Since President Bush seems to be revving up his military engine and preparing Americans for another war of aggression, this time against Iran, it might be wise to revisit this famous quote by German Herman Goering:
“Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, 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. 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 peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Yesterday, Bush warned that if Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons, it could lead to “World War III.”
Yawn! Isn’t this similar to all that WMD claptrap that Bush employed before ordering his army to attack and invade Iraq, a country that never attacked the United States, killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people in the process?
Prepare yourself for the standard, “Accurate reports issued by the CIA and Pentagon report that Iran is on the verge of unleashing mushroom clouds over American cities. It is once again time for the knees of American men and women to begin knocking so that Americans can, once again, blindly support their government and its troops as they begin killing Iranians.”
Prepare yourself for the standard, “We have nothing against the Iranian people who are being accidentally killed by our bombs and missiles. Our cause is against the Iranian government, which the Iranian people installed, without our permission, in place of the pro-U.S. regime that the CIA installed in 1953.”
Prepare yourself for the standard, “Iranians hate us for our freedom and values, not because we have killed them, their families, and their countrymen and not because the CIA ousted their democratically elected prime minister and installed the brutal and tortuous pro-U.S. shah of Iran into power.”
Prepare yourself for the standard, “Woe is us. We are innocent. Why did those Iranian terrorists retaliate against us with terrorist strikes? Woe is us. Why us?”
Prepare yourself for the standard, “We’re only taking away your fundamental rights and freedoms temporarily. We plan to restore them as soon as we kill the last terrorist. Oh, and we promise not to abuse our powers.”
Prepare yourself for the standard, “Inflation has nothing to do with out of control federal spending on overseas military adventures. Like terrorism, inflation is a disease that strikes nations suddenly and mysteriously.”
Finally, prepare yourself for the standard, “It doesn’t matter who started this war. What matters is that we are now at war and, therefore, everyone must now support our government and its troops blindly. You’re either with us or against us. And if you can’t support our side because you don’t believe it’s morally right to kill people in a war of aggression, then at least support the troops who are doing the killing. It’s not their fault that they’re killing people who have done no harm to our country because they’re just following orders and defending our freedoms. God bless America.”
Goering was right. Too bad we now live under a system in which our ruler has omnipotent power to send the entire nation into war, especially given the president’s power to ignore the declaration of war requirement in the Constitution. Maybe we the people ought to amend the Constitution to read: “The Congress, not the president, shall have the power to declare war, and this time we mean it.”
