U.S. war policy is damaging our standing

33 days.

That's how long it took for the Biden administration to stop claiming Gaza was exaggerating civilian casualties. On Day 33, something the entire world knew from Day 1, the U.S.. admitted that civilian casualties in Gaza are massive.

But the billions of dollars in weapons used to destroy over 11,000 so far, including over 4,000 kids and nearly half of Gaza's buildings, continue to flow from Washington, D.C., to continue Israel's near genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza's Palestinians.

Outside of the U.S.., the entire world is horrified by U.S.. support and enabling of this grotesque response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that killed over 1,400 Israelis and wounded thousands. Israel, underwritten by the US, is writing a horrific new chapter in disproportionate, collective punishment response not seen in our lifetime.

U.S. diplomats in the Middle East, bound to support U.S. policy, are alarmed and pushing back. They sent a diplomatic cable to the White House charging that "The destructive and deadly military campaign in Gaza is losing us Arab publics for a generation." They further warn "U.S. support for Israel's actions are being seen as material and moral culpability in what could be possible war crimes."

President Biden's bellicose foreign policy against Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Yemen, among others, is greatly damaging America's standing throughout the world. But the revulsion over our involvement in the destruction of Gaza has condemned and isolated the U.S. possibly beyond redemption.

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn