2025 literally began with a bang on day 1 with one rental truck explosion in Las Vegas and two hours earlier a mass murder with another rental truck over 1000 miles away in Louisiana.
Unsurprisingly familiar with anyone following the rise in domestic 'terrorist' attacks performed by
US born, trained, and decorated military personal who have been repeatedly exposed to the
murderous hell of real war. Their motives could accurately be described as a
crime. But to them and too many others, it is justifiable given what their minds
have been exposed to in their lifetime.
The motive
of the Tesla rental truck driver's suicide and fireworks display on day one of
2025 mirrors the same logic as Timothy McVay who detonated a massive bomb that he meticulously loaded into another large rental truck decades earlier. He then parked it next to the Murra Federal building housing FBI
and other federal agencies in Oklahoma City. Both of these US soldiers had plenty of combat military experience and had witnessed or participated in the killing of others leaving them with the rational belief and the intense feelings that Americans needed a wakeup
call.
The public does not yet know of the conditions that led to the ISIS motivation the other US born, trained, and decorated military personal who also had combat experience in Afghanistan. And trained at the same military base in a different year as Tesla rental truck driver. The ISIS inspired driver used his rental truck as a WMD by simply plowing through a large and festive crowd of innocent party goers o in New Orleans two hours earlier on the first day of the year.
Mathew
Livelsberger's fiery suicide undoubtably had brain trauma. But that trauma would not have led
him to text a former girlfriend just prior to his truck suicide “this was not a
terrorist act; it was a wakeup call.” “Americans only pay attention to
spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt
with fireworks and explosives.”
I'm unaware
of Timothy McVay having any brain injury from exposure to explosions. But
he was a demolition expert when he serviced 5 years earlier in Iraq during the
first Gulf War against Saddam's army. In that 'service' he witnessed at
least two US military atrocities of mass murder that put him on his path to
killing 168 Americans using a rental truck packed with a well calculated
mixture of fuel oil and fertilizer (the same ubiquitous substances used in
feeding the world). This was his attempt to 'wake up' the American public
to our own federal governments abuse of power. Abuses that he witnessed
again at Ruby Ridge in my home state of Washington and then in Waco, TX which
inspired his chosen date for demolition of the front of the Murra Federal building
offices. Later he did admit he felt guilty about the innocent children
killed in its basement daycare center. But he considered this 'collateral
damage', the term our nation uses when our military or intelligence agencies
unintentionally murder innocent people anywhere else in the world.
And still do this now with our tax dollars and weapons sent to Isael.
Such is the logic Putin uses when civilians are mass murdered in Ukraine, or
other 'sovereign' nations use their military or covet forces in protecting
their nation's 'self-interest' against 'terrorists'.
Livelsberger,
who torched himself outside Trump Tower the first day of 2025 was a political
moderate that leaned conservative according to his former girlfriend he kept
frequent contact with. And, like many conservatives, he had a heart and
compassion for animals and the wellbeing of others. While in Afghanistan he
brought a stray dog to his team compound to care for it. And when one of
the Afghan interpreters he worked with moved to the United States this US brain
damaged soldier picked him up at the airport and launched a fundraiser to
support his Afghan family’s fresh start in Denver.
And with
Livelsberger's brain damage, he also texted his former girlfriend just
prior to his suicide “Why did I personally do it now? I need to cleanse my mind
of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I
took.”
There is
strong scientific evidence that repeated blast exposure throughout any military
service can damage the brain's neural pathways. Just one more of the
invisible wounds of war like exposure to toxic chemical waste. But
repeated impacts of explosions can warp brain structures thus scrambling
memory, motor skills, and emotional regulation. James Stone,
professor and vice chair of the radiological research at the University of
Virginia, who studies brain injuries among service members recently said that’s
such damage fosters “less capacity and reserve for handling things that are
psychologically disturbing.”
It's no
mystery why all militaries train their soldiers to overcome their natural
capacity for compassion during combat operations. That also appears hard
to undue. But rarely do governments look for reasons not to avoid or
prevent war...other than deterrence, sanctions, unenforceable treaties, or
typically unreliable diplomacy. Thus, it is the failure of these in both
our national and global governance systems that perpetuate the mass murder of
innocent men, women, and children by normally decent, heavily decorated, and
always indoctrinated patriots.
And then
today's Washington Post editorial staff can justify their reason for defending
its earlier editorial team's justification for stating its opposition to the International
Criminal Court seeking to hold Israeli Prime Minister Benjamine Netanyahu and
former Defense minister Yoav Gallant accountable for war crimes, even if that
was one of the three primary purposes for the ICC adopted in 1998
when 120 States adopted the Rome Statute, which was the legal basis
for establishing the permanent International Criminal Court that entered into
force on 1 July 2002 after ratification by 60 countries. Initially supported by
the US but immediately removed by President Bush upon immediately entering
office 9 months before the mass murder of Americans and others on American soil
on Sept 11, 2001.
With the evolution of weapons and war and the lack of evolution of our thinking and governments we should start preparing for more mass murders. With biological weapons engineered for such, even targeting specific genetic profiles and delivered with drones. Or conventional weapon and cyber-attacks taking out the one energy source Americans most depend on for surviving and thriving...our electrical grids.
Imagine how different the world might be today regarding our endless global war against a tactic (terrorism) that can never be defeated. Verses going after anyone who commits mass murderer anywhere in the world, with a truly united application of universal laws that put the protection of inalienable human rights above the protection of a political leader or their nation's political interests. Unfortunately, the United Nations was created for the protection of national sovereignty instead of protecting the list of 30 human rights globally approved within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that have been largely ignored since then. Having NOT done this is insane!
This, I assert would have been Jimmy Carter's legacy if 'we the people' had kept our pledges.
We are destined to live together in either murderous conflict or cooperation and sustainability. This is our only choice. And we are running out of time.
