David Swanson's Blog, page 240
December 29, 2010
Planet Green Takes on Planetary War: Mickey Z. Interviews David Swanson
By Mickey Z., Planet Green
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David Swanson, blogger and author of Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union, has a compelling and timely new book out called War is a Lie. A thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify wars, Swanson calls War is a Lie "a handbook of sorts, a manual to be used in debunking future lies before future wars have a chance to begin."
Rob Kall of OpEd News, goes further, calling Swanson's latest, "an intellectual accomplishment that lays out the truths about war and the lies that support in a way that every peace activist, every anti-war organization and group must digest and frankly, use as the tools to take the arguments against war to a new more effective level."
I recently spoke with David Swanson about his book and related issues. Our conversation is below.
WATCH VIDEO: Somehow, the good guys are now called "terrorists"
David Swanson on War and Peace
My Conversation With David Swanson
Planet Green: What is it about the way war is portrayed in mainstream culture that led you to write this book?
David Swanson: War is portrayed as good and glorious, as a crusade against the gravest dangers, as something that makes us safer rather than increasing our risk, as defensive rather than aggressive, as humanitarian and a question of our responsibility to the people we are terrorizing whether they want us in their countries or not, and as unavoidable. If war lies are exposed, they are treated as an exception. If one war is viewed as a mistake, it is as a mistake rather than a crime, and as an exception rather than the norm. I was tired of the Iraq War being treated as somehow unique when all wars are based on lies, and when authors like you have documented the lies told about World War II, the single most glorified and defended war.
PG: Has anything substantial changed about war-related propaganda in this post-9/11 world?
DS: There are always variations on the themes that have supported wars for 10,000 years or so. The threat of the Soviet Union or communism was, within a dozen years of its elimination, replaced with the threat of al Qaeda or terrorism. I write in the book:
"Wars against an empire and an ideology would become wars against a small terrorist group and a tactic. The change had some advantages. While the Soviet Union could publicly collapse, a secretive and widely dispersed collection of terrorist cells to which we could apply the name al Qaeda could never be proven to have gone away. An ideology could fall out of favor, but anywhere we fought wars or imposed unwelcome control, people would fight back, and their fighting would be 'terrorism' because it was directed against us. This was a new justification for never-ending war. But the motivation was the war, not the crusade to eliminate terrorism which crusade would, of course, produce more terrorism. The motivation was U.S. control over areas of 'vital interest,' namely profitable natural resources and markets and strategic positions for military bases from which to extend power over yet more resources and markets, and from which to deny any imaginable 'rivals' anything resembling 'American self-confidence.' This is, of course, aided and abetted by the motivations of those who profit financially from the war making itself."
PG: For many of the more mainstream readers, your Table of Contents alone is a wake-up call:
Wars Are Not Fought Against Evil
Wars Are Not Launched in Defense
Wars Are Not Waged Out of Generosity
Wars Are Not Unavoidable
Warriors Are Not Heroes
War Makers Do Not Have Noble Motives
Wars Are Not Prolonged for the Good of Soldiers
Wars Are Not Fought on Battlefields
Wars Are Not Won, and Are Not Ended By Enlarging Them
War News Does Not Come From Disinterested Observers
War Does Not Bring Security and Is Not Sustainable
Wars Are Not Legal
Wars Cannot Be Both Planned and Avoided
War Is Over If You Want It
DS: I intend through the course of this argument to demonstrate that all of the claims used to launch specific wars are false, and all of the beliefs that support the war economy and dangerous presidential war powers are based on fundamental lies. Not only were specific documented lies used to launch each war the United States has entered, but new lies have been told to keep them going and to defend them after the fact. And the lie that our nation and the world can survive the course we're on, environmentally, economically, or while maintaining representative government, is the largest lie there is. Through the argument of Chapter 4 against the inevitability of war, and through the proposals in Chapter 14 for a different approach to foreign relations, I intend to suggest that another world is possible and that seeing through deeply entrenched lies can help us get there—lies of the sort that allow us to utter such phrases as "military aid" or "department of defense" or "preemptive war."
PG: Absolutely another world is possible—a world in which the War Department being renamed the Department of Defense would be greeted with derision and outrage. But—and here’s the one million taxpayer dollars per minute question—how do we wean the public off its addiction to all things military?
DS: As much as I think the public needs enlightenment, I think the blame here goes first to our misrepresentatives in Congress. The public backs wars when they're new, but then turns against them and says they should never have been launched and should be ended. And Congress does not end them. When asked how they would alter the federal budget, a majority of Americans says we should significantly cut the military and invest in useful things. So, one answer is that we need the sort of reforms described in my earlier book, Daybreak, reforms to restrain the corrupting influence of money and party as well as propaganda.
That being said, the goal of my new book is to move people to the point where we don't support wars even when they're new. A little consideration of the past suggests that we've been fooled more than enough times. It's not just the incidents invented, manufactured, or seized upon to initiate wars that are lies. The stories we are told to keep wars going once begun and to whitewash them once they're over, as well as the pretenses that they're over when they are not, are likewise based on lies. A web of long-accepted lies supports the destruction of our economy through diversion of our wealth into wars, into preparation for wars, and into a network of military bases around the globe. The idea that we can survive this war machine environmentally, economically, or with a representative government intact is built on pure lies. And the secret, unaccountable war-making powers established by deeply entrenched lies about what endangers us and what protects us enables the rising threat of small and secret and proxy and even unmanned wars, wars that can be launched without any specific lies required.
PG: What would you like people to do immediately after reading your book?
