RePortersNoteBook.com: Alan Sabrosky

From: "The Patriot Dames" <subie-sisters@thepatriotdames.net>
Date: May 31, 2010 4:51:42 PM EDT
Subject: Fwd: Alan Sabrosky - one very smart Marine
Reply-To: info@thepatriotdames.net

THIS MEMORIAL DAY, 2010, IN MEMORY OF ALL OUR FALLEN HEROs AND THOSE TO COME.......
Susie
www.talkshoe.com/tc/2006 (we are planning on doing a show on the USS Liberty tonight, May 31, 2010 at 8pm EST)

Dr. Alan Sabrosky writes quickly in response to the Israeli attack, in
international waters, on the aid flotialla bound for Gaza. The Israelis
confiscated food, oil trees, and medical supplies -- lethal items, no doubt,
in the hands of Palestinians!

Sabrosky's bio posted on Salem-News.com shows that he has a Ph.D. from the
University of Michigan and

"is a writer and consultant specializing in national and international
security affairs. In December 1988, he received the Superior Civilian
Service Award after more than five years of service at the U.S. Army War
College as Director of Studies, Strategic Studies Institute, and holder of
the General of the Army Douglas MacArthur Chair of Research. ".

V.................................................................
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/05/31/dr-alan-sabrosky-the-madness-of-arro
gance-israels-attack-on-the-gaza-aid-flotilla/

DR. ALAN SABROSKY: THE MADNESS OF ARROGANCE: ISRAEL'S ATTACK ON THE GAZA AID
FLOTILLA

May 31, 2010 posted by <http://www.veteranstoday.com/author/sabrosky/> Dr.
Alan Sabrosky . 1
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<http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/05/31/dr-alan-sabrosky-the-madness-of-arr
ogance-israels-attack-on-the-gaza-aid-flotilla/screenhunter_03-may-31-13-24/
THE MADNESS OF ARROGANCE:

ISRAEL'S ATTACK ON THE GAZA AID FLOTILLA

By Dr. Alan Sabrosky STAFF WRITER/Editor

Israel's attack on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla on America's Memorial Day
was all too predictable, although the form it took surprised even me. And it
confirms the old proverb that "Those whom the gods would destroy, they first
make mad," for the attack was the kind of madness only unbridled arrogance
can assume.

It wasn't just that foreigners as well as Palestinians, flying flags other
than that of Palestine, were attacked. Israel has a long history of doing
such things, especially to the UN. But except for the USS Liberty incident
in 1967, it has generally done that on inland sites - Gaza, the West Bank,
the Lebanon - where it can largely block news and visual evidence, and
control the spin it puts on events, counting on its friends in the US and
other mainstream media to say little or nothing to contradict them.
<http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/05/31/dr-alan-sabrosky-the-madness-of-arr
ogance-israels-attack-on-the-gaza-aid-flotilla/screenhunter_02-may-31-13-24/

The Attack Reprised

Not this time. An attack on the open seas, in acknowledged international
waters, against unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid with passengers and
crews from many countries - especially a direct attack against a Turkish
ship - is a different matter, and potentially an explosive one. The number
of shipboard casualties indicates that once fighting started, the Israeli
commandos simply sprayed automatic weapons fire into the people around them
- another of their long-standing habits.

And technology is their enemy here, just as it became in an earlier day the
enemy of communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and other Eastern
European countries. Too many images and videos were taken, and some sent,
and too many witnesses reported what was happening, before the Israelis were
able to suppress communications from their victims.

Bad for their victims, but also potentially very bad for Israel, and the
initial Israeli public-relations damage control efforts show that they are
at least dimly aware of that fact. Trying to cast the attack in
international waters as an exercise in self-defense would be ludicrous in
the best or worst of circumstances - has anyone ever seen wheelchairs used
as offensive weaponry?

And for the Israeli spokeswoman to try to spin an assault by warships and
armed commandos as defense against a "lynch" (I guess she was trying to push
an American "hot button" for Obama - someone should tell her it is
"lynching" or "lynch mob") would have embarrassed even her public relations
soulmate, Dr. Josef Goebbels. But desperate do what desperation dictates, I
suppose, although this time they may well have gone way too far.

A Judging, Long Overdue

And that is what the initial responses appear to affirm. All of the major
US and many other media outlets are carrying this story, and even with the
slant from many Jewish correspondents based in Jerusalem or Ashdod, the
bloody particulars are slowly coming through to at least a general American
audience for the first time:

           1.         The unarmed ships with unarmed passengers were
trying to ferry humanitarian and reconstruction aid to ravaged and embattled
Gaza.

          2.         Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, probably if
not certainly in violation of international law, supported largely by US
vetoes in the UN Security Council.

          3.         Israeli warships and commandos intercepted and
attacked the aid flotilla in international waters -which is an act of war,
piracy or state terrorism, depending on one's view of the details.

          4.         Under attack, some of the passengers tried to defend
themselves, scores were killed or wounded, and some Israeli commandos were
also wounded - doubtless a surprise to them, but then their usual run of
victims may have made them a bit too cocky.

          5.         Many governments and publics around the world - not
only in Arab capitals - are openly outraged, and the discussion forums on US
news websites carrying the story suggest that much the same is happening at
a public level in this country.

          6.         But for Israel, this is just another "we are the
misunderstood victim" incident in a long, sordid and utterly unbelievable
litany of such things - except that this time, they may not get away with
it.

Seizing the Moment

This is a time for those interested in justice for Palestine to seize the
moment and act, building on the promise engendered but not fulfilled after
the submission of the Goldstone Report to the HRC.

I would like to think that President Obama would take a stand, and perhaps
he will, but if he does it will be with words and not with deeds. Neither
the Congress nor Rahm Emanuel would let him do much more, whatever his
predisposition - and who knows, he may believe the "lynch" metaphor, or
pretend to do so.

Americans shouldn't bother with letters or emails to US Senators or
Representatives, or Obama; AIPAC will be there ahead of you with more
letters and money than you can generate. Go instead directly to the local
offices of US Senators and Representatives, stay until you speak personally
to the senior person there, and make your case as forcefully as you can.
Make sure as many people hear you as possible - but be polite, and leave
your signs at home.

For the world community, now is the time and this is the incident to drive
home the UN "Uniting for Peace" Resolution, in both the Security Council and
the General Assembly as needed. The nationalities of the victims will at
least neutralize many European countries that might have opposed it before.
Sanctions, embargoes, even the suspension or expulsion of Israel from the UN
itself, do as much as quickly and as forcefully as possible. Press the BDS
campaign everywhere hard.

And for the US armed forces, on this Memorial Day, it would be well to
reflect on the meaning of duty and service to country and people. Oaths of
allegiance, obedience and loyalty are important to professionals in the
armed forces, in or out of uniform. They were to me when I was in the
Marines, and later as a civilian at West Point and the Army War College. I'm
sure serving professionals today are no different.

But the elected and appointed civilians overseeing the armed services have
also taken their own oaths, and many have violated them by serving the
interests of Israel rather than the US itself, and especially by spending
American lives and treasure furthering Israeli interests rather than
safeguarding American ones. This, to me, is clearly treason, and utterly
negates any loyalty anyone else owes to them.

Remember that the cornerstone of our oaths is not to obedience, but to
"support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all
enemies, foreign and domestic." Think about it on this Memorial Day.

______________________________________________________________________

*Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D, University of Michigan) is a ten-year US Marine Corps
veteran and a graduate of the US Army War College. He can be contacted at
docbrosk@comcast.net