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David Swanson: “Every US war unnecessary – here’s proof”

Broadcast here September 23rd, 10-11:00 a.m. Central (1500 GMT). For only $3.95 a month you can listen to shows on-demand before they are broadcast – and also get free downloads and other perks from Kevin! If you are a subscriber, just log in to the members area of TruthJihad.com to get early access to the shows. Non-subscribers only get access to the No Lies Radio show archives the day after the broadcast here. Help Kevin keep these shows on the air – become a subscriber today!

My Veterans Today Radio colleague David Swanson, one of America’s great voices of peace, asks:

What if Americans Had Known in 2013 that U.S. rejected Syria Deal in 2012?

In the wake of the Guardian’s report that the US rejected a peace deal that would have had Syrian President Assad step down in 2011, Swanson writes:

“In the United States it is considered fashionable to maintain a steadfast ignorance of rejected peace offers, and to believe that all the wars launched by the U.S. government are matters of ‘last resort.’ Our schools still don’t teach that Spain wanted the matter of the Maine to go to international arbitration, that Japan wanted peace before Hiroshima, that the Soviet Union proposed peace negotiations before the Korean War, or that the U.S. sabotaged peace proposals for Vietnam from the Vietnamese, the Soviets, and the French. When a Spanish newspaper reported that Saddam Hussein had offered to leave Iraq before the 2003 invasion, U.S. media took little interest. When British media reported that the Taliban was willing to have Osama bin Laden put on trial before the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, U.S. journalists yawned. Iran’s 2003 offer to negotiate ending its nuclear energy program wasn’t mentioned much during this year’s debate over an agreement with Iran — which was itself nearly rejected as an impediment to war.”

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.

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2nd hour: I continue an argument with philosophy professor emeritus Jim Fetzer.

This week’s False Flag Weekly News reported on Republicans who said Indiana clerk Kim Davis shouldn’t be in jail for refusing to issue gay marriage licenses. Jim Fetzer said those Republicans were wrong because Davis had a “duty to perform” (and to obey the law).  I questioned what this “duty” could possibly mean; wondered whether such a “duty to perform” would apply equally to all cases of refusal to carry out orders that one views as unconstitutional or immoral, or only to those cases where Jim Fetzer agrees with the current law; and disagreed with Jim’s claim that saying “Gandhi/Rosa Parks/Kim Davis/Joe the marijuana offender etc. etc. shouldn’t be in jail” is absurd since we all know that when you break the law, you are likely to go to jail.

4 Thoughts to “David Swanson: “Every US war unnecessary – here’s proof””

  1. Anonymous

    robert b stinnett wrote a book you have no doubt read that puts the lie to fdr's assertion that the japanese attacked pearl harbor unexpectedly..

    in my cynical opinion , the zionistas went to the brits and said some thing like " if we can get the americans into the war to pull your chestnuts out of the fire , will you fulfill the balfour declaration and give us palestine ? " in my opinion , the answer was yes ..

    in my op ..zionistas engineered ww 2 in the first place … it is said that …gutle bauer / roth schild once said "if my sons did not want wars , there would be none " said of the 5 bauer / roth schild sons sent to england ; france ; spain ; italy [ one stayed in germany ]

  2. Anonymous

    in your amazing presentation on guns and butter , you mentioned the 8 provocations that commander arthur mccollum was tasked with designing to entice japan to attack… what else would explain it ? america was largely isolationist after the first world war .. how else to get us into a war 3 or more thousand miles away ..pre jet engine …

    your separation of zionist radical hard liner expansionists from ordinary jewish citizens is , in my opinion , one of the keys to understanding : 9/11 ; neocon men; pnac ; the middle east turmoil ; endless war ; dictatorial government ; the national debt ; the declining economy ….

    the blueprint for european 9/11's .wooh ..we are not charlie …..

  3. Regarding the 2nd hour, why is everybody trying to spoil prof. Fetzer's honeymoon memories ?. What's up with that ?.

    Mazel Tov Professor !.

  4. Anonymous

    Just listened to this interview. Quite right, Dr. Barrett! David clearly enjoyed it.

    You spoke of setting up debate with author of book in favor of war.

    How about (instead) a discussion of false flag attacks including (potentially) 9-11 and anthrax.

    David is no dummy. His description on your show of Cheney proposing to attack American ships in the Gulf and making it look Iranian was something I hadn't come across. What such a discussion with David quickly leads to is a discussion of what you and I view as the gatekeeper problem. Despite attending (and presenting at) the Left Forum this past summer for the purpose of injecting the topic of 9-11 (and the system that generated it), I remain mystified about how the Left's studious inattention works.

    I have spoken to David over the years — briefly here and there. I pointed out to him once that his website was one of the first to post my first version of analysis of the anthrax attacks. But he consistently plays the game that the entire Left plays — no acknowledgement of the dimension of insider criminality that features treason and killing Americans. The Left thus persistently drifts into mindless adoption of the official accounts.

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