(originally published by CommonDreams.org)
The war in Afghanistan is about perpetual war, not Afghanistan.
It's about preventing democracy in the United States, not bringing it to Southwest Asia.
And it is the tombstone of the Obama Presidency.
To justify the fight, they've rounded up the usual suspects: Terror. Oil. Minerals. Poppies. Democracy.
But George Orwell's 1984---now updated with important new books--- illuminates the bigger picture: "continuous warfare" is the key to social control.
It keeps the public frightened and dependent.
And it keeps "the wheels of industry turning without increasing the real wealth of the world. Goods must be produced, but they must not be distributed."
Better to destroy them in a ritual slaughter like Afghanistan, and wherever is next.
For a truly prosperous society, educated and secure, cannot be ruled by the few. Poverty, ignorance and fear are the three pillars of authoritarian control. Without war, they all disappear.
Thus Afghanistan. Before it: the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, central America. After: whoever else is handy.
Recent books by Howard Zinn and David Swanson have updated Orwell's analysis.
Zinn's The Bomb, testifies to the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the utter senselessness of these "announced nuclear tests." Once an Allied bombardier, Zinn revisited a French town he helped destroy. He found the act, of which he was once proud, had no military meaning whatsoever.
Though he passed away earlier this year, Howard's PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES continues to shape our understanding of this nation's true core. In narrating the hidden, bloody past of our compromised democracy, he warns at end that even for the US, "There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."
Swanson's new War is a Lie adds to the litany. A tireless campaigner for peace and justice, Swanson was instrumental in tearing away the ridiculous Bush lie that the war in Iraq was about Weapons of Mass Destruction. WAR IS A LIE adds carefully documented, passionately argued reasons why the era of endless slaughter in SouthWest Asia is a tool of social control for the military-industrial elite.
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