What makes Men and Women go to War? After a "conversation" with other bloggers at a site that will remain nameless, the question of what compels supposedly moral people to go to war. Lets just say the site is more famous than the one you are presently reading. I would content that the main reason why men, women and children (given the rise of the child soldier we have to add that sad category as well) go to war is the fact that they are often sick victims of propaganda published by the national security state (what is our security alert status today? WMDs. Or anything out of the mouth of John Keep-an-eye-on-everyone-around-you Ashcroft). Whether we agree with the rhetoric or not only propaganda and ideology forces people to go to war. If we read most media sources, the assumption seems to be that the more educated and civilized persons are, the less likely they are to became soldiers of war. But that is not entirely correct, clearly the Bush machine shows the falacy to such thinking. Its rigid thinking that leads to war. And rigid thinking is related to propaganda whether its political, religious, or some other way of thiking. If you take away propaganda, the soldiers again will become civilians or at least thinking soldiers. And lets set aside the question of whether or not someone is truly educated by going to college (see Bush) or college plus reading and thinking a lot (Johnson). To get the propaganda to work, the mass media has to become concentrated into a near monopolized state; the media is often directly or indirectly controlled by the military or the arms industry (who owns NBC again?). We must remember that CBS held back on information regarding torture because they were asked to do so. Thus the mass media can then create ideas, images, and pictures of the enemy. And who are the enemies? Those are the countries which will not act the way the leaders want them to. They fail to trade on the conditions which are demanded, such as low prices, cheap labor, and not question the chimperor and the neocon vision of the world to use a more recent example. All propaganda for war begins with the myth that political opposition within the country especially the thinkers, protestors, and pacifists is dangerous. Religious and moral values are substituted with military norms and military rules. Listen to the right wing talk machine... it is dangerous to question the regime during war time, or even think for yourself. For Ann Coulter, to disagree is treasonous. Man, why does she hate everyone? Most soldiers who go to the battlefield are young. They have just left school, family, and community and joined the military. They have never learned to use the little word NO to authority figures beyond some cultural style where they think they are being independent. No solder will learn to say NO in the military before they experience the cruelty of war which will only reinforce the propaganda. Welcome to the machine.