With a warmonger being forced into the White House, there's never been better time to remember what war can cost us all
On November the 11th the poppies were all out, worn by TV personalities (as instructed by their PR department), and politicians who have long forgotten what it was supposed to mean.
"Never Again", that was the intention. But it happened again. And again and again and again and again.
The wars never stopped, not because of religion or racism or humanity's bloodthirsty nature"but because of money. Money and power for the very few - the driving force behind almost every war, no matter the thin ideological veneer.
"War is a racket", that's how Major General Smedley D. Butler, put it:
I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
This message is more important than ever now, with a Biden administration being crow-barred into power at the cost of even the facade of democracy. Biden is not "progressive", no matter what they call him or how many rainbow flags they wave. He is not new. He is old, in more ways than one.
The Warhawks in politics and the press are already salivating at the idea. The BBC is putting out a new "documentary" series about Syria. The Guardian is writing about "US leadership on the world stage". One year on from his death, the press has decided that Russia is to blame for James Le Mesurier's "suicide".
Back in September, Josh Rogin writing in the Washington Post was even more flagrant, demanding Biden:
"increase pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to secure some dignity, safety and justice for the Syrian people."
It's not to hard to see where this is going. Whatever Trump may be, there's no denying he's been the least militarily aggressive president in recent memory. For the first time in nearly 40 years, a President did not start a new war in his term.
That is likely to change. They will begin drip-feeding propaganda on some "enemy" state soon enough - most likely Syria. The war drums will bang softly at first, they always do, but they will build.
That's when the lessons of World War I need to be foremost in our minds. When the old lies are busy being given new life.
I leave you with this excellent passage from
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