I feel nothing for a man, no matter his age, who killed indiscriminately and then couldn't manage his self-inflicted trauma. Thousands of Palestinians and their children are dealing with daily trauma. FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸‼️
I am old enough to remember the broken American men and women who 'escaped' to Canada during the USA's illegal wars in SE Asia. I felt as you - until I got to know some and realized how indoctrinated they had been - and when they discovered the brutality of the empire they had been implementing - couldnt handle it. To me - we all need to be actively involved in countering the deep pocketed indoctrination of USA citizens.
Your article falls short when it conflates society with governmental action. The society of America does not value an Israeli soldier's life above that of a Palestinian if anything. If anything we see it exactly as it should be. Anyone that participates in a genocide should do the world of favor as Miller did. I said no tear for him or his comrades. My tears are for the Palestinian people, the Palestinian children, not the soldiers, the civilians, the schools, the hospitals, the mosques, the temples, the churches. It is a grave mistake of an author to conflate a people's government with their society. Just because CNN chooses not to post or report correctly upon the genocide in Gaza. Does not mean a society at large is not with them. The mobility of our society shows otherwise. Miller story is not a paradox. It is what happens when somebody holds cognitive dissidence for their mind so deeply that they're willingly able to participate in a genocide. The only tragedy here is that he waited till after he slaughtered women and children to come to this conclusion. So there will be no morning for Miller in his comrades. There will be no praise. There would be nothing at all. In my view they added nothing to this world but tragedy and harm to others.
How many people support the illegal war in Iran? 65% What is an average American? You mean a US citizen? because Americans are people of the continent. Just like Israel, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Israel, the US is a settler colony. I am a US citizen with a law degree. I happen to believe that what we have is an entire power structure, with democratic and republican politicians, educational institutions, media and Hollywood that persecute those that dissent from the main political, social and political ideology that believes in “American exceptionalism” which is nothing but an ideology of imperialism. The average citizen in the US has neither the time, the education or the critical thinking to move past the constant propaganda pushed by the structures of power. They are struggling to stay afloat, fueled by a consumption led life that in the end neither keeps them safe or secure. There are many brave souls particularly the students, working class, professionals, who empathize with human suffering and actively resist but the majority is numbed by their lives filled with the artificial demands of capitalism. Clearly, it is distinct from a genocidal, apartheid state but both were founded by the same instruments of oppression, violence and wars.
Currently, a majority of Americans oppose the war with Iran, with public support for military action hovering between 35% and 44%. Nationwide polling indicates that approximately 53% to 60% of the public disapproves of the conflict and U.S. military strikes in the region. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-poll-shows-growing-number-of-americans-disapprove-of-trumps-handling-of-iran-war So you started out with a lie. Then you stretch the goal posts, talking about, I mean, Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and all of the Americas. When you know damn well we were talking about the United States of America. I do not think you have a law degree. I think that is stolen valor. Because if somebody had a law degree, such as yourself, you would have at least one posted essay. But alas, you're an agitator. So I will not go into the rest of your argument, not when you start with a lie. Your disdain for humanity is clear. Have you gotten the attention that you needed yet?
Just like you expound that generalities don’t apply between governments and their governed society; you cannot conflate society with humanistic values for not all members in the society disagree with their governmental policies. Case in point: Israeli going to the movies to cheer openly the massacre, destruction and genocide of other human beings in Gaza and Lebanon. Most Israelis support genocide just like many average Americans, politicians, MAGA sycophants cheer the bombing and massacre of Cubans, Venezuelans and Iranians.
Again, I take offense when you say the average American supports the genocide in Gaza. While it is true that most Israelis do support the genocide of their government. The same cannot be said about Americans. Israel has the 37% approval rate dropping every day on the left and right, and when presented with the genocide in Israel and the war in Iran. Your timeline in your feed is not the true reality. Algorithms that feed you what provokes anger in you help develop your conflated viewpoint of America. Most Americans believe in Medicare for all, but you would argue that the fringe, uneducated viewpoints are the totality of America. Because Congress acts one way and the administration acts as it does, it does not have a bearing on the populace as a whole. No matter if there is A 100 percent agreement amongst the populace in America about what should happen with our country, Only 33% chance of it passing. In contrast, if there's zero percent of support for something, it still has 33% chance of passing. This is not the same in Israel, where the populace and the government are on par in ideology and desire. Our government has been captured by the Israeli lobbyists, so our will is not being represented within our government.
