I don't know what most people expect when they jump in a ship and decide to ram a blockade, but it probably includes some confrontation with armed men in uniforms. Although the loss of life is regrettable, it is hardly surprising. Especially if you attack armed soldiers with clubs and knives. You notice they don't feel inclined to do the same thing to North Korea. And if they did, no one would be shocked at any loss of life, or even at total loss of life.
The activists were trying to highlight how unjust the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Sure, it seems like overkill to me, too. But years of having rockets lobbed at you will make someone a little rigid in their thinking. And I never hear Palestinian sympathizers talk about that issue. Never once is someone acknowledging the anti-peace impact of rockets landing on your neighbor. Nor do they explain what they would think was just if it happened to them.
Aside from blame, there is a larger issue here: what is this to us? Why should the United States of America be asked to solve this intractable problem?
Enough of those people. Solve it your damn selves.
Why are we always having to step in and force people to behave? My mind immediately goes to the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia that only stopped because former President Clinton sent in troops. If he had not, the Europeans would have sat around picking their noses until everyone in Kosovo was dead. So that is an argument in favor of US intervention. However, this conflict is distinguished by the length of time it has been going on, the many attempts at peace agreements made at the behest of the United States and there being no genocide.
The United States should step away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict immediately. Haven't we done enough? At what point do we make the parties involved responsible for their own peace? How about right now. This global expectation that the United States needs to create a solution is misplaced. It is actually up to us, as Americans, to decide what role we play, and pay for. Each side is invested in its own failure in peace. They draw money out of us, promising this time to act like reasonable people this time. And each time the peace fails.
The United States cannot afford to run all over the globe solving conflicts for people, mostly by throwing money at them in exchange for agreements and compromises. We are not fighting the Cold War anymore. We are not competing for our way of life. We are not opening markets for our goods. There is no need for the United States to be involved in the Gaza conflict. The bribes up until now haven't worked. Let's cut our losses.
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