Introduction
Page 2
United States government
Page 4
European Union
Page 5
Islamic states
Page 6
Terrorist statements
Page 7
State terrorism
Page 8
Aerial bombardment
Page 9
Commercial mass media
Page 10
The contradictions
Page 11
Culture of war
Page 12
Each side claims to be right and that it is the other side who are the true terrorists. But in reality, each side employs terrorism, holding the civil populations of the other side in fear and producing, from time to time sufficient destruction to give substance to the fear. And each side imposes taboos and secrets and produces propaganda and misinformation.
Each side invokes the "One God" to justify its actions, and denounces the religious "fanaticism" of the other side.
The Great Powers continue to keep nuclear weapons ready for use. At the same time, however, they take a contradictory position by denying access to nuclear weapons to most other countries or groups. The contradiction is heightened by their acceptance of the nuclear weapons of Israel. Although the claim is made that nuclear weapons are needed for defense, yet they are only useful against state actors and they are useless to deter the actions of non-state terrorist groups.
All the while, the mass media and arms manufacturers amass their profits as a result, and the poor get poorer while the rich get richer, both within and between the nation-states.
How can these contradictions be analyzed so that they become understandable?
It is the thesis of this article that both sides are the contemporary manifestation of a culture of war that has dominated human societies since the beginning of history, a culture that is deep and dominant, but not inevitable.
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