I'm confused and I feel enraged. Am I supposed to feel sympathy for him?
Your article paints his death as ‘tragic’ as a hard fact, as if he wasn't responsible for his own decisions, and as if he was forced by American govt. to participate in the genocide committed by another country.
Aaron was a morally conscious human, Alex garndered hate that led him to willingly participate in the massacre of innocent humans. The comparison needed to come through stronger.
I found more and ethical complex with him comparing the US soldier who set himself ablaze to bring attention to the genocide, And with the other two soldiers who gladly went over there and participated. It anchors me that one would even try to invoke emotion of sympathy for an Israeli who participated in the genocide. I do not hate the Israeli. I despise that Israeli that picks up the gun or tends to the boom or signs the legislation. I put the blame where it belongs on the hands of the trigger the funders the legislation writers and the Israeli citizens that lay in front of the food trucks. The Israelis that broke into the prison to free the soldiers that raped the Palestinian man to death. The Israeli that decides to kick a Palestinian out of their home under threat of death. I'm sure there are many good of Israelis but they are a minority in that society. I do pray for them and what they must live next to. But not their perpetrator the neighbor. It is difficult for me as I am supposed to love everyone as a Christian. But I cannot find The love in my heart for people that commit such actions of atrocity and devastation upon children.
I find this article interesting and valuable because of its examination and reflection of the impact off committing violence on a person, something we need to do a lot more of
I am as enraged as everyone else in this comment section about the depravity of the IDF and the atrocities it is committing.
But unlike others here, I don't say spit on the grave of this soldier. I still have some measure of sympathy for people who are chewed up and spit out by their governments, and I lay the lion's share of the blame on psychopaths like Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir.
I don't expect a definitive answer to my question. But if you Ahmed. Or anyone else know or think they know why. I would appreciate an answer. My question is, why does this former Israeli service member or active or former service members in Israel or in this case. In the US go public with what led them to become suicidal? I know some does. But it seems to me that the more of them that does, the better for the next person that struggles with what they have see or done. I know that inside Israel, going public is stigmatizing and lead to harassment from the dominant right wing in Israel. But in the US, I think more people would be positive of someone going public.
Because they were not against the genocide. They were against the whores and nightmares that came with the genocide. It is not the right wing factions in the Israeli government that would have made a soldier's life unbearable. It is both the left and the right of the Israeli society. You should research what they teach in school. In primary and elementary all the way up to high school they teach that the Palestinian in the Arab are animals. When you grow up believing somebody is not human and what you do to them you didn't do to a human in your mind. Miller did not have the education of the Israeli school system. So he was not able to completely see these people as animals but yet he was able to see them worth killing. Worth disregarding. And when he came to this society and seeing how we look upon people like that. He could not carry that with him anymore. And if his atrocities that he committed over there did not keep him from the pearly Gates. Well his final commitment did. I feel for the Israeli youth. Decisions are ahead of them. And much ideology deconstruction must take place if they are ever to see all humans as human. I hope that helps
Make it personal when persuasion and facts fail. Paper supports anything that is written. I personally didn’t attack you but challenged your viewpoint. I guess that is where truth lies…I really don’t care about this comment for I neither have the time or the interest to believe in my own self importance to write essays to pronounce myself an essayist. Like you, I am just sharing an opinion that diverts from the point you made. How about it?!
Yes, I saw your uneducated statement. The facts are against you. Reality is against you. You want to paint the world and the totality of its people as genociders, oh, I'm sorry, just Israel and America, my bad. That's why I did not take you seriously, but here you are again, crying for attention. What attention are you looking for? You want somebody to amplify your uneducated opinions.
