The War by Ken Burns: Pro-War Propagada?

As faith in our Despot wanes, and hope for any sort of victory in Iraq seems faded from all reality: A new "documentary" whos release seems suspiciously timed with the falling approval ratings is BROADCAST on very basic cable to every TV in the USA with its message: We lost thousands of US soldiers in a single day, why should war in Iraq be any different? We didnt complain then, we shouldn’t complain now: is the vibe I got from watching 'The War'.

Sprinkled with tales of patriotism, heroes on the home front, and statistics of casualties abound in this VERY PRO-AMERICA piece of well planned propaganda.

Its intent seems to be to transform the mindset of US citizens to one where patriotism for our Wars and limitless sacrifice are the norm.

Now world war 2 was a great war which required total mobilization to destroy the fascist regimes of Italy, Japan, and Nazi Germany. No one denies the greatness of our soldiers today or back then.

But do not forget that our entrance into World War 2 was brought on by FDR allowing the attack of Pearl Harbor to go undefended. His perfectly crafted 'day of infamy' was the blueprint for war just has 9-11 was for our current conflicts.

Perhaps if we had ATS during the Pearl Harbor attacks in 1941 we would have seen through the lie. The fact that FDR forced the Japanese to attack us by cutting off oil and other supplies necessary for survival: now this was an act of war which FDR and the US instigated.

Now I am sure a few of you will angrily respond saying that we HAD to stop Hitler from killing all the Jews. (Same argument Bush uses with regards to Saddam) I AGREE! Stopping a tyrant from killing is a good thing. But then why did we not try to stop the Death Camps? Why did we not try to bomb the fences open? Why was it not until Nazi surrender in 1945 that we finally "Realized" what was going on? FDR and the US had photo surveillance of these camps they knew what was going on.

WW2 was, just as war is today, a for profit enterprise on which the United States is been painfully addicted to.

The War - PBS
Ken Burns - Wiki

reply to post by AllSeeingI


Almost two days and no responses.
I would, therefore, assume that you are 100% correct in all your basic assumptions.
Frankly, having been born in 1948, shortly after the end of the war, and growing up in those "halcyon" days, my understanding of the issues is probably different from yours (age, experience, wisdom, or lack of it on my part)...

It seems to me, regardless of causative factors (Roosevelt lying, etc.) that Ken Burns, and he's not all that original, just better organized than most, made a tribute to what is often referred to as the "Greatest Generation". The idea in his documentary (this time) isn't so much as to glamorize war, or to create a mindset of acceptance, as it is one, wherein he praises a generation, and explains why he does so.

That generation came from an era of isolationism, Andy Hardy, Buzby Berkley, 23-Skidoo, and innocence, for the most part (if the movies and news reels are to be believed) to one that eventually, for better or worse, led us to where we are today. That generation led us from Saddle-Oxford shoes, baggy pants, and black and white issues of good versus evil to the point where we are today. A point wherein we have to have forums like ATS, because we no longer trust or believe what we are told by those very people we elect to lead us into the future.

Those folks were either quaintly “citified”, or as in the case of my Mother and Father, pretty rural. For instance, I still have the .22 caliber rifle that my Mother used to kill hogs on the farm as a child, and she would be in her 80s today, had she survived. My father went on to become some sort of specialized “kill craft” trained warrior in WWII. They lived together for 26 years, or so, after the war, before he got the itch and moved out to join in a relationship with a younger woman, whom he still lives with and loves, in spite of her having Altzheimer's disease, or some variant. I don’t know, exactly… He and I have not spoken in about 20 years (His choice, not mine), due to some perceived insult to his new wife that I purportedly made all those years ago. I guess there’s no accounting for a guilty conscience, but that is a whole ‘nother story.

Those years, as I understand the story learned at my folks knees in the old days were years, in which, real, or imagined, the people in the US were quite content to be slowly rolling along in their little reality. They didn’t really care all that much that a war was raging in Europe, and had little to no idea, at all, that people were being killed in ovens and the other horrors that were occurring.

Those folks were in an age of “innocence” for want of a better word. The counry was still in depression, and folks were trying to simply survive and all without the ability to post on the internet, talk to Uncle Fred on the phone every day, and certainly no air conditioning. It wasn’t all that easy. Self serving survival was the rule of the day for the common man. And so, when we went into the war, and all the sacrifices became necessary (or not, depending on who you believe) that generation rose to the occasion, and took it in stride and carried on.

Even with the possibility of lies, damned lies and statistics that Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his government, used to get us into the war, one cannot take away from the generation that rose to the challenge. One cannot take away from the sacrifice that a generation made in order to insure that the lights, in fact, did not go out all over the world, at the hands of the axis powers. That the democracies and other less brutal/evil governments did not go quietly into that dark night that I, honestly, believe would have occurred, in spades, had the Axis Powers taken down the Allies.

That’s just my 2 cents, and I could be wrong, but I kinda’ doubt it…

If anything I would say that its anti war ... anything remotely pro war would not fly in modern society. Look at Flags of our Fathers, when the movie came out last year people were calling it "pro war propaganda" when in reality its about as anti war as it gets. Clint Eastwood took the most anti war chapter from the book (the book was actually balanced as in yes, war is bad but sometimes we have to shut the beep up and fight them) and made that into the whole movie.

I have posted a thread on this subject as well and from what I have seen the film is far less patriotic than it could have been and if anything, it comes across as profoundly humane.