simply ignore Paul’s surge. But Romney isn’t strong.

Paul claims he’s neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Israel. He’s just wary of foreign entanglements. There’s evidence to the contrary, and it’s been well reported: The former aide who says he’s heard Paul say he wished Israel didn’t exist. The extremist and racist newsletters. Paul’s private mutterings aren’t the real problem, though. The problem is his unabashed isolationism. Should he gain real influence, his policy positions would directly endanger Israel. They would broadcast to Israel’s enemies that it no longer enjoys the umbrella of American protection. Remember, that’s the real importance of financial aid to Israel, and of a muscular American foreign policy. Israel can’t be defeated if America is actively behind it. Take that away and Israel is just a middle-sized regional power.

In the end, of course, it’s presidents that make foreign policy. A Romney White House would reflect the personal convictions of Mitt Romney. Whatever those turn out to be.

This is what made primary night television coverage so unsettling: the reminders that we don’t really know what Romney believes, and he may have no intention of telling us until he’s inaugurated.

Of all those reminders, the most chilling was the appearance of former New Hampshire governor John Sununu as a Romney spokesman. For those with long memories, it harkened back to the 1988 election, when Sununu was Republican candidate George H.W. Bush’s national campaign manager. Pro-Israel hawks were beating the drum for Bush that year, warning that Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis was a threat to Israel because Jesse Jackson was prominent in his party. Bush was Israel’s true friend, they said.

Nobody paid much attention to Sununu until after Election Day, even though the press was reporting some alarming facts about him (I remember, because I wrote the stories). One of the highest-ranking Lebanese Americans in national politics — and the only one then active in Arab-American community affairs — Sununu was also the only one of the 50 governors who refused to sign a 1987 proclamation saluting the 90th anniversary of Zionism and calling on the United Nations to rescind its Zionism-racism resolution. His reasoning was that governors shouldn’t dabble in foreign affairs — though he’d issued proclamations honoring Bastille Day and saluting Polish freedom on Pulaski Day. In 1988 he issued a proclamation honoring the veterans of the U.S.S. Liberty, an American naval vessel mistakenly attacked by Israeli jets in June 1967, causing 34 deaths. Sununu called the attack “vicious and unprovoked.”

Bush’s Jewish supporters insisted Sununu’s views didn’t reflect Bush’s. When word came out that Sununu was to be White House chief of staff, they said he wouldn’t be involved in Middle East policy. They said Bush was a devoted friend of Israel. Then we found out he wasn’t.

We hadn’t seen much of Sununu lately, until Romney went and found him. Or they found each other.

E-mail for J.J. Goldberg: goldberg@forward.com

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