Notes from the Dark Wood

"If you're not scared, you're stupid."
– Scott Ritter^[1]

[Navigation to and from the endnotes should be easier here. Published at OpEdNews Dec. 2, 2024.]

I used to think I was a little bit Jewish
a fact I cannot explain except by the fact
that for two years in junior high school
in New Rochelle most of the other kids
in my class were Jewish though how I knew that
I don't know. What I do know now and how
I know is that after the genocide in Gaza^[2]
I will never feel the least bit Jewish again.

I guess it's not surprising that a tumbleweed
Army brat of Episcopalian and lapsed
Catholic parentage, having skipped a grade
and thus also out of step age-wise
bussed into a gen pop off-post school^[3]
might feel the need to belong to something different.

But now that Jewish Zionists have proven to be^[4]
as oxymoronic and evil as Christian Nazis^[5]
when it is "antisemitic" to denounce the holocaust
committed by the grandchildren of the victims
and aided by the grandchildren of the perpetrators^[6]
of that other holocaust they think is the only one
because slaughtering tens of thousands of mostly children^[7]
and other helpless "terrorists," bombing schools
hospitals and refugee camps, blocking food
and medicine, shooting at aid workers and UN troops^[8]
is just "mowing the grass" and self-defense^[9]
against Amalek and the "animals" in Palestine^[10]
while the enabler-in-chief urges "restraint" here^[11]
and "restraint" there and the war criminal-in-chief^[12]
Mr. Yahoo gets standing ovations from the whores
in Congress paid by AIPAC and Christian Zionists^[13]
this is not a club I want to belong to.

As for the tale about the tail wagging the dog
which sounds impossible because it is impossible
let us not tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories.^[14]
The US war dog needs its Israeli tail
to wag war against Iran and the Middle East
just as it needs Ukraine to wag against
the Russian "‘orcs’ and ‘rashists’" led by^[15]
the "Winston Churchhill of our time," no less^[16]
a "Jewish Hero" or less deserving than the Yahoo^[17]
of standing ovations from the US Congress
and a kiss from the Speaker for unfurling the sacred flag^[18]
of Ukraine, which later they waved back at him
for graciously receiving the latest 61 billion^[19]
dollars to kill Russians and feed the weapons industry.

We'll stand with you as long as it takes, they say
in Washington and the words are echoed verbatim
in London, Berlin, Strasburg, Brussels, everywhere^[20]
the "golden billion" as the Russians say^[21]
hold sway. But it's not a billion by a long shot
just the True Believers and the warmongers
who burn villages to save them and destroy one country^[22]
to weaken another one, and if that doesn't work^[23]
freeze, seize and steal the money and the gold^[24]
and if that doesn't work, buy up the land and minerals^[25]
all in all, an "extraordinarily wise investment."^[26]

Returning to our muttons, as Professor Hall
liked to quip to get back to the point^[27]
I also used to think I could be French
due to a year I spent in craggy Provence
and Georges Brassens. Maybe I should have stayed there
and become an outlaw instead of going back
to Vietnamerika, the killing fields
of Kennedys and King, who dared oppose the war^[28]
that the French had already fought and also lost
like me in Baltimore, complètement dépaysé.^[29]
So I went to Ithaca to study some more lingo^[30]
but when I graduated it disappeared.
I don't even understand much anymore.
O Monsieur Maurice, j'ai une grevisse^[31]
ou n'en quel pays sont elles
les belles nasales du temps jadis?^[32]

Then there's great-great-grandaddy Michael
and great-grandaddy David and recapitulation theory^[33]
which made me feel a little bit Irish, like many
a foot-stomping Guinness-swilling Dubliners
fan, but in the end I'm still American
with "born in Washington DC" written
forever in a German passport marking me
for every border guard a "renouncee"^[34]
and flagged no doubt somewhere as doubly suspect
as a Mitläufer of the likes of Sarah Wagenknecht^[35]
Sevim Dagdelen and Harald Kujat
Doug Macgregor, Jeffrey Sachs and Ray
McGovern, Lawrence Wilkerson, Scott Ritter
John Mearsheimer, Chas Freeman, and Max
Blumenthal, all reprehensibly opposed
to war that will set the clock back a million years
a historical landmark that no one will remember
since there will be no one to remember.

