Causes and Prevention of Wars

US WARS BLOG
OMNI NEWSLETTER #1 ON CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF WARS, February 1, 2011 Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace. If this beginning of a thoughtful study attracts your interest, feel free to carry it on; contact Gladys Tiffany.

Contents
CAUSES
Old Men in Power
Department of Defense
Profit$
General Smedley Butler
Merchants of Death
Resources
Enjoyment
Climate Change: Refugees


PREVENTION
Empathy, Forgiveness
Refuting Lies, Myths, Illusions
Graphic Truth of Combat

CAUSES

OLD MEN IN POWER
The Palace Files by Jerry Schecter and Nguyen Hung, a carefully documented exposé of the Nixon/Kissinger strategy to prolong a lost war in Vietnam in a vain attempt to salvage American prestige and their own political careers. It cost tens of thousands of lives. By all means, let us blame the old men in power who have forever created wars, especially those who have done so driven by their own ambitions, ideologies, ignorance, and pathologies. John Graham

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
In January 2011, this Blog's title became IT'S THE WAR DEPARTMENT. The momentous creation of the US Security State in 1947-48 (armed services united, CIA and NSA created) included one of the most catastrophic linguistic coups in history, if measured by wars and people killed: the US War Department was changed to the Defense Department, and since then most US citizens were much more easily hoodwinked into thinking the recurrent US invasions and interventions were defensive.

PROFITS $

--Butler, Smedley, Brig. General (ret.). War Is a Racket. Feral House, 2003. Has 2 other essays by Butler, plus photos of horrors. In the famous “War Is a Racket” Butler blames corporations. The only way to stop wars is to take the profit out of it.

MERCHANTS OF DEATH 2. The Heritage of the Great War / First World War 1914 - 1918
Merchants of Death, A Study of the International Armament Industry, by HC Engelbrecht and FC Hanighen. With a Foreword by Harry Elmer Barnes, 1934.
www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-merchants.html - Cached
Merchants of Death Revisited: Armaments, Bankers, and the ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Engelbrecht and Hanighen's Merchants of Death: A Study of the Inter- ..... read it, that the Merchants of Death "theory" was that World War I

3. Amazon.com: Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man ...
Amazon.com: Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible (9780470048665): Douglas Farah, Stephen Braun: Books.
www.amazon.com › ... › Current Events › Arms Control - Cached - Similar
4. Books for Merchants of Death
Merchant of Death: Money Guns Planes and the ... - Douglas Farah, Stephen Braun - 2007 - 322 pages

The Merchant of Death - DJ MacHale - 2007 - 392 pages


5. Merchants of Death
MerchantsofDeath.org is dedicated to the teaching of moral and ethical values and to protecting Earth and all its creatures.
www.merchantsofdeath.org/ - Cached - Similar

6. Stop the Merchants of Death
It's not so much true anymore to say that corporations make profit from war. They have such power that it's more accurate to say they now make war for ...
www.warresisters.org/smod/ - Cached - Similar
7.
8. The Merchant of Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Merchant of Death is the first book in the Pendragon series by D. J. MacHale. Contents. 1 Plot introduction; 2 Plot summary; 3 Characters in "The ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Death - Cached - Similar

9. Merchants of Death: Exposing Corporate Financed Holocaust in Africa
Merchants of Death: Exposing Corporate Financed Holocaust in Africa. by Keith Harmon Snow. Global Research, December 7, 2008 ...
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11311 - Cached - Similar

10. Merchants of Death - Index
May 10, 2010 ... Merchants of Death - Index. ... Merchants of Death • General Category. No New Posts ... Merchants of Death - Info Center. Forum Stats ...
www.merchants-of-death.net/ - Cached - Similar

11. ÂēMÃĩDÂē Halo Clan - Home Page
May 11, 2010 ... Somewhere under one universe, in a galaxy of many worlds, there arose a clan that became known as the Merchants of Death. ...
www.teammod.org/ - Cached



