Doublethink and loadsa dollars

George Orwell did humanity a favour when he introduced the word ‘doublethink’. This referred to the ability some have of holding two opinions, one contradicting the other, at the same time.

Take the US’s foreign policy. In the case of Ukraine, they are applauding that country of 38 million people for…what? For resisting the Russian armed forces intent on establishing dominion over them. For the US, this involved spending nearly $200 billion in 2022 alone.

And the US’s approach to Israel? Well, when you’re going to have to kill some 20,000 Palestinians, you need a lot of hardware.  But even before the so-called self-defence offensive on Gaza, Barack Obama signed a deal in 2017 whereby the US would give Israel , between 2017-2028, a total of $38 billion. Most of this went on military hardware. It’s reasonable to assume that there’s been the odd extra billion shoved Israel’s way to help them kill as many Palestinians as possible in Gaza.

So the US pours money into Ukraine, so they can resist invasion, and pours money into Israel so they can kill Palestinians. The Ukraine money  is to prevent invasion by Russia, the Israel money is to assist Israel to invade Gaza. (Yes, I know Israel says they’re only engaged in self-defence, but I did tell you that the double-think thingy was operating in this case).

So the next time Joe Biden or any other American congratulates us on attempting to resolve our differences through peaceful politics, try to choose something soft to throw at them. Because they’ll never accept your plea that you reacted to an insult to your intelligence with brute force.