Tag: community

  • We are in the OIL WARS

    We are in the OIL WARS

    The oil cartel in the US, the billionaires and the gas/oil industry who gave Trump billions of dollars for his election, totally ignore the pollution and the threat to the planet as long as they dominate and make their petro dollars.

    We are in the OIL WARS

    By Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    The oil wars are both regional  and global. While the focus is on Iran with attacks from the US/Israel, Trump continues to support fossil fuels by ignoring the fact that the US is the world’s largest polluter of CO2 caused by fossil fuels and the release of methane gas. The US, purportedly does not have enough money to provide our needy citizens with the SNAP food program or Medicare and Medicaid. Instead the Trump regime is spending billions of dollars a day to fund the oil wars, especially against Iran. Recent polls show that the majority of American voters oppose war with Iran.

    Background: As a global source for oil Iran ranks third. Saudi Arabia, second—Trump and its leaders are buddies. First with the largest oil reserves in the world is Venezuela. The recent kidnapping of Venezuela’s Madura and essential takeover of the country was about getting access to their oil.

    The oil cartel in the US, the billionaires and the gas/oil industry who gave Trump billions of dollars for his election, totally ignore the pollution and the threat to the planet as long as they dominate and make their petro dollars.

    Their rank-smelling greed is summed up by saying “There is no Planet B” There is no contingency plan to save the planet as long as oil is king. Under Trump’s so-called presidency pollution has increased.

    No Kings? We need to dethrone oil as king, to reverse the use of fossil fuel/oil and bring down Trump’s oil regime. Much more is at stake, the future of the planet is at stake.

    The links between oil and the climate crisis are manifest whether you look at Iran and the Middle East or Venezuela in South America. Trump and his minions are dead set on destroying not only American democracy with neo-fascism but on destroying the planet earth with their greed for world domination and money.

    The Current War with Iran

    Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz through which one fifth or 20 percent of the world oil supply passes (as well as many other essential materials). Iran has blocked the Strait.

    Jeffrey Sachs on Democracy Now! explains how the US/Israel war is illegal under the charter of the United Nations and in direct defiance of international law. He condemns Trump in no uncertain terms as a liar who is provoking WWIII. Netanyahu does not have the power under the charter to declare war but has done so anyway.

    Trump is convinced that military power is the solution. Murdering innocent civilians in Iran as they have in bombing the country has forced many Iranians to leave their homes for refuge as the death toll escalates daily.

    Can we stop them? Military force will ultimately fail to bring peace, as it always does in the long run, because it carries the seeds for the next war; in the current case of Iran it also carries the threat of WWIII,

    While many may not agree with the form of Iranian government, which is authoritarian, Iran has a right to sovereignty and to not become a neo-colonial state under the thumb of the US, as, for example, Venezuela and other countries now have.

    The global nature of these oil wars has now expanded to making Russian oil available with the Trump regime releasing the ban on its use by allied nations or nations under US control; we hope, as does rest of the world, those weapons will not be used anywhere no matter what country has them. Both Trump and Netanyahu have been called insane by what many are calling a US provoked war that is being called unnecessary.

    The “apocalyptic” chess game between the superpowers, that is, between those that move on the highest plane of our civilization, is being played according to the rule “if either ‘wins’ it is the end of both”; it is a game that bears no resemblance to whatever war games preceded it. Its “rational” goal is deterrence, not victory, and the arms race, no longer a preparation for war, can now be justified only on the grounds that more and more deterrence 1s the best guarantee of peace. To the question how shall we ever be able to extricate ourselves from the obvious insanity of this position, there is no answer.

    —Hannah Arendt, On Violence

    Is there an answer? The US, claiming military superiority with both conventional and nuclear power with Trump’s hyper-militarism has been using military superiority as a threat for a long time, but now especially under Trump. Iran has dared to challenge that threat. We are now facing the dilemma in reality again. Trump has foolishly systematically withdrawn from or refused to renew the international treaties that were some protection.

