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Civilian Deaths of America’s Wars, USA Global War on Terror, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine by Norman Solomon, Warfare
Frequent killing of civilians is inherent in the types of wars that the United States has waged in this century. Despite all the hype about precision weaponry, even its top-rated technologies are fallible. What’s more, they operate in flawed—and sometimes highly dysfunctional—contexts. Whether launching attacks from distant positions or directly deployed, American forces are far removed from the societies they seek to affect. Key dynamics include scant knowledge of language, ignorance of cultures, and unawareness of such matters as manipulation due to local rivalries.
When U.S. officials say that civilian deaths are merely accidental outcomes of the war effort, they don’t mention that such deaths are not only predictable—they’re also virtually inevitable as results of policy priorities. Presumptions of acceptability are hot-wired into the war machine. The lives taken, injuries inflicted, traumas caused, environmental devastation wrought, social decimation imposed—all scarcely rank as even secondary importance to the power centers in Washington.
Norman Solomon, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, The New Press, New York, USA, 2023, pp. 53-54.
NORMAN SOLOMON is an American journalist, media critic, author, and activist. He is the co-founder of the online organization RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a consortium of policy researchers and analysts. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2006) and Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State (2008). He lives in the San Francisco area in California.
Zettl Fine Arts said:
When I think of topics like these, Frank Zappa always comes to mind:’ Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex.’
And Hiram Johnson’s most famous sentence still has meaning (now more than ever, as we have better means of perpetuating lies): ‘The first casualty, when war comes, is truth’
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katharineotto said:
The book, “The First Casualty” is on my shelves. I don’t remember the author’s name, but I remember what he wrote.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Katharine, a quick Google search revealed several books with the title “The First Casualty.” It seems that each one covers a different war. We humans are stuck in a loop.
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katharineotto said:
I located my book and also did a Google search, too.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
That’s good. Who is the author?
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Friedrich, thanks for the references to Frank Zappa and Hiram Johnson. We know the source of our dilemma, but we have yet to break free from the military industrial complex.
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George Imhoff said:
Interesting, as even in forested communities there is sometimes one family whose ability to make precision darts is recognised and utilized, constantly.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
George, if only our warfare involved only precision snipers! Now, we’ve got precision drones armed with missiles, manned by individuals miles away from the target zone.
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katharineotto said:
Senator Hiram Johnson’s 1917 quote about truth is printed on the page before the Table of Contents in Knightley’s book.
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kagould17 said:
A sad state of affairs around the world, especially right now. War is a staring contest played by countries to see who blinks first. Nobody wins when war comes. Wishing you a pleasant Sunday Rosaliene. Allan
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
So sadly true, Allan. We the people suffer the most. As I see it, the CEOs of the military industrial complex are the only winners.
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katharineotto said:
And all their contractors and suppliers and their employees, too. They (think they) have a vested interest in keeping war going.
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Dave Astor said:
Great that you highlighted an example of Norman Solomon’s sobering work, wisdom, and truth-telling, Rosaliene! (I had the privilege of interviewing Norman several times when I covered newspaper columnists and cartoons for a magazine; he wrote a column in addition to being an activist, prolific author, and more.)
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
How interesting, Dave! It is, indeed, a sobering book to read. I’m grateful that we have writers like Norman Solomon who cover the tough subjects of war and its toll.
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katharineotto said:
I have an old, illustrated book, an atlas of world history. It depicts the invasions of tribes in Asia, Europe, and Africa, and provides short bios of the people we most remember, like Genghis Kahn and Alexander the Great. Yes, many people die, and land maps are redrawn, but wars also spread cultures and understandings of cultures to each other. I’m a committed pacifist and don’t like to fight. I learned early that I don’t have the will to win.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Katharine, I’ve learned from reading true stories about courageous women during the Second World War that we never know what we are capable of doing when the evils of warfare descend upon us. There are other ways of fighting the enemy without using violence.
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Yeah, Another Blogger said:
All of this never will change, and by no means is it limited to the US military. Humankind is a highly flawed species.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
We are, indeed, a highly flawed species, Neil. As I see it, there will be no end to warfare where a powerful minority seek to maintain dominance over the majority of our world…and makes lots of money doing so.
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drgeraldstein said:
Mankind. Unkind? Indifferent? Good under favorable conditions of prosperity, especially with people who look like us and believe like us. Under less favorable conditions and among those who are different?
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
So true, Dr. Stein. Inequality, in its diverse forms, plays a crucial role.
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Mara said:
So true and currently being deployed in Gaza and many other places. How do we shut it down?
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Mara, based on the war in Gaza, I’m learning that it’s not easy to achieve a cease-fire even when the majority of world leaders and people here in the USA and worldwide demand to “shut it down.” There are powerful forces at work behind the scenes that benefit from continued warfare across our planet.
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Mara said:
Exactly, powers right under our noses in what we call a democracy. Amazing I’ve only become aware of just how out of control it all is now. Or, given what we’re taught, not amazing at all.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Mara, the inhumanity of war towards the Other is now made visible in Gaza.
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Mara said:
I’m glad at least that it is visible. That’s one good thing.
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Steve said:
Thank you for a thought-provoking post. As has been said here and highlighted in the opinion pieces in the media, this is a terrible practice that seems to appear in every major conflict.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
You’re welcome, Steve. It was disheartening to be reminded that our lives mean nothing to those who hold power in our world.
