war is peace

"Terrorists are working to obtain biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons, and the threat of an attack is very real. ... Whenever possible, we want to stop terrorist attacks before they happen."
the department of homeland security

"In the immediate aftermath of September 11th, many Americans were asking, "Why do they hate us?" ... surveys of Muslim populations also show that large majorities of Muslims fear American power, or mistrust American intentions, or misunderstand American values. ... For instance, many in the Muslim world see the worst of American popular culture and assume that American-style democracy -- or any democracy at all, for that matter -- inevitably leads to crassness and immorality. Others believe that democracy is inherently hostile to faith, and corrosive of cherished traditions. And many more are federal [sic] a steady diet of hateful propaganda and conspiracy theories that twist American policy into grotesque caricatures. ... The consequences for much of the Muslim world are stagnation, persistent poverty and a lack of freedom."
condoleeza rice

"The United States ... stands as the only state on record which has both been condemned by the World Court for international terrorism and has vetoed a Security Council resolution calling on states to observe international law. ...
They are very angry at the United States because of its support of authoritarian and brutal regimes; its intervention to block any move towards democracy; its intervention to stop economic development; its policies of devastating the civilian societies of Iraq while strengthening Saddam Hussein; and they remember, even if we prefer not to, that the United States and Britain supported Saddam Hussein right through his worst atrocities, including the gassing of the Kurds, bin Laden brings that up constantly, and they know it even if we don't want to. And of course their support for the Israeli military occupation which is harsh and brutal. It is now in its 35th year. The US has been providing the overwhelming economic, military, and diplomatic support for it, and still does. And they know that and they don't like it."
noam chomsky, the new war against terror

"For four years the White House has framed the war on terror as an open-ended global battle against a monolithic enemy on many fronts, rather than employing a modern counterterrorism model that sees terrorism as a deadly pathology that grows out of religious or ethnic rage ...
But why has the White House pursued this nonsensical approach over the loud objections of the country's most experienced counterterrorism and Islamic experts? Because it allows the Administration all the political benefits the cold war afforded its predecessors: political capital, pork-barrel defense contracts and a grandiose sense of purpose.
And because the war on terror has no standard of victory, it can never end--thus neatly replacing the cold war as a black-and-white, us-against-them worldview that generations of American (and Soviet) politicians found so useful for keeping the plebes in line. It's a one-size-fits-all bludgeon."
robert scheer, the nation

"war hysteria is continuous and universal in all countries
...
The primary aim of modern warfare ... is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living. ... if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.
...
The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. ... It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist."

"Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia."
george orwell, nineteen eighty four