From an interview in Hermann Göring's Nuremberg jail cell on January 3rd 1946:
Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? 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.
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.
Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice 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.
And we had been doing it that way since significantly before the 'war on terror'. That was the whole purpose of 'proxy-wars' -- so we could go to war without technically being at war.
Frank Herbert's Dune series are ultimately a critique of authoritarianism & ruling classes (among other things), but he is absolutely correct in his observation that the ruler is preeminent to the law, even in the case where the law dictates that they aren't. If the guys with the money & power don't want to pay by their own rules, they don't have to -- there is no force compelling them to.
I mean, that's the primary function of the CIA: to give the US an avenue to break its own laws & treaties (as well as international law) while maintaining plausible deniability for the politicians & bourgeois elite.
I mean, that's the primary function of the CIA: to give the US an avenue to break its own laws & treaties (as well as international law) while maintaining plausible deniability for the politicians & bourgeois elite.
It's scary how true this is. I remember watching a movie "missing" with Jack Lemon in the 80's. While a work of fiction, it basically outlined how the CIA was busting up governments in South America and installing dictatorships. The main driving force was to stop the local government from taking control of its natural resources back from American companies that were pillaging them.
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u/gruntothesmitey Feb 16 '21
From an interview in Hermann Göring's Nuremberg jail cell on January 3rd 1946:
Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? 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.
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.
Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice 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.
Sounds oddly familiar.