59. WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS

 

59.   WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, February 2, 2022

Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Ground Zero Center For Nonviolent Action
US Presidential/Media Complex for War. 
Norman Solomon, War Made Easy

 

Abolish Nuclear Weapons: Ground Zero Center For Nonviolent Action.   Its publication:  Ground Zero.  Volume 27.1 (January 2022) exemplifies Catholic anti-war dedication.

Denny Duffell.  “The Root of War Is Fear.”

Excellent essay giving a sketch of nuclear weapons protest in Seattle area, presentation of two main explanations for continuing to build and threaten use of nuclear weapons (insanity and profit/MIC), critique of Catholic anti-nuclear opposition, condemnation of US threats to use nuclear weapons (“at least 30 times from 1946 through 2006”), plans to devote $1.7 trillion to update (Obama), and more.   (Duffell is an ordained Catholic deacon of the Seattle Archdiocese and a regional coordinator for Pax Christi.)

Dave Hall.  “Biden Can Deescalate the Threat of Nuclear War.”  An equally outstanding denunciation of Biden (and Obama and both Parties) and Putin for having enshrined nuclear weapons as necessary evils in the service of deterrence.  Biden’s upcoming Nuclear Posture Review could set a new goal of  “real reductions” in “weapons of mass murder.”  (Hall is a member of Ground Zero and past president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.)

Cathy Kelly, who I hope will be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church, is interviewed, entitled “Deploying Love in a Permanent Warfare State.”  And more.

 

Oppose US Presidential/Media Complex for War. 
Norman Solomon, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2005).  

Challenging US Pro-War Myths

      The US is a nation of war.  It began by war; it conquered continental USA--some 500 Indian nations--by war; it grabbed a third of Mexico by war; it subdued the Philippines by war; in WWI it joined one side in a colonial war of massive slaughter; since WWII its wars—some 40 interventions and invasions-- have been virtually ceaseless.  As one historian wrote, the US has killed thousands of “enemy” soldiers and millions of civilians by war.

      How was that possible?    When a warrior hawk president and his advisors, whether liberal or conservative, want war, the president begins by besieging the public.  From the outset, warrior leaders, all of whom represent themselves as the commander in chief, seek the impression of consensus behind the president.

     His main weapon is media spin.  A media campaign for hearts and minds at home, means going all out to persuade us that the next war is as good as a war can be—necessary, justified, righteous, and worth any number killed.

     US leaders follow 2 steps to war: The first is this battle over public opinion, and support  for  war  is  the  first  victory.  Conquest is the second—since WWII, to name a few of the invaded countries:  Haiti, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Chile, Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, War on Terror!  The people of the US have been sold a succession of wars, in their names and with their tax dollars, time after time. 

    Among all the methods of propaganda, one of the most obvious is fear-mongering.  The president’s interventionists, his congressional supporters,  and mainstream media enablers   insist that military action is necessary to prevent a whirlwind of calamities.

     Less obvious is the deployment of unexamined myths repeated so often for so many years, for so many generations, most citizens take them for granted.  The march to war has been a 24-7 advertising campaign inseparable from the constant US self-aggrandizement and cultural reinforcement for war.  Here are a dozen of the many MYTHS that keep us ready for war:

The US is a Fair and Noble Superpower

Our Leaders Will Do Everything they Can to Avoid War

Our Leaders Would Never Lie to Us

The Enemy Is a Modern-Day Hitler

The US Stands for Human Rights

The War Is Not about Oil or Corporate Profits

We Had to Invade to Protect US Citizens

The Enemy Is the Aggressor, Not Us

Opposing the War Means Siding with the Enemy

Even if the War is Wrong We Must Support Our Troops

The Pentagon Fights Its Wars as Humanely as Possible

Our Soldiers Are Heroes, Theirs Are Inhuman

Withdrawal Would Cripple US Credibility

     These have been features of US bragging,  self-branding as a good nation and people, and therefore as good war-makers.  But they have not always been successful, especially if the war is lengthy.  The US was defeated in Vietnam after over fifty thousand US troops and some 3 million Vietnamese were killed.   The US invasion of Cuba was stopped at its shores, which intensified the US economic invasion. 

     Hermann Goering offers a partial explanation of public war acquiescence:   “…of course, the people don’t want war. . . .But it is a simple matter to drag the people along. . . .the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders [for war].  That is easy.  All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce [opponents] for lack of patriotism.”

     But Goering was generalizing from a nation lacking robust democratic institutions.  The US has had those institutions, and Goering unintentionally suggested how we might strengthen them to prevent or stop wars, at least to make it less easy for our leaders to be sheepherders. 

     Challenging fear-mongering wherever and whenever by vigorous application of knowledge through the First Amendment can be a safeguard against falsehoods and manipulations by war demagogues.   Sturdy critical thinking in the public schools, questioning all the leaders and myths that grease the wheels of war, can be another bulwark against the Democratic/Republican War Party. 

Norman Solomon, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2005).  

Film based on the book  directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp.

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Written and directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp. Produced by Loretta Alper. Based on the book by Norman Solomon. Narrated by Sean Penn. 

The Military-Industrial-Media Complex | FAIR  https://fair.org/extra/the-military-industrial-media-complex/

But on the large TV networks, such voices were so dominant that they amounted to a virtual monopoly in the “marketplace of ideas.” This article is excerpted from Norman Solomon's book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (John Wiley & Sons, 2005). The first chapter of the book can ...