23 years old what the hell does he know about life. How is it even possible at 23 or younger to absorb what killing someone will feel like.
He is not mature enough to realise what he is about to enlist in. When did he join the army? 17/18. A stupid kid either full of hate or full of wild dreams that have been sold to him.
People need to stop talking about joining the army as a proud moment to serve your country and all that bullshit. You and your children are nothing more than cannon fodder. Your country’s government could not give a shit about you or your dead children. They are not defending their land they are part of a corrupt system that spreads its tentacles worldwide to steal and control and kill for the benefit of a few.
Hired killers that’s what they are. Hired for low wages and shit aftercare. Stop allowing your children to enlist in armys to line billionaires pockets instead encourage your children to seek truths and protest against corruption and greed. That’s the army they should be joining.
Appreciate your thoughtful ruminations on this. It is an immense challenge to hold on to one’s humanity through so, so much continuous and senseless violence. The struggle is ongoing.
Stop calling it a genocide and start asking why Islam was never going to let Jews have a home on that land. This conflict has been building over 100 years. Palestinians as a whole are not the victims.
What you see now is both sides driven to an extreme by ideologies from imaginary stories.
Jews and Muslims coexisted in peace in Palestine for most of history up until WWII. Then the militias Haganah, Irgun and Lehi took financing from the Rothschilds and coordinated a series of terrorist and sabotage actions that culminated at the Nakba. The 3 terrorist militias consolidated in what today is the State of Israel and their most prominent militians all became Prime Ministers. That's the starting point, which is not at all an imaginary story.
I feel nothing for a man, no matter his age, who killed indiscriminately and then couldn't manage his self-inflicted trauma. Thousands of Palestinians and their children are dealing with daily trauma. FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸‼️
I am old enough to remember the broken American men and women who 'escaped' to Canada during the USA's illegal wars in SE Asia. I felt as you - until I got to know some and realized how indoctrinated they had been - and when they discovered the brutality of the empire they had been implementing - couldnt handle it. To me - we all need to be actively involved in countering the deep pocketed indoctrination of USA citizens.
No empathy for him. Sorry, not sorry.
Your article falls short when it conflates society with governmental action. The society of America does not value an Israeli soldier's life above that of a Palestinian if anything. If anything we see it exactly as it should be. Anyone that participates in a genocide should do the world of favor as Miller did. I said no tear for him or his comrades. My tears are for the Palestinian people, the Palestinian children, not the soldiers, the civilians, the schools, the hospitals, the mosques, the temples, the churches. It is a grave mistake of an author to conflate a people's government with their society. Just because CNN chooses not to post or report correctly upon the genocide in Gaza. Does not mean a society at large is not with them. The mobility of our society shows otherwise. Miller story is not a paradox. It is what happens when somebody holds cognitive dissidence for their mind so deeply that they're willingly able to participate in a genocide. The only tragedy here is that he waited till after he slaughtered women and children to come to this conclusion. So there will be no morning for Miller in his comrades. There will be no praise. There would be nothing at all. In my view they added nothing to this world but tragedy and harm to others.
How many people support the illegal war in Iran? 65% What is an average American? You mean a US citizen? because Americans are people of the continent. Just like Israel, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Israel, the US is a settler colony. I am a US citizen with a law degree. I happen to believe that what we have is an entire power structure, with democratic and republican politicians, educational institutions, media and Hollywood that persecute those that dissent from the main political, social and political ideology that believes in “American exceptionalism” which is nothing but an ideology of imperialism. The average citizen in the US has neither the time, the education or the critical thinking to move past the constant propaganda pushed by the structures of power. They are struggling to stay afloat, fueled by a consumption led life that in the end neither keeps them safe or secure. There are many brave souls particularly the students, working class, professionals, who empathize with human suffering and actively resist but the majority is numbed by their lives filled with the artificial demands of capitalism. Clearly, it is distinct from a genocidal, apartheid state but both were founded by the same instruments of oppression, violence and wars.
