War

Since I've finished my exams, I've been catching up on a lot of reading lately, and I've just re-read the book Nonviolence which I had mentioned earlier more in depth. I love the concept of it, how nonviolence actually works and how it can really make a difference. As I was reading it though, there was a passage that really got my attention, especially with all this talk about the TSA. So here it is:

Nuclear weapons did not end warfare, because that would have required political leaders to completely rethink their concept of power. As Hungarian writer Gyorgy Konrad pointed out, the political elite had no alternative concept."They have none because they are professionals of power. Why should they choose values that are in direct opposition to physical force?" And so, faced with nuclear destruction, the goal, rather than ending war, became limiting it.

And then in another section is says:

In October 2002, by a vote of 77 to 23 in the Senate and 296 to 133 in the House of Representatives, the U.S. Congress voted to give President George W. Bush the authority to attack Iraq because it was building "weapons of mass destruction." It is a peculiarly accepted notion that the United States, the only country ruthless enough to ever have used atomic weapons-and used them against a civilian population-should be trusted with a monopoly on weapons of mass destruction. But worse, the claim of Iraqi weapons was a blatant lie contradicted by the United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, among many other reliable sources.

All wars are accompanied with lies, terrible lies that spread fear and hate in the heart of millions. My question is, how many people see these lies for what they really are, and how many people see them and simply turn a blind eye?

Food for thought....