OMNI PEARL HARBOR DAY NEWSLETTER #2, DECEMBER 7, 2010. Compiled by Dick Bennett. Another in OMNI’s NATIONAL DAYS series for a Culture of Peace.
OMNI needs a new coordinator of its National DAYS project. WE affirm DAYS that deserve praise, and reject those that promote wars, killing, violence, militarism. Contact Gladys.
This new book exposes the US machinations that led to Pearl Harbor and World War II in the Pacific.
WAR IS A LIE by David Swanson is a thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify US wars, with a focus on those wars that have been most widely defended as just and good. This is therefore a manual for critical thinking 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
Here’s a summary of what Swanson argues about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, pp. 57-65. (Also read chapter 4 on whether the US should have entered WWII.)
The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, that famous “Day of Infamy,” illustrates another type of “defensive war,” “one that follows a successful provocation of aggression from the desired enemy.”
By a vote of 85 to 1 in 1928 the US Senate had ratified the Kellogg-Briand Pact “that bound—and still binds-our nation and many others never again to engage in war.” But President Roosevelt wished to assist Britain and its allies against the Nazis. By 1934 he had began to expand US military bases in the Pacific. In 1935 General Smedley Butler in War Is a Racket ridiculed the buildup and war games maneuvers in the western Pacific. By 1939 the US Navy had a plan for “an offensive war” against Japan. By 1940 the US was loaning China money and planning to send them bombers. By 1941 the US was training the Chinese air force and plans were prepared to bomb Japanese cities. On July 25, 1941 the US froze Japanese assets and with Britain cut off oil and scrap metal to Japan, all posing a potent threat to Japan’s existence. On November 15, 1941 Army Chief of Staff George Marshall briefed the media on preparations for “an offensive war against Japan.” On Dec. 1, a meeting in the Oval Office discussed likelihood of Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor within a few days. The attack on Pearl came Dec. 7. Only Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin (R., Mont) voted against (Read summary of her reasons pp. 64-65 that add to the evidence of provocation.) Swanson’s conclusion: WWII in the Pacific was not a defensive war; rather it was a colonial, imperial contest over control of resources, and Japan, direly threatened by embargoes, attacked the central US imperial base at Pearl Harbor.
Swanson covers all US wars, so we might not expect him to have read every relevant book on each of the wars. Yet it is odd that he does not cite the book that supports his case in several hundred thoroughly documented pages: Roland Worth, Jr., No Choice But War: The United States Embargo Against Japan and the Eruption of War in the Pacific (McFarland, 1995). Worth finds much to blame in both countries for causing World War II in the Pacific. He expresses no sympathy for Japanese militarism and aggression. But he also shows “the pivotal role of the U.S.-led economic embargo in pushing Japan over the edge into overt hostilities against the West. In other words the U.S. decision to embargo 90 percent of Japan’s petroleum and two-thirds or more of its trade led directly to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.” “It was not just a matter of Japanese imperialism; the misjudged American response [of total embargo] sealed off the possibility of a peaceful solution or even of ‘hot cold war’” and pushed the Japanese “beyond the point of no return” (ix-x). (This book is in OMNI’s library.)
So on this December 7, 2010, let us grieve over yet another war of horrific slaughter and mass murder (read John Dower’s War Without Mercy). Let us not celebrate the so-called “victory” of WWII in the Pacific; rather let us celebrate with a loud and concerted voice the banning of war in the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928, the United Nations Charter of 1945, and the International Criminal Court’s decision to prosecute crimes of aggression in 2010.
Dick
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Corporate Crime: Cost of Doing Business?
CORPORATE CRIME See: Wal-Mart
CRIME IS COST OF DOING BUSINESS?
BOOKS
--Schechter, Danny. The Crime of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is NOT Too Big to Jail. Wall Street firms, insurance industry, and real estate businesses worked together to rob the US public of trillions of dollars.
REPORTS ON INDIVIDUAL CORPORATE CRIMINALS: Two of Thousands of Examples, with Justice Questions.
“CVS Fined for Sale of Meth Ingredient: Pharmacy Agrees to Pay $75 Million,” ADG (10-15-10). CVS Pharmacy Inc. “agreed to pay $75 million in fines for allowing repeated purchases of a key ingredient used to make methamphetamine in at least five states that also led to a spike in Southern California drug trafficking….the largest civil penalty ever assessed under the Controlled Substances Act,” according to federal prosecutors. But no executive was imprisoned. What was CVS’s income? How significant a fine is this, when nobody goes to jail? How just is a system that might send a person to prison for many years for selling a few ounces of mushrooms or growing an acre of marijuana, but no corporate exec goes to jail huge crimes?
“Judge OKs Dell Fraud-Claim Settlement,” ADG (10-14-10). Dell Inc., the world’s third-biggest maker of personal computers, was fined $100 million and its founder Michael Dell $4 million, its former CEO and former Chief financial officer $4 million and $3 million respectively for accounting-fraud. Schneider was suspended from appearing or practicing before the SEC as an accountant for five years. Dell was allowed to remain chief executive officer. How punitive are these fines, compared to going to jail? How much did the fraud enrich Dell as a corporation and the three executives? “The “exclusivity payments” kept secret from investors “helped Dell reach earnings targets from 2001 to 2006.” How big were the earnings? And comparatively speaking, how much are peanut fraud criminals punished? Our justice system is unfair partly because comparative contexts are not central to sentencing, and this should include global comparisons, particularly in a country like the US where profits are so huge, not only for executive salaries and bonuses, but for fixing the laws to favor corporations and the rich.
CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER For Comprehensive Data
1. Corporate Crime Reporter
The online version of a legal printed newsletter highlighting corporate crime and corruption.
www.corporatecrimereporter.com/ - Cached - Similar
The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of ...
Print edition only
Crime Without Conviction: The Rise ...
Corrupt100807
Twenty061207
Kelleyinterview
Interview with Neil Getnick, Getnick ...
Top 10 White Collar Crime Defense ...