It's been a while since junior high school
but the Western leaders "standing with" Ukraine
and Israel haven't aged a bit. They know
nothing and need to go to detention and write:
"I will not do stupid things that kill people"
a million times or more until they stop
or their parents come to get them or the police
lock them up. Fortunately the senile
juvenile emperor and his vassal prince^[36]
that fell obediently on his underwater
bomb to "Keep the Russians out, the Americans
in" and his own people down and out^[37]
are now about to become bad history
if there is any more history at all.

'Tis a dark wood indeed we find ourselves in.
Our Virgils are ignored or denounced as Putin-
puppets, antisemites and self-hating Jews.
The mighty Wurlitzer, the TV news^[38]
tells us what to think we know and what
tune to dance to and who the current enemies
are and how it's "worth it" to kill five hundred^[39]
thousand children in Iraq and millions
everywhere, in America's forever wars^[40]
for corporate freedom to own everything
and global "rule-based" plutocracy for all.^[41]

---

^[1] Scott has said this often, last I think on Andrew Napolitano's "Judging Freedom" Nov. 25, 2024. Napolitano's podcast was too good for Facebook so you can't link to it from there, but it's on Rumble.com.

^[2] "Summary of the Order of 26 January 2024," Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), UN International Court of Justice, retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[3] The Army post where my father was stationed was Ft. Slocum, which in the late 1950s looked like this, now like this. We took the ferry to the mainland every day and then a bus to Isaac E. Young Junior High (now Middle) School.

^[4] "Zionism," Wikipedia, retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[5] "Religion in Nazi Germany," Wikipedia, retr. Nov. 24, 2024.

^[6] Andreas Noll, "War in Gaza: Germany supplies 30% of Israel's arms imports," Deutsche Welle, July 19, 2024

^[7] Emma Farge, "Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead are women and children, UN rights office says," Radio New Zealand, Nov. 1, 2024. Verification is difficult because most of the bodies are still buried under the rubble, but the verified numbers by September 2, 2024 were "8,119 Palestinians in Gaza, including 2,036 women and 3,588 children (1,865 boys and 1,723 girls). Of these verified figures, 7,607 were killed in residential buildings or similar housing,19 out of which 44 per cent were children, 26 per cent women and 30 per cent men" ("Six-month update report on the human rights situation in Gaza: 1 November 2023 to 30 April 2024," UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Nov. 8, 2024, p. 6. See also "Gaza toll could exceed 186,000, Lancet study says," Aljazeer.com, July 8, 2024, but note that the Lancet study linked to in this article has since disappeared. The latest death toll according to Aljazeer.com is 44,970 (AJLabs, "Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker," updated Nov. 24, 2024). See also "Six-month update report on the human rights situation in Gaza: 1 November 2023 to 30 April 2024," UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Nov. 8, 2024. All retrieved Nov. 25, 2024.

^[8] "Gaza: Israelis Attacking Known Aid Worker Locations," Human Rights Watch, May 14, 2024, retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[9] Cf. "Mowing the grass," Wikipedia; "War against Hamas in Gaza is act of self-defence, Israel tells world court," UN News (news.un.org), Jan. 12, 2024. Both retrieved Nov. 28, 2024.

^[10] Cf. Noah Lanard, "The Dangerous History Behind Netanyahu’s Amalek Rhetoric," MotherJones.com, Nov. 3, 2023; Philip Weiss, "‘Palestinians are animals’ — Why many Jewish Israelis approve settler pogrom," Mondoweiss.net, March 7, 2023. Both retrieved Nov. 28, 2024.

^[11] Peter Nicholas, Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee, "U.S. officials privately warn Israel to show restraint in retaliating against Hamas," NBC News, Aug. 14, 2023, and Nora Redmond, "Biden urges Israel to show restraint after Iran’s attack," Financial Times April 15, 2024, both retr. Nov. 27, 2024.

^[12] "ICC issues arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu for ‘war crimes’ in Gaza," Aljazeer.com, Nov. 21, 2024, retr. Nov. 27, 2024.

^[13] "AIPAC," Wikipedia, and "Israel lobby in the United States," Wikipedia, both retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[14] "President Bush Speaks to United Nations," Nov. 10, 2001. Bush of course cannot tell the difference between a reasonable conspiracy theory, like those he was no doubt referring to suggesting that he and Cheney were (and remain) the most likely suspects behind 9/11 (see the books of David Ray Griffin et al.), and outrageous ones like tails wagging dogs, or for that matter, the official conspiracy theory about the 19 Arabs vs. the US Air Force on 9/11.

^[15] Cf. Mansur Mirovalev, "‘Orcs’ and ‘Rashists’: Ukraine’s new language of war," Aljazeer.com, May 3, 2022, retr. Nov. 28, 2024.

