US Leaders Agree: Some Civilian Deaths Don't Count
Donald Trump recently made headlines for his off-the-cuff remarks, suggesting Hamas's public executions of alleged 'gang members' didn't 'bother him much,' likening them to U.S. strikes on Venezuelan 'drug boats.' While the mainstream press clutched its pearls, conveniently forgotten is the bipartisan silence when Israel's military, equipped generously by U.S. taxpayer dollars, conducts actions
that result in significant civilian casualties. For example, during the 2014 Gaza conflict, Human Rights Watch documented numerous cases of apparently unlawful Israeli strikes killing civilians, including the July 30, 2014, strike on a UN school sheltering displaced families. So, the takeaway isn't that Trump is uniquely callous. It's that the U.S. political establishment, both current and former,
operates with a highly selective moral compass. They'll loudly condemn 'terrorist' actions, but quietly approve billions in military aid to a state whose actions lead to similar, if not greater, civilian death tolls. According to OpenSecrets.org, over $12 million from pro-Israel groups, including AIPAC, flooded into Congressional campaigns in 2022 alone. One might wonder if the outrage meter gets
recalibrated based on who's signing the checks, or if 'drug boats' have simply become the new euphemism for anything a U.S. ally decides needs neutralizing.