The news has been filled with reports of assassinations, attempted assassinations, and shootings targeted against law enforcement. The spate of political violence has seriously eroded America’s legitimacy as a moral and decent state. How did we get here?

U.S. state violence on the world stage may help explain the rise of political violence here at home.

The idea of political assassination gained traction with the U.S. intelligence services during World War II, which was viewed (somewhat understandably) as an existential struggle that justified any act, however illegal, that was necessary for the cause.

During the Cold War, that mindset continued, but the illegal killing was hidden because it was inconsistent with the shining-city-on-the-hill propaganda. Certain intelligence agencies secretly supported a number of high-profile political assassinations, such as the 1961 killing of Prime Minister Patrice Lamumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the 1963 killing of President Diem of South Vietnam, not to mention a number of attempts to kill Fidel Castro of Cuba. These killings were presented as organic local forces rising up against “corrupt” leaders. Then and now, any leader who was disobedient to the U.S. regime was by definition “corrupt.”

Because of embarrassing press reports of the CIA and FBI's illegal operations in and out of the United States, the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities was formed in 1975 to investigate the abuses of power and direct harm to U.S. citizens. It was conveniently called the Church Committee after the chairman, Frank Church of Idaho.

The nation was shocked by what was revealed, including operations such as MKULTRA, a mind control experiment on unwitting U.S. citizens who were subjected to destabilizing drug exposure and other abuse. It is believed that much of the really appalling MKULTRA information was hidden and destroyed. Americans also learned about COINTELPRO (acronym for Counter Intelligence Program), a series of  FBI operations aimed to disrupt and harm American anti-war and civil rights groups. The committee also uncovered operations performing illegal assassinations.

For two years, the Church Committee uncovered many disgusting abuses and recommended oversight and controls to end them. But it was not long before the oversight and controls faded.

In 1986, the Iran–Contra scandal exploded and exposed the Reagan administration, which had funneled arms through Israel to our “enemy” Iran to provide funds for anti-communist guerrilla  operations in Central America. It was a huge scandal, and there were indications that it was also a money laundering operation to support other illegal behavior by intel agencies. These embarrassing revelations caused the agencies to be more careful.

The first Gulf War led to the U.S. stationing troops in Saudi Arabia. This was a long term goal of the ZioCons and a provocation to many Muslims in the region. 

Then came the big enchilada: The September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington birthed the Global War on Terror.

The previous existential threat of the Cold War had fizzled out with the collapse of the Soviet Union. This new existential threat provided the excuse to invade and wreck a number of nations the ZioCons had had in their sights for decades. Who could argue against fighting terrorists?

Since the GWOT was deemed existential, the George W. Bush administration saw fit to torture and kill suspected terrorists without any due process. Not wanting to be accused of sympathy for terrorists, many politicians and media figures held their tongues or even actively supported the White House. As a result, the U.S. regime’s policy morphed from secretly murdering people to bragging about the number of suspected terrorists killed. 

Even though many of the terror organizations were financed by the U.S. and/or friends of the U.S., the vast propaganda characterized them as terrorists so dastardly they must be eradicated at all costs. If we had to blow up a house full of people, a whole wedding party, a whole funeral party, or a school to get one suspect, the innocent bystanders were just “collateral damage.” If anyone complained about the illegal killings, they were accused of being supporters of terrorist causes. This is the same technique used today against people who object to the genocide in Gaza.

When Barack Obama, after campaigning against dumb wars, came to power (winning the Nobel Peace Prize in the first year of his presidency), he had to prove he wasn’t soft on terrorists, so he upped the rate of killing of suspected terrorists.

President Donald Trump continued the practice and still brags about the 2020 killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, which was another turning point. Soleimani, the top Iranian general, was killed near Baghdad airport on his way to a diplomatic conference. The U.S. regime’s excuse was that he was a terrorist. (Note: According to research by Larry Johnson, it appears that most of the terrorism in the Middle East is committed by Sunni groups, including those backed by Israel and the U.S., not Iranian-backed Shia militants).

The American people have been conditioned by decades of Zionist propaganda about terrorists, so there has been no establishment resistance to these illegal assassinations.

Recently, Israel has been more brazen and public about assassinations targeting the leadership of its opponents.

In September 2024, the Israelis executed the horrific exploding pager operation against Hezbollah in which thousands of pagers exploded in Lebanon and Syria. Hundreds of civilians including children were killed or maimed. Upon Israel’s Prime Minister Neranyahu's next visit to the U.S., he presented Trump with a golden pager as a trophy. Trump’s acceptance indicated his approval of this ghastly act (though he reportedly was disturbed by the gift).

On June 13, Israel attempted a decapitation strike against Iran just days before a planned diplomatic meeting between U.S. and Iranian negotiators. Trump demonstrated his complicity by bragging about it and bombing Iran shortly afterward.

On August 28, the Israelis killed the prime minister and 10 civilian cabinet members of the Yemeni government. 

A September 9 attack targeting Hamas negotiators gathering in Doha (to prepare for negotiation with U.S. diplomats) caused real alarm among the Gulf states. Washington’s obvious support for this and other assassinations demonstrates to the world that it is not only Israel which is disinterested in diplomacy, but also the U.S. regime.

Israel has had a long history of assassinating people they do not like, including many members of the press, diplomats, and civilian officials. Now the U.S. (as Israel's largest weapons supplier and financier) is closely associated with and openly supportive of the current wave of killings.

The U.S. regime’s legitimacy as a world leader is completely eroded by its support for the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s assassinations. The recent policy to illegally vaporize small boats off the coast of Venezuela has added to the sense that the U.S. is a violent and lawless aggressor.

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Do any countries believe negotiations with the current U.S. regime can be serious? If the U.S. regime is unable to engage in honest diplomacy, how can it be trusted to honor any agreement?

Many young people in America see through the regime’s propaganda. To them, the shining city on the hill looks pretty shabby. An honest and thorough examination of recent gross abuses of power could go a long way to stop the killing and other illegal behavior in order to restore the credibility, security, and peace-loving nature of our nation.

But for now, the American people have become habituated to their government’s grotesque and reckless violence abroad. Is anyone surprised that political violence is becoming more frequent here at home?