^[16] Cf. Mark Lungariello, "George W. Bush calls Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky the ‘Winston Churchill of our time,’" New York Post (nypost.com), May 5, 2022, retr. Nov. 28, 2024.

^[17] Cf. Gal Beckerman, "How Zelensky Gave the World a Jewish Hero," TheAtlantic.com, Feb. 27, 2022, retr. Nov. 28, 2024.

^[18] Cf. Mychael Schnell, "Five biggest moments from Zelensky’s address to Congress," TheHill.com, Dec. 21, 2022, retr. Nov. 28, 2024.

^[19] Bradley Jaye, "Democrats Wave Ukraine Flags on House Floor as $61 Billion Aid Bill Passes," Breitbart.com, April 20, 2024..

^[20] Many examples. In three years of war the propagandists have not been able (or allowed?) to improve on the script, poor as it is: e.g., C. Todd Lopez, "U.S. Committed to Stand With Ukraine 'For as Long as it Takes,'" DOD News, Feb. 22, 2024; "UK to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, PM to tell NATO," Gov.uk, July 10, 2024; "For as long as it takes: Germany’s support for Ukraine," Federal Foreign Office, Nov. 11, 2024; "We will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes," President of the European Parliament, July 10, 2023. All retrieved Nov. 29, 2024.

^[21] Aka "the West"; cf. "Golden billion," Wikipedia. In general, this means the US and its allies – and dependencies. The degree and kind of "aid" (lethal or non-lethal) to Ukraine can serve as an indicato of these relationships; cf. "List of military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War," Wikipedia, and "Ukraine Support Tracker," Kiel Institute for the World Economy (ifw-kiel.de). They can change, but in the end the US rules the roost; e.g.,Germany started out supplying only non-lethal aid to Ukraine but soon became the second largest supplier of weapons to both Ukraine (cf. Ines Eisele, "Ukraine: 10 biggest providers of military aid," Deutsche Welle, dw.com, April 19, 2024) and Israel (Noll, op.cit.). All retrieved Nov. 27, 2024.

^[22] Cf. "Battle of Bến Tre," Wikipedia, retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[23] Sarakshi Rai, "Pentagon chief says US wants to see Russia ‘weakened,’" The Hill, April 25, 2022, retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[24] Cf. Fatima Hussein, "The US is now allowed to seize Russian state assets. How would that work?" APNews.com, May 10, 2024; "Venezuela gold: UK High Court rules against Nicolás Maduro," BBC.com, July 2, 2020; "EU sends first $1.6 billion from frozen Russia assets to Ukraine," APNews.com, July 26, 2024; Jorge Liboreiro, "Explained: How the EU will tap into Russia's frozen assets to raise €35 billion for Ukraine," EuroNews.com, Sept. 21, 2024. All retrieved Nov. 28, 2024.

^[25] Cf. Ben Norton, "US senator says Ukraine is ‘gold mine’ with $12 trillion of minerals ‘we can’t afford to lose,’" GeoPoliticalEconomy.com, June 13, 2024. Graham's unabashed depravity is bipartisan: after Trump's election he repeated his admission that "'This war is about money': Sen. Lindsey Graham says Ukraine can pay back United States through rare minerals," Andrew Chapados, TheBlaze.com, Nov. 25, 2024. As Graham says, it's not only about the minerals but also the land itself; cf. "What’s so special about Ukraine’s black soil?" TRTWorld.com, 2021 (exact date unspecified); "American Corporations Own almost Half of Ukraine's Agricultural Land," FreshNewsAsia.com, Sept. 3, 2023; Frédéric Mousseau and Eve Devillers, "War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine's Agricultural Land," OaklandInstitute.org, 2023. All retrieved Nov. 28, 2024.

^[26] Francis Dearnley, "Mitt Romney exclusive: Damage caused to Russia makes Ukraine investment worth it," The Telegraph, Sept. 14, 2023, retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[27] Revenons à nos moutons, see here. Robert Hall was one of my mentors at Cornell; cf. "Robert A. Hall Jr.," Wikipedia, retr. Nov. 29, 2024. He once paid me the complement of being one (or was it the?) most stubborn students he ever had. I don't know what he meant, but that is probably just another example of my stubbornness.

^[28] Still a moot point as far as JFK is concerned; see my "How the New York Times and Academia Kept the Biggest Secret of the Pentagon Papers," and Chomsky, Prouty and Me, 2021.

