ENGBU Unit 2: Novel Study War Made Easy We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is going to help us telling us the truth serving the people. --Sydney Schanberg: Former New York Times reporter. The debate for going to war is often made in a moment of anger after careful deliberation behind closed doors by politician and bureaucrats and their reasons often times only come to light through leaked or declassified documents often years after the bombs have been dropped and the troops have come home. Justification for war, when presented to the American public often includes withholding crucial information about the actual reasons and risk of danger potential costs chances of mistakes for military action, choosing to present an easier version of war's reality. The intention is not to "inform" but to generate and maintain enthusiasm distrust funding for war. Rarely, if ever does a war just fall down from the sky. The foundation has to be laid and the cases built often with deception time allies. The use of lies the media propaganda to arouse public support of war is not new. Propaganda is used to transform populations understandably wary of the cost of war into war's most potent opposition | ardent supporters | biggest critics. They invoke images of nationalism and channel fear and anger towards perceived enemies | Big Brother communists and threats. Match the president to the line they've used below to describe enemies of the United States. "States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of A. Ronald Reagan evil arming to threaten the peace of the world" B. George W. Bush _"These are barbaric people." C. Lyndon B. Johnson _"A cult of evil." D. George Bush Sr. "A monumental struggle of good versus evit." E. Bill Clinton He called Saddam Hussein a "little Hitler." _He said Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions, "as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them." "A US enemy a mad dog of the middle east. He's not only a barbarian, but he's flaky." "The drug indicted, drug related indicted dictator of Panama." _said Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction