Who Pays For War Crimes?
by Patrick Toomey
In the early 2000s, in response to the 9/11 attacks, our CIA engaged in the waterboarding of suspected terrorists. After World War II, Japanese officers had been prosecuted as war criminals for engaging in waterboarding of American POWs.
It was extremely disturbing two decades ago that my tax dollars were helping to pay for our government to perform activities that it had previously characterized as war crimes. I don’t like helping to finance war crimes— I’m funny that way. Our government was headed at the time by a White House that I had NOT voted for in 2000 and for which I would not consider voting in 2004.
In 2023, in response to the 10/7 attacks, the IDF is attacking medical facilities, personnel, and transport. Human Rights Watch recently called for investigating these activities as war crimes.
It is just as disturbing now that my tax dollars are helping enable the IDF. It’s even more disturbing that a president for whom I voted in 2020 and his Secretary of State are standing resolutely behind the Netanyahu government as its military engages in activities that may constitute war crimes.
It is most disturbing of all to consider the prospect of voting to re-elect this president and his foreign policy team in 2024 while considering being subjected to the apparent alternate prospect of a malignant narcissist who fomented insurrection. Is this the best that a country of 330 million people has to offer?