Obviously, the extract below not a 10th as funny as the Souness wind up but perhaps a little food for thought for our contributors with a more highly developed sense of humour than I. "All war is based on deception." -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War There is nothing new in a government lying to their people to start a war. Indeed because most people prefer living in peace to bloody and horrific death in war, any government that desires to initiate a war usually lies to their people to create the illusion that support for the war is the only possible choice they can make. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- President McKinley told the American people that the USS Maine had been sunk in Havana Harbor by a Spanish mine. The American people, outraged by this apparent unprovoked attack, supported the Spanish American War. The Captain of the USS Maine had insisted the ship was sunk by a coal bin explosion, investigations after the war proved that such had indeed been the case. There had been no mine. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hitler used this principle of lying to his own people to initiate an invasion. He told the people of Germany that Poland had attacked first and staged fake attacks against German targets. The Germans, convinced they were being threatened, followed Hitler into Poland and into World War 2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FDR claimed Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. It wasn't. The United States saw war with Japan as the means to get into war with Germany, which Americans opposed. So Roosevelt needed Japan to appear to strike first. Following an 8-step plan devised by the Office of Naval Intelligence, Roosevelt intentionally provoked Japan into the attack. Contrary to the official story, the fleet did not maintain radio silence, but sent messages intercepted and decoded by US intercept stations. Tricked by the lie of a surprise attack, Americans marched off to war.
General Belgrano sailing towards the Falklands and weapons of mass destruction are more recent ones and closer to home.
Dont want to be too picky but Your General Belgrano example isnt a good one We were already at war then We were told that the Argies had invaded first - as far as I can tell that is actually true, unlike the Weapons of Mass distruction ****** bLIAR gave us
RE: Dont want to be too picky but How about withdrawing the only British ship patrolling in the South Atlantic, despite intelligence reports that the Argentinians were planning an invasion?
True but no one lied about that either You could argue - with some justification that that was intended to provoke an invasion, or it could just be the usual british incompetence - but it wasnt a lie
And the 'lost' logbook on the sun that sank the Belgrano? How do you lose something on a submarine? It was the sinking that started the killing, no-one had died before then so was it really a war before it was sunk?
RE: And the 'lost' logbook on the sun that sank the Belgrano? I think that you had better edit again, check subject bar
