The deception, lies, secrecy, are mindblowing.
The deliberate planning is breathtaking. Have American citizens EVER known and will ever know what their govt has done, is REALLY doing and planning to do?

War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense.(excerpt)-- Randolph Bourne, "War is the health of the State"

Perhaps we should ask some survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima how they feel about it. Or as Truman said about the atomic bomb on the eve of its testing-

“If it explodes as I think it will I’ll certainly have a hammer on those boys.”

“Those boys” was a reference to Russia. Truman was a true humanitarian if you happen to like monsters.

But I used to believe this resulted from instinctual decisions—as opposed to conscious ones—by leaders.

After the past 7 years of phony terror scares and scheduling war by the election cycle, I'm shocked that you're just now coming around to this view. You were the one who showed us that our leaders' first thought in a crisis is that "this is a golden opportunity."

Incidentally, Clifford was wrong to think he could calibrate the paranoia. McCarthy and the Republicans consciously doubled down on the insanity and really damaged Truman.

That's why it was necessary for the South Ossetia debacle. It helped to regenerate fear of Russia, gave a reason for arms dealers to sell replacement weapons to Georgia, to create new markets in all those former Soviet sectors, to keep pushing that absolutely phony missile shield thingie, which in itself generates more market sales.

Fear, fear, fear, fear. A great marketing ploy. Is my skin wrinkly? Do I need Viagra? Are the Russians going to invade?

I used to believe this resulted from instinctual decisions—as opposed to conscious ones—by leaders.

Actually, we're animals. Remember that we evolved from apes and the like. When we see an alpha in a group ordering around a bunch of other apes, do we consider him as having a plan? No, we consider it to be instinctual. Just because they agreed beforehand to do what they were going to do anyway doesn't mean it's anything other than instinctual.

Higher intellect is planning to do something counter-intuitive, and I've never heard of a government actually doing that, though they like to claim that they do.

What if they gave a war and nobody knew?

Monkay:
I am no historian but did they not do just that when they destroyed Cambodia? I had read a book by William Shawcross, "The Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and Destruction of Cambodia" which very clearly demonstrated that.

Obviously Orwell was wrong about the war; even though he says "it's not a matter of whether the war is not real or if it is", in his book the war is very real, "rocket bombs" fall from the sky and kill people. In fact, the war is not necessary, all you need is an enemy.

abb1: Big Brother may have been shelling his own cities. (same goes for East Asia and Eurasia)

Yes, but it's not necessary, as episodes like Stalin's show trials and McCarthyism demonstrate. You need: 1 - an outside enemy, and 2 - spies and subversives within. I think 1984 would've worked better with just Emmanuel Goldstein and his agents and without permanent war.

The writings of Henry Kissinger in the 50s that were so influential in leading up to the Vietnam War are fairly clear on the necessity of conscious action toward so-called "limited war".

Backing up the President was seen as so important because it adds to establishing credibility, the heart of their strategic theory. Obviously this backfires because America isn't a totalitarian state, but for whatever reason the people in power keep trying.

tim: Looks like George and Dick missed on that DELAY thingee, a TYPICAL Bush/Cheney classic.