    Here is an assessment on March 20th by Heather Cox Richardson of the status of the ongoing US/Israeli war, which changes daily as Trump continues his lies and waffles back and forth in his approach about what has been called a planless war by many sources. But really the oil wars are for US homogeny for unilateral US control of global oil and for the  war industry that also profits  reaps great profits from the wars.

    STOP THE WARS SAVE THE PLANTIf the Trump regime continues they will destroy the planet earth.

    If the threat of nuclear war or even of WWIII is prevented another threat that is related is being ignored: Trump’s regime is a March to Armageddon of a different sort. Already the slow march has begun with the melting of the polar ice cap, the flooding of coastal cities, and with ferocious storms, pollution of the air with fossil fuels, of the water with PFAS chemicals like tritium and the building of data centers that overuse of our limited water supply, of the land with copper mining (see the fight to save the Boundary Waters), and not the least by the environmental destruction caused by wars, the manufacture and use of weapons, and of expansion of nuclear reactor energy plants that pollute both land and water with radioactivity and chemicals. Plastic, also an oil product, is also polluting not only our land and seas but has been found in human bodies, including newborns.

    Most obvious, of course, is the extensive military use of CO2 air-polluting carbon from ground transportation and the worst offender, jet planes, along with the release of deadly methane gas. These are the Oil Wars.

    Can we stop them? Again that question. So if not with military force then what is called fo: A global movement by the people of all nations to hold their governments accountable. Even if no nuclear weapons are used—and we hope and pray they will not be—and the oil–agarchy continues the planet earth will be destroyed.

    As always in wars it is the people who suffer most, the ordinary citizens who have no way to defend themselves as now in Gaza/Palestine, as in the Ukraine, as in Somalia, which the US regularly bombs, and via Israel the bombing of  Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar. And Trump wants Congress to authorize billions more for Israel to fund his oil wars and the power drive for global homogeny.

    The talk about nuclear weapons keeps us in the warp of FEAR so Trump can play the STRONG MAN who will take care of us, a “savior” in what is a common tactic by fascists. Instead he is spending billions of our tax dollars on war.

    One comment I had on Facebook was “Trump will take care of it. ” A chilling thought that people believe that he can take care of everything.

    COURAGE

    Related

    “Fossil Fuels as a Weapon of War”: U.S.-Israeli War on Iran Exposes World’s Dangerous Reliance on Oil

    Trump withdrawal from international treaties and organizations, 2025-2026, including key climate-related entities.

    Iran Outsmarts Trump: The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich

    US gas exporters stand to be the big winners of the energy crisis



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    To subscribe: Join us on Wings of Change

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    Join us on Wings of Change

    We still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and are making plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are particularly targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are mostly people of color. In spite of promises to withdraw ICE, the arrests continue. Other cities have been targeted as well, and they will try to target more to fill the detention centers they are building all over the country.

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
    to participate in the process of change.
    Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
    can transform the world.”

    — Howard Zinn

  • Normalizing Violence Kills Community, by Amy Blumenshine

    Normalizing Violence Kills Community, by Amy Blumenshine

    Part of the unveiling that has to happen in our special moral moment is for members of the military to claim their common humanity in spite of the intentional conditioning to kill.

    Normalizing Violence Kills Community

    By Amy Blumenshine / Original to Wings of Change / February 3, 2026

    How did we get to this commonality of high profile and mass shootings in our country? I am among those who opine that our “forever wars” for “full spectrum dominance” play a role. Mass killing is normalized and even saluted. Our most prominent leader encourages making war on American civilians, mostly those who vote against him. Part of the unveiling that has to happen in our special moral moment is for members of the military to claim their common humanity in spite of the intentional conditioning to kill.

    Sadly the highest domestic consequence of this conditioning is the high rate of suicides among veterans and active duty. It is telling that too many veterans refuse to connect with VA services because they have such distrust and even hate for their government due to their experiences. (“Bodyguard of Lies” is a documentary exploring official lies that continued the war in Afghanistan.) Many have serious family difficulties. Another lethal consequence are the mass shootings.