More results from corporatecrimereporter.com »
►
2. Corporate Crime Reporter
Russell Mokhiber brings you the list of big companies that have pled guilty ...
www.corporatecrimereporter.com/top100.html - Cached - Similar
3. Corporate Crime Reporter
CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER INTERVIEWS. VOLUME ONE Rudolph Giuiliani, United ...
www.corporatecrimereporter.com/interviewsindex.html - Cached - Similar
Show more results from corporatecrimereporter.com
4. Corporate Crime Reporter: Most Corrupt States in the Nation
Oct 8, 2007 ... Corporate Crime Reporter looked at the 35 most populous states in the nation. (The fifteen states with population of under two million were ...
www.commondreams.org › ... › NewsWire - Cached - Similar
5. Corporate crime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Corporate Crime Reporter • WhiteHouse.gov - 'Corporate Responsibility: The President's Leadership in Combating Corporate Fraud', The White House ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_crime - Cached - Similar
6. Citizen Works
Twelve reforms to crack down on corporate crime ... GAO report on Tax Liabilities of U.S. and Foreign Controlled Corporations • Corporate Reform Archives ...
www.citizenworks.org/ - Cached - Similar
7. Twenty Things You Should Know About Corporate Crime | | AlterNet
Jun 16, 2007 ... The following is text from a speech delivered by Russell Mokhiber, editor of Corporate Crime Reporter to the Taming the Giant Corporation ...
www.alternet.org/story/54093/ - Cached - Similar
8. Corporate Crime Reporter 11/97 interview with POCLAD's Richard ...
The court was reflecting the dominant public view of corporate power circa 1880. According to Richard Grossman, the corporations set out to transform the ...
www.ratical.com/corporations/CCRivRG1197.html - Cached
9. [PDF]
CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Telephone: (212) 230-8820. E-mail: pengelmayer@wilmer.com]. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM. CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER. 1209 National Press Building ...
www.wilmerhale.com/files/.../Engelmayer%20Interview1.pdf - Similar
10. [PDF]
CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Corporate Crime Reporter is published by Corporate Crime Reporter, Inc., ... Corporate Crime Reporter, P.O. Box 18384, Washington, D.C. 20036. ...
www.daylightforensic.com/pdfs/news/corporate_crime_reporter_40207.pdf
Searches related to corporate crime reporter
corporate crime reporter most corrupt states
corporate crime reporter obama
corporate crime reporter ron paul
corporate crime kills
internation corporate crime
introduction corporate crimes
There’s more, just google. Dick
CRIME IS COST OF DOING BUSINESS?
BOOKS
--Schechter, Danny. The Crime of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is NOT Too Big to Jail. Wall Street firms, insurance industry, and real estate businesses worked together to rob the US public of trillions of dollars.
REPORTS ON INDIVIDUAL CORPORATE CRIMINALS: Two of Thousands of Examples, with Justice Questions.
“CVS Fined for Sale of Meth Ingredient: Pharmacy Agrees to Pay $75 Million,” ADG (10-15-10). CVS Pharmacy Inc. “agreed to pay $75 million in fines for allowing repeated purchases of a key ingredient used to make methamphetamine in at least five states that also led to a spike in Southern California drug trafficking….the largest civil penalty ever assessed under the Controlled Substances Act,” according to federal prosecutors. But no executive was imprisoned. What was CVS’s income? How significant a fine is this, when nobody goes to jail? How just is a system that might send a person to prison for many years for selling a few ounces of mushrooms or growing an acre of marijuana, but no corporate exec goes to jail huge crimes?
“Judge OKs Dell Fraud-Claim Settlement,” ADG (10-14-10). Dell Inc., the world’s third-biggest maker of personal computers, was fined $100 million and its founder Michael Dell $4 million, its former CEO and former Chief financial officer $4 million and $3 million respectively for accounting-fraud. Schneider was suspended from appearing or practicing before the SEC as an accountant for five years. Dell was allowed to remain chief executive officer. How punitive are these fines, compared to going to jail? How much did the fraud enrich Dell as a corporation and the three executives? “The “exclusivity payments” kept secret from investors “helped Dell reach earnings targets from 2001 to 2006.” How big were the earnings? And comparatively speaking, how much are peanut fraud criminals punished? Our justice system is unfair partly because comparative contexts are not central to sentencing, and this should include global comparisons, particularly in a country like the US where profits are so huge, not only for executive salaries and bonuses, but for fixing the laws to favor corporations and the rich.
CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER For Comprehensive Data
1. Corporate Crime Reporter
The online version of a legal printed newsletter highlighting corporate crime and corruption.
www.corporatecrimereporter.com/ - Cached - Similar
The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of ...
Print edition only
Crime Without Conviction: The Rise ...
Corrupt100807
Twenty061207
Kelleyinterview
Interview with Neil Getnick, Getnick ...
Top 10 White Collar Crime Defense ...
More results from corporatecrimereporter.com »
►
2. Corporate Crime Reporter
Russell Mokhiber brings you the list of big companies that have pled guilty ...
www.corporatecrimereporter.com/top100.html - Cached - Similar
3. Corporate Crime Reporter
CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER INTERVIEWS. VOLUME ONE Rudolph Giuiliani, United ...
www.corporatecrimereporter.com/interviewsindex.html - Cached - Similar
Show more results from corporatecrimereporter.com
4. Corporate Crime Reporter: Most Corrupt States in the Nation
Oct 8, 2007 ... Corporate Crime Reporter looked at the 35 most populous states in the nation. (The fifteen states with population of under two million were ...
www.commondreams.org › ... › NewsWire - Cached - Similar
5. Corporate crime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Corporate Crime Reporter • WhiteHouse.gov - 'Corporate Responsibility: The President's Leadership in Combating Corporate Fraud', The White House ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_crime - Cached - Similar
6. Citizen Works
Twelve reforms to crack down on corporate crime ... GAO report on Tax Liabilities of U.S. and Foreign Controlled Corporations • Corporate Reform Archives ...
www.citizenworks.org/ - Cached - Similar
7. Twenty Things You Should Know About Corporate Crime | | AlterNet
Jun 16, 2007 ... The following is text from a speech delivered by Russell Mokhiber, editor of Corporate Crime Reporter to the Taming the Giant Corporation ...
www.alternet.org/story/54093/ - Cached - Similar
8. Corporate Crime Reporter 11/97 interview with POCLAD's Richard ...
The court was reflecting the dominant public view of corporate power circa 1880. According to Richard Grossman, the corporations set out to transform the ...
www.ratical.com/corporations/CCRivRG1197.html - Cached
9. [PDF]
CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Telephone: (212) 230-8820. E-mail: pengelmayer@wilmer.com]. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM. CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER. 1209 National Press Building ...
www.wilmerhale.com/files/.../Engelmayer%20Interview1.pdf - Similar
10. [PDF]
CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Corporate Crime Reporter is published by Corporate Crime Reporter, Inc., ... Corporate Crime Reporter, P.O. Box 18384, Washington, D.C. 20036. ...
www.daylightforensic.com/pdfs/news/corporate_crime_reporter_40207.pdf
Searches related to corporate crime reporter
corporate crime reporter most corrupt states
corporate crime reporter obama
corporate crime reporter ron paul
corporate crime kills
internation corporate crime
introduction corporate crimes
There’s more, just google. Dick
Friday, December 3, 2010
War Is a Lie and Daybreak, books by David Swanson
War Is A Lie
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By dswanson - Posted on 31 October 2010
**Counter-recruitment groups have asked for a supply of this book to use at tables countering the propaganda of military recruiters. We need funding for this effort. Contact, or Contribute at right.**
Please post this image:
Book Tour Dates Here.
