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  1. Anthony Zeli

    Great to see Bruce Gagnon was interviewed for this piece. His lifetime work towards peace and nuclear disarmament is inspiring. Thank you for your insightful columns, Adam Marletta.

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  2. Coleen Rowley

    Good as far as it goes but the author needs to address the contrast between the growing anti-war movement that occurred during the 12 years or so of Vietnam War (started by Dems) and the graph showing lower and lower anti-war movement during the “war on terror”. These graphs are in direct contrast with one another. Why? Not just partisan politics although that plays a role. After Vietnam, the US MIC figured out how to end “Vietnam Syndrome” (the growing anti-war movement that even influenced mass media) and eventually they blamed for putting a halt to the fruitless killing of millions of Vietnamese and 58,000 US military deaths. Ending the draft, putting the costs of war on an ever-expandable national debt card (instead of raising taxes to pay for the wars) and most recently, coming up with drone and other aerial bombing that incurs no US casualties (of the “all volunteer” and mercenary US forces, except for suicides-homicides) was the way “Vietnam Syndrome” was conquered. Embedding the media ensured there would be 24-7 pro war propaganda. With this post Vietnam system in place, the American public has no way of understanding that the wars killing foreigners have any downside for Americans. Americans believe that US wars somehow only bring benefits, i.e. job creation and cheaper foreign resources and since there are no costs, “bring it on.” The “human rights” and “democracy-promoting” propaganda works so well, with nothing to counter it, that even Quaker peace groups I know have been pushing for US bombing and other military intervention: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/selling-peace-groups-on-u_b_6381070.html .

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