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Steve said:
Indeed.
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JoAnna said:
Thank you for helping to shed light on important issues. “The lives taken, injuries inflicted, traumas caused, environmental devastation wrought, social decimation imposed—” should all rank as primary importance in a society that wants to call itself advanced. As a whole, we have so far to go.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
You’re welcome, JoAnna. I couldn’t agree more.
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Rebecca Cuningham said:
Reminds me of the Sting song I Hope the Russians Love Their Children Too. (grimy faces were never seen…)
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Rebecca, I wasn’t familiar with the song, but had no trouble in finding it on YouTube. Solomon has a chapter on “Media Boundaries” that cover the challenges of war correspondents in bringing the ugly truth to public attention.
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Rebecca Cuningham said:
Sometimes a simple photograph does it best, a person picking their way through the rubble.
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derrickjknight said:
The rules of war were destroyed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
They were, indeed, Derrick, and by the Nazi death camps.
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derrickjknight said:
Indeed
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Tracy Abell said:
Powerful quote, Rosaliene. And not only does the war machine have zero concern for our shared humanity, it uses artificial intelligence to build “kill lists,” as in Israel’s Lavender AI program.
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/5/israel_ai
Grotesque and dehumanizing policies.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Tracy, thanks for sharing the link to the Democracy Now report. From Nazi death camps to targeted AI kill lists. What have we humans come to?! We fail to consider that such an AI program could be used on any population, by any leader worldwide.
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Tracy Abell said:
You’re absolutely correct about AI being such a short-sighted “solution.” *heavy sigh*
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Pam Lazos said:
We like to pretend that as a country we always take the high road, but that is rarely the case, sadly.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Sadly true, Pam 😦
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Pam Lazos said:
:0(
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Mary K. Doyle said:
Wow! What a brave author to take on the topic, and brave you, Rosaliene, for reviewing it. So very sad. As I say about gun ownership, guns kill.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Mary, he is, indeed, brave to tackle such a topic. It was a difficult but essential read.
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Michele Lee said:
Thank you for reading and reviewing another impactful book, Rosaliene. Brave voices like his are invaluable. Thanks too for sharing his bio; his online platform looks a useful resource. 🙏🏻
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
You’re welcome, Michele. Here in the USA, there may well come a time when it would be prohibited to write and publish such a book. I subscribed to follow his posts.
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Michele Lee said:
Haunting thought, but to think it could never happen would be naive.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Michele, it would indeed be naive, considering we now have a presidential candidate who promises to be a dictator only on Day One.
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Michele Lee said:
May the voices of reason prevail, and the choices be prudent. 🙏🏻
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dawnfanshawe said:
Sobering truth. Thank you for always educating me a little more.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
You’re welcome, Dawn. Sadly, it’s not education of the uplifting kind 😦
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Kym Gordon Moore said:
Now this is definitely a sobering thought indeed Rosaliene: “When U.S. officials say that civilian deaths are merely accidental outcomes of the war effort, they don’t mention that such deaths are not only predictable.” Brilliant review my friend. Thanks for sharing this book and topic with us! 🤗🙏🏼😊
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
You’re welcome, Kym. It is truly sobering that, in war, our lives and those of our children mean nothing to the military strategists. Now, according to a Democracy Now report [see link shared by Tracy], there is an Israeli AI program capable of targeting individuals on a “kill list” in their homes.
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Kym Gordon Moore said:
What? Rosaliene this is horrible and extremely scary. I find this unbelievable but I know it’s not! My God, the extremes folks go to and for what? 😠😫😟
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katharineotto said:
Rosaliene, I made a point of finding my book, The First Casualty, by Phillip Knightly, 1975.There were several copies of the same book, but with different covers. Another book, by Oman, was about the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
My book has a slightly different slant, about the growth of the “war correspondent” during and after the Crimean War in 1853 through1856. it was between the Russian Empire and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the UK, and Sardinia-Piedmont . . . Casualties included death by disease.
I’m now re-reading the book, as well as re-reading Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, which I’ve also read before and synopsized on my blog in 2017. Both are pertinent to current events, unfortunately.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Katharine, thanks for the info on Knightly’s book. I’ll check it out.
I read the book on plastics, following your recommendation. You’ll be pleased to know that the theme for Earth Day 2024 is “Planet vs. Plastics.”
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katharineotto said:
I am pleased to know that. Date?
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Katharine, Earth Day will be celebrated on Monday, April 22nd. You can learn more at https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2024/
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katharineotto said:
Thanks. I’m glad more people are paying attention.
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Belladonna said:
This is exactly why I didn’t want my son to server after I did. I lost so many friends and loved ones because of war. This was a great review.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
Thanks very much for sharing, Belladonna. I was not aware that you also served in the army.
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Belladonna said:
Yes! For quite a bit
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Lisa at Micro of the Macro said:
Gets you right in the heart, huh? Such a sad reality. The leaders of this country too often show no empathy. So many decisions are made that constantly hurt people & the environment, both here and abroad.
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Rosaliene Bacchus said:
It is our sad reality, Lisa 😦 For those in power positions, the masses of humanity are mere pawns on the chessboard: disposable in achieving their goals.
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Lisa at Micro of the Macro said:
I’m sorry to say I agree, Rosaliene.
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