War Justification Quotes
The second atomic bomb had just been dropped.
Ford gave the confidential interview under the condition that it would not be made public until after he passed away. It was published by the Washington Post on December 26, 2006 just after Ford died. Ex-President’s are very reluctant to criticize a current President---especially on a foreign policy issue.
A false flag operation is one where a country’s covert operatives attack some asset of the nation and blame it on a foreign enemy—often to consolidate political power or gain public support for a war. For example, the Nazi’s secretly burned down the German parliament and blamed it on the Russian communists.
In the 18th Century, the Islamic Barbary States combined their religious beliefs for Jihad against non-believers with a classic criminal enterprise--piracy. They would authorize corsairs to outfit ships and attack Christian merchant ships on the high seas. They would capture the ship and the cargo, which would be split with the ruler of the country. The crew and passengers would by “rented out” as slaves until they would be ransomed, the proceeds of which would also be shared. To motivate a larger ransom, the captives were regularly tortured as well as worked almost to death. The Barbary Pirates encouraged the “slaves” to write to their relatives, friends and governments to try and raise the ransom. Individual Christian countries were offered a “treaty” whereby for an annual payment of tribute to the Barbary country, the corsairs of that country would not attack ships flying the flag of the country that paid the tribute. The Christian country had to make 4 different tribute payments to each of the 4 Barbary nations. Most of the European powers were paying the tribute even though some could easily defeat the Corsair navies in a war. The cost of outfitting a fleet for war was much more greater than paying the tribute. The new nation of the United States was good pickings for the Barbary pirates and there was a period of several decades where the Americans had to create a policy to pay tribute or go to war. At different times America did both. Jefferson argued for War rather than pay the blackmail tribute.
At a requiem for those who died on the battleship Maine, Gibbons criticized war mongering yellow journals. This was a very courageous statement to have made. The Hearst newspaper had fired up the American appetite for revenge and almost all the politicians were advocating war. At the time anti-Catholicism in America was extensive and Catholics were always being accused of not being patriotic Americans and more loyal to the Vatican than to the United States.
