- Biden and crew need to cover up this crime, along with Khashoggi murder, because they are ready to jump into bed with the two most repressive and destabilizing countries in the Middle East: Israel and Saudi Arabia. The reason appears to be an effort among the three to start joint war planning against Iran. Check.
- The US is also deeply engaged in a losing proxy war with Russia and is busy emptying NATO’s weapons warehouses in order to provide the most corrupt country in Europe with the means to keep fighting to the last Ukrainian. Check.
- Meantime, the US continues to engage in provocations against China by sending arms to Taiwan and continuing naval exercises in the Taiwan Straits. Check.
- At home, the US economy has entered a recession, the Fed is determined to raise interest rates, and the U.S. is running out of sanctions it can still impose on a long list of countries we don’t like. Check.
- Biden’s approval rating has fallen off a cliff and the Democrats are staring at an extinction level event come the November midterms. Check.
- Russia and China are watching in fascination as the US Empire is primed and ready to follow the USSR in historical irrelevance. Check.
Pretend that Shireen Abu Akhleh were killed in Russia or some other country that we don't like.
We would be duly instructed as to the level of outrage and whom to blame before her body even hit the ground. No investigation needed or wanted, We Just Know!
But if it's special pets Ukraine or Israel or Saudi Arabia....
Justice for its own citizens and the poor and oppressed of every land is no more a part of strategic policy or even basic decency. We lie. We steal. We kill. If our "friends" do the same, we shouldn't be fooled by any faux outrage here at home.
"The administration probably doesn’t want to investigate further because they know that might require them to demand accountability for the murder and they desperately want to avoid having to do that."
I think that's the beginning, middle, and end of it. The interest in the US investigation, such that it was, was to find a rationale for burying the PR problem it posed. It's always a PR problem to be solved--managing a bad look. From Israeli strikes in Gaza in which entire nuclear families were incinerated in their sleep and pulled out of the rubble in the vicinity of cameras (who knows what those terrorists were dreaming of doing!) to the killing of American journalists with ample video documentation, its about PR not human rights of the US government concern for its own citizens abroad.
While they found no material evidence for the deliberateness of the killing of Abu Akleh, they have no basis to conclude that it wasn't deliberate. There's certainly a body of circumstantial evidence and basic logical reasoning that suggested it was deliberate, as numerous media and international organizations have shown.
To weigh in on the deliberateness of the act would require the Biden administration to ask hard questions and interview the IDF operators and their chain of command, which the State Dept didn't and wouldn't have been granted access to them if they even wanted. The bullet was never going to answer that question anyway--it would only confirm which of the sniper-equipped M4 rifles in the Israeli convoy was used, provided that weapon wasn't confiscated and destroyed weeks ago.
Well now, let’s see.
- Biden and crew need to cover up this crime, along with Khashoggi murder, because they are ready to jump into bed with the two most repressive and destabilizing countries in the Middle East: Israel and Saudi Arabia. The reason appears to be an effort among the three to start joint war planning against Iran. Check.
- The US is also deeply engaged in a losing proxy war with Russia and is busy emptying NATO’s weapons warehouses in order to provide the most corrupt country in Europe with the means to keep fighting to the last Ukrainian. Check.
- Meantime, the US continues to engage in provocations against China by sending arms to Taiwan and continuing naval exercises in the Taiwan Straits. Check.
- At home, the US economy has entered a recession, the Fed is determined to raise interest rates, and the U.S. is running out of sanctions it can still impose on a long list of countries we don’t like. Check.
- Biden’s approval rating has fallen off a cliff and the Democrats are staring at an extinction level event come the November midterms. Check.
- Russia and China are watching in fascination as the US Empire is primed and ready to follow the USSR in historical irrelevance. Check.
Pretend that Shireen Abu Akhleh were killed in Russia or some other country that we don't like.
We would be duly instructed as to the level of outrage and whom to blame before her body even hit the ground. No investigation needed or wanted, We Just Know!
But if it's special pets Ukraine or Israel or Saudi Arabia....
Justice for its own citizens and the poor and oppressed of every land is no more a part of strategic policy or even basic decency. We lie. We steal. We kill. If our "friends" do the same, we shouldn't be fooled by any faux outrage here at home.
"The administration probably doesn’t want to investigate further because they know that might require them to demand accountability for the murder and they desperately want to avoid having to do that."
I think that's the beginning, middle, and end of it. The interest in the US investigation, such that it was, was to find a rationale for burying the PR problem it posed. It's always a PR problem to be solved--managing a bad look. From Israeli strikes in Gaza in which entire nuclear families were incinerated in their sleep and pulled out of the rubble in the vicinity of cameras (who knows what those terrorists were dreaming of doing!) to the killing of American journalists with ample video documentation, its about PR not human rights of the US government concern for its own citizens abroad.
While they found no material evidence for the deliberateness of the killing of Abu Akleh, they have no basis to conclude that it wasn't deliberate. There's certainly a body of circumstantial evidence and basic logical reasoning that suggested it was deliberate, as numerous media and international organizations have shown.
To weigh in on the deliberateness of the act would require the Biden administration to ask hard questions and interview the IDF operators and their chain of command, which the State Dept didn't and wouldn't have been granted access to them if they even wanted. The bullet was never going to answer that question anyway--it would only confirm which of the sniper-equipped M4 rifles in the Israeli convoy was used, provided that weapon wasn't confiscated and destroyed weeks ago.