Don't Believe Them

On 18 May 2000, Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. wrote:

"Here it is ten years after the [first] Gulf war, and the lies told by the US government are still pouring in. Most recently, Seymour Hersh writes in the New Yorker that a two-star general ordered a massacre against a five-mile line of retreating Iraqi soldiers, and did so two days after a ceasefire went into effect. Hundreds of soldiers were murdered, men and boys who posed no threat and didn’t know the war was still on. Many civilians, including children, were also shot. The numbers are still unclear because the corpses were buried quickly by the tank-bulldozers...

"Why was this bloodshed not reported at the time? There were no media around to witness it. They were operating under the military’s rules – accepted by a press said to be jealous of its liberties – against any unsupervised reporting in post-war Iraq...

"Is it any wonder that the US is hated in huge swaths of the Gulf region? So much for George Washington's ideal of being a beacon of liberty to the world. To many, the US is nothing but a torrent of helicopter gunships unleashing Hell on retreating soldiers and innocent civilians. This is not only a repudiation of America's founding principles; it is a flagrant violation of every rule of warfare agreed upon by every civilized country from the Middle Ages to the present day. This is the behavior of a murderous rogue state, not an indispensable nation.

"Again and again, the truth about US wars has turned out to be exactly the opposite of Pentagon press releases...

"If we were to develop an axiom about war informed by the last several, it would be this: believe nothing (nothing!) that the government tells you while the war is going on. Assume that it is all a lie, that the enemy is not nearly as evil as the Pentagon says, and that the US is behaving a darn-sight worse than the evening news claims. Go ahead and believe the worst about the US while the battle is going on and, ten years hence, you won't be far off the mark...

"Of course there will always be debunkers during war, a handful of people who will say outrageous things... During the war, these debunkers are denounced as unpatriotic and told to produce their sources. But sometimes they cannot. They doubt the Official Line because they have developed an instinct for spotting the wartime lie.

"The evidence to back their claims only starts pouring in a year and ten years after discussion about the war has been closed down...

"There is, however, something that can be done about it... Bone up on past wars and acquaint yourself with the lies and the new truths about those wars. Stand up for journalists who dare to stand up to the power elite; Lord knows it doesn't happen very often. Examine the history of warfare to understand how the state uses it to destroy liberty.

"And when the next war breaks out, prepare to discount every bit of information you hear about it... Speak out on behalf of writers and commentators who take an independent stand. Oppose US military intervention in any foreign conflict. Above all, ascribe no decent motives to the federal government. Always and everywhere, it is the enemy of truth.

"May 18, 2000"

Don't Believe Them