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After the attack on Pearl Harbor lines at recruiting stations stretched
around the block. How do we know? The newspapers reported it. Unlike today
newspapers they did not selectively report, they did not slant, they did not
spin and they did not pay people to form a line for the pictures. Because we
know newspapers did not do that sort of thing in the good old days we know
how America responded to Pearl Harbor.
Conversely simply because we know the attack on the Maine was not an attack,
the Lusitania was carrying munitions and nothing happened in the Gulf of
Tonkin does not mean today's reasons for war are illegitimate. Nor should
the fact Texans seceded from Mexico to preserve slavery and were cowards at
the Alamo change the legends of gallantry. That the pretext for the war of
1812 was unchanged by the peace treaty should not convince us the only good
thing to come from it was patriotic poem set to music.
We should not fail to remember Abraham Lincoln was the most beloved
President because all the newspaper accounts after his death say so. We must
never notice all of those who dissented with his views on the war in the
newspaper business were still in prison where he put them. So all we know of
the people's love for him are from editors who were not in prison and did
not wish to be in prison.
That we know dissent and disagreement are suppressed from the moment war
starts should not change our view even dissenters rallied around the war
once it started. And they did so from patriotism and from realizing the
pro-war people were right all along and not in the rational self-interest of
remaining employed and out of prison and to avoid a mob of patriotic
neighborhood drunks.
We should not remember the fall of Vietnam to communism did not lead to all
of Southeast Asia going communist. We should not remember destroying Nazi
Germany, one conqueror of Poland, gave eastern Europe to Russia, the other
conqueror of Poland. We should not remember the Civil War was fought because
the southern states were trying to leave the US and had nothing to do with
the issue of secession or slavery.
For nearly four years now we have been getting quotes from the troops in
Iraq all supporting the mission of the week. We should remember the
reporters always select the soldiers at random and the editors and producers
never select only those which support the war or defending America or
occupation or bringing democracy or whatever the mission is this week. you
can always trust the very few you have seen to represent all the troops.
What we should always remember is the natural and normal human bloodlust and
the willingness to believe the dumbest and most transparent reasons as long
as they make us feel righteous.
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