Currently, a majority of Americans oppose the war with Iran, with public support for military action hovering between 35% and 44%. Nationwide polling indicates that approximately 53% to 60% of the public disapproves of the conflict and U.S. military strikes in the region. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-poll-shows-growing-number-of-americans-disapprove-of-trumps-handling-of-iran-war So you started out with a lie. Then you stretch the goal posts, talking about, I mean, Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and all of the Americas. When you know damn well we were talking about the United States of America. I do not think you have a law degree. I think that is stolen valor. Because if somebody had a law degree, such as yourself, you would have at least one posted essay. But alas, you're an agitator. So I will not go into the rest of your argument, not when you start with a lie. Your disdain for humanity is clear. Have you gotten the attention that you needed yet?
Just like you expound that generalities don’t apply between governments and their governed society; you cannot conflate society with humanistic values for not all members in the society disagree with their governmental policies. Case in point: Israeli going to the movies to cheer openly the massacre, destruction and genocide of other human beings in Gaza and Lebanon. Most Israelis support genocide just like many average Americans, politicians, MAGA sycophants cheer the bombing and massacre of Cubans, Venezuelans and Iranians.
Again, I take offense when you say the average American supports the genocide in Gaza. While it is true that most Israelis do support the genocide of their government. The same cannot be said about Americans. Israel has the 37% approval rate dropping every day on the left and right, and when presented with the genocide in Israel and the war in Iran. Your timeline in your feed is not the true reality. Algorithms that feed you what provokes anger in you help develop your conflated viewpoint of America. Most Americans believe in Medicare for all, but you would argue that the fringe, uneducated viewpoints are the totality of America. Because Congress acts one way and the administration acts as it does, it does not have a bearing on the populace as a whole. No matter if there is A 100 percent agreement amongst the populace in America about what should happen with our country, Only 33% chance of it passing. In contrast, if there's zero percent of support for something, it still has 33% chance of passing. This is not the same in Israel, where the populace and the government are on par in ideology and desire. Our government has been captured by the Israeli lobbyists, so our will is not being represented within our government.
Reap what you sow.
I'm confused and I feel enraged. Am I supposed to feel sympathy for him?
Your article paints his death as ‘tragic’ as a hard fact, as if he wasn't responsible for his own decisions, and as if he was forced by American govt. to participate in the genocide committed by another country.
Aaron was a morally conscious human, Alex garndered hate that led him to willingly participate in the massacre of innocent humans. The comparison needed to come through stronger.
I found more and ethical complex with him comparing the US soldier who set himself ablaze to bring attention to the genocide, And with the other two soldiers who gladly went over there and participated. It anchors me that one would even try to invoke emotion of sympathy for an Israeli who participated in the genocide. I do not hate the Israeli. I despise that Israeli that picks up the gun or tends to the boom or signs the legislation. I put the blame where it belongs on the hands of the trigger the funders the legislation writers and the Israeli citizens that lay in front of the food trucks. The Israelis that broke into the prison to free the soldiers that raped the Palestinian man to death. The Israeli that decides to kick a Palestinian out of their home under threat of death. I'm sure there are many good of Israelis but they are a minority in that society. I do pray for them and what they must live next to. But not their perpetrator the neighbor. It is difficult for me as I am supposed to love everyone as a Christian. But I cannot find The love in my heart for people that commit such actions of atrocity and devastation upon children.
I find this article interesting and valuable because of its examination and reflection of the impact off committing violence on a person, something we need to do a lot more of
An excellent, nuanced essay.
I am as enraged as everyone else in this comment section about the depravity of the IDF and the atrocities it is committing.
But unlike others here, I don't say spit on the grave of this soldier. I still have some measure of sympathy for people who are chewed up and spit out by their governments, and I lay the lion's share of the blame on psychopaths like Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir.
What an amazing article. Thank you for your deep words Ahmed. You write poetry.
May every zionist-American who volunteers for the IDF terrorist force follow in Alex's footsteps.
