Warmaking elites sell wars by claiming weapons are precise and humane
Evidence
The insistence that shock and awe was the beginning of a war unprecedented in its humanitarian precision was heard across the political spectrum. Donald Rumsfeld, most memorably, insisted that the futuristic weaponry the United States deployed in the war exhibited “a degree of precision that no one dreamt of in a prior conflict,” resulting in bombings that were morally exemplary: “The care that goes into it, the humanity that goes into it, to see that military targets are destroyed, to be sure, but that it’s done in a way, and in a manner, and in a direction and with a weapon that is appropriate to that very particularized target… I think that will be the case when ground truth is achieved” (United States Department of Defense, “DoD News Briefing-Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 1121
Categorization
- XREF: Pairs with the reader’s earlier, deeper pages on precision-warfare euphemism (ch43-48), establishing the Introduction’s target of critique. — connects to: Claims of historical inevitability are enforced through lethal weaponry.; Moral principles and elite virtue can be marshaled to justify disastrous wars — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 200; Wars require moral justification for leaders, publics, and soldiers alike — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2323 (+2 more)
- ADDENDUM: Supports the ‘euphemism sells wars’ thread that runs through the slow-violence precision-warfare chapters (42-48).
Broader Connections
- Leaders frame wars as moral causes to legitimate material self-interest
#corroborates(0.88) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2323 - Moral principles and elite virtue can be marshaled to justify disastrous wars
#corroborates(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 200 - Wars require moral justification for leaders, publics, and soldiers alike
#corroborates(0.82) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2323 - Claims of historical inevitability are enforced through lethal weaponry.
#expands(0.75) - Fiction can function as moral motivation for real-world military participation.
#expands(0.72) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 238