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Mencken’s Forgotten Wisdom on War
by Jim Bovard | Jun 25, 2025
As a stampede of weasels just sought to con America into supporting another Mideast war, it is time remember America’s most underrated critic of bellicose folly. H.L. Mencken is famous for his smackdowns of politicians and ridicule of government and of much of American culture. But he also offered sage advice for citizens judging officialdom itching for carnage.
On May 9, 1939, The Baltimore Sun published Mencken’s essay on “The Art of Selling War.” This piece, included in the Second Mencken Chrestomathy published in 1995, deserves a far higher position in the Mencken and antiwar pantheon.
In words that are painfully relevant for today’s news, Mencken warned, “The fact that all the polls run heavily against American participation in the threatening European war is not to be taken seriously.” Mencken continued:
“Wars are not made by common folks, scratching for livings in the heat of the day, they are made by demagogues infesting palaces…The very unpopularity of war makes people ready to believe, when they suddenly confront it, that it has been thrust upon them…because their own demagogues have been pretending, all the while, to be trying to prevent it.”
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/menckens-forgotten-wisdom-on-war/
Zohran Mamdani’s intern Arzoo Malik is calling for a Holy War through Jihad and martyrdom:
“This is all jihad, this is all ibada, and this is all counted for by Allah. How committed am I to this? What am I willing to sacrifice for this noble cause?”
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🇫🇷🇮🇷❌🇺🇸❗️ — The US thought it could quickly contain Iran with air superiority, but the war has proven longer and more complex, exposing the vulnerability of American bases and ships to missile and drone attacks, while the mounting costs and deployment needs are putting heavy pressure on the Army, according to French weekly Courrier International.
➡️ The analysis concludes that the conflict has shown the US can no longer manage a major Middle East war without heavy consequences, as it once did.
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