WAR IS A LIE is a thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify 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’s War Is A Lie (Charlottesville, VA, 2010) may be the most comprehensive antiwar statement available in the English language." — Kevin Young, ZNet
“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.
“While Americans elect leaders whom they trust are honest, truthful and really care about the kids they send to kill for our country, War Is A Lie reveals decade after decade the sordid side of our history — that our elected officials lie us into war with stunning and embarrassing regularity and are little concerned about the harm to innocent civilians, much less to members of our own military.” — Colonel (retired) Ann Wright, author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience.
“This book is every American’s best defense against the greatest danger we face as human beings: the threat of war. Swanson reveals how American leaders (from both major political parties) have confused the public to create the illusion of consent for endless destruction and slaughter. Behind the fear-mongering, flag-waving and lies of George W. Bush and the blandishments of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama lies the ugly reality that our leaders have been seduced by political ambition, delusions of military superiority, and the promise of secrecy and impunity to commit otherwise unthinkable crimes.” — Nicolas J. S. Davies, Author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.
“David Swanson is an antidote to the toxins of complacency and evasion. He insists on rousing the sleepwalkers, confronting the deadly prevaricators and shining a bright light on possibilities for a truly better world.” — Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.
"This book is revolutionary, and certainly truth-telling in a remarkable and brave way. The writing is so clear and easy-to-read, too. A pleasure to read, except that the content is so devastating, because it all means that not only are we utterly deceived but our entire reality is based on that deception. Swanson has gotten to the core of something. The only thing is I'm not sure he realizes how hopeless it is to expect a change -- and yet that is part of the appeal of his writing: his hopefulness in the face of lies and repression and denial." — Jennifer Van Bergen, author of The Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America.
“War Is A Lie is an important and compelling book that arrives at a time when America is engaged in its longest running war to date. Swanson offers an incisive examination of the rationalizations, justifications, and outright lies that have led the United States, and other nations, into battle. And he shows the personal cost to the current generation of combatants returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” — Cynthia Wachtell, author of War No More: The Antiwar Impulse in American Literature 1861-1914.
“David Swanson has taken the mantle of AJ Muste, who had the guts and the audacity to declare World War II to have been unnecessary and wrong. Swanson takes Muste’s argument further to make the audacious claim that all wars are not just unnecessary, but a crime. He is correct, of course. Just as no good outcome (whether the ouster of a tyrant or the freeing of captive nations) can compensate for the death of millions of innocents, which of course is the argument made in defense of calling World War II a ‘good’ war, no good (whether the ousting of a tyrant or the claimed improvement in the rights of oppressed women) can compensate for the death of hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq or of tens of thousands of innocents in Afghanistan. This is a book that every American should read, especially those who think the United States is the good guy.” — Dave Lindorff , journalist, author of The Case for Impeachment, and founder of the online newspaper ThisCantBeHappening!
________________________________________
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.
DAYBREAK: UNDOING THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY
BOOK TOPIC: Daybreak is a prescription for political reform that literally ends with a to-do list for citizens, and draws inspiration from the misdeeds and missteps of the Bush and Obama presidencies. What powers were stripped from Congress and handed to the White House while George W. Bush lived there, and what would it take to permanently move them back? Which of these powers is Barack Obama making use of or even expanding upon? And in the future, how can we expand our rights, create democratic representation in Congress, and make presidents into executives rather than emperors? This is a citizens' guide to the long-term task of removing power from the hands of one person, placing it in a body of representatives, and (here's the hard part) making that body truly representative of the American people. Swanson's analysis makes clear that the imperial presidency, which advanced so dramatically during the Bush-Cheney era, will not be stopped merely by electing better presidents. Major structural changes are needed in our system of government to rein in both the imperial presidency and, at the same time, the presidential empire. Only through the active efforts of citizens, Swanson argues, can we restore and protect our rights, and expand our conception of political rights to meet new challenges.
AUTHOR BIO: David Swanson is the author of the new bestselling book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush" published by Feral House and available at Amazon.com. Swanson holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson is Co-Founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, creator of ConvictBushCheney.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com, a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, the Backbone Campaign, and Voters for Peace. Full bio here.
PRAISE: "David Swanson's Daybreak impressively exposes all the ways our government has changed for the worse under the Bush administration, and makes clear that we need to do far more than elect a new president to see our tattered Democracy restored." -- Vincent Bugliosi, author, former federal prosecutor
"Daybreak offers a powerful and compelling picture of what real change in America could look like. The world needs more true advocates of democracy like David Swanson!" -- Thom Hartmann, Author, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight
"David Swanson's masterful exposure of the emergence of a monarch-like president coupled with an effete, irresponsible, and constitutionally ignorant Congress is well worth the price of admission. An aroused public with a litmus test of honoring the Constitution is urgently needed to prevent the Republic from capsizing." -- Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan
"Daybreak is an eyeopener about how our nation was hijacked by the Bush administration and how much repair work we, as citizens, must do. David Swanson, who has been a one-man wonder leading the charge for accountability, writes a compelling narrative that inspires not just outrage, but ACTION." --Medea Benjamin, CoFounder of Code Pink and Global Exchange
"David Swanson is the most thoughtful, determined, and energetic progressive activist in America, and one of the most important voices of his generation. He's also a unique bridge between traditional real-world organizing and the brand new world of online activism. His combination of cheerful organizing, passionate speaking, and brilliant blogging is an inspiration to everyone who craves a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world." -- Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com
"In this important book, David Swanson carefully documents the myriad ways in which Bush-Cheney has amassed unprecedented imperial power, while Congress has abdicated its constitutional duty to check and balance the executive. A useful guide to restore the balance of powers and reclaim our constitutional system of government." -- Marjorie Cohn, President of National Lawyers Guild
"Our times cry out for a smart, witty and courageous Populist who hasn’t forgotten how to play offense. Luckily we have David Swanson." -- Mike Ferner, National President of Veterans For Peace, author of "Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq."
