PROPERTY DESTRUCTION IS NOT VIOLENCE, IT'S JUST FOOLISH

    

                                                                          

The following is a guest column I wrote for the Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard. By way of background, on January 30 the Eugene Police Department responded to a report that a window had been broken during a protest at ICE headquarters and that at one or more protestors had made attempts to enter.

EPD Chief Chris Skinner made the decision to declare the scene a riot and move in to form a wall between protesters and the building to protect anyone inside the building as well as protesters from a possible overreaction by those inside. Skinner released this statement that night.

 While there was some controversy after the fact about whether protesters actually broke the window, it is irrelevant to the points that I make in my article. Please bear that in mind. 

I admire those responding to the brutal actions of ICE in the streets of America’s cities and join Eugene protesters when I can. I was in town on the day that ICE attacked protestors with chemical munitions but left before they arrived. From comments I heard afterward, it appears that the incident provides a learning opportunity for protesters in this leaderless movement.

I winced at the criticism of Chief Skinner’s statement about the EPD response to the breaking of a window at the ICE building. Some tried to justify the vandalism using too-familiar arguments that “everyone has the right to resist in the way they see fit” and “destroying property is not violence.”

As Skinner explained, the EPD actions were justified not merely by the broken window, but because it posed a credible threat to those inside the building. Whatever one thinks of that logic, it is a mistake to make an enemy of EPD when one is trying to repel a federal invasion and restore the rule of law. As General McChrystal once said about winning hearts and minds, “…try to go to bed with fewer enemies that (you) woke up with.”

Would-be revolutionaries should understand that deliberate property destruction undermines popular support. Most Americans value civil order, even those who realize we need radical change. Yet in Portland, some former Vietnam War protestors defended damaging property and physically provoking the thugs Trump sent to disrupt the Black Live Matter “riots.” Veterans of the anti-Vietnam War movement should know better.

In the 1960s, the FBI paid agent provocateurs to do the same things in the infamous COINTELPRO operation. While officially ended, COINTELPRO methods are likely still being used. They have long been employed in other countries by the CIA, which has historically worked closely with the FBI in both domestic and international “national security” operations. This classic divide-and-conquer tactic has been used by “democratic” countries to justify violence both at home and abroad since the days of the British Empire.

The struggle to eradicate these modern brownshirts from our neighborhoods will not be won by violence or property destruction. This battle is only one part of a much larger war. We must acknowledge the fact that we live in the heart of an empire that aspires to rule the world.

If we understand how this empire treats the citizens of countries it subjects to illegal sanctions and proxy wars, we know that it does not hesitate to use force to subdue resistance. Why then should we be surprised when “the chickens come home to roost,” as Malcom X pointed out shortly before his assassination in 1965?

Our aim must be to establish democracy in the US even as we work to end US-sponsored violence abroad. This requires a strategy based on objectives aimed at systematically undermining support for a system in which war and domestic state violence have been normalized. Then we choose tactics that best achieve those goals.

This is basic military logic. We are in essence creating a leaderless “army.” Horizontal organization avoids putting targets on our backs, as the martyrs of the 60s willingly did. Violence has no place in this form of asymmetric “warfare.” Those who use it only hurt the cause. Only by forswearing violence can we hope to prevail.

We can best honor all martyrs of the long struggle for peace and justice by avoiding the use of the tools of the oppressor.  Remember that our outrage stems from our love of those victimized. Our response should reflect that love. Violence only serves to justify more violence. Property destruction serves the same purpose.

THE LOGIC OF EMPIRE

                                


                                                                        



 

The following is my latest submission to The Albany (OR) Democratic-Herald, one of a dwindling number of local newspapers that recognizes it's duty to provide a public forum for its readers. It is the third in a series of guest columns trying to educate the public about the imperial nature of the United States. 

 

I encourage those putting all their energy into resisting the policies of the current government to consider the connection between the assault on public institutions and U.S.-sponsored violence abroad.  Replacing one government with yet another willing to continue a policy of endless war is not enough to achieve their goals. Liberals could join the growing conservative antiwar movement, if both stopped “othering” those with differing political outlooks.

Anyone who has played the game of Risk knows world domination requires a long-term strategy. Americans, having been raised to believe they are not citizens of an empire, do not understand this also applies to U.S. foreign policy. Its goal is not defense, but global conquest. It is vital to understand this, because every empire falls. Ours will be no exception, and it will be devastating to all of us.

Our empire managers have led us into endless war using the claim that “American interests” are at stake, but Venezuela, Russia, China, and Iran are enemies because they threaten the interests of average Americans. The real threat is to the profits and power of those who seek to dominate the world’s resources. The ultrarich, often from the shadows, use their wealth to persuade western governments to wage war on any nation that resists their dictates.

In this real-life game of Risk, fossil fuels are critical. They power the machinery of commerce and war.  Israel is crucial to controlling oil-rich West Asia. Russia, also replete with fossil fuels, is the key bridge between Asia and Europe. Rising economic superpower China, while oil-poor, is seen as the ultimate prize.

