LIES THAT LEAD TO WAR

When I was a schoolboy, the argument was over whether Franklin Roosevelt knew in advance that Pearl Harbor was to be attacked, but let that attack happen so that he could get the United States into World War II. Then--as quick as quick--we were at war in Korea, over aggression from the North. To make this war legal Harry Truman called it a "Police Action."

We invaded Lebanon in 1958, without invitation, because Admiral Holloway wanted a "show of force" in the Mediterranean, and Dwight Eisenhower let him have his way. After three months we came home. Our accomplishments: ruining Beirut's streets, almost burning down the port (my fault), killing one of our own soldiers, and getting in the way of a democratic election.

Then Lyndon Johnson lied his way into the Vietnam War--undeclared by Congress, but allowed thanks to the fabricated story about attacks on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Lies. A war justified by deliberate lies. A hideous ten-year war followed. But it was actually longer, because the CIA started it in 1962--not in 1964.

Gerald Ford sent U.S. Navy gunboats into North Korea, but failed to start a war. Jimmy Carter asked our European allies to try to resolve our problem at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and while they were doing so he tried to invade Tehran. Thanks
to U.S. technology, his invasion failed in the desert, and Carter didn't start a war.

Ronald Reagan had a hard time finding a war to fight, and finally settled on invading Grenada. The pretext? Cuban soldiers. But the Cuban "soldiers" had been invited there by the Grenedan government, to build new runways for the airport--so it could land 747's loaded with U.S. tourists! On the second day after the U.S. invasion, the Grenedan president was produced aboard a U.S. Navy ship, holding a typewritten letter (unsigned) requesting (after the fact) U.S. intervention. We admitted this. Awkwardly, we had invaded a member-state of the Commonwealth of Nations, whose head was and is the Queen of England--and she had not been consulted about this invasion of her territory.

George Bush invaded Iraq for oil. Pure, simple, overt aggression. Like Hitler taking Poland. For several months after his decision to invade was made, Bush pretended not to have decided to to go to war. Lies. Documented lies. Several thousand Iraqi soldiers were buried alive by Colin Powell in this exercise in American freedom and justice.

Then Bill Clinton. First thing, in February of 1963, he ordered a bombing raid on the Iraqi city of Basra. Why? Because an Iraqi civilian in puppet Kuwait had been accused of plotting to assassinate George Bush. The Iraqi was never tried, let alone convicted. But that didn't bother Clinton: he was proving that he was an American president, by going to war and killing people.

And then George Bush II. All the stupid lies to get us into war. Nine years' worth now.

And after having said that this war was wrong, and that he would end it; after saying that he would close the U.S. concentration camps around the world, and stop the U.S. torture of abductees--after a year and a half, Obama has done nothing except expand the Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Now, it seems we are lying our way toward a war with North Korea. The evidence of a North Korean attack on a South Korean ship is very, very suspicious. It seems to have been manufactured by the South Korean government, perhaps in collusion with the U.S. government.

Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies.

What is this country? Criminal is not a big enough word for us. But it's maybe the biggest we have available. And since the U.S. claims to be a democracy, we are all--every last one of us--criminals. We know full well that we are being told lies. But we don't care. We are a dying society--a non-society, dying of our own stupid greed and arrogance. But we are still trying to rule the world.