warisalie.org
warisacrime.org
davidswanson.org

I mention that David might be eligible for funding, or even, no joke, a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

I discuss Ward Wilson's work on 
The Myth of Nuclear Deterrence Ward Wilson's work
Ward received a mid six figure grant from the Nobel Peace committee to pursue his work on getting out the message that Nuclear arms did not win WWII, and that they are not effective deterrents. 

How many peace groups are the

re?

Roosevelt and Churchill worked to get Japan to attack (building military bases in S. Pacific) so we could frame the war in Europe as defensive too.
There were endless lies to brought us into the war and a draft already on the way.

The idea that lies had to be told to lure the American people

Chapter 6. Wars Do Not Have Noble Motives.
It's never one reason. It's always a combination of reasons. Wars are fought for power, for domination of the bglobe. to weaken rival superpowers, for possession, for profit, for the gain of he weapns makers, for electoral advantage by politivians who think they must have wars to be great presidents.

The reasons put forth in private tend to be about profit..
the ones talked about in public are about spreading democracy, supporting troops, fighting evil.

Project for New American Century PNAC lays out why they want wars.
http://www.opednews.com/pnacwatch.htm

Lobbyists for war-- well funded groups lobbying for a war against Iran.

Kuwait hired a major PR firm in Washington to tell stories about Iraq mistreating babies to get us into the 1991 war against iraq.

Defense contractors make a little piece of their equipment in a dozen states to keep political support.

Warriors are not heroes.
What makes a hero ? by rob kall
If we can't get to the point where conscientious objectors are treated the same as soldiers, we will keep having wars.

We prolong the wars to support the troops as the phrase goes.

The most good we can do for the soldiers.

The most difficult myths that this book challenges.

Argument that wars are fought in defense, even pre-emptively.
Argument that wars are humanitarian, are acts of generosity for the benefit of the Iraquis and Afghanis. A huge section of the American publc that supports that idea.

The big lie-- that people are more willing to tell little fibs than big lies tend to think that our govt, our elected leaders would think the same way. We don't face up to the fact that the people lied to create the crime of war and bring us into war.

Wars do not bring security. They make us LESS safe

Our rights are stripped away in a more and more permanent fashion, justified by these wars.
our

Wars are not fought on battlefields.
We don't have big open fields with opposing forces and canons.

We have occupied towns. The supposed enemies and beneficiaries are there cohabiting.
The only people you can easily pick out are the foreign occupiers.

The battlespace is absolutely everywhere.  We have the military in the US working with police and immigration. We have Americans declared enemy combatants, policies that allow murder of Americans abroad, and probably here in the US too..
Declare you an enemy combatant and your bedroom and kitchen become part of the battleground.

Wars are not Won

If update and reconfirmation of 2001 war declaration allows president to declare war on anyone.. we have stripped the bill of rights and handed power over to the president.

You can't really win a war any more than you can win a hurricane. Wars are a disaster.
THe old idea that you beat the enemy's army down and then you go home... nowadays it's hard to define what victory would look like, hard to imagine what victory in viet name would have been. Are we building a nation. Are we going to fight until we've killed enough people until there is minimal resistance...

Congress members ask Holbrooke and Petraeus what victory would look like.  

It's just eternal occupation or we give up and say this is enough blood, enough treasure...
But this idea of victory is what we see on the bumperstickers. it's deeply embedded, to the point where they

Only a war that is fighting off an attack on your country can be l egal and only some of those moral.

Any other war you are engaging in other than defense of a direct attack on your country is the very worst crime imaginable. Any crime you are claiming justifies a preemptive attack is not as bad as the crime you commit starting a war.

"There will be war lies as long as there is war."

Bush book describes the power of the peace movement
They never tell you when you are powerful.

If we could find the groups and the funders and activists to rebuild the peace movement now with republicans in the house--- I'd be all for it. We'd have the power to get at government.