RESOURCES (see: Climate Change, Colonialism, Imperialism, Profit)
Who started WORLD WAR II IN THE PACIFICE? What caused Pearl Harbor?
Howard Zinn in his last book, The Bomb, quotes Bruce Russett’s No Clear Danger that SE Asia held significant economic potential for the US: “at the time most of America’s tin and rubber came from there, as did substantial quantities of other raw materials.” So the US began an embargo on Japan to stop its expansion into SE Asia. It was a colonial war. But also racist: the US had not opposed British, Dutch, and French colonization of SE Asia. Russett also quotes a State Dept. memorandum on Japanese expansion that “did not talk of the independence of China or the principle of self-determination,” but declared: “our general diplomatic and strategic position would be considerably weakened” by the loss of those resources and “loss of the Japanese market for our goods,” while Japan would become stronger. (The Bomb pp. 31-32). The best explanation of the shared blame in this colonial and racist war over territory and resources is No Choice But War by Roland Worth, Jr., who traces in detail the increasing stranglehold of Japan by the US embargo. Pearl Harbor was Japan’s effort to make the US back off. (On the racism of WWII in the Pacific, see John Dower’s War Without Mercy.)


ENJOYMENT OF WAR, PROPAGANDA FOR WAR
--The War Lovers The psychology of war fever in the Spanish American War and the US invasion of Iraq 2003. Interview on PBS “Need to Know” Evan Thomas and “The War Lovers” July 23rd, 2010 As the old adage goes, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” “The War Lovers” is a new book aimed at helping us avoid that fate, by revealing the parallels between the Spanish-American War and the U.S. invasion of Iraq — from red herrings to screaming headlines. Evan Thomas is a journalist and historian. He is also one of Jon Meacham’s colleagues at Newsweek. Need to Know’s Alison Stewart sat down with Thomas to learn more about how two wars, separated by a century, could have so much in common.


CLIMATE CHANGE (see Resources)
--Dyer, Gwynne. Climate Wars: The Fight for Survival as the World Overheats. Interv. Democracy Now). Basic fact: planet warming. A 1 percent rise in temp will produce 10 percent reduction in food. Without drastic reduction in C02 the planet will heat 4 degrees by 2060. So Dyer recommends geoengineering (SRM: Solar Radiation Management) to give us time.. In contrast, Vandana Shiva (Soil Not Oil) urges drastic changes in economic system esp.from corporate to small agriculture. She urges agreement to Universal Declaration on the Rights of the Earth. Pentagon already has plans for warming wars over food and water. For example, because Turkey is controlling the Tigris and Euphrates at their sources, Iraq would be at war with Turkey were not Iraq so dysfunctional. The US Quadrennial Defense Review 2010 is the first QDR to evaluate warming’s threat to US security. That is, the Bush admin. denied climate change while militarily preparing for it. See OMNI ecology refugees: Mexican and Central American refugees to increase, so the likelihood of a Soviet Berlin Wall across the US/Mex border is increasing.


PREVENTION

EMPATHY
--Barry, Kathleen. Unmaking War, Remaking Men: How Empathy Can Reshape Our Politics, Our Soldiers, and Ourselves. Phoenix Rising P, 2010. An appeal for the “re-humanization: of soldiers from destructive masculinities and fighting machines into compassionate human beings.” A call for a radical social, moral, political paradigm shift.


FORGIVENESS
“In the Presence of My Enemy: A Reflection on War and Forgiveness
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/in_the_presence_of_my_enemy_a_reflection_20110120/

Posted on Jan 20, 2011 By Ron Kovic (and for those who do not recognize the name, Ron Kovic's memoir is titled "Born on the Fourth of July".)


REFUTING JUSTIFICATIONS (MYTHS, ILLUSIONS) FOR WARS
Paul Buchheit, ed. American Wars: Illusions and Realities. Clarity, 2008. 19 lies, myths. Excellent collection of essays. “With the War on Terror threatening to go on for decades, it’s critical for Americans to examine the myriad ways our government has tricked us into supporting unjust wars, with catastrophic consequences for all sides.” Media Benjamin, Cod Pink.

Edward Wood, Jr. Worshipping the Myths of World War II: Reflections on America’s Dedication to War. Potomac, 2006. “The wizards of war have too long held sway in our country, telling us in Orwellian double-speak that war is the best and only means to foster democracy and peace.” Leonard Steinborn, author of Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy.

