Juxtaposed with the backdrop of “Shock and Awe” type footage from Israel, not seen or displayed since the Iraq war — and footage surpassing in magnitude and grotesqueness what has been readily available for more than two years from Ukraine — is a Newsweek piece that quietly made the rounds, telling the story of how the FBI has turned their focus to “Domestic Extremism” in the form of Trump supporters or people who believe in the principles behind Make America Great Again.
The 4,000 word piece by William Arkin is a forgotten blip on a 24 hour news radar that will, from the looks of things, be wallpapered with nonstop coverage of a conflict in Israel that threatens to engulf the region or the world.
COVID, the crisis at our border, censorship, the FBI’s targeting of Trump supporters and the ongoing war in Ukraine, have all taken a back seat to what appears to be our most pressing focus as Americans — a war in Israel that may escalate beyond those borders into Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.
If you thought opposing the Ukraine war was futile, unpopular — or dangerous if you wanted to keep your job — the war fever, as well as the train of dollars and troops to Israel, seemingly has no brakes.
In the days after the attack on October 7th in Israel, the references to America’s 9/11 were immediate.
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, was one of many politicians and pundits who made the comparison.
“This is our 9/11. This is our 9/11,” Erdan repeated. “We are committed to change the equation. These animals will pay a heavy price, and they will learn that these atrocities cannot be committed again against our civilians … We won’t have another 9/11.”
Anyone with practical knowledge of what America did after 9/11 should proceed with caution.
22 years later, Osama Bin Laden is dead — but the other scarce tangible rewards Americans have to show from our response to 9/11 are millions dead globally, the “Patriot Act,” which continues to allow the government to violate Civil Liberties and anonymously spy on average Americans, a 20 year occupation in Afghanistan — that culminated with America turning the country back over to the Taliban — and more than 7,000 dead American soldiers.
The unspeakable truth is that vastly more American service men and women — more than 30,0000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — have committed suicide since the global War on Terror began.
The scenes they witnessed or participated in were too much — and the VA was able to do too little upon their return home — for these invisible scars.
Am I an extremist to ask if the cost was all worth it?
It is difficult to reach the heart of the America First or MAGA movement — whose members are the “extremists” the FBI is hunting for instead of Hamas or anyone else who has inevitably hopped our borders in the last three years — without discussing 9/11 and more importantly what unfolded afterwards in the (never ending) Global War on Terror.
With blood in our mouths, we self-righteously looked for people to hit.
I must admit, in hindsight, I was one of those people.
I naively watched “Shock and Awe” on television my sophomore year of college with some of the blind patriotism that permeated America after 9/11, not fully grasping the human horror or toll on the other end of our bombs.
I had the yellow ribbon on my truck. Maybe I thought for a while they really did hate us because we were free, or I inherently trusted or respected Colin Powell too much.
I bought the Texas tough guy persona of George Bush as he tried to rally a global coalition to our cause, saying: “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.”
The reality was we rained down our own terror, retribution and death — on people and in places that had nothing to do with 9/11.
In the countries of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Pakistan, it is estimated that 4.5 million people died, according to the Cost of War Project at Brown University — comprised of nearly one million direct deaths and an additional 3.6-3.8 million indirect deaths.
Madeleine Albright famously suggested the death of an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children, according to UN reports, was worth it after U.N. sanctions and the first war in Iraq.
How many Iraqis would say the same thing?
It borders on blasphemy and is extremely unpopular, but nevertheless true, to suggest that America owes the Muslim and Arab world a bit of an amends for our response and the destruction we unleashed after the attack on the twin towers gave us the green light to proceed unrestrained.
Much of “America First” — the bulk of what makes up the Republican base, to the horror of establishment Republicans — is staunchly against forever wars in far off lands.
You might not realize that if you turned on the mainstream news or scrolled through Twitter recently.
In a few days’ time, supposedly Conservative pundits have used some of the same tactics — the black and white, “either, or” thinking that permeated the discourse in the war in Ukraine or the atmosphere in America after 9/11.
Words like “savages, Nazis, barbarians and animals” have been used to describe what President Biden referred to as “the other team.”
This is not a football game, and the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip are human beings no matter how many times we dehumanize or “other” them. Nearly half of the population is under the age of 18.
“Conservative” media pundits like Dan Bongino, Evangelical Christian Pastor John Hagee and Presidential candidates like Nikki Haley are suddenly calling for war or to “Finish Them,” in reference to a roughly 25 mile by 5 mile area and the millions of people who live in Gaza and the West Bank.
Could Haley do the “finishing” or stomach the raw footage of it?
Doubtful.
The rest of the world likely could not stomach it either — which is perhaps why Israel worked to turn off the internet.
None of these politicians or media personalities will be asked to physically participate in the slaughter.
Conversely, my younger brothers have a greater likelihood of being conscripted into a full-blown war in the Middle East, considering our military has sabotaged recruitment with woke policies, vaccine mandates and a horrific exit from Afghanistan.
You are not supposed to say these things or ask questions about any of this — such as “how did Israeli intelligence agencies get seemingly caught so off guard, why did the attack on October 7 allegedly go on for six hours or more before Israeli soldiers arrived and how did one of the most heavily protected borders get overrun by a Mad Max style attack via pickup trucks, bulldozers, and paragliders?
All of these concerns and their answers are for another day.
Americans cannot be bothered by petty details — there is a potential World War to escalate.
Asking these questions, urging Israel to learn from our 9/11 mistakes or calling for peace are extremely unpopular.
If asking these questions, calling for de-escalation — or asking America to stay out of two wars we cannot afford — leaves one branded as an extremist or on a targeted government list — then so be it.
Matt Keener is a writer and small business owner from Ohio. His work has also been featured at The Federalist, American Spectator, American Greatness, RealClearPolitics, American Thinker and WND. You can find him on Twitter @keenermb and Truth Social @mattkeener
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.