"Swanson has been an indefatigable commentator and activist tirelessly advocating for the dismantling of the imperial presidency and the restoration of the principles of our Constitution. His energy and passion are infectious, as is his cogent reasoning. 'Daybreak' urgently reminds us that good political intentions are not sufficient to ensure the continuation of our democracy; informed vigilance is vital to that task." -- Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher, BuzzFlash.com
"If Tom Jefferson were with us today, he would be saying that we still must burst the chains of monkish ignorance and superstition and break the bindings that strangle our liberty. But Jefferson - like Paine - is gone. So it falls to another from Virginia to sound the signal for a rising on behalf of the republic and our own freedom. That man is David Swanson, and this remarkable book is his - and America's - call to arms." -- John Nichols, from the Introduction
"David Swanson writes faster than anyone I know, and is always worth reading. He wields a wicked pen (well, technically a wicked keyboard), a la Swift or Twain. He thinks with precision and intelligence, with the powerful logic of an undefeated chess-playing computer program. He is fearless, speaking truth to both power all the time. He bears daily witness to the decomposition of our would-be democracy, and he carries that same crusading spirit into this book. Read it. Buy it for your friends, especially your younger ones. Get together and argue about it. Ask John Stewart and Stephen Colbert to have him on their shows. Because a better world is still possible, and to get there, a more democratic America is necessary." -- Steve Cobble
"There have now been many books written which chronicle the imperial, lawless presidency of the Bush era, but Swanson’s superb new book -- Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union -- is one of the very few to examine how we can recover from it and reverse its pernicious trends. Many Bush books, given the horrific subject matter, have been dark and gloomy, even somewhat depressing. To be sure, there are parts of Swanson's book that documents in gruesome detail all of the liberties abridged and damage done during the last eight years. This book also does not shy away from highlighting those areas in which the Obama presidency has, much to the dismay of many, come to replicate some (though by no means all) of the worst Bush abuses. But Daybreak is far more uplifting and inspiring than virtually any other book in its genre, as it devotes itself to laying out a detailed plan for how American citizens -- through the activism to which he has devoted himself -- can bring about a rejuvenation of our political values." -- Glenn Greenwald
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By dswanson - Posted on 31 October 2010
**Counter-recruitment groups have asked for a supply of this book to use at tables countering the propaganda of military recruiters. We need funding for this effort. Contact, or Contribute at right.**
Please post this image:
Book Tour Dates Here.
WAR IS A LIE is a thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify 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’s War Is A Lie (Charlottesville, VA, 2010) may be the most comprehensive antiwar statement available in the English language." — Kevin Young, ZNet
“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.
“While Americans elect leaders whom they trust are honest, truthful and really care about the kids they send to kill for our country, War Is A Lie reveals decade after decade the sordid side of our history — that our elected officials lie us into war with stunning and embarrassing regularity and are little concerned about the harm to innocent civilians, much less to members of our own military.” — Colonel (retired) Ann Wright, author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience.
“This book is every American’s best defense against the greatest danger we face as human beings: the threat of war. Swanson reveals how American leaders (from both major political parties) have confused the public to create the illusion of consent for endless destruction and slaughter. Behind the fear-mongering, flag-waving and lies of George W. Bush and the blandishments of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama lies the ugly reality that our leaders have been seduced by political ambition, delusions of military superiority, and the promise of secrecy and impunity to commit otherwise unthinkable crimes.” — Nicolas J. S. Davies, Author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.
“David Swanson is an antidote to the toxins of complacency and evasion. He insists on rousing the sleepwalkers, confronting the deadly prevaricators and shining a bright light on possibilities for a truly better world.” — Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.
"This book is revolutionary, and certainly truth-telling in a remarkable and brave way. The writing is so clear and easy-to-read, too. A pleasure to read, except that the content is so devastating, because it all means that not only are we utterly deceived but our entire reality is based on that deception. Swanson has gotten to the core of something. The only thing is I'm not sure he realizes how hopeless it is to expect a change -- and yet that is part of the appeal of his writing: his hopefulness in the face of lies and repression and denial." — Jennifer Van Bergen, author of The Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America.
“War Is A Lie is an important and compelling book that arrives at a time when America is engaged in its longest running war to date. Swanson offers an incisive examination of the rationalizations, justifications, and outright lies that have led the United States, and other nations, into battle. And he shows the personal cost to the current generation of combatants returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” — Cynthia Wachtell, author of War No More: The Antiwar Impulse in American Literature 1861-1914.
“David Swanson has taken the mantle of AJ Muste, who had the guts and the audacity to declare World War II to have been unnecessary and wrong. Swanson takes Muste’s argument further to make the audacious claim that all wars are not just unnecessary, but a crime. He is correct, of course. Just as no good outcome (whether the ouster of a tyrant or the freeing of captive nations) can compensate for the death of millions of innocents, which of course is the argument made in defense of calling World War II a ‘good’ war, no good (whether the ousting of a tyrant or the claimed improvement in the rights of oppressed women) can compensate for the death of hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq or of tens of thousands of innocents in Afghanistan. This is a book that every American should read, especially those who think the United States is the good guy.” — Dave Lindorff , journalist, author of The Case for Impeachment, and founder of the online newspaper ThisCantBeHappening!
________________________________________
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.
DAYBREAK: UNDOING THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY
BOOK TOPIC: Daybreak is a prescription for political reform that literally ends with a to-do list for citizens, and draws inspiration from the misdeeds and missteps of the Bush and Obama presidencies. What powers were stripped from Congress and handed to the White House while George W. Bush lived there, and what would it take to permanently move them back? Which of these powers is Barack Obama making use of or even expanding upon? And in the future, how can we expand our rights, create democratic representation in Congress, and make presidents into executives rather than emperors? This is a citizens' guide to the long-term task of removing power from the hands of one person, placing it in a body of representatives, and (here's the hard part) making that body truly representative of the American people. Swanson's analysis makes clear that the imperial presidency, which advanced so dramatically during the Bush-Cheney era, will not be stopped merely by electing better presidents. Major structural changes are needed in our system of government to rein in both the imperial presidency and, at the same time, the presidential empire. Only through the active efforts of citizens, Swanson argues, can we restore and protect our rights, and expand our conception of political rights to meet new challenges.
AUTHOR BIO: David Swanson is the author of the new bestselling book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush" published by Feral House and available at Amazon.com. Swanson holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson is Co-Founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, creator of ConvictBushCheney.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com, a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, the Backbone Campaign, and Voters for Peace. Full bio here.
PRAISE: "David Swanson's Daybreak impressively exposes all the ways our government has changed for the worse under the Bush administration, and makes clear that we need to do far more than elect a new president to see our tattered Democracy restored." -- Vincent Bugliosi, author, former federal prosecutor
"Daybreak offers a powerful and compelling picture of what real change in America could look like. The world needs more true advocates of democracy like David Swanson!" -- Thom Hartmann, Author, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight
"David Swanson's masterful exposure of the emergence of a monarch-like president coupled with an effete, irresponsible, and constitutionally ignorant Congress is well worth the price of admission. An aroused public with a litmus test of honoring the Constitution is urgently needed to prevent the Republic from capsizing." -- Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan
"Daybreak is an eyeopener about how our nation was hijacked by the Bush administration and how much repair work we, as citizens, must do. David Swanson, who has been a one-man wonder leading the charge for accountability, writes a compelling narrative that inspires not just outrage, but ACTION." --Medea Benjamin, CoFounder of Code Pink and Global Exchange
"David Swanson is the most thoughtful, determined, and energetic progressive activist in America, and one of the most important voices of his generation. He's also a unique bridge between traditional real-world organizing and the brand new world of online activism. His combination of cheerful organizing, passionate speaking, and brilliant blogging is an inspiration to everyone who craves a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world." -- Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com
"In this important book, David Swanson carefully documents the myriad ways in which Bush-Cheney has amassed unprecedented imperial power, while Congress has abdicated its constitutional duty to check and balance the executive. A useful guide to restore the balance of powers and reclaim our constitutional system of government." -- Marjorie Cohn, President of National Lawyers Guild
"Our times cry out for a smart, witty and courageous Populist who hasn’t forgotten how to play offense. Luckily we have David Swanson." -- Mike Ferner, National President of Veterans For Peace, author of "Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq."
