OPINION:
This year is the 100-year anniversary of U.S. entry into World War I. We must never forget this war. As war ravaged Europe, President Woodrow Wilson publicly adopted neutrality — while secretly supplying Great Britain with weapons. Wilson knew the Lusitania was hauling weapons to Great Britain and using civilians as cover. The Germans were aware, too, that the United States was secretly arming the Allies, and thus targeted U.S. ships, leading to America’s involvement in the war.
Time and time again, U.S. presidents have lied to Americans. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who supplied allies with weapons prior to U.S. entry into World War II, violating U.S. neutrality, also sent U.S. ships into Japanese waters prior to Pearl Harbor to provoke a Japanese response. President Lyndon B. Johnson fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin incident to elicit U.S. ground troops in Vietnam. President George W. Bush invaded a sovereign nation, Iraq, on totally fabricated weapons-of-mass-destruction charges, murdering over a million Iraqis (of which nearly 200,000 were civilians).
Now President Trump has attacked Syria for emotional reasons, as he claims (viewing pictures of Syrians killed in a chemical attack). War action should never decided by emotions.
Americans and the press must question all U.S. war decisions and neutrality claims because as history has shown us, all presidents lie, some more than others. We must demand facts, not hyperbole.
MARK KILYK
Birmingham, Ala.
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