“The military conflict itself, by cominating everything it its time, diminished other issues, made people choose sides in the one contest that was publicly important, forced people onto the side of the Revolution whose interest in Independence was not at all obvious. Ruling elites seem to have learned through the generations–consciously or not–that war makes them more secure against internal trouble.”
Reading this passage from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History, one may be tempted to believe he is writing about the current American occupation of Iraq, and not the Revolutionary War in the North American colonies that, in a similar fashion to the most recent Yankee conquest, led the poor and oppressed off to be slaughtered in a bid to secure and enrich the privileged lives of the elite.
In related news, the Lancet medical journal has released a study showing that 100,000 more Iraqis have died during the American assault on their country than would have had Iraq not been invaded.
Last month, Bush, speaking to the UN, said we “all must fight the murderers.”
And for once, I couldn’t agree with him more.