U.S aids radical theocracies

Dear Editor: Our two top allies in the Middle East are radical theocracies. One is run by the Koran and one by the Old Testament. Nonbelievers don’t make out so well in either country.

If you happen to be an uppity Shia in Saudi Arabia, you might get your head chopped off, or have your Shia cousins in Yemen bombed back to the Stone Age.

If you are a Palestinian in Israel and the occupied territories, you probably have been imprisoned at an early age, denied the most basic of human rights, and treated like a captive in your own land.

Shia lives don’t matter in Saudi Arabia; Palestinian lives don’t matter in Israel.

In fact, the worst of the butchery, like attacks on the Shia in Yemen and the Palestinians in Gaza, are paid for by the U.S. The bombs that rip through civilian hearts have “made in the USA” stamped on them.

The weapons makers in America are reaping huge profits. But how does a country that supposedly believes in equal rights for all support this racist carnage? Where is our outrage when 3 million Shia are made homeless in Yemen, and 550 Palestinian children are slaughtered in Gaza?

The torchlight marches in Charlottesville should teach that racist violence is alive and well in our own heartland. Perhaps we are beginning to reap what we sow.

Fred Nagel, Rhinebeck