Myth Busting, the History Edition: Hedges and Sjursen deconstruct WWII USA narratives

Hedges and Sjursen deconstruct WWII USA narratives

Publication date: 2021-08-16

Up front, this is a double plug, for Chris Hedges and his program at RT America, On Contact, and for Danny Sjursen about whom I have already written.

Years ago I came up with the formulation for sorting the grain from the chaff for regulatory information sources. It was "journalists who have reported extensively from war zones" and "cause lawyers". I think I can now condense and broaden that into "people who have looked deeply into the immorality, evil even, behind governance structures, be they political, military, or economic, for they are all related".

It seems to take a resounding shock to shed learned cultural mythologies and begin to see the world in a raw light. Caitlin Johnstone or Noam Chomsky would speak of removing the blinkers of a manufactured consent narrative. Cornell West may speak of embracing a prophetic fire.

Chris Hedges

His father was a Presbyterian minister and having defended homosexuals before the gay rights movement gained political momentum was defrocked. Chris followed his father's footsteps, both in commitment to the principles of christian values, and a career, studying at Harvard Divinity School. There he ministered to a flock in a poor suburb a ways from Harvard. Before completing his studies that he chose to become a reporter and ventured to be an "on the ground" (like there is any other sort) journalist during the Iran-Contra era in central Latin America. (He has since completed his studies and is an ordained priest). He witnessed atrocities, was exposed to the adrenalin addiction of war reporting, filed reports, saw his associate photo-journalist killed, and learned Spanish.

Before long he is working for the New York Times and relocates to the boundary of the Warsaw Block and Western Europe and witnesses revolutions in Czechoslovakia and other places. He then covers the war(s) in Yugoslavia. He was in Sarajevo as it was being relentlessly attacked with artillery and sniper fire.

He moves on to become the NYT bureau chief for the middle east and learns Arabic as he covers the second Intifada. In 2002 he receives a Pulitzer prize for Explanatory Reporting on global terrorism. His objection to the proposed war to come against Iraq has him ejected from the NYT.

Meanwhile and since he has been a prolific author of books, which have won numerous awards. Titles include "War is a Force that Gives us Meaning", "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America", "Death of the Liberal Class" and his most recent "America: The Farewell Tour". He is a proponent of Sheldon Wolen's Inverted Totalitarianism.

Hedges sits amongst Noam Chomsky and Cornell West as a leading USA intellectual. He and West are very good friends. Chris is not an armchair intellectual; he was in Zuccati Park during the Occupy Movement, and was in the courtroom with West for the court martial of then Bradley Manning.

Chris has taught in prisons to, of course, mostly African-Americans. How he managed to get to use Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" as the text in a prison school baffles me.

Danny Sjursen

Danny was at West Point training as a USA army officer when the crimes of 9/11 occurred. He was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan as a part of the "War On Terror" (now widely regarded as the “War Of and Encouraging Terror”). During his deployments he continues to read voraciously. Post deployment he returns to West Point to teach USA history. While still teaching at West Point he begins publishing articles advocating peace.

He is both a student and teacher of history, and has published three books "Ghost Riders of Baghdad", "Patriotic Dissent" and very recently "A True History of the United States". The last is mostly based on a series he published summarising his lectures at West Point as I detailed in my last piece on Mr Sjursen.

I recently stated that I consider ex-combat soldiers the most powerful pro-peace advocates. Mr Sjursen is doubly so because of his study of non-mythologised history.

WWII America’s historical myths

These two pro-peace heavy weights discuss primarily one chapter of Mr Sjursen's most recent book, that concerning WWII. This is Danny's second appearance on "On Contact", a rare occurrence. Danny receives a glowing review of his book by Chris with

in the best traditions of Zinn ... a great work

The tragedy is that the discussion is so short.

Enjoy.

Sources

WWII America’s historical myths, Chris Hedges and Danny Sjursen, RT America 2021-08-14

The direct link for "On Contact", all episodes, is this.

Danny Sjursen’s has a web-site, and works with the Eisenhower Media Network.

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