"Swanson has been an indefatigable commentator and activist tirelessly advocating for the dismantling of the imperial presidency and the restoration of the principles of our Constitution. His energy and passion are infectious, as is his cogent reasoning. 'Daybreak' urgently reminds us that good political intentions are not sufficient to ensure the continuation of our democracy; informed vigilance is vital to that task." -- Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher, BuzzFlash.com
"If Tom Jefferson were with us today, he would be saying that we still must burst the chains of monkish ignorance and superstition and break the bindings that strangle our liberty. But Jefferson - like Paine - is gone. So it falls to another from Virginia to sound the signal for a rising on behalf of the republic and our own freedom. That man is David Swanson, and this remarkable book is his - and America's - call to arms." -- John Nichols, from the Introduction
"David Swanson writes faster than anyone I know, and is always worth reading. He wields a wicked pen (well, technically a wicked keyboard), a la Swift or Twain. He thinks with precision and intelligence, with the powerful logic of an undefeated chess-playing computer program. He is fearless, speaking truth to both power all the time. He bears daily witness to the decomposition of our would-be democracy, and he carries that same crusading spirit into this book. Read it. Buy it for your friends, especially your younger ones. Get together and argue about it. Ask John Stewart and Stephen Colbert to have him on their shows. Because a better world is still possible, and to get there, a more democratic America is necessary." -- Steve Cobble
"There have now been many books written which chronicle the imperial, lawless presidency of the Bush era, but Swanson’s superb new book -- Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union -- is one of the very few to examine how we can recover from it and reverse its pernicious trends. Many Bush books, given the horrific subject matter, have been dark and gloomy, even somewhat depressing. To be sure, there are parts of Swanson's book that documents in gruesome detail all of the liberties abridged and damage done during the last eight years. This book also does not shy away from highlighting those areas in which the Obama presidency has, much to the dismay of many, come to replicate some (though by no means all) of the worst Bush abuses. But Daybreak is far more uplifting and inspiring than virtually any other book in its genre, as it devotes itself to laying out a detailed plan for how American citizens -- through the activism to which he has devoted himself -- can bring about a rejuvenation of our political values." -- Glenn Greenwald
Nonviolent Resistance to Israeli Occupation
2010 BOOKS: NONVIOLENT OPPOSITION TO THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF THE PALESTIANS
--Adelgang, Osie Gabriel, ed. Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation. Whole Earth P, 2010. Rev. YES! (Winter 2011). A collection of personal essays by 14 women activists opposed to the human costs of “Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians from their homeland.” “…true stories that stress human rights over political expedience.”
--Finkelstein, Norman. This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion. Rev. The Washington Report on ME Affairs (Nov. 2010).: Finkelstein “demonstrates, as did the Goldstone Report and numerous human rights observers, that the Israel Defense Forces (IdF) was reckless of civilian casualties.”
--Born a Refugee by Dixiane Hallaj, 2010. Fiction Tells the story of four brothers and their widowed mother living in the claustrophobic environment of their two room house in the Kalandia. More info at:http://radaris.com/p/Dixiane/Hallaj/
--Kaufman-Lacusta, Maxine. Refusing to Be Enemies: Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Israelli Occupation. Ithaca P (UK), 2010. Rev. The Catholic Worker (Oct. Nov. 2010): “…material gleaned from many interviews, with a somewhat greater emphasis on Palestinian nonviolent activists, because their work is so little khnown.” Mubarak Awad, Sami Awad, Muhammad Jadarat, May Rosenfeld, Ido Khenin, Mustafa Shawkat Samha. Includes discussion of two ongoing nonviolent campaigns: the joint Israeli and Palestinian activism against the Wall, and the weekly demonstrations in the West Bank village of Bil’in, and four brief essays. Also rev. Fellowship (Fall 2010).
--Letters from Palestine: Palestinians Speak Out about Their Lives, Their Country, and the Power of Nonviolence. Kenneth Ring and Ghassan Abdullah. Wheatmark, 2010. A collection of 30 personal stories from Palestinians, inside and outside the occupied territories, that provide penetrating insights into their daily lives and thoughts.
Mazin Qumsiyeh. Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and ...In this fascinating book, Dr Mazin Qumsiyeh synthesizes data from hundreds of original sources to provide the most comprehensive study of civil resistance ...
us.macmillan.com/POPULARRESISTANCEINPALESTINE - Cached
Popular Resistance in Palestine By Mazen QumsiyehNov 15, 2010 ... "Mazin Qumsiyeh's book is enlightening and powerful. It reveals the human suffering and destruction of Palestinian people and land, ...
www.aljazeerah.info/.../Book%20Launch%20Popular%20Resistance%
US CAMPAIGN TO END THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION
January 14, 2011
“King laid the groundwork. Let us keep building!”
Dear Dick,
The birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is one we truly enjoy commemorating. To reflect on King's life and work is to find hope in the future, and reverence for grueling campaigns past.
Dr. King at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967
As we approach Dr. King's birthday, at a moment when Palestinians and many Israelis are mourning the Israeli military's killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah with U.S.-made tear gas during a nonviolent West Bank protest conducted in the spirit of MLK...
...and also commemorating the 1,400 dead after the Israeli military's attrocities in Gaza two years ago...
...and while our own country is mourning the dead and injured in Tucson...
We remember the lessons of Dr. King.
We remember his wise linkage of the three evils of poverty, racism, and militarism, and his understanding that fighting for civil rights and racial justice in our own country requires all of us to fight against war abroad at the same time. (Click here to read or listen to King's magnum opus on the subject, "Beyond Vietnam.")
In those days, it was Vietnam. Today it is Afghanistan and Iraq and, yes, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which is funded, armed and enabled by our taxes and our government.
We affirm Dr. King's commitment to undoing those three evils together. We recognize that the $30 billion in military aid that the U.S. has promised Israel over a 10-year period must be better used (for example, to retrain 600,000 U.S. workers for new green jobs).
We understand that racism lies at the root of Israeli apartheid, now cemented in the segregation of everything from roads to courts of law. We know that crushing material poverty defines life in Gaza, due to Israel's U.S.-backed illegal siege that still eliminates the possibility to export goods and earn the basic income to rebuild a society.
The antidote to all three evils is creative nonviolent action. As the US Campaign turns 10 years old this year, we reaffirm our mission to build a nonviolent social movement that will defeat U.S. support for Israel's violent occupation and apartheid rule over Palestinians.
