They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king. ~ Bob Dylan
As World War I was fomenting, it was billed as the war to end all wars. The conflict was essentially about the competition between wealthy European economic powers and the death throes of monarchy and colonialism. It was later called The Great War, where eight million soldiers died senselessly, with twenty million severely injured.
No matter which side they fought on, soldiers were convinced they were going into battle for worthy patriotic goals. These ideals were so critical to uphold, it was worth risking their lives. The elite class who sent them out under a false pretense benefitted not only from their service; the war was a convenient distraction from the corruption and inadequacies of their country’s infrastructure. The end would be determined by which side's domestic issues overcame the support for international aggression. When Germany’s internal social issues, including famine, collapsed support for the war, they surrendered as their government dissolved.
At its conclusion in 1918, analysts called the armistice a peace to end all peace because Germany’s battered population was punished for the war of their fallen leaders. Within two decades this became a reality, as World War II encircled the globe, demonstrating once again how human civilization engenders ongoing conflicts and then attempts to resolve its differences with violence.
The lies and insanity don’t end. The soldiers whose lives are taken in the name of nationalistic causes are duped into fighting.
Always A Good Reason For War
The intentional manipulation and sensationalization in the build-up to war are blatantly apparent. The threat of global communism, if it ever existed, never had a front in Viet Nam or Central America, and this was the dominant excuse for most U.S. military interventions during the second half of the twentieth century.
As the Soviet Union was breaking up, new enemies were required and the void was quickly filled. The most stunning example of a fabricated stage for armed hostility was the demonization of Saddam Hussein — initiating both Gulf Wars. Before Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Americans were savvy enough to refuse to consider sending their sons to a war that overtly supported oil interests. The government, recognizing the need to change public opinion, for months leading up to the invasion, depicted the brutal leader of Iraq as much worse than Hitler — and a threat to modern civilization.
The press went along for the ride and not long after, young American men were risking their lives to attack a tyrant who was certainly no different than other Middle Eastern dictators and allies of the U.S. Then after the felling of the World Trade Center, more lies were told, including that Hussein, a former U.S. ally, was in direct league with Osama Bin Laden, another demon who the CIA helped to shape. They had no common interests nor did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction. Again, fallacies allowed heroics without any ethical cause, and blood was spilled supporting a myth.
The most obvious direct benefit of having to stop a more dangerous version of Hitler from rising, or the need to invade rogue countries for their defiance of democratic principles — is the insistence that military and intelligence departments need to be well-maintained. With external threats always on the rise, questioning the expenses involved is now eternally viewed as unpatriotic.
Whether a war on terrorism, a war on drugs, or a war on a virus, the saber-rattling is always a ruse to ensure some other agenda; either hiding crimes or making money, though usually both.
The pattern hasn’t changed.
The Germans justified the rise of Nazism and the re-establishment of previous borders as a response to their humiliation at the end of World War I. Russian leadership depicts the growing threat of NATO forces, which the west has allowed closer to their territory since the end of the Cold War, as a justification for a war with Ukraine.
Putin and his friends have nefarious reasons for inflaming nationalism and breeding hostility, as much as Biden and NATO use threats and subterfuge to intensify support for Ukraine. And now China has no choice but to confirm the Russian perspective as it sees similar strategic advances by the U.S. and allies in the region of the South China Sea.
War As A Distraction
As reports are coming out regularly confirming that COVID vaccines are more dangerous than the disease they were supposed to stop, the rhetoric increases in support of the war in Ukraine. And as masks are confirmed to be useless (and damaging) in preventing the spread of the virus, a crisis that will overshadow all others is metastisizing.
On our small planet, there are no two events that are unrelated. The greater the drama in seemingly separate developments — the more likely they are inseparably intertwined.
The escalation of military support for Ukraine by the very same governments that vehemently attempted to enforce mandates, lockdowns, and vaccines is telling. The COVID fiasco was a drill; demanding a unified front against an alleged threat. The impending revelations about how government administrators were involved in initiating and/or worsening the repercussions of a new contagious virus is just one reason war drums are beating. However, the way the perpetrators of corruption see it, the best defense for all their misdeeds — is a military offense.
A larger war will certainly provide a distraction from the scrutiny that corporations, governments, and their pawns are starting to feel surrounding the COVID fiasco. When there is no other excuse, culprits will ask, how relevant is a congressional hearing on vaccine damage or lawsuits about free speech when an evil empire is threatening to use nuclear weapons?
It is already beginning. The intensity of the government’s call for unity at home and abroad continues to increase. Critics of a politician’s misdeeds are dismissed as pushing some radical agenda. The danger is imminent when speeches and articles calling for taking a moral stance are encouraging war and impacting constitutional rights. Soon any deviation from the battle cry will be deemed anti-American.
Raising the threat of external enemies and supporting armed conflict are the surest ways of repressing debate over internal failures and scandals. By creating a passionate frenzy and invoking the need for war, entranced by lies, the majority will obediently cooperate. This historical precedent is effective; as with most political subterfuge, the tail is wagging the dog.
Populations are now being groomed for an extended, expensive, and horrific war in Eastern Europe and beyond. Some analysts are saying that World War III has already begun.
There is only one insidious relationship that is worse than the U.S. government has with Big Pharma; the arms industry has Washington on a feeding tube. In addition to finding new threats, the justification for an oversize defense industry is keeping up with the rest of the world's spending on their militaries. So-called enemies use each other’s budgets to rationalize their own.
The masters of war will benefit from the incredible amount of death and destruction. And the merchants of death are already profiting; salivating at trillions of dollars that will come from rebuilding; if there is anything or anyone that remains after the impending conflict.
Voices For Truth
Political forces continue to manipulate and script a reality promoting their agenda. While the devious inflammatory words of war promoters produce propaganda for historical analysis, the voices of those who have seen the truth and protested in advance of wars have been silenced.
Over one hundred years ago, as World War I erupted in 1914, Valentin Bulgakov, a Russian writer, appealed for sanity in his widely distributed declaration, Wake up, all people are brothers…
Our enemies are not the Germans, and not Russians or Frenchmen. The common enemy of us all, no matter what nationality to which we belong — is the beast within us. Nowhere is this truth so clearly confirmed, as now, when, intoxicated, and excessively proud of their false science, their foreign culture, and their civilization of the machine, people of the 20th century have suddenly realized the true stage of its development: this step is no higher than that which our ancestors were at in the days of Attila and Genghis Khan. It is infinitely sad to know that two thousand years of Christianity have passed, almost without a trace upon the people.
This truth remains apparent today; it will require a relentless effort to expose the motives of the criminals who incite aggression. The ongoing pattern of deceit will end when there is general recognition that war is a diversion from the important challenges we face — and a key part of the self-destructive syndrome of humanity.