Are We Really Going To Fall For It This Time?

Will we be able to resist the roiling war propaganda that the government and media are now churning out? Will we remember the encyclopedia of lies and war crimes committed by the CIA, which is leading the current regime change war run-ups? Will we recognize the obvious absurdity of what we’re being told about Iran, Russia, North Korea, and the other targets of this collapsing and erratically violent U.S. empire? Will we prevent a series of conflicts that could set off World War III and completely destroy the republic?

Refusing these calls to war is not just the responsibility of the “gullible Americans.” We are all in some way complicit with U.S. empire, as much as many of us try to resist it, and the awakening we need will involve change from all of us. We shouldn’t begrudge ourselves if we fail. But if we do fail, we’ll owe a lot to future generations.

We saw a hint of what the war architects have planned when Hawaii received a false nuclear alert on January 13th. I rescind my past statement that this was likely an accident: if the nuclear alert system is as airtight as the government says, a violation this big can’t have been a mistake. Especially one that’s had a 38 minute waiting time before the nuclear alert was retracted. To avoid scrutiny of the official story about what happened, the media has quickly abandoned the incident.

Three days after the Hawaii false alarm, the same thing happened in Japan. Both incidents happened within a week after the U.S. approved a $133 billion anti-ballistic missile sale to Japan. What are we supposed to think of this, especially after the completely unprovoked threats Washington and its allies have been sending to North Korea for the last year-including current major war games in preparation for a ground invasion? Are we supposed to accept them as coincidence, then go back to fearing North Korea’s actually nonexistent plans for a nuclear first strike?

When these false alerts turn into a real nuclear attack, or at least an event that the oligarchs use to justify war, will we remember the many times we’ve been lied to similarly? Like how Kim Jong Un has repeatedly stated he won’t attack the U.S. first, making the planned invasion of North Korea the same as the “preemptive” invasion of Iraq? Like how all the charges of Iran having disobeyed the nuclear deal aren’t based in fact, resembling the numerous false accusations the U.S. has made against disfavored governments? Like how the entire reason for North Korea’s nuclear program is that they see what’s happened to Iraq, Libya, and other nations that didn’t have that protection against the United States?

The fact that there still aren’t massive protests against these war run-ups, as happened even during the Iraq War run-up, shows how much thicker the propaganda machine has gotten in the last 15 years. But there is some hope. The figurehead these powers have to voice their war propaganda is now Donald Trump, a pathological liar that’s despised by most of the country. And the governmental and media institutions, similarly reviled, are having their powers to deceive threatened by rising alternative media outlets like Counterpunch, RT, and World Socialist Website.

But even now, the power of the state’s propaganda has been chillingly shown with the widespread manufactured fear of Russia. And few have questioned the official narrative about North Korea, maybe because that narrative consists of such a big and dramatic lie. As corporations and governments use increasingly severe measures to silence opposing websites and individuals, and as the specter of war is used to snuff out democracy, our only option is to keep fighting. Whatever the outcome, then we’ll be able to say we did the right thing.