Image by Matthew Bradley via Flickr
with David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Oct. 8, 2021
October 12, 2021
Yuri muckraker on Oct 8, 2021
On this special episode ONE HUNDRETH/100TH EPISODE OF 1+1 I was rejoined by the brilliant Peace activist, anti-imperialist thinker, journalist, radio show host, NGO critic and wonderful human being David Swanson of World Beyond War, Talk Nation Radio, and Roots Action on to discuss and have him do some much needed mythbusting on “good wars.”
How Afghanistan whether it was the Anti-communist crusade of the 70s and 80s, and the Anti-terrorisms/Anti-Radical Islam crusade of the 2000s and beyond was not a “good war”, how the dissolvement of Yugoslavia and the NATO bombing of Kosovo and Serbia was not a good war, how the First Gulf War against Iraqi supposedly liberating absolute monarch anti-human rights Kuweit from “evil secular/sectarian” Iraq was NOT a good war, and how the EU/Euromaiden/NATO overthrow of the government of Viktor Yanukovych which saw Crimea divorce Ukraine to become part of Russia and a bunch of Western backed oligarchs and Neo-Nazis engaging in a brutal ongoing civil war with possible breakaway Eastern regions was and IS NOT a good war.
And we discuss why is it people are selectively anti-war and not consistently anti-war and anti-imperialist? Why “no war for oil on Iraq” but no war for oil on Venezuela, Bolivia, Libya? Why no to the Western/Gulf war on Yemen but YES to a Western/Gulf war on the secular non-sectarian government of the Baathist government of Assad in Syria? And why mass mobilization against the Vietnam War even amongst Anti-communist leftists but today people supporting a New Cold war on China, efforts to divide and conquer China and supporting reactionary movements in Hong Kong and the Xinjian region and supporting Western backed reactionary Uighur Jihadi separatists in or yet another imperial project in Belarus? How do those of us committed to a world of no war, détente, and truly everlasting peace and no to all forms of imperialism and militarism, how do we convince and explain to people that the Pivot to Asia and more NATO isn’t the answer to a better world? All of this and more in this edition of 1+1. Do enjoy and share widely!
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include Leaving World War II Behind (2020), Curing Exceptionalism: What’s wrong with how we think about the United States? What can we do about it? (2018) and War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. Support David’s work.
From the archives:
Abby Martin and Paul Jay: Afghanistan and 9/11 + Return to Kandahar (Part 1)
Sorry Cover-Up for US Mass Murder, by Finian Cunningham
John Pilger: The US Military is a Killing Machine
Coups, Censorship and Propaganda: The U.S. New Cold War Playbook, by Rainer Shea
Lies, Damn Lies, and What We’ve Been Told About Afghanistan, by David Swanson
Chris Hedges and Danny Sjursen: The Historical Myths About World War II
Max Blumenthal: US is Arming Neo-Nazis in Ukraine
Embracing the US-NATO War Criminals Who Destroyed Our Country by Milina Jovanovic
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