The Masters Of War

[Robert Burrows]

Bob Dylan said to Bob Fass on the weekend of the assassination:

"They are trying to tell you, don't even hope to change things. If you try to put yourself up against the forces of death.... you're done for."

Page 234
The Double Life of Bob Dylan (1941-1966) by Clinton Heylin.

[Greg Wagner]

Thank you for posting this, Robert. Bob Dylan knows what he's talking about. What a wonderful artist. The video is perfect. 

[W. Niederhut]

This song will live forever.

I remember listening to it during the heady days of the Iraq War, when the U.S. mainstream media was going gaga over Dubya, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld.

They used to interview those Masters of War on prime time television, and Karl Rove had them all repeating the same tropes about, "fighting them over there, instead of here," etc. -- staying carefully on message.

[Ron Ecker]

I'll never forget Rumsfeld saying on TV about the invasion of Iraq, "They have weapons of mass destruction and we know where they are."

 

 

[Greg Doudna]

And the press conference where the late Helen Thomas asked why Bush II was intent on going to war with Iraq and the press secretary said with a straight face that the premise of the question was wrong, because “nobody, but nobody, wants to avoid war more than President George W. Bush”. 

And the polls showing at the height of the war fever as high as 65% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein had done 911, and that was why Iraq was being attacked. Sort of like if the U.S. launched an attack on Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor. 

And it was intended to have the public believe that without ever actually claiming that. I noticed how Bush’s speechwriters had Bush, repeatedly, putting the words “Saddam Hussein”, “terrorism”, and “911”, in the same sentences.

Bush never outright claimed Saddam Hussein had done 911. There was total deniability that he ever said that.

But by putting those three terms into the same sentences, over and over, that is what caused 65% of Americans to think so.

Edited March 30 by Greg Doudna

[Ron Ecker]

Dubya also had a personal grudge against Saddam. There had allegedly been an Iraqi plot to assassinate President George H.W. Bush. In that sense Dubya's conquest of Iraq was for Daddy.

In any case, whatever Dubya's self-selected VP wanted he got. The Masters of War could also be Puppet Masters.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bill Fite]

wrt Iraq: I always remembered this.

When Gen. Colin Powell gave his presentation to the United Nations, the US had the Guernica tapestry covered.  That should have told everyone what the truth was.

Quote

Earlier this week, U.N. officials hung a blue curtain over a tapestry reproduction of Picasso’s Guernica at the entrance of the Security Council. The spot is where diplomats and others make statements to the press, and ostensibly officials thought it would be inappropriate for Colin Powell to speak about war in Iraq with the 20th century’s most iconic protest against the inhumanity of war as his backdrop. Why is Guernica such a powerfully controversial image after all these years, and how did it come to hang in tapestry form at the United Nations?

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/02/what-s-behind-the-u-n-cover-up-of-picasso-s-guernica.html

[Kirk Gallaway]

Whew! Well done!

Excellent Robert!

[Michael Kalin]

Bob was on the ball back then. Topically, pay attention to "With God on Our Side," particularly the verses about Germans & Russians.

Edited March 31 by Michael Kalin

[Pamela Brown]

On 3/30/2024 at 6:49 AM, Ron Ecker said:

Dubya also had a personal grudge against Saddam. There had allegedly been an Iraqi plot to assassinate President George H.W. Bush. In that sense Dubya's conquest of Iraq was for Daddy.

In any case, whatever Dubya's self-selected VP wanted he got. The Masters of War could also be Puppet Masters.

 

 

 

 

That would be Metallica...

https://genius.com/Metallica-master-of-puppets-lyrics