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AOC Is A Genocidal Con Artist (www.caitlinjohnst.one)

Coming under fire from the left for the glaring contradiction of providing military assistance to a state that is perpetrating an active genocide, AOC issued a statement claiming her vote was about protecting civilians. AOC’s statement is absolute crap. The Iron Dome is not used for defending, it’s used to facilitate constant attacks. In an article for Jewish Currents titled “Iron Dome Is Not a Defensive System,” Dylan Saba explains:

“‘In theory, a weapon like Iron Dome could be used only defensively. But in practice it doesn’t work that way,’ analyst Nathan Thrall told Jewish Currents. ‘Iron Dome facilitates greater Israeli offensive measures, because it lowers the perceived cost to Israel of escalating or extending or initiating attacks.’ In other words, while the Iron Dome may prevent the deaths of Israeli non-combatants, it has made it easier for Israel to engage in deadly operations that take Palestinian lives.”

The Iron Dome isn’t for protecting civilians, it’s for protecting the Israeli regime from deterrence. We see this in the comfort the regime displays in waging constant military violence on its neighbors knowing they can’t retaliate. That’s why Israel cut a ceasefire deal with Iran so fast.

Iran’s advanced missiles can’t be reliably stopped by the Iron Dome, so Iran was able to smash Israel and force it to cease its unprovoked aggressions. If Israel had had a missile defense system which could casually swat those missiles out of the sky at a high rate of success, Israel would still be bombing Iran today, and would continue doing so until Tehran looked like Gaza. Israel’s war-horny population would have supported this, because they’d have no skin in the game.

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[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 32 points 1 week ago
[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 week ago

Thank you for this

[-] BoxedFenders@hexbear.net 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

People who say you should criticize AOC less because there are way worse members of congress act like she’s just passively sitting there being a mediocre lawmaker. She’s not. She’s actively anchoring the leftmost edge of the Overton window of US politics to militarism, capitalism, colonialism, and genocide. She’s actively stopping American politics from moving any further left than the nightmare we see before us.

Leftists shouldn’t hate AOC less than the politicians to her right, they should hate her much more. It isn’t Mike Johnson’s responsibility to move the US government to the left, and it’s not Nancy Pelosi’s job. It’s hers. That’s what she was elected to do. That’s what she framed the goals of her entire political career as being. And she’s taking her stand firmly bracing against any leftward movement from America’s genocidal, warmongering, unjust, exploitative, tyrannical status quo.

And this, libs, is why we focus so much of our ire at AOC and Bernie.

[-] happybadger@hexbear.net 24 points 1 week ago

Social democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism.

[-] IttihadChe@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 week ago

Get the Stalin apology form.

[-] NuraShiny@hexbear.net 19 points 1 week ago

Yep. She's terrible. If she was ever good, that's long over.If you have not understood this until today, you may have been living under a rock.

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 6 points 1 week ago

We don't sell our souls wholesale, but by degrees.

[-] YEP@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago

I used to just think her advisors are kinda dumb or she just didn't have great instincts. That statement was so disgusting, just an awful snake.

[-] Carl@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

The thing that really gets my goat is that there was no way the MTG bill/amendment defunding the Iron Dome was gonna pass. If AOC was truly cynical she would have voted for it, instead her politics explicitly lead her to vote against it.

[-] TheLastHero@hexbear.net 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

fuck "Israeli" "civilians" anyway, they're all settler-conscripts. Let a million warheads strike their cities and make them howl

[-] IsThisLoss@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

she was just doing what the unions told her to do

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

In theory, a weapon like Iron Dome could be used only defensively. But in practice it doesn’t work that way,’ analyst Nathan Thrall told Jewish Currents. ‘Iron Dome facilitates greater Israeli offensive measures, because it lowers the perceived cost to Israel of escalating or extending or initiating attacks.’ In other words, while the Iron Dome may prevent the deaths of Israeli non-combatants, it has made it easier for Israel to engage in deadly operations that take Palestinian lives.”

100% correct, and this has been a well understood concept in the world of missile defence since the ABM treaty signed between the Soviet Union and United States in 1972, a limit on both sides ballistic missile defence capabilities at the time. There is no such thing as a purely defensive weapon.

Iran’s advanced missiles can’t be reliably stopped by the Iron Dome, so Iran was able to smash Israel and force it to cease its unprovoked aggressions. If Israel had had a missile defense system which could casually swat those missiles out of the sky at a high rate of success, Israel would still be bombing Iran today, and would continue doing so until Tehran looked like Gaza. Israel’s war-horny population would have supported this, because they’d have no skin in the game.

Iron Dome/Tamir doesn't defend against ballistic missiles.

Israel does have a defensse system that does shoot down medium range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) with a relatively high rate of success, which has been in development since the 1980s in a joint partnership with the US (the Arrow system), it's why we only saw dozens of direct impacts from hundreds of ballistic missiles fired, and why Israel attacked in the first place. That, and Iran's MRBMs weren't accurate enough to existentially threaten Israel's military and nuclear sites, and the Israeli military and political wing was prepared/made the calculation that Iran bombing Israeli cities was worth it in exchange for Israel getting to bomb Iran. There have been additions to the system (from the United States, and Israel repositioning defence systems internally) since the Iranian Operation True Promise II of October 2024, where a large percentage of Iranian MRBMs directly impacted. The impacts we saw this year were a lot more devastating because a MRBM has a much larger warhead and impacts at much higher speeds than Hamas or Hezbollah rockets.

