Why “Truth About War” Still Matters

By Jim Babka

The site you are about to enter was frozen with the start of the War in Iraq (except for one commentary by Harry Browne added in December, 2003). This site survives as a monument. It is a permanent record showing that not everyone was fooled by the claims made about Saddam Hussein and his supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction. The President, the CIA, the national press, and many foreign governments, all got it wrong.

At this site, we did something very bold. Our first claim was that Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction. We made several claims, all of which, when reviewed with hindsight, seems like we must've had foresight.

Well, being a prophet isn't easy. We really bucked the odds. When we made the No WMD claim, we were told we were crazy (we were even threatened). The whole world said Hussein had them. Millions of dollars were spent determining this was the case.

So how did my little team of roughly a half-dozen folks, nearly all of whom were volunteers, with a budget of a just a few thousand dollars, get so many things so right? Well, we had history on our side. This website was about history. Now it is part of our history.

And history is very, very important.

Citizens are at a disadvantage in analyzing the claims of politicians because the politicians have current intelligence that everyone assumes to be correct. How could you know if it's accurate? ...truthful? You don't have agents on the ground. Often, we cannot analyze the claims until years after today's politicians and the generals have retired.

Citizens are at a disadvantage in analyzing the claims of politicians because politicians have PR machines and the President, in particular, has the media following and broadcasting his every word. In the build-up to war, it is scary to take the contrary opinion. What if the President is right and we're in immanent danger? Will others think I'm unpatriotic?

Citizens are at a disadvantage in analyzing the claims of politicians if they lack two things:

• an accurate understanding of history and
• a set of principles, forged over time, as a result of the history they've learned.

When war fever is in season and a politician is using all of his vast, taxpayer-funded resources to prove and propagandize the need for war, history may well be the only tool you have to analyze his claims.

It has been said that those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. When politicians can lie us into war, it's really because We the People have flunked history.

This site is about history. It's about a set of principles that we call the “Truth About War.”

The “Truth About War” is that truth is the first casualty. Politicians will bend the truth to get us into war because it's good for their industry. Politics is about power. War is the health of the State.

And Iraq is just one example in a sordid history of war.

I encourage you to check out the entire Truth About War site, and as you read each page, realize that this what you're reading was written before the war started. I further encourage you to ask yourself, how did they know this in advance and how does this apply to the foreign policy the politicians are advocating today?

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