This coming weekend, while reflecting upon King's legacy and re-listening to his messages, let us rededicate our efforts to the emergence of a peaceful, just Middle East and a peaceful, just world.
In these efforts we are profoundly grateful to have you with us.
Yours,
Felicia Eaves & David Wildman
Co-Chairs
The US Campaign aims to change U.S. policies that sustain Israel's 43-year occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and that deny equal rights for all.
US CAMPAIGN TO END THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION | PO BOX 21539 | WASHINGTON, DC 20009
202-332-0994 | USCAMPAIGN@ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG | WWW.ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG
--Adelgang, Osie Gabriel, ed. Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation. Whole Earth P, 2010. Rev. YES! (Winter 2011). A collection of personal essays by 14 women activists opposed to the human costs of “Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians from their homeland.” “…true stories that stress human rights over political expedience.”
--Finkelstein, Norman. This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion. Rev. The Washington Report on ME Affairs (Nov. 2010).: Finkelstein “demonstrates, as did the Goldstone Report and numerous human rights observers, that the Israel Defense Forces (IdF) was reckless of civilian casualties.”
--Born a Refugee by Dixiane Hallaj, 2010. Fiction Tells the story of four brothers and their widowed mother living in the claustrophobic environment of their two room house in the Kalandia. More info at:http://radaris.com/p/Dixiane/Hallaj/
--Kaufman-Lacusta, Maxine. Refusing to Be Enemies: Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Israelli Occupation. Ithaca P (UK), 2010. Rev. The Catholic Worker (Oct. Nov. 2010): “…material gleaned from many interviews, with a somewhat greater emphasis on Palestinian nonviolent activists, because their work is so little khnown.” Mubarak Awad, Sami Awad, Muhammad Jadarat, May Rosenfeld, Ido Khenin, Mustafa Shawkat Samha. Includes discussion of two ongoing nonviolent campaigns: the joint Israeli and Palestinian activism against the Wall, and the weekly demonstrations in the West Bank village of Bil’in, and four brief essays. Also rev. Fellowship (Fall 2010).
--Letters from Palestine: Palestinians Speak Out about Their Lives, Their Country, and the Power of Nonviolence. Kenneth Ring and Ghassan Abdullah. Wheatmark, 2010. A collection of 30 personal stories from Palestinians, inside and outside the occupied territories, that provide penetrating insights into their daily lives and thoughts.
Mazin Qumsiyeh. Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and ...In this fascinating book, Dr Mazin Qumsiyeh synthesizes data from hundreds of original sources to provide the most comprehensive study of civil resistance ...
us.macmillan.com/POPULARRESISTANCEINPALESTINE - Cached
Popular Resistance in Palestine By Mazen QumsiyehNov 15, 2010 ... "Mazin Qumsiyeh's book is enlightening and powerful. It reveals the human suffering and destruction of Palestinian people and land, ...
www.aljazeerah.info/.../Book%20Launch%20Popular%20Resistance%
US CAMPAIGN TO END THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION
January 14, 2011
“King laid the groundwork. Let us keep building!”
Dear Dick,
The birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is one we truly enjoy commemorating. To reflect on King's life and work is to find hope in the future, and reverence for grueling campaigns past.
Dr. King at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967
As we approach Dr. King's birthday, at a moment when Palestinians and many Israelis are mourning the Israeli military's killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah with U.S.-made tear gas during a nonviolent West Bank protest conducted in the spirit of MLK...
...and also commemorating the 1,400 dead after the Israeli military's attrocities in Gaza two years ago...
...and while our own country is mourning the dead and injured in Tucson...
We remember the lessons of Dr. King.
We remember his wise linkage of the three evils of poverty, racism, and militarism, and his understanding that fighting for civil rights and racial justice in our own country requires all of us to fight against war abroad at the same time. (Click here to read or listen to King's magnum opus on the subject, "Beyond Vietnam.")
In those days, it was Vietnam. Today it is Afghanistan and Iraq and, yes, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which is funded, armed and enabled by our taxes and our government.
We affirm Dr. King's commitment to undoing those three evils together. We recognize that the $30 billion in military aid that the U.S. has promised Israel over a 10-year period must be better used (for example, to retrain 600,000 U.S. workers for new green jobs).
We understand that racism lies at the root of Israeli apartheid, now cemented in the segregation of everything from roads to courts of law. We know that crushing material poverty defines life in Gaza, due to Israel's U.S.-backed illegal siege that still eliminates the possibility to export goods and earn the basic income to rebuild a society.
The antidote to all three evils is creative nonviolent action. As the US Campaign turns 10 years old this year, we reaffirm our mission to build a nonviolent social movement that will defeat U.S. support for Israel's violent occupation and apartheid rule over Palestinians.
This coming weekend, while reflecting upon King's legacy and re-listening to his messages, let us rededicate our efforts to the emergence of a peaceful, just Middle East and a peaceful, just world.
In these efforts we are profoundly grateful to have you with us.
Yours,
Felicia Eaves & David Wildman
Co-Chairs
The US Campaign aims to change U.S. policies that sustain Israel's 43-year occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and that deny equal rights for all.
US CAMPAIGN TO END THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION | PO BOX 21539 | WASHINGTON, DC 20009
202-332-0994 | USCAMPAIGN@ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG | WWW.ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG
Thursday, December 2, 2010
FAIR: Media Criticism
FAIR with its magazine EXTRA! is one of the few US organizations devoted to examining US media reporting. It deserves our support. Dick
New Extra! December 2010
Hoover Wins!
Media spin election as victory for austerity
By Jim Naureckas
Suing Your Readers for Spite and Profit
Copyright suits final hope or last gasp of print media?
By Beau Hodai
Subscriptions to FAIR's magazine Extra! are a big part of what keeps FAIR going. Support our vital work of challenging corporate media bias--please subscribe today and receive articles only available to subscribers.
New!: Become an e-subscriber and get this issue instantly! Get a PDF of Extra! in your inbox each month for only $15 a year. See below for more subscription details.
Articles only available in print or to e-subscribers:
Unfrozen Settlements in Palestine
Portraying Israeli 'PR stunt' as peace offer
by Peter Hart
Dictating the Press
U.S. media defend Argentine media's connection to military junta
by Marie Trigona
Product-Themed Programs Are New Low for Kids TV
Shows aimed at selling, not storytelling
by Janine Jackson
BOOK EXCERPT
Creating the Illusion of Popular Demand
Corporate realities behind 'reality TV'
by Jennifer L. Pozner
Extra! accepts NO outside advertising--so your support is vital to continuing FAIR's work of presenting well-documented media criticism.
Subscribe now and get Extra!'s hard-hitting review of the news delivered to your door every month for only $22 for one year.
Special offer on two-year subscriptions:
Order a two-year print subscription for $39, and get a free book: Cable News Confidential, a scathingly witty and painfully frank behind-the-scenes account of cable news by leading media critic and FAIR founder Jeff Cohen.