War Is A Lie by David Swanson, 2010
________________________________________
WAR IS A LIE is a thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify US wars, drawing on evidence from numerous past wars, with a focus on those wars that have been most widely defended as just and good. This is a handbook of sorts, a manual to be used in debunking future lies before future wars have a chance to begin.
“David Swanson despises war and lying, and unmasks them both with rare intelligence. I learn something new on every page.” — Jeff Cohen, founder of FAIR and author of Cable News Confidential.
Table of Contents
Introduction 7
1. Wars Are Not Fought Against Evil 15
2. Wars Are Not Launched in Defense 47
3. Wars Are Not Waged Out of Generosity 86
4. Wars Are Not Unavoidable 106
5. Warriors Are Not Heroes 131
6. War Makers Do Not Have Noble Motives 168
7. Wars Are Not Prolonged for the Good of Soldiers 196
8. Wars Are Not Fought on Battlefields 212
9. Wars Are Not Won, and Are Not Ended By Enlarging Them 235
10. War News Does Not Come From Disinterested Observers 250
11. War Does Not Bring Security and Is Not Sustainable 267
12. Wars Are Not Legal 291
13. Wars Cannot Be Both Planned and Avoided 312
14. War Is Over If You Want It 323
Notes 337
Index 352
Acknowledgments 369
About the Author 371
Advance Praise:
"If decisions to go to war were really made on the basis of reason and facts, rather than greed and power, David Swanson's brilliant new book would put a stop to them. Those of us who know David understand that he writes quickly and eloquently, speaks honestly and powerfully, and follows a logical point all the way to its conclusion. He has a philosopher's mind with a computer's precision. And he always maintains a justifiable moral outrage at the lies of the war criminals -- calling out their crimes, detailing their carnage, poking holes in their excuses. Reading 'War Is a Lie' is like reading Mark Twain's 'War Prayer,' only in book form." — Steve Cobble, IPS Associate Fellow, PDA co-founder, AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder, Jackson & Kucinich campaign advisor.
About the Publication and Sale:
I'm making the book available at little more than cost (including shipping cost), so that peace and justice groups can buy it in bulk and sell it for their own profit or distribute it at events or outside recruiting stations. If you buy 10 or more through this website, the price is only $10 each (which covers shipping too), half the list price.
You can also keep one and give nine great holiday gifts to friends and elected representatives.
I've turned down three major publishers who wanted to publish this book in 2011 or 2012 in order to publish it myself in 2010. Self-publishing avoids huge delays and allows more of the profit to go to the author. Purchasing this book supports my work, not a corporation.


GRAPHIC TRUTH
Friedrich, Ernst. War Against War! 1924. Seattle: Real Comet Press, 1987. Friedrich’s photographs and text (in four languages) about WWI combat were intended to inspire opposition to war. He showed “the horrifyingly obvious truth about it” (Vonnegut, who compares him to Goya). “The Beast of War feeds on all alike: children, women, soldiers, earth. Ernst Friedrich’s photographs bear terrible witness to this, and serve to remind us that the red badge of courage is, in reality, a scarlet gaping wound of fear and greed” (Barry Moser, illustrator of The Red Badge of Courage). Friedrich also established the International Anti-War Museum in Berlin in 1924, but the Weimar Government harassed him for his anarchist and pacifist views, and the Nazis closed it, after which he fled Germany. Friedrich spent his life working in the cause of peace and the proletarian revolution.

Greg, Harton. “Can Graphic Images Change the World? “Researchers Advance Idea That Gruesome Photos Can Change Behaviors.” NAT (Nov. 15, 2010). Marketing researchers at UofA demonstrated that “highly graphic images of the negative consequences of smoking have the greatest impact on smokers’ intention to quit.” We need a similar book on the Vietnam War, and another on the Iraq and Afghan wars. A book graphically illustrating US wars since WWII would require many volumes! Harton concludes: “Recognizing some of the horrible things that happen on this planet is often the swift kick in the pants that makes us do something about making the world a better place.” He also mentions abortion, and car accidents. But he does not mention US wars!