A Country At War Part 2

"Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America nor, for that matter, in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... [V]oice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
— Hermann Göring

This quote from the Nazi propaganda king caught my eye today and seems still so relevant in our current age of permanent and endless wars. We are now into a decade of the 'War On Terror ' or 'War Of Terror' depending whether you are in the military of the western empire or a Pakistani herdsman or a Libyan civilian on the receiving end of a Predator drone attack.

It always struck me as remarkably similar the images of Hitler in front of a burning Reichstag denouncing the 'terrorists' which cemented his power and led directly to the start of the second world war, and those of George Bush in front of the ruins of the Twin Towers denouncing the 'terrorists' and making his famous 'your either with us or against us' speech that has launched us into 10 long years of war in countrys who had little or nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks... but do have lots of oil.

Funded by giant global corporations and surrounded by a cadre of close associates who came from those very corporations, he launched the 'homeland' into a war to seize the wealth and assets of other lands. I could be talking about Hitler or Bush here and the remarkable thing is that those corporations were linked in both eras. George W Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a partner in Brown Brothers Harriman and one of the proprietors of the Banking Corporation Union. Both companies played a key role in financing Hitler on his way to power in Germany. The major beneficiaries of the Iraq war are major corporations like Halliburton and Lockheed Martin.

And has Obama changed anything? 'Yes We Can' has seen a continuing massive increase in military spending, ongoing wars... and he hasn't even managed to close Gauntanamo. So, 'No He Can't'!

Lest we forget most of the 9/11 'terrorists' were Saudi Arabian citizens and yet Saudi Arabia remains a staunch ally of the west in its ongoing middle eastern wars. Could it be something to do with the fact that Saudi is the worlds largest producer and supplier of oil and America the worlds largest consumer and addict?

Map source : Eric Waddell, The Battle for Oil, Global Research, 2003 


Iraq, and Libya of course, do have oil and the blood of many a brave soldier of the Empire has been spilt gaining it, protecting it and exploiting it. Afghanistan is the strategic site of many trans-country oil pipelines that transport oil from the middle east and Russian fields, it also happens, as does Iraq, to share a border with Iran, another major oil producer.

I have always thought that Iranian containment was the main geopolitical goal of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the ring of US and allied bases that now circle Iran, from Iraq and Turkey in the east, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the north to Afghanistan in the west and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait in the south tend to back that view up.

Did you know that the US Empire now has around 800+ military bases around the world some as large as cities? The British Empire at its height had 36! But I digress and that particular 'sign of empire' is the subject for another post. In the meantime check out this excellent article at TomDispatch - Being In Base Denial

And what is the most amazing thing and what started this meandering post is that we seem to be able to start new wars, like that in Libya right now, without causing even a ripple among the general population, no heated debates in Parliament or any opposition to speak of. Are we so well led and so controlled by propaganda that we can't see that these are wars of aggression fought against much weaker opponents and that we, The West, are the aggressors.

I guess it really is "a simple matter to drag the people along..."

For a more in depth and authoritative view on most of the issues raised above see Noam Chomsky's excellent recent article - Is The World To Big To Fail?