DS: The easy answer is: buy more copies for your friends and libraries and congress members, and to hand out at recruiting stations; post your comments on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and Powell's and my website, and call television producers to tell them about the book. The harder answer is what to do for a longer period. What each person can best do is going to vary with where they are and what they're good at and interested in. Everyone should sign up at my site and join the campaigns at Defund War. We have to push for cuts to the military machine as a key part of the answer to the economic crisis, without letting up on the central moral argument against the evil of war. Beyond that, should you work on counter-recruitment or media, lobbying or nonviolent protest, education or web design? I think it depends on what you find most rewarding, because it all needs to be done.
Helena Cobban Publishes Terrific Review of "War Is A Lie"
My neighbor and friend, the antiwar activist David Swanson, recently published a terrific book that takes on, one by one, all the main myths/lies that warmongers use to try to persuade people that wars are effective, moral, and necessary. The book's title 'War is a Lie' is a subtle reference to (and its contents a good complement to) Smedley Butler's 1935 classic study 'War is a Racket'.
Here are some of David's chapter titles:
Charlottesville--Right Now: Rick Sincere and David Swanson join Coy Barefoot
Charlottesville--Right Now, Interviews, National politics, New audio, Politics, Radio Shows, WINA Add comments
Dec 282010
12.28.10 Former Chair of the Libertarian Party of Virginia Rick Sincere and Author David Swanson join Coy to recap 2010. Two well known voices in Central Virginia, Swanson and Sincere touch on what they view to be the most significant national political stories from the almost finished year- including the financial state of our country, American military involvement abroad, and the growing sense of “Big Brother” in the United States. Be sure to check out David’s newest book War is a Lie.
Standard Podcast: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download (27)December 28, 2010
FILIBLUSTER
There's a simple reason why the Democrats in Washington, D.C., can't end the wars or shrink the military or close Guantanamo or legalize union organizing or create a real health coverage system or repeal NAFTA or tax carbon or (fill in the blank).
But the simple reason keeps changing.
In 2005 and 2006 it was that they were in a minority in the House and Senate.
In 2007 and 2008 it was that they lacked the White House.
In 2009 and 2010 it was the filibuster.
In 2011 and 2012 it will be that they are a minority in the House.
The 2005-2006 reason was credible, even if Republicans seem to have no trouble passing tax bills in the minority.
A Year of Fall and Decline
The fall and decline of an empire can take many years, but certain "benchmarks" (as imperial courts have been known to call them) can measure the progress in one year alone. Take, for example, the year 2010.
December 27, 2010
NYC - Baltimore - DC - "War Is A Lie" Tour
David Swanson to Discuss, Sign Copies of "War Is A Lie" in NYC, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.
"David Swanson's War Is A Lie may be the most comprehensive antiwar statement available in the English language." — Kevin Young
"Not since General Smedley Butler's War is a Racket has a simpler, more brilliant, or truer book been published." — Geoffrey Millard
"David Swanson despises war and lying, and unmasks them both with rare intelligence. I learn something new on every page." — Jeff Cohen
NEW YORK CITY
Jan. 4
7:00 p.m.
McNally Jackson Bookstore, 52 Prince St. (b/t Lafayette & Mulberry), NYC.
With Mark Crispin Miller.
*****
BALTIMORE
Jan. 10
7:00 p.m.
Johns Hopkins Barnes & Noble, 3330 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, (410) 662-5850
Cosponsors:
Pledge of Resistance Baltimore
Chesapeake Citizens
Voters for Peace
Progressive Democrats of America/Maryland
Generations for Peace and Democracy
DETAILS and FLYER:
http://davidswanson.org/node/2996
*****
WASHINGTON DC
Jan. 18
6:30 p.m.
Busboys and Poets, 5th and K Streets NW
Cosponsors:
Chesapeake Citizens
CODE PINK
Democracy for Montgomery County
Democrats.com
Global Exchange
Marc Steiner Show
Montgomery County Progressive Alliance
Progressive Democrats of America
PDA - Maryland
PDA - Virginia
WarIsACrime.org
Washington Peace Center
VFP Prosecute War Criminals Working Group
HumaneJustice.org
ProsecuteOfficials.org
Peace Action Montgomery
DETAILS and FLYER:
http://davidswanson.org/node/2950
December 25, 2010
On the 25th Day of Wikileaks, My Government Gave to Me
On the first day of Wikileaks, my government gave to me: the military in every embassy.
On the second day of Wikileaks, my government gave to me: two criminal presidents.
On the third day of Wikileaks, my government gave to me: three illegal wars.
December 24, 2010
December 23, 2010
AUDIO: Great Interview by Marianne Barisonek of David Swanson on "War Is A Lie"
From KBOO
David Swanson, author and activist talks about his new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming A More Perfect Union." The host is Marianne Barisonek.
Swanson talks about how the office of Presidency has acquired more and more power while Congress neglects its duties. He offers ideas on how we the people can rebalance the political structures.
Powers taken by George Bush will become cemented into place during the Obama administration unless Congress takes action. The aberrations of the Bush years will become norms and now is the time to undo the damage.
Many of the abuses committed by the Bush presidency were given legitimacy by the actions of his predecessor, Bill Clinton.
Title: David Swanson Interview
Length: 54:39 minutes (50.03 MB)
Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
December 22, 2010
Be the Peace You Want to See on Earth
By David Swanson
"And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we've been told from our birth
Hell they won't lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar's word worth
And what happened to peace on earth"
--Willie Nelson
When President Barack Obama joined the ranks of Henry Kissinger and the other gentle souls who have received Nobel Peace Prizes, he did something that I don't think anyone else had previously done in a Peace Prize acceptance speech. He argued for war:
