Daniel Ellsberg on lies and lying liars

[moodforaday]

If there is one book that could have stopped the Iraq war, if a sufficient number of people were familiar with it, it's Dan Ellsberg's "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon papers". Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I believe this book could really have done it. On every page you see a new lie the government was telling, and nearly every page brings more parallels with what's happening in Iraq. I never quite believed history repeated itself, but it does.

And occasionally there's a revelation that can make you simply mad. Here's a crash course in trust. Ellsberg, McNamara and others are on a plane from Vietnam back to the US:





(For another fine quote from Ellsberg - on secrecy - see this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4255435 )

[hootinholler]

1. .

:kick:

[H2O Man]

2. Ellsburg had the balls

to come forward with the information he had, even though he knew he would be prosecuted for it.

[moodforaday]

3. Yes, but my point

is that Ellsberg's story and his book should be read practically as current events. It's no good to think of him as an old-timer hero, because this petrifies him and relegates him to history classes. He's still around of course, but the main point is that, when you read his book, most of what he says about Vietnam applies as well to Iraq today. Confusion (friend vs foe, who's gonna bomb what next), oppression and killing of civilians (by both the US forces and the VietCong); corruption (money going from US purportedly for rebuilding Vietnam, ends up in the pockets of local honchos) - everything. The only difference is there is no jungle in Iraq.