Column By Dexter K. Oliver
“Mama wipe the blood from my face, I’m sick and tired of the war.”
“Knocking on Heaven’s Door – Live Version” by Bob Dylan
Yuval Harari is a skinny Jewish Israeli who is considered one of today’s “public intellectuals.” His popular books and speaking engagements often center on what he calls the “storytelling” that emerged from the Middle East as polytheistic religious theories shifted toward monotheism. Within the blink of a geological eye, from the 6th century BCE until the 7th century CE, the already blood-soaked sands of the eastern Mediterranean Sea gave the world Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The common denominators were quickly forgotten, and the individual differences defended to the death by the sword.
The First Crusade of 1096, like all subsequent such military actions, was fought not just because of religious fervor or for salvation, but also for political and economic gain. Nothing has changed. The southwest chunk of Asia bordering northeast Africa (SWANA), where it is said God chose to produce an only son, is once again pitting Jewish, Christian, and Muslim ideologies and forces against each other. All in the name of Yahweh, Jesus, Mohammed, or Allah (not to mention petro-dollars, which trump all of them – pun intended).
Modern Homo sapiens have been on the planet for 300,000 years; the current incompatible religions that originated in the Middle East have been around for a mere 1% of that time, yet they have cost humanity exponentially in loss of life and treasure. With each battle won or lost, new generations of zealots and terrorists emerge from the ashes, fueling the never-ending cycle of hatred, ironically, once based upon a “Lord of Peace.” President Donald J. Trump (DJT) ran a goodly portion of his last Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign promising to avoid such overseas quagmires that history has taught us do not end well for anyone involved, including the United States.
He obviously lied yet again. His strategy to overshadow his close ties with underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his dismal failure with our national economy includes supporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s desperate attempts to stay out of prison for corruption and war crimes. Even by taking us into yet another unfounded foreign war. And of course, the entwined Trump and Kushner crime families envision Trump resorts and towers eventually rising above the rubble, constantly looking to make a buck no matter who else suffers for it. The previous saber-rattling over Greenland and Panama, the piracy and illegal killings of never-proven drug smugglers on the high seas, the invasion of Venezuela, and the daily chaos and confusion within our own country were all smokescreens to blind and confuse the public. They certainly worked on some (MAGA = Mangle and Grift America).
American (and indeed worldwide) eco-anxiety is escalating as our military warships and fighter jets add outrageous amounts of greenhouse gases and exacerbate global warming under the current president. Commercial aviation, which is bad enough, adds about 3-4% annually (and growing) to the adverse anthropogenic effects; Navy ships and military aircraft combined put out approximately twice that amount. Our ongoing armed forces “excursion” in the Middle East is increasing the threat to all of humanity while our so-called leaders twiddle their thumbs. DJT may call it all a “Democrat hoax,” but the vegetation and wildlife dying around me from drought speak the truth.
Luckily, the easily avoidable war with Iran hasn’t diverted DJT’s attention from his signature monstrous ballroom-to-be, hanging banners with his face on them North Korean dictator-style, plastering his name on buildings willy-nilly like a dog marking a forest of fire hydrants, putting his signature on dollar bills to remind us of who caused our economic pain, and planning a 5,000 seat arena for cage fights on the White House lawn for the elite to honor the nation’s 250th birthday (such dignity and class is almost overwhelming). This last is reminiscent of the second-century Roman Emperor Commodus, who did his own gladiatorial fighting in the Colosseum. Of course, DJT only talks the talk but never walks the walk, any more than his sons, who have studiously avoided military service, just as their 5-time draft dodger father did.
Being a religious historian, even one as well-respected worldwide as Yuval Harari, is a thankless job and is not immune to criticism, denunciation, attacks, and shunning, usually by the very people who belong to the faiths he tries to explain. Denial of such historical backgrounds is prevalent in the flocks and even more so among the innumerable self-styled interpreters of the Torah, Bible, and Quran. That DJT’s Secretary of Defense (now War), Pete Hegseth, wrote a book titled “American Crusade,” proudly displays the five crosses tattooed on his chest, and is staunchly advocating Christian Nationalism to reign in the United States, is telling. And yet it is being applauded by undiscerning MAGA followers.
They don’t realize that one man’s idea of the perfect religious preference for our nation will automatically exclude various sects that they themselves may already have identified with, be they adherents of Joseph Smith’s Mormonism, Jim Jones’s Disciples of Christ, Pastor Frances Thomas’s Miracle Valley Bible Church, snake-handling Pentecostal preacher Jamie Coots’ Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus’ Name, or hundreds of others currently fashionable. Crusaders like Hegseth and his boss are not given to sympathy for beliefs contrary to their own.
Our President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, and members of Congress are incapable of explaining and agreeing on why this war with Iran was started and what the end goals might be. It doesn’t matter; crusades are recurring exercises initiated by clergy, kings, and emperors. We, the people, are now complicit in allowing this latest one.
Dexter K. Oliver is a freelance writer, wildlife field biologist, and observer of the human condition from Duncan, AZ. His latest book is “The Boneyard Blues.”