The joint US-Israeli integrated Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system used to defend Israel from Iranian MRBMs consisted of:

SM-3 Block IB interceptors fired from US Navy AEGIS missile destroyers in the Mediterranean, and Israeli Arrow 3 interceptors fired from within Israel itself, for the exo atmospheric layer of defence (outside of the earth's atmosphere, over 100km in altitude and at ranges exceeding 2000km, parts of SM-3 interceptors ended up landing in Iran itself).

The endo-exo-atmospheric layer (intercepting both inside and outside of the earth's atmosphere) consisted of US THAAD batteries/fire units located in Israel itself, operating between altitudes of 40-150km.

The endo-atmospheric layer of defence consisted of Israeli Arrow 2 interceptors operating between 8-50km altitude, and David's Sling/Stunner interceptors that operate up to 15km altitude for last second point defence. Iron Dome/Tamir was responsible for shooting down balls of debris from intercepts, and shooting down any one way attack drones that made it to Israel. At most, there is footage of Iron Dome maybe being used to intercept one MRBM as a last ditch effort.

[-] NJSpradlin@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This is the whole ‘don’t vote for anyone other than Trump because they’re not hard enough against Trump’s agenda’ BS propaganda. Because the leftish person isn’t left enough for you doesn’t mean they’re worse than the person on the right. Media going after AOC right now is a concerted effort to smear the name of a leading young and powerful leftist. No one is going to be perfect, but hot damn is it easy to see how much these people frighten the establishment. The smear campaigns are on over drive for her and the new guy in NYC, Mamdani.

Stop vilifying the person who is leaps and bounds better than their contenders… just because they’re not perfect.

[-] Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 week ago

For the non-worlders seeing this message,

Politics isn't about your identity. It isn't about getting a "leftist" in power (which is just an identity label). Politics is about making useful things happen. And having a congresswoman who cons dissenting opinions into pointless liberalism is dangerous and counter-productive.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago

Don't vote for anyone who doesn't oppose genocide.

Palestine is the ultimate litmus test.

If the politician is willing to murder Palestinians for votes, they don't care about you either.

unbelievable that it needs to be said,

do not vote for anyone who supports a genocide. Amd if you do, you will have to admit proudly that you support genocide, no buts, not if.

They should be able to look at a starving Palestinian baby amputee and tell them that it was worth it.

[-] faab64@freefree.ps 7 points 1 week ago

@NJSpradlin @geneva_convenience

The liberal Americans with your fucked up definition of "left" and "too-left" or "far-left" who can't ever see the difference between right or wrong and always NEED to choose the lesser evil because 90% of the time you have to choose between 2 evils only to think about what is good for you personally.

1(2)

[-] IttihadChe@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

Yeah, genocide is bad ...but have you seen the CHEETO?!?!

Fuck off.

[-] krolden@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago
[-] faab64@freefree.ps 3 points 1 week ago

@NJSpradlin @geneva_convenience
2(2)

It is a disgust and sad mindset that made me more and more convince that you DESERVE Trump, he is the best of America for the world, a naked version of what US was, is and always will be towards the rest of the word.

Unfortunately for you, he is practicing the very very light version of CIA backed US foreign policy on YOU and for what you guys are angry and upset.

[-] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

just because they’re not perfect.

Genocide apologist

[-] timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 week ago

Meh, look at op. They've spammed this crap everywhere.

It'll be OK though because their conscience will be clear while the genocide rages harder and a shit ton else gets worse because no one passed their purity test.

And progressives wonder why they can't ever get shit done. Exhibit a.

[-] PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au -5 points 1 week ago

It's incredibly easy to do, too. All you have to do is cast across the length and breadth of every single thing any particular leftist person has ever done, pick the one that can be interpreted the worst, and spin it up into the entirety of their being.

Putin killed a million Russian soldiers and God knows how many Ukrainians, bombed a bunch of cities on purpose, and all the rest of it? Well... it's complicated. Let's make sure we look at the whole picture. Here, I've got a pamphlet.

AOC voted against one doomed amendment from Marjorie Taylor Greene which was (to all appearances) actually accidentally a good idea because it was defunding Israel, and then had a pretty unconvincing explanation as to why? Literal genocider. Fuck her forever, she's the enemy now and nothing else matters.

[-] frogbellyratbone_@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago

Coming under fire from the left for the glaring contradiction of providing military assistance to a state that is perpetrating an active genocide

she voted no on the full munitions bill, which included the iron dome "defenses"

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

She explicitly said she wanted to give Israel iron dome missiles on Twitter

[-] frogbellyratbone_@hexbear.net -2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

?

she voted no on the full munitions bill, which included the iron dome "defenses"

honestly i'm having trouble having serious conversations with people about this because they refuse to recognize or grapple with the fact that she voted no on the full munitions bill, which included the iron dome "defenses"

the only thing that makes sense to me is that she's playing politics and doesn't want MTG's amendment to be used against her - which is strange given that she ultimately voted no on the entire munitions bill

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

What did Ilhan Omar and Rashifa Tlaib vote yes on and AOC no?

[-] frogbellyratbone_@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago

yep, exactly

granted they all voted no in the end, but why did AOC play games on the MTG amendment just to vote no on everything?

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

Because she supports sending taxpayer money to Israel so they can buy weapons. She explicitly said that.

[-] Doom@ttrpg.network -2 points 1 week ago

Boys doing laps today trying to sow division in the US

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

Would be less division without you showing up in every thread to defend genocide.

this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
36 points (65.8% liked)

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