African and South American nations are not dangers, but sources of cheap raw materials. The Empire assures that these resources remain cheap by stunting development, keeping in debt bondage, and periodically attacking governments it cannot subvert. Venezuela, with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, is only the latest example.

Palestinians are not directly resisting the Empire. They are resisting ethnic cleansing by a rogue nation whose success is critical to US plans for global domination. That makes Palestinians de facto enemies, justifying the Gaza genocide in the minds of leaders of both parties and those who fund their campaigns.

As Eisenhower pointed out, the cost of militarism is poverty and hunger. It has led to homelessness, lack of access to medical care and premature death. How many Americans would be saved if the trillions spent on war were redirected to programs that promote the interests of average Americans over those of Wall Street war profiteers in the weapons, oil, tech, and banking industries?

The Trump administration has responded to military-driven deficits with austerity, literally taking food from children’s mouths while denying medical care to the poor, whose numbers are growing rapidly. Billions are spent to brutalize scapegoated immigrants while billionaires enjoy trillions in tax cuts.

Both parties share responsibility, however, as they have been united in their support for every war since the end of WWII. We must ask whose interests they are serving, and who benefits from abridging our rights, which inevitably accompanies war.

Obama was the first to claim authority to kill anyone overseas he deemed a terrorist, including Americans. In 2011, he pressured Congress to give Presidents the right to arrest citizens and place them in military custody indefinitely without charges.  Now that Trump has begun creating an enemies list, there is nothing to stop him from executing American citizens he labels “domestic terrorists” but a Supreme Court that has given him nearly unlimited power.

 

It's time to stop fighting each other and unite to disempower the real enemy within.

 

The article above was published in the Albany Democrat-Herald/ Corvallis Gazette-Times on January 3, 2026.

 

ISRAEL'S ROLE IN THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

 

                                                    

                                                                

      I am fortunate enough to live in a place where the local paper still prides itself on being a public forum. Every three months, I'm allowed 600 words to say whatever I think is most important for readers to understand. 

    This is my most recent submission. It is my second guest column on the nature of the US Empire. Others will follow.

If you wonder why Israel attacked Iran now, with an overextended army tied down in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, congratulations on refusing to be a passive consumer of what passes for American reporting on foreign affairs.

Bombing Iran was not about fictitious weapons of mass destruction any more than was the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. In a 2012 UN speech, Netanyahu insisted that Iran was already on the verge of having a nuclear weapon. Cheney made a similar claim in 2007 that was debunked by the Intelligence Community. This saved the US from a disastrous military confrontation with Iran that would be much worse if attempted today.

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard stated there is still no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Under pressure from the Israeli lobby and powerful neocons like Israel-first campaign donor Miriam Adelson, President Trump dismissed her assessment and attacked anyway, placing 40,000 American service members at risk of Iranian retaliation.

As many predicted, the attack failed to eliminate the “threat” despite initial claims of success. Now, pressure is mounting for deeper US military involvement in Israel’s latest war of choice. Israel knows that without such help, it cannot complete its objective of eliminating the last obstacle to regional dominance, a plan 40 years in the making.

In 1982, Israel publicly debated a strategy to fragment any neighboring country that might oppose its expansion, rendering it too weak to resist Israeli aggression. The “Oded Yinon plan” has been refined over the years but still forms the basis for current US plans for Israel to dominate the region. That is why the US has enabled it to flout international law with impunity since the Nakba in 1948, as the US itself has done in the region.

Since 9/11, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Iran have been targeted by the US and Israel. Former NATO commander Wesley Clark has publicly stated that within two weeks of 9/11, he learned of plans to undermine all seven countries. Obviously, these plans had been drawn up earlier. Since then, five of the seven have effectively been partitioned, as envisioned by Yinon. Iraq and Libya were not failures. They accomplished their actual objectives.

The purpose of destabilizing these countries is to control this fossil fuel-rich region by militarily dominating the area through Israel. The ultimate prize in this game of Risk is US control of the entire Eurasian land mass, long regarded as the key to global domination. While Netanyahu and other political and military leaders are directly responsible for their genocidal actions and war crimes throughout the region, the US shares the blame.

Like all empires, the American one will fall. The Wall Street denizens whose profits determine “American interests” have hollowed out the real economy in creating an economic system dependent on endless war. An alternative system is being created by Russia, China and others who are not going to continue to tolerate the economic and military threats of an increasingly belligerent US Empire.

The fact that the US has cut off access to critical weapons needed to defend Ukraine so that it can provide them to Israel reveals its weakness. Meanwhile, China has declared that it cannot accept allowing Russia to lose in Ukraine. It knows that if it does, the empire will turn its attention to it. American military and political officials have publicly stated that the US will go to war with China as soon as 2030.

If President Trump really wants to leave a legacy as a peace President, let him start by standing up to Israel and its lobby.