I don't expect a definitive answer to my question. But if you Ahmed. Or anyone else know or think they know why. I would appreciate an answer. My question is, why does this former Israeli service member or active or former service members in Israel or in this case. In the US go public with what led them to become suicidal? I know some does. But it seems to me that the more of them that does, the better for the next person that struggles with what they have see or done. I know that inside Israel, going public is stigmatizing and lead to harassment from the dominant right wing in Israel. But in the US, I think more people would be positive of someone going public.
Because they were not against the genocide. They were against the whores and nightmares that came with the genocide. It is not the right wing factions in the Israeli government that would have made a soldier's life unbearable. It is both the left and the right of the Israeli society. You should research what they teach in school. In primary and elementary all the way up to high school they teach that the Palestinian in the Arab are animals. When you grow up believing somebody is not human and what you do to them you didn't do to a human in your mind. Miller did not have the education of the Israeli school system. So he was not able to completely see these people as animals but yet he was able to see them worth killing. Worth disregarding. And when he came to this society and seeing how we look upon people like that. He could not carry that with him anymore. And if his atrocities that he committed over there did not keep him from the pearly Gates. Well his final commitment did. I feel for the Israeli youth. Decisions are ahead of them. And much ideology deconstruction must take place if they are ever to see all humans as human. I hope that helps
See my comment on your statement as I strongly disagree with your position.
I rarely take seriously anybody that cannot right at least introductory essay on their page. Troll along.
Make it personal when persuasion and facts fail. Paper supports anything that is written. I personally didn’t attack you but challenged your viewpoint. I guess that is where truth lies…I really don’t care about this comment for I neither have the time or the interest to believe in my own self importance to write essays to pronounce myself an essayist. Like you, I am just sharing an opinion that diverts from the point you made. How about it?!
Yes, I saw your uneducated statement. The facts are against you. Reality is against you. You want to paint the world and the totality of its people as genociders, oh, I'm sorry, just Israel and America, my bad. That's why I did not take you seriously, but here you are again, crying for attention. What attention are you looking for? You want somebody to amplify your uneducated opinions.
23 years old what the hell does he know about life. How is it even possible at 23 or younger to absorb what killing someone will feel like.
He is not mature enough to realise what he is about to enlist in. When did he join the army? 17/18. A stupid kid either full of hate or full of wild dreams that have been sold to him.
People need to stop talking about joining the army as a proud moment to serve your country and all that bullshit. You and your children are nothing more than cannon fodder. Your country’s government could not give a shit about you or your dead children. They are not defending their land they are part of a corrupt system that spreads its tentacles worldwide to steal and control and kill for the benefit of a few.
Hired killers that’s what they are. Hired for low wages and shit aftercare. Stop allowing your children to enlist in armys to line billionaires pockets instead encourage your children to seek truths and protest against corruption and greed. That’s the army they should be joining.
I dare you to visit Israel and see how you’ve been lied to by the media. That’s what seeking truth would mean. I am proud to serve my country.
Appreciate your thoughtful ruminations on this. It is an immense challenge to hold on to one’s humanity through so, so much continuous and senseless violence. The struggle is ongoing.
Not only PTSD, but #moralinjury.
Thank you for this article. This crime by Israel is bad for Israelis as well.
All these comments make me realize how much more work we have to do as a species. The cycle continues.
Stop calling it a genocide and start asking why Islam was never going to let Jews have a home on that land. This conflict has been building over 100 years. Palestinians as a whole are not the victims.
What you see now is both sides driven to an extreme by ideologies from imaginary stories.
Thank you!
Jews and Muslims coexisted in peace in Palestine for most of history up until WWII. Then the militias Haganah, Irgun and Lehi took financing from the Rothschilds and coordinated a series of terrorist and sabotage actions that culminated at the Nakba. The 3 terrorist militias consolidated in what today is the State of Israel and their most prominent militians all became Prime Ministers. That's the starting point, which is not at all an imaginary story.
Oh so the Haganah wasn't formed in response to Arab attacks in 1920? Tell me more about your alternate version of history.