    Whenever discussing veterans, it’s important to recognize that there are wide varieties of experiences among the 19 million veterans. People respond to the training and trauma differently as well. Some flourish. Yet, one in three have been arrested and jailed at least once, and at last count, more than 181,000 were in US prisons and jails. Imagine how betrayed and angry you’d feel if you risked your well-being, saw comrades hurt, and ended innocent lives based on lies. Many veterans, because of their experiences, have found common cause with those seeking to prevent wars.

    We’re currently in yet another news cycle reporting US mass shootings allegedly committed by military veterans (as I noted in my January 2025 Sentinel article.) The alleged destroyer of the LDS members and church in Michigan as well as the alleged boat assailant of the North Carolina crowd had been deployed in Iraq. (Both atrocities were committed within 24 hours of each other.) Some commentators call it “the war comes home.”

    The North Carolina suspect has written a book with a title indicating moral injury: Headshot: Betrayal of a Nation. Many military veterans feel that their virtue has been exploited and their character corrupted by what they were sent to do.

    Other “senseless violence” mass shooters act like military mimics. Note that the alleged assassin of Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman said he was ‘Going to war,” as well as claiming covert “security” employment in various parts of the world where the US has committed lethal violence.

    Former FBI agent and Time Person of the Year Coleen Rowley has been raising these issues for decades—since different decorated vets committed the Oklahoma City bombing, DC serial sniping, and Arizona murder of three nursing professors. She names desensitization as the most significant factor.

    In our US society, we are steeped in stories of good killing, not just glorification of US wars fought for noble causes but also covert skull-duggery. Such shooter video games are very popular as are a plethora of movies, many “guided/consulted” by the Pentagon at our expense. Such stories reinforce the myth of regenerative violence—not just that violence brings good but that violence is necessary for individual and societal renewal. In this myth, we can recognize the Western frontier impetus to “kill the savages” to create civilization.

    Rowley knows from her career interviewing murderers that nearly all murderers “seek to protect their own psyches with ego defense rationalizations that normalize their actions.”

    And indeed, what a president does—like bombing boats and facilities in other countries without the pretext of war—tends to normalize such behavior. Commanding others to kill pointlessly can cause them and their community a lifetime of suffering.

    “I can kill you if I consider you an enemy,” puts all of us at risk.

    As one Vietnam vet explained to me, “I felt that since I’d been given license to kill by our highest authority, why should I care what the county sheriff wanted.”

    In truth, violence erodes trust between neighbors and family members. Human flourishing is related to character and virtue—individually and societally. People with the orientation to promote good tend to be more satisfied with life and happier, report better mental and physical health, and feel more socially connected and purposeful.

    The way citizens of Los Angeles rose to challenge the invasion by an outside lethal force has been called a nonviolent truth-force that can expose lies and bring us together. I also look forward to hearing of the humane actions conducted by many of those commanded to LA. We all can connect with that stream of divine love and channel it to others—letting our lights shine which not only drives out darkness but truly serves to regenerate/flourish community.

    May our brothers and sisters in the military also hold onto their humanity during this trial – and may we all hold them in our prayers.


    Amy Blumenshine, MSW, MART, PhD, is a Lutheran (ELCA) deacon. She founded the Coming Home Collaborative to address the suffering of military veterans and their families, and has come to focus her scholarship on military moral injury. She co-authored the book Welcome Them Home, Help Them Heal: Pastoral care and ministry with service members returning from war. She wrote a version of this article for her church newsletter shortly after September 27 & 28 when two states suffered mass shootings by veterans.  A few months earlier shewritten about the two mass killings intended by veterans in different states at New Year’s time. 



    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
    Wings invites you to subscribe.
    Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media

     Join us on Wings of Change. It’s only the beginning as we still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and activists and make plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is pleased and excited to be a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement particularly illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are people of color. 

    Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
    A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
    to participate in the process of change.
    Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
    can transform the world.”

    — Howard Zinn