^[29] Johns Hopkins.

^[30] Cornell.

^[31] Cf. "Le Bon Usage," Wikipedia, retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[32] Cf. "Ballade des dames du temps jadis," Wikipedia, retr. Nov. 25, 2024. N.B., the final -s in pays (as well as in jadis) was pronounced in Villon's time.

^[33] "Recapitulation theory," Wikipedia, retr. Nov. 26, 2025. See also "A Family of Steves."

^[34] See my essay "Staatenlos," Nov. 17, 2021.

^[35] Cf. "Mitläufer," Wikipedia, retr. Nov. 28, 2024. There are also Wikipedia articles for Wagenknecht and all the other names here, but beware of the content; see Glenn Greenwald's interview with Wikipedia founder Larry Sanger on July 31, 2023, and Andreas Wailzer, "Wikipedia co-founder claims site is influenced by FBI and CIA, ‘obviously biased’ toward the left," LifeSiteNews, Aug. 3, 2023, retr. Nov. 25, 2023. Note that "left" here, as is often the case these days, means (strangely to me, as a child of the 60s) "establishment views" and "heavily influenced by the U.S. intelligence services."

^[36] The most likely truth about the Nord Stream sabotage is still Seymour Hersh's account, "How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline," Feb. 8, 2023, also available here. Vassal Scholz has never insisted on a proper investigation, despite the flimsiness, even risibility, of attempts to produce alternative explanations; cf. Scott Ritter, "The Nord Stream-Andromeda Cover Up," ConsortiumNews.com, March 14, 2023. On Scholz, see my "I sing not of Olaf glad and big."

^[37] The aim of NATO from the get-go, in the words of its first Secretary General, cf. Jonathan Maunders, "‘Keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down’: a potted and bloody history of Nato," Counterfire, Oct. 29, 2016. It is obviously the Ukraine war and Germany's self-deprivation of cheap Russian gas (and oil), especially by acquiescing to the sabotage of Nord Stream, that have ruined the economy, though the German government and the mass media are loathe to admit it; e.g., Melissa Eddy, "Why Germany’s Economy, Once a Leader in Europe, Is Now in Crisis," New York Times, Nov. 22/26, 2024, where neither "Russia," "Ukraine" or "gas" is mentioned until the 10th paragraph, where we learn that "importing liquefied natural gas [mainly from the US]…has resulted in a 40 percent jump in prices." For a more reasonable discussion see "Michael Hudson: Germany as Collateral Damage in America’s New Cold War," NakedCapitalism.com, April 1, 2024 (including comments). All retrieved Nov. 28, 2024.

^[38] Frank Wisner's term for the CIA propaganda machine (cf. High Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America, Harvard University Press, 2009), which the commentators I respect, inter alia those named above, see as more present than ever in all the mainstream media, particularly the New York Times and Washington Post. For an example see my "How the New York Times and Academia Kept the Biggest Secret of the Pentagon Papers," April 15, 2024.

^[39] Ahmed Twaij, "Let’s remember Madeleine Albright for who she really was," Aljazeera.com, March 25, 2022, retr. Nov. 25, 2024.

^[40] It's a long list: see "Timeline of United States military operations," and more to the point, Lindsey A. O'Rourke, Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War, Cornell Univ. Press, 2018. For the death toll, see James A. Lucas, "The U.S. Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 'Victim Nations' Since World War II," GlobalResearh.ca, Oct. 14, 2024; "Death Toll from Modern American Wars KIlled in the Name of 'Freedom,'" WorldFutureFund.org; Nafeez Ahmed, "Up to Six Million People: The Unrecorded Fatalities of the ‘War on Terror,’" BylineTimes.com, Sept. 15, 2021. For the US-enabled war in Gaza see Farge, op.cit. For the US proxy war in Ukraine, estimates vary wildly depending on the source, but one million dead does not seem exaggerated; see Mersiha Gadzo, "Record high deaths in the Russia-Ukraine war: What you should know," Aljazeer.com, Oct. 16, 2024. Despite Western propaganda to the contrary, Ukrainian casualties most likely outnumber Russians by as much as 10 to 1; see "Russian losses in the war with Ukraine," Mediazona, Nov. 22, 2024. (Mediazona is not a pro-Russian site.) All retrieved Nov. 29, 2024.

^[41] Spencer Ackerman, "Where Is America’s ‘Rules-Based Order’ Now?," Portside.org, April 10, 2024, retr. Nov. 29, 2024.