(U.S. orders only.)
Or become an e-subscriber for the low price of only $15 a year! Don't wait for those Extra! articles, get them instantly when you subscribe today.
New Extra! December 2010
Hoover Wins!
Media spin election as victory for austerity
By Jim Naureckas
Suing Your Readers for Spite and Profit
Copyright suits final hope or last gasp of print media?
By Beau Hodai
Subscriptions to FAIR's magazine Extra! are a big part of what keeps FAIR going. Support our vital work of challenging corporate media bias--please subscribe today and receive articles only available to subscribers.
New!: Become an e-subscriber and get this issue instantly! Get a PDF of Extra! in your inbox each month for only $15 a year. See below for more subscription details.
Articles only available in print or to e-subscribers:
Unfrozen Settlements in Palestine
Portraying Israeli 'PR stunt' as peace offer
by Peter Hart
Dictating the Press
U.S. media defend Argentine media's connection to military junta
by Marie Trigona
Product-Themed Programs Are New Low for Kids TV
Shows aimed at selling, not storytelling
by Janine Jackson
BOOK EXCERPT
Creating the Illusion of Popular Demand
Corporate realities behind 'reality TV'
by Jennifer L. Pozner
Extra! accepts NO outside advertising--so your support is vital to continuing FAIR's work of presenting well-documented media criticism.
Subscribe now and get Extra!'s hard-hitting review of the news delivered to your door every month for only $22 for one year.
Special offer on two-year subscriptions:
Order a two-year print subscription for $39, and get a free book: Cable News Confidential, a scathingly witty and painfully frank behind-the-scenes account of cable news by leading media critic and FAIR founder Jeff Cohen.
(U.S. orders only.)
Or become an e-subscriber for the low price of only $15 a year! Don't wait for those Extra! articles, get them instantly when you subscribe today.
JUDAISM OF COMPASSION AND PEACE by Rabbi Melchior
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Debra DeLee, APN <apndc@peacenow.org>
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 11:10 AM
Subject: A must read this Hanukkah.
To: James Bennett <jbennet@uark.edu>
From: Debra DeLee, APN <apndc@peacenow.org>
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 11:10 AM
Subject: A must read this Hanukkah.
To: James Bennett <jbennet@uark.edu>
|
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--
Dick Bennett
Wars and Warming: Reducing the Footprints
My blog:
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
jbennet@uark.edu
(479) 442-4600
2582 Jimmie Ave.
Fayetteville, AR 72703
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
jbennet@uark.edu
(479) 442-4600
2582 Jimmie Ave.
Fayetteville, AR 72703
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Public Support for the US Empire
WHY SO LITTLE OPPOSITIION TO US WARS? WHY IS THE PUBLIC SILENT?
Several explanations of German public support of Nazi wars and occupations give us material for analysis of public support of recurrent US wars and occupations.
Get STATS on % support
Of course one nation was a dictatorship and the other is a republic, but the issue is the mutual viciousness of their national policies—for this essay specifically foreign policies--and why the public went along.
How did the Nazis gain such broad support from the German population?
One view is that the Third Reich was a nightmare of fear and intimidation, created by the Gestapo, the prisons for dissenters, and torture. .
A much stronger explanation is that the German populace was already extremely anti-Semitic needing only a little incentive to be willing executioners.
A third view marshalls the evidence of the power of Hitler’s personality greatly magnified by an extraordinary national propaganda machine.
And a forth explanation is that the Nazis satisfied the economic self-interest of the people, by decent wages, a graduated income tax, a pension system, and the plunder from the occupied territories, which enabled the Nazis to keep their own populace and their soldiers content, and their occupied territories quiescent.
A historian has written, “The Nazis were not only the most notorious murderers in history but also the greatest thieves.” In comparison, the US is a child. But one historian does claim that “…a few million people have died in the American holocaust, and many more millions have been condemned to lives of misery and torture as a result of US interventions [against the alleged international communist conspiracy] extending from China and Greece inn the 1940s to Afghanistan and Iraq in the 1990s” (Blum 1995). So the question stands: How did the U.S. elected rulers gain such broad support for its longest war against Afghanistan fought simultaneously with a second war against Iraq, and additional wars emerging after ten years?
Of the four explanations listed above, only the first three seem to apply to the U. S.
Fear does permeate our country. The communist and socialist parties have been virtually eradicated. “Liberals” are now under similar attack. The FBI has revived aspects of their 1960s COINTELPRO. Many of the US populace do not want to sign petitions for fear of being placed on an “un-American” or “terrorist” list. The FBI is not the Gestapo, and the Marion super-max prison is not Buchenwald, but they’re enough, maybe, to explain why so few “citizens” publicly decry the leaders and policies of the government.
Replace Jews with Muslims and you see the parallel scapegoating today. Over a thousand Muslims were detained after 9-11, hundreds for extended periods without charge, and reports of bigoted actions against Muslims are numerous to the present. Invading and occupying Muslim nations and killing tens of thousands of Muslim civilians, and assassinating and torturing thousands of suspected terrorists without benefit of trial, have not produced more than the outcry of the peace movement. The U.S. willing executioners are small numerically compared to the Nazi slaughter, but intrinsically it’s similar behavior.
Presidents Bush and Obama are cardboard cutouts compared to Hitler; their rallies possessing the drama of a boy scout gathering compared to the spectacles organized by the Nazis at Nuremberg for Hitler’s rants, but combined with the fear and bigotry their speeches and persistence carried the Congress and the populace forward to continued war. Only one member of the House of Representatives voted against the resolution (not Declaration of War) supporting the invasion of Afghanistan, but that was much more the shock of the plane bombings and the pre-existent hatred of “ragheads” than from any cult of personality surrounding President G. W. Bush.
The fourth, economic, explanation does not seem to apply at all, for although the war industry capitalists are making money, the income of the general populations has continued to decline, along with services and state and municipal services.
Have we then answered the question why the U.S. public generally is so acquiescent against its governments’ illegal, unjust, financially disastrous wars? The peace movement can get to work especially on extricating the public from the fear and bigotry which fuels their support or their passivity?
But these explanations don’t seem adequate to me. The public does not seem so timorous or so prejudiced; the presidents lack Hitler’s charisma. Other motives and causes seem to be in play. Have the people become so cynical and exhausted by endless war that they cannot recognize and feel the suffering of the victims of our wars? Or is it something else, distinctly different from fear, hatred, cynicism, or numbness.
Andrew Bacevich adds a promising explanation. He examines the cluster of assumptions and practices that have driven US foreign policy since WWII. They have become so deeply accepted by the public that few are aware of them. Bacevich divides this tenacious consensus into two parts to shine a light on them, which he labels credo and trinity.
