Do Politicians Lie to us about war?
In his book “War is a Lie,” second edition (April 2016), David Swanson claims he presents a thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify wars, drawing on evidence from numerous past wars, with a focus on those that have been most widely defended as just and good. In essence, in his well-documented book, he says the people in power lie to us about why we should go to war, then change the lie during the war, and change it yet again after the war, all to justify the war in question. He illustrates how politicians provoke wars and why.
The United States now has a military presence in more than 140 countries, with more than 900 bases, and has had its military involved in military operations in 174 countries within the last few years.
Assuming all this to be true for the purposes of discussion, what should the Objectivist response be when questioned about the presence of the United States military in foreign lands (for example, in the South China Sea, in the Baltic Sea, and off the coast of Iran where two of our vessels went more than 20 miles inside Iranian waters) which appear to act as a provocation to other countries to go to war with the US?
The United States now has a military presence in more than 140 countries, with more than 900 bases, and has had its military involved in military operations in 174 countries within the last few years.
Assuming all this to be true for the purposes of discussion, what should the Objectivist response be when questioned about the presence of the United States military in foreign lands (for example, in the South China Sea, in the Baltic Sea, and off the coast of Iran where two of our vessels went more than 20 miles inside Iranian waters) which appear to act as a provocation to other countries to go to war with the US?
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“The war on Vietnam may have killed 4 million civilians or more, plus 1.1 million North Vietnamese troops, 40,000 South Vietnamese troops, and 58,000 U.S. forces.” Swanson, David (2016-04-05). War Is A Lie (Kindle Locations 3515-3516). Just World Books. Kindle Edition.
I do not think it was worth it even if we were not lied to. But my point was more directed toward the question if we the people had not been lied to, do Objectivists think we should have been in the war in the first place?
Well said, indeed.
And think on this - while there is a reason for classifying documents, a valid reason is NOT (a) to bury the truth, (b) to mislead the American people, or (c) prevent embarrassment to a politician. Yet, that type of classification is becoming more and more common...
Then they went on to lie about finding WMD's because they believed they had already lost the argument.
You cannot buy anything from or sell anything to someone you have killed, especially if he kills you first.
War is counter-productive.
Every bullet, every bomb represents lost capital. An unsold refrigerator has more value than a bullet.
It does happen that the world can be a dangerous place; and people do exist who will hurt you because perpetration and aggression is their nature. That said, we have yet to instantiate an intelligent, rational, and real alternative to war.
It is a truism that the greatest period of relative peace and prosperity was the Capitalist Century 1815-1914.
Just a couple days ago I was listening to an interview of Simon Black (Michael Covel podcast). It was the first I've heard of the man. But, his story about going into Iraq based on that lie and how it forced him to really start questioning everything the government lies about - very powerful. They lie to us about everything: medicine, science, zika virus, the environment, global warming, fish counts (there's a random one I know something about)...all kinds of things. It's almost as though we're all living in a big Truman Show. I'm not even angry about it, anymore. I get a kick out of it now. Unfortunately, most just stomp around like zombies.
Strange stuff...