Last night, during the eclipse, I was having a few drinks. That’s not the news. The news is that I was having drinks with a retired paratrooper who put his life on the line during various special operations in the ’80s and ’90s, especially in the Yugoslav wars, stationed in Bosnia and Kosovo. He spoke to me with a mixture of envy and sadness as he compared the treatment given to veterans in the United States with that given in Spain. 

He told me that it was not just a question of economics, although that, too; it was also a question of social indifference toward past merits. He was engrossed in the recital of his stories of impossible jumps in the midst of savage combats, he became emotional upon recounting the death or mutilation of his entire unit, and he seemed genuinely happy to finally be able to tell someone about it. “Almost 20 years have gone by without anyone showing even the slightest interest in hearing these stories,” he confessed to me. 

One of the most interesting topics of conversation has to do with the precision of operations in a war. Surgical precision in operations and other exaggerations are something we journalists have made fashionable, and we are the only ones who are idiot enough to talk about a “surgical strike” when you are talking about launching missiles loaded with hundreds of kilos of explosives. The only thing surgical happening there comes after the explosion, in the nearest hospital. 

Obviously civilized countries try to minimize damage and stick to the target. But even though technology has advanced infinitely, comparing a Tomahawk to a scalpel is a sick joke that could only be invented by some idiot who has never set foot on a battlefield. 

We were talking about all this when I was reminded of what happened in Gaza a few days ago, when seven members of the NGO World Central Kitchen, who were delivering food, were killed when they were hit by a misdirected bombing from Israeli forces. This was a regrettable event, and Israel has responded by punishing five of its army commanders for the mistakes that led to the fatal outcome and has also ordered an internal investigation. 

It is always a tragedy when an aid worker or journalist dies in a war, but my friend is absolutely right: It is something that can happen. It’s a possibility. It sounds like a stupid comment, but it’s true. Sometimes we forget the bottom line: that when you’re somewhere that’s at war and bombs, explosions, and bullets graze your skin on a daily basis, the chances of you becoming a collateral victim are very high. This is the first generation in history to whom this needs to be explained. 

Be that as it may, what happened in Gaza has served to reactivate the usual anti-Semitism, and as an opportunity for the Western Left — there is no longer any distinction between countries here — to feel a little closer to Palestinian terrorism. And, of course, the first one who did not want to miss the party was Nancy Pelosi.

It doesn’t matter what issue you’re facing. If you want to get it right, look at which side Nancy Pelosi has taken, and take the opposite one. Now 36 Democratic congressmen led by Pelosi have sent a letter to Joe Biden. They ask him to stop sending arms to Israel, after the “strike against aid workers.” In fact, they are misleading right from the very beginning of their letter. Israel did not organize any attack against aid workers. That is just a fantasy of the extreme left. Israel missed its target, and those who intervened in the operation grossly bypassed the usual protocols and behaved negligently and really stupidly; and for that they have been punished. You will never see a Hamas leader ask for an explanation from his terrorists for the murder, torture, or rape of Israeli civilians. 

It’s not that Pelosi and the 36 Democrats are outraged by the accident and have decided to reposition themselves now against Israel and in support of Palestinian terrorism. It’s just that they were dying to do it. Because the post-modern Western Left is far left, and this means they hate democracies and free nations (including their own) and sympathize with dictators and terrorists. 

Error is a possibility. The death of innocent people is terrible. But using a military accident for your political gain quite simply defines what kind of person you are. Or animal.

Translated by Joel Dalmau.

Buy Itxu Díaz’s new book, I Will Not Eat Crickets: An Angry Satirist Declares War on the Globalist Elite, here today!