The US “credo” is a system of purposes by which the world should work and for which the US is responsible. These norms summon the US alone to transform the world as the US sees fit, since the US is fundamentally benign and good for the world. It has become virtually unquestioned dogma, which explains why US global leadership and primacy have become the prerequisite for political office and public approval. Question “the troops” under God, and political defeat is certain.
And the means is hard power, coercion above all. Thus the US must maintain military forces not for defense but for overwhelming armed force projected around the world. Military might is now as essential to the public’s identity as is the credo. The sacred trinity has become the second part of the US foreign policy cluster of iron assumptions: the US must maintain a global military dominance, must organize its forces for global power projection, and must counter real or imagined threats by global intervention and invasion.
“Together, credo and trinity—the one defining purpose, the other practice—constitute the essence of the way that Washington has attempted to govern and police the American Century.” Given this ingrained consensus during seventy years of imperial expansion, other explanations of US public conformity are clearly seen as functions of sustaining the consensus. And the similarity of German and US assumptions of national superiority justifying conquest becomes clearer.
.
References
--Aly, Gotz. Hitler’s Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State. Metropolitan/Holt, 2007. The Nazis used economic policy to retain power.
--Bacevich, Andrew. Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War. Metropolitan, 2010.
--Blum, William. Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II.” Common Courage, 1995.
Goldhagen, Daniel. Hitler’s Willing Executioners . 1996.
Herzog, Dagmar. “Handouts from Hitler.” NYT Book Review (2-18-07). Rev. of Aly. Dick
Several explanations of German public support of Nazi wars and occupations give us material for analysis of public support of recurrent US wars and occupations.
Get STATS on % support
Of course one nation was a dictatorship and the other is a republic, but the issue is the mutual viciousness of their national policies—for this essay specifically foreign policies--and why the public went along.
How did the Nazis gain such broad support from the German population?
One view is that the Third Reich was a nightmare of fear and intimidation, created by the Gestapo, the prisons for dissenters, and torture. .
A much stronger explanation is that the German populace was already extremely anti-Semitic needing only a little incentive to be willing executioners.
A third view marshalls the evidence of the power of Hitler’s personality greatly magnified by an extraordinary national propaganda machine.
And a forth explanation is that the Nazis satisfied the economic self-interest of the people, by decent wages, a graduated income tax, a pension system, and the plunder from the occupied territories, which enabled the Nazis to keep their own populace and their soldiers content, and their occupied territories quiescent.
A historian has written, “The Nazis were not only the most notorious murderers in history but also the greatest thieves.” In comparison, the US is a child. But one historian does claim that “…a few million people have died in the American holocaust, and many more millions have been condemned to lives of misery and torture as a result of US interventions [against the alleged international communist conspiracy] extending from China and Greece inn the 1940s to Afghanistan and Iraq in the 1990s” (Blum 1995). So the question stands: How did the U.S. elected rulers gain such broad support for its longest war against Afghanistan fought simultaneously with a second war against Iraq, and additional wars emerging after ten years?
Of the four explanations listed above, only the first three seem to apply to the U. S.
Fear does permeate our country. The communist and socialist parties have been virtually eradicated. “Liberals” are now under similar attack. The FBI has revived aspects of their 1960s COINTELPRO. Many of the US populace do not want to sign petitions for fear of being placed on an “un-American” or “terrorist” list. The FBI is not the Gestapo, and the Marion super-max prison is not Buchenwald, but they’re enough, maybe, to explain why so few “citizens” publicly decry the leaders and policies of the government.
Replace Jews with Muslims and you see the parallel scapegoating today. Over a thousand Muslims were detained after 9-11, hundreds for extended periods without charge, and reports of bigoted actions against Muslims are numerous to the present. Invading and occupying Muslim nations and killing tens of thousands of Muslim civilians, and assassinating and torturing thousands of suspected terrorists without benefit of trial, have not produced more than the outcry of the peace movement. The U.S. willing executioners are small numerically compared to the Nazi slaughter, but intrinsically it’s similar behavior.
Presidents Bush and Obama are cardboard cutouts compared to Hitler; their rallies possessing the drama of a boy scout gathering compared to the spectacles organized by the Nazis at Nuremberg for Hitler’s rants, but combined with the fear and bigotry their speeches and persistence carried the Congress and the populace forward to continued war. Only one member of the House of Representatives voted against the resolution (not Declaration of War) supporting the invasion of Afghanistan, but that was much more the shock of the plane bombings and the pre-existent hatred of “ragheads” than from any cult of personality surrounding President G. W. Bush.
The fourth, economic, explanation does not seem to apply at all, for although the war industry capitalists are making money, the income of the general populations has continued to decline, along with services and state and municipal services.
Have we then answered the question why the U.S. public generally is so acquiescent against its governments’ illegal, unjust, financially disastrous wars? The peace movement can get to work especially on extricating the public from the fear and bigotry which fuels their support or their passivity?
But these explanations don’t seem adequate to me. The public does not seem so timorous or so prejudiced; the presidents lack Hitler’s charisma. Other motives and causes seem to be in play. Have the people become so cynical and exhausted by endless war that they cannot recognize and feel the suffering of the victims of our wars? Or is it something else, distinctly different from fear, hatred, cynicism, or numbness.
Andrew Bacevich adds a promising explanation. He examines the cluster of assumptions and practices that have driven US foreign policy since WWII. They have become so deeply accepted by the public that few are aware of them. Bacevich divides this tenacious consensus into two parts to shine a light on them, which he labels credo and trinity.
The US “credo” is a system of purposes by which the world should work and for which the US is responsible. These norms summon the US alone to transform the world as the US sees fit, since the US is fundamentally benign and good for the world. It has become virtually unquestioned dogma, which explains why US global leadership and primacy have become the prerequisite for political office and public approval. Question “the troops” under God, and political defeat is certain.
And the means is hard power, coercion above all. Thus the US must maintain military forces not for defense but for overwhelming armed force projected around the world. Military might is now as essential to the public’s identity as is the credo. The sacred trinity has become the second part of the US foreign policy cluster of iron assumptions: the US must maintain a global military dominance, must organize its forces for global power projection, and must counter real or imagined threats by global intervention and invasion.
“Together, credo and trinity—the one defining purpose, the other practice—constitute the essence of the way that Washington has attempted to govern and police the American Century.” Given this ingrained consensus during seventy years of imperial expansion, other explanations of US public conformity are clearly seen as functions of sustaining the consensus. And the similarity of German and US assumptions of national superiority justifying conquest becomes clearer.
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References
--Aly, Gotz. Hitler’s Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State. Metropolitan/Holt, 2007. The Nazis used economic policy to retain power.
--Bacevich, Andrew. Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War. Metropolitan, 2010.
--Blum, William. Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II.” Common Courage, 1995.
Goldhagen, Daniel. Hitler’s Willing Executioners . 1996.
Herzog, Dagmar. “Handouts from Hitler.” NYT Book Review (2-18-07). Rev. of Aly. Dick
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