War Is a Lie

There is no such thing as an honest war. You don't just have to recall the sound of anti-war protestors denouncing George W. Bush and Tony 'Bliar' over Iraq. Every war ever fought was sold to both sides as a fight between the forces of good and evil by politicians willing to tell any lie to ensure the public believed they were in the right and the enemy undeniably in the wrong. It was Samuel Johnson who first articulated the idea that war was surrounded by lies in 1758. 'Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages,' he wrote. Ironically, it was put most succinctly by US Republican senator Hiram W. Johnson, who when America joined the First World War said: The first casualty when war comes is truthA". In his new book, War is a Lie, US anti-war activist David Swanson goes further, deconstructing virtually every argument ever put forward in favour of war and showing how politicians will use any excuse not simply to justify war but to continue it after the death toll have long since shown the utter futility of continuing with the bloodshed.