Martha Gellhorn's Anatomy of a War

Martha Gellhorn's anatomy of war (from her intro to her prophetic The Face of War)

"To get a war started, you need an aggressor, a government so ambitious, so greedy that the vital interests of its state require foreign conquest.

But an aggressor government sells its people the project of war as a defensive measure: they are being threatened, encircled, pushed around; enemies are poised to attack them.

It is sadly easy to make people believe any lies; people are pitifully gullible, subject to instant flag-waving and misguided patriotism.

And once a war has started, the government is in total control: the people must obey the orders of their government even if their earlier induced enthusiasm has waned. They also see that however needlessly the war started, it would be better not to lose it.

The nation or nations that are attacked have no choice but to fight the aggressor..."


On that note,

C

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