“There are no harmless political lies about a war. The more such lies citizens tolerate, the more wars they will get.”
From The Bush Betrayal (Palgrave, 2004) http://www.jimbovard.com/Epigram%20page%20Bush%20Betrayal.htm
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James Bovard 40
American journalist 1956Related quotes

Falsehood in Wartime (1928), Introduction
Context: Between nations, where the consequences are vital, where the destiny of countries and provinces hangs in the balance, the lives and fortunes of millions are affected and civilization itself is menaced, the most upright men honestly believe that there is no depth of duplicity to which they may not legitimately stoop. They have got to do it. The thing cannot go on without the help of lies.
This is no plea that lies should not be used in war-time, but a demonstration of how lies must be used in war-time. If the truth were told from the outset, there would be no reason and no will for war.
Anyone declaring the truth: "Whether you are right or wrong, whether you win or lose, in no circumstances can war help you or your country," would find himself in gaol very quickly. In war-time, failure to lie is negligence, the doubting of a lie a misdemeanour, the declaration of the truth a crime.

Majority Report, July 22, 2005 broadcast
Majority Report
Context: You know George W. Bush is a war-time president, he says - proudly. Guess what. War is failure! When you are at war, you have failed! When you have gone to a war of choice and lied about it, you're a double-triple, triple-quadruple failure! Or a warlord. It's called a warlord in other countries. A war time president here. One man's ceiling I guess is another man's floor. George Bush is a warlord. He's a failure!

“If wars can be started with lies, they can be stopped by truth.”
Source: Quoted in Fate Of Anti-War Journalism Lies in Upcoming Assange Hearings, Sam Carliner, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/10/22/fate-anti-war-journalism-lies-upcoming-assange-hearings October 22, 2021

“In global warming and pollution we eclipse, in lies and wars to nuclear apocalypse.”
Esoteric Magazine, University of British Columbia 2005, p. 28

“The longer the war drags on, more and more civilians are getting killed.”
Quoted in "Iraq Rebuffs Iran on Peace Initiative", pA01, February 11, 1991, Rick Atkinson and Barton Gellman, Washington Post.

“there is no war not based on lies,
there is no infamy alive without
its kindred kin, deceit.”
"There Is No Compromise With Truth" ( a poem written in 1953 or 1954).

Hearts and Minds (1974), a documentary of the Vietnam War [1:17:35 onward]