The United States is invading Korea; as US sailors and marines approach the shore and attempt a daring assault landing, Korean guns open fire and blast the American force. But this is not the Korean war of the 1950s, the year is 1871. ibid.
America’s involvement in the complex and confusing Russian revolution in 1918 … Surprisingly, American soldiers would spend more time in combat than any American unit did in France during World War I. ibid.
A decade after the [Panama] canal is completed the interventions begin when the marines arrive in Nicaragua in 1914. ibid.
We still haven’t eliminated the scourge of war. In fact, the last 100 years have seen war waged on a greater scale than at any other time in human history. Peter & Dan Snow, 20th Century Battlefields s1e1: 1918 Western Front, BBC 2007
Here in this room we have to agree to end this war between us. Peaky Blinders s4e2: Heathens, Tommy
Lies have always been used to sell war to a public that would otherwise be leery about sending their sons off to fight and die on foreign soil … A pretence for war is required to rally the nation around the flag and motivate the public to fight. The Corbett Report, Debinking a Century of War Lies, James Corbett online 2018
World War I, RMS Lusitania: Every facet of the story of the Lusitania as it has been presented to the public was a deliberate lie or a lie by omission. The boat was not a purely civilian vessel … ibid.
World War II: Pearl Harbor is best understood as a conspiracy to motivate the American public for war. ibid.
1931: Japan was looking for a pretext to invade Manchuria. ibid.
Korea was arbitrarily divided along the 38th parallel … Neither was the war itself the organic result of decisions taken by the Korean people. ibid.
Vietnam: In August 1964 President Johnson was preoccupied in finding an excuse to justify a formal escalation of American military involvement in Vietnam. That excuse came on August 2nd when the USS Maddox – a destroyer supposedly on a peaceful mission in international waters – reported a surprise attack … The story of the Maddox too had been a tissue of lies. ibid.
The 6-Day War in 1967 between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan is yet another example of a war which was justified for reasons that were later exposed as lies. ibid.
Gulf War I: They hired a literal PR firm to sell an even more brazen set of lies to Joe-6-Pack and Jane-Soccer-Mum. ibid.
Gulf War II: Also built on lies ... The rest of the media quickly fell into line. ibid.
Libya Intervention: Human rights and protecting the innocent is a more effective lie … ibid.
In war a week is a whole life condensed. There’s no tricks, no masks. There’s excitement, ecstasy. There’s fear, moral commitment, empathy. But without denying the essence of life: everything’s random and fleeting. Dying to Tell, Netflix 2018
They don’t realise the price they’ll pay … I didn’t realise the price I’d pay … I didn’t know how much of me would die. ibid.
We go to war in search of adventures but we come back with a suitcase full of bodies. ibid.
These people go from bomb site to bomb site to look for bodies and survivors among the rubble. ibid.
Fear is a defence mechanism that tells you, You shouldn’t be here. ibid. journalist
When I come back I feel lonely. ibid.
We’re not easy to live with between wars. ibid.
You can’t sleep at night. Or you wake up screaming or dreaming with constant repetitions of a scene, like a football match replay. But it’s a death match. ibid.
For over a hundred years battles have raged in the air for command of the skies. Since its earliest beginning in World War I, the aeroplane is the supreme weapon of the armed forces. It revolutionised battle and changed the ways war was fought and won. Wings of War I: Bombers, Discovery 2019
A new kind of warfare is unleashed: blitzkrieg. ibid.
At the height of the Cold War between the Superpowers, the B52 … goes toe to toe in a global face-off. ibid.
The largest payload of any World War II bombers … Over 7,000 Lancasters were built … 150,000 sorties during the course of the Second World War. ibid.
The British now had a bomb which could bounce … The Lancaster’s approach run had to be spot-on. ibid.
The B17s were at their most exposed on a bomb run. ibid.
December 1941: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States head-first into World War II. Fought not just against Japan but against Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Over the course of the War sixteen million Americans would serve in active duty in the armed forces. Eight of them would become US presidents. Presidents at War s1e1: A Call to Valor, History 2019
December 1942, RAF Hurn, England: Eleven months after Pearl Harbor, the man who would one day be 34th president of the United States, Dwight D Eisenhower, flies from England to Gibraltar. He’d been ordered to command a joint Allied military operation against Nazi Germany. This would be Eisenhower’s first time in combat. ibid.
JFK’s older brother Joe junior had received his wings as a naval aviator. ibid.
The eagerness to serve even hit young boys. In Massachusetts a high school prep student decided to enlist: George H W Bush. ibid.
‘He doesn’t just enlist in the war; he signs up for the most dangerous job in the war.’ ibid. historian re Bush
From a more humble background but just as eager to serve was a brilliant young student Jimmy Carter. ibid.
JFK: He was commanding a PT boat in the Solomon Islands. ibid.
‘He [Reagan] became the face of the fight man, even though he never picked up a gun and had never fought.’ ibid. son
The evidence of British war crimes the government never wanted you to see. Insiders from the Ministry of Defence say illegal killings have been covered up by the state. We reveal how British detectives were stopped from exposing the truth. And we ask the most shocking question: Has the British government turned a blind eye to the murder of children? Panorama: War Crimes Scandal Exposed, BBC 2019
They came in the night. The British special forces looking for Taliban fighters … There are dozens of persistent allegations of British special forces killing unarmed civilians. It’s not just Afghan families making the allegations. ibid.
In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. Citizen Gangster 2011 starring Scott Speedman & Kelly Reilly & Kevin Durand & Joseph Cross & Brendan Fletcher & Charlotte Sullivan & Melanie Scrofano & Brian Cox et al, opening quote Jose Narosky
17th July 2014: Just after midday Flight MH17 takes off from Amsterdam bound for Kuala Lumpur. On board, the 298 passengers and crew … Three hours later MH17 is blown out of the sky over the Russian/Ukraine border. There are no survivors … Suspicion immediately falls on Ukraine’s nearest neighbour – Russia. Secret Wars Uncovered s1e1: Coup in Crimea, Sky History 2020
‘The annexation of Crimea was partly opportunistic and partly reactive. It was a response to what they saw as an aggressive extensive of western Europe.’ ibid. Anthony Brenton, British ambassador to Russia 2000-2008
Putin’s clandestine armies are sowing destruction, confusion and chaos across the region. ibid.
Crimea sits proudly at the top of the Black Sea. Crimea first became part of the Russian empire in the late eighteenth century. Catherine the Great, keen to expand her country’s influence in the east, sent her armies to occupy the region in 1768. But less than a century later, Russia was routed by Turkey and its western allies in a humiliating defeat in the Crimean war. ibid.
In 1954 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gifted Crimea back to Ukraine as part his programme of de-Stalinisation. ibid.
It holds more warheads than United Kingdom, China and France combined, making it the third largest nuclear power on Earth. ibid.
Ukraine will hand over this nuclear arsenal to be destroyed; in return, Russia will agree to respect the political integrity and independence of the whole of Ukraine, including Crimea. ibid.
Putin orders Russian special forces into Crimea and begins an audacious military coup. And it’s done and dusted before the West can do anything about it. ibid.
Russian forces go on to wage a military campaign in eastern Ukraine. ibid.
These peaceful demonstrations continue. They become known as the Orange Revolution. The Ukrainian Supreme Court declares the result [election] invalid, and orders a new election. On 23 January 2005 to the dismay of Vladimir Putin, [Viktor] Yushchenko finally wins the presidency of Ukraine. ibid.
In 2010, he [Putin] finally installs his puppet – Viktor Yanukovych. ibid.