Many discussions of lies that launch wars quickly come around to the question “Well then why did they want the war?” There is usually more than one single motive involved, but the motives are not terribly hard to find.

Unlike many soldiers who have been lied to, most of the key war deciders, the masters of war who determine whether or not wars happen, do not in any sense have noble motives for what they do. Though noble motives can be found in the reasoning of some of those involved, read more

In this age of supposedly fighting against rulers and on behalf of oppressed peoples, the Vietnam War offers an interesting case in which the U.S. policy was to avoid overthrowing the enemy government but to work hard to kill its people. To overthrow the government in Hanoi, it was feared, would draw China or Russia into the war, something the United States hoped to avoid. But destroying the nation ruled by Hanoi was expected to cause it to submit to U.S. rule.

The Afghanistan War, already the read more

By INDYPENDENT READER

David Swanson is co-founder of WarIsACrime.org, and was instrumental in exposing the Downing Street Minutes. He is also the author of “Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union.”

David will be discussing and signing the book, and will be joined by Andy Worthington, author of “The Guantanamo Files,” Debra Sweet, and Cindy Sheehan, at the JHU Barnes and Noble Bookstore, 3300 St. Paul Street in Baltimore, at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, read more

Black Agenda Report

by David Swanson

What’s behind our constant wars? Is it biology, culture, economic imperatives, ideology….madness? Whatever the initial motivation, wars are always sustained by lies.

Is Warmaking Irrational?

by David Swanson

The following has been excerpted from David Swanson’s new book, "War Is A Lie" http://warisalie.org.

“ read more

By David Swanson, davidswanson.org
http://www.alternet.org/story/149165/

The following is an excerpt from David Swanson’s self-published new book War is a Lie (David Swanson, 2010).

Since the Vietnam War, the United States has dropped all pretense of a military draft equally applied to all. Instead we spend billions of dollars on recruitment, increase military pay, and offer signing bonuses until enough people "voluntarily" join by signing contracts that allow the military to change the terms at will. If more troops are needed, just extend the contracts read more

An excerpt from “War Is A Lie” http://warisalie.org

One type of “defensive” war is one that follows a successful provocation of aggression from the desired enemy. This method was used to begin, and repeatedly to escalate, the Vietnam War, as recorded in the Pentagon Papers. Setting aside the question of whether the United States should have entered World War II, in either Europe or the Pacific or both, the fact is that our country was unlikely to enter unless attacked. read more