| In
the press coverage of the UK's and the USA's involvement
in the Iraq war and middle east conflicts, a lot
has been written about dis-information and manipulation
of the public.
According
to Wikipedia, in 'Nuremberg Diary' (ISBN 0306806614),
Gustave Gilbert's account of interviews he conducted
during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi leaders, Hermann
Göring said the following
on dragging the people into war.
Göring:
Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why
would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his
life in a war when the best that he can get out
of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?
Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither
in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor
for that matter in Germany. That is understood.
But, after all, it is the leaders of the country
who determine the policy and it is always a simple
matter to drag the people along, whether it is
a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament,
or a communist dictatorship.
Gilbert: There is one
difference. In a democracy the people have some
say in the matter through their elected representatives,
and in the United States only Congress can declare
wars.
Göring: Voice or no voice,
the people can always be brought to the bidding
of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to
do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce
the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same in any
country.
Gilbert
served as a prison psychiatrist in Nuremberg,
where he had close contact with those on trial.
Related
links:
Hermann
Göring at Wikipedia
Hermann
Göring's
name is often spelt Herman
Goring or Goering.
The
photo detail on this page of Göring, on trial
at Nuremberg is from the USA's National Archives
and Records Administration, website:
http://www.archives.gov
|
