[Peace-discuss] Accepting the lie about the causes of wars

[LAURIE SOLOMON]

All very true; but we can turn this on its head and suggest that Denson's
comments could also be said about those who present protests against wars -
rarely to do they tell the truth about the real motives for opposing wars.
In both cases, it may be because the real and the not-so real motives are
many and tend to blend into one another such that they may not be clearly
known.

 

For example, the fact that you quote Denson's  remarks that "All wars,
whether won or lost, tend to centralize and increase the power into the
national government, increase the debts and taxes and diminish the civil
liberties of the citizens. It is time we begin to see through the myths and
false propaganda about American wars so that we can prevent future wars.
Americans have a strong tendency to accept as true the false wartime
propaganda which now appears in the history books and which is repeated by
politicians and intellectuals to the effect that all of America's wars have
been just, necessary and noble" would appear to give some indication of why
you and other libertarians might be anti-war . Namely, you oppose the
centralization and increase in national (and all) governmental power, the
increase in public debt and taxes, and what you see as a decrease in
individualism as defined in terms of civil liberties for citizens.  The
opposition may or may not be on moral and ethical grounds as well; but the
use of those grounds tend to be used in a similar manner as the myths and
false propaganda which are intended to make wars appear necessary and noble.


 

Others may oppose wars for reasons of practical political expediency, to
attract members of the opposite sex, or to gain fame, although these real
motives too may be hidden beneath a veil of noble and moral justifications
and claims which serve as useful myths for legitimizing ones position and
covering up one's real motivations.   Sometimes it is useful to turn some of
these analyses on ourselves in order to reveal our own shortcomings and
motivations.

 

By the way, this type of behavior is not restricted to Americans or American
Wars. 

 

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of E. Wayne
Johnson
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 9:33 AM
To: 'Peace-discuss'
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Accepting the lie about the causes of wars

 

"The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious
humbug 
designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states."
-Charles Dickens


Historian John V. Denson writes-

Rarely do any governments, or the politicians, intellectuals and news media
who support their wars, tell the truth about the real motives for the wars.
After all, the citizens must be convinced either that their safety is being
protected from an aggressor or that the war serves some noble purpose,
because it's the citizens who fight, die and pay the taxes. The Orwellian
historians have falsified the true purposes or motives behind most of
America's wars, and have instead given us glorified accounts designed to
mislead the public in order to justify the sacrifices the people have made. 

All wars, whether won or lost, tend to centralize and increase the power
into the national government, increase the debts and taxes and diminish the
civil liberties of the citizens. It is time we begin to see through the
myths and false propaganda about American wars so that we can prevent future
wars. Americans have a strong tendency to accept as true the false wartime
propaganda which now appears in the history books and which is repeated by
politicians and intellectuals to the effect that all of America's wars have
been just, necessary and noble. 

This tendency of the Americans to accept this false propaganda tends to
prevent them from questioning the alleged reasons for current wars. There is
also a strong tendency by Americans to measure a person's patriotism by how
much that person supports an American war rather than how much the person
supports the concept of American freedom and the ideas of our Founders,
which includes a noninterventionist foreign policy 

It is time that Americans learn the truth about the real reasons behind our
wars, and particularly, the War Between the States, because of the price
that we have paid in the long-term loss of liberty in that war. The deaths
of over 600,000 American young men in that war is not exactly
inconsequential. This high death total is more than the total of all the
deaths of American soldiers in all the other wars America has fought.

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