Logo_EMN_dark-02
Logo_EMN_dark-02
Logo_EMN_dark-02
Logo_EMN_dark-02

Eisenhower Media Network

Logo_EMN_dark-02

Eisenhower Media Network

  • About EMN
  • Experts
  • Media
  • Reports
  • Contact An Expert
Recent Posts
  • Lawrence Wilkerson & Dennis Laich: America’s all-volunteer force is in crisis — and denial
  • William Astore: End Nuclear Weapons Before They End Us
  • Dennis Fritz: Pelosi Taiwan trip overrides Chinese military threats

War is an extreme condition. Twenty years of seemingly endless war in response to the 9/11 attacks is an extreme situation, especially for a self-avowed democracy. After the American Revolution, James Madison warned Americans that long wars favored autocracy, eroded individual rights, and fed corruption, which would weaken democracy. A weaker democracy means that ordinary Americans have less say. They perceive a government that is beyond entreaty and suasion. Citizens may then look for answers elsewhere: to cult-like demagogues promising to make America great; to fringe organizations dedicated to “taking back” America from someone, some enemy, often an enemy within (perfidious Democrats, undocumented immigrants), sometimes an enemy without (China, Russia)–and at times, both.

In the latest report on military extremism, which I helped author, we uncover a harsh truth: America’s 20-year global war only spreads terror further. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were based on lies. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There was no way to bring freedom and democracy, or a “government in a box,” to Afghanistan. Military leaders knew the “surges” in these wars had no staying power (“fragile” and “reversible,” General David Petraeus then said). So it proved. More than $6 trillion was wasted. Thousands were killed; tens of thousands were wounded in body and spirit—and that’s only counting American casualties. A constant state of war—shrouded in mendacity, rife with profit for a few—created the conditions for extremism in America.

Troops alienated by official lies and unwinnable wars predictably became bitter and cynical. With the mainstream media selling corporate-driven happy-talk and featuring senior ex-CIA and military generals presented as unbiased experts, veterans sought answers elsewhere, in some cases joining or following QAnon, the Oath Keepers, and similar organizations espousing false or fringe ideologies, including white supremacy. Lies begat more lies, but the original sin was war. If the first casualty of war is truth, the persistent casualty of endless war is the very integrity of democracy.

Read the full piece here.

Today’s extremism feeds on war, anger, aggression, fear, hatred, and racism. To end it, we must first abolish war, reject lies, and embrace one another without rancor.

William Astore

Previous PostErik Edstrom: ‘Anyone Got Any Helos Sitting Around?’: How a Private Network Is Using a Messaging App to Rescue Afghans
Next PostAnn Wright: Lessons for the Evacuation of Afghanistan

Latest Posts

News-item_Astore-1

William Astore: End Nuclear Weapons Before They End Us

In 1992, I walked around the test site where the first atomic device had been suspended in a steel tow

Astore, Newsweek
August 8, 2022
News-item_Astore-1

William Astore: The Giant War Robot that Rules America

For the last 15 years, I’ve been writing for TomDispatch.com, averaging six articles a year whose main

Astore, Bracing Views
July 20, 2022
News-item_Astore-1

William Astore: The Pentagon Cowbird

There’s something about the gaping mouth of that cowbird that says it all. For example, the Biden admi

Astore, Bracing Views
June 21, 2022
Recent
Lawrence Wilkerson & Dennis Laich: America’s all-volunteer force is in crisis — and denial
Laich, The Hill, Wilkerson
August 10, 2022
William Astore: End Nuclear Weapons Before They End Us
Astore, Newsweek
August 8, 2022
William Astore: The Giant War Robot that Rules America
Astore, Bracing Views
July 20, 2022
Twitter Feed
Missing Consumer Key - Check Settings
Tags
Afghanistan (3) Afghanistan war (6) Afghanistan withdrawal (18) Air Force (2) automated warfare (2) Biden (2) boycott (2) China (7) Cold War (3) Congress (3) Dan Berschinski (3) Danny Sjursen (13) defense budget (11) Dennis Fritz (2) Dennis Laich (4) department of defense (4) drones (2) Eisenhower (5) Erik Edstrom (5) featured (22) forever wars (7) Gregory Daddis (3) Iran (2) Iraq (4) Lawrence Wilkerson (8) Matthew Hoh (9) military (9) military industrial complex (16) military spending (3) NDAA (4) news (91) Pentagon (15) podcast (4) President Biden (3) refugees (4) Russia (9) suicide (2) Ukraine (9) United States (27) veterans (15) veterans day (3) war (5) War Profiteering (2) whistleblower (3) William Astore (29)
© 2022 Eisenhower Media Network. All Rights Reserved