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Originally Posted by Boris
As for Dick Cheney, I think he wants another Cold War. His kind of rhetoric is very reminiscent of McCarthyism. It's alarmist, and designed to scare.
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The neoconservatives are building an empire as well as enriching their good friends in the military businesses. Militarism and expansionism cannot be upheld without popular public support. The easiest way to get this support is to convince the citizens that they are constantly under the threat of attack by some powerful enemy. Having a pretext for offensively using military force is necessary. In the past, feigning an attack by the enemy provided this pretext. And now we have a pretext of preemptive war. With these simple tools, you can justify attacking anyone anywhere. You can have wars of aggression that are perceived by the local populace at home as self-defense. It is a very common, yet surprisingly, unknown method of manipulation. The Germans used it with great effect before and during World War II. They believe themselves acting in self-defense. But of course Hitler and the leaders see exactly what they're doing.
For example, see this following article written by Joseph Goebbels at the end of 1939, after Germany invaded Poland and the war was going well. It claims Germany is innocent and merely acted in self-defense, even though now we know that they pursued a ruthless war of expansion.
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb21.htm