"Why do we accept it?"

Good question. Of course many people, like Pilger, are disgusted by it, but are in a position to do nothing. It's all part of an incomprehensible world of infinite horrors that are reported to us in an endless round and a myriad variety of spin. It's overwhelming, and even if you manage to select a stance within the maelstrom of politicised news, it's only one of myriad stances. Meanwhile the horrors go on and people just ignore it all, or listen selectively, or even enjoy the whole extravaganza. Lies lies lies, the world is drowning in drowning cant and moonshine, and those who manage to stay morally sober are so few they might legitimately retort:
"What can we do about it?"

Dear John,

History has value if it provides a reference point for today. It also has value if we can learn from our mistakes. To learn from those mistakes, history must remain “un spun” as a true reference point.

Sadly, our modern society finds it necessary to deconstruct, socialize and apply post-modern ideology that reinterprets much of our history. As a direct result, any opportunity to learn from our historical reference points is destroyed.

There exists a block of humanities academia, media, NGO’s, civil rights advocates and politicians who seek to redirect history to their own ends. This is where you sit.

Some might view you as part of the problem because you have contributed to the causes of some of the effects for which you now seek to advocate. Your one eyed activism is actually corrupting your perspectives which results in even more myopia. You have become a self propelled boomerang missile.

Our history as a species is horrific. We have created millions of rules over thousands of years to try to curb our excesses. The problem is that so many who have stood behind the moralist ramparts and pontificated down to the rest of us plebs, have all turned out to be just as bad as the rest of us, and yes, even our prophets.

Unless of course, you can tell us you are any different?

It really is time John, its time.

As usual Pilger is refighting old battles without realising the technical problems make this sort of propaganda difficult to swallow. He is talking about children being deformed now because their grandparents were exposed to Agent orange almost 40 years perviously.. or is he getting his decades confused?

Its hard enough connecting birth defects where the mother has been directly exposed to whatever is supposed to have caused the mutation - radiation, chemicals etc - let along a generation of so down the track..

Same could be said about Chernobyl. Pilger doesn't realise, probably because he never bothered to find out, that once the Chernobyl inhabitants were evacuated the Russians spread them over the rest of the population and never kept proper records. There were some effects, notably an increased incidence of throat cancers among children in the region, but tracking any other effects is hard.. Its mostly cancers, in any case, rather than mutations.. but I've probably spent too much time on Pilger..

It disgusts me, the attempt by some people to kill the messenger. What happened in Vietnam with Agent Orange (and napalm) was a holocaust, a chemical holocaust which is still ongoing.

Only a fool who was never near the frontline would try to minimize it or raise silly questions about it.

If we don't learn from our mistakes we will repeat them. When nuclear war comes in the not too distant future, will we also try to hide the results of our deranged thinking and behaviour?

Thank heavens for people like John Pilger. Hopefully he will awaken the brain-dead!

Faint hope indeed.

In the short term perhaps but history is not be so easily rewritten. Particularly, in the information age.

I congratulate you on reminding us of Vietnam. For I fear the outrages of Vietnam may well be dwarfed by future revelations from Iraq and Afghanistan.

John, in case you have never noticed: war is hell. Civilians become collateral damage. It has always been thus. Why do you think it would ever be different?

Why is it only the people you have ideological differences with that commit atrocities in war? Or is a case that others do so, but you want to sweep those under the carpet; revising history in your own way?

The only solution to civilian tragedy in war is to stop war. If you care about such things, John, that is what you should be campaigning for. This always makes me wonder why you always appear to be trying to incite class war. What haven’t you learned from history?

spindoc, if you think history can be "unspun" you've got a lot to learn, not just about history per se, but about metahistory.
The West has been writing putatively unspun history for centuries, trouble is it's a crock-full of excrement--which you can use as a reference point if you want.
Where you go from there is pure fantasy, mate: <There exists a block of humanities academia, media, NGO’s, civil rights advocates and politicians who seek to redirect history to their own ends>
Can you provide some references please? All these want the kind of history you want--you know, a beacon.

<you have become a self propelled boomerang missile>
Orwell would approve; a nice fresh metaphor--though I'm having trouble with the picture.
I sympathise with you last bit of finger wagging; the problem of praxis, of converting idealism into action, but I don't see why you're being so hard on poor old John. What is there for any of us to do but pontificate? What are you doing?

Truths will out with or without WikiLeaks. John Pilger follows in that grandest of Journalistic traditions of seeking to tell the truth. As an Ozzie so proud that Wilfred Burchett is alive and well in the form of JP. Syria is the final play of Imperialist/Colonialist regimes MrSykes and Mr Picquot. The tradegy is that there is now not a force on earth that can deescalate what is occurring in Syria right now
Bill Deller

So far this thread has been in general an adulation of Pilger. I do not share that hero worship attitude. Pilger is unfailingly anti American and Anti western. Presumably those are the only ones who do bad things.
Pilger expresses concern, quite rightly, at the effects of the Vietnam war. All very fine, but I will start to take notice of the man when is equally critical of other peoples offences.
For part of the time that the Vietnam war was going on there was civil war in Nigeria. The Ibos in the South East tried to leave Nigeria. War started of dreadful ferocity. The death rate was appalling. Starvation affected millions; kwashiokor was rampant. Doubtless many of the children who survived will have been, and still are, intellectually damaged by food deficienciecies notably proteins. Where was, where is Pilger in all that. Where are all the Pilger admirers. AWOL I fear. Presumably black or brown people killing and maiming black people doesn't rate.
And today an Islamist murderous group in Northern Nigeria is killing people with the aim of driving people out and setting up Sharia law over the country as a whole. The name of the group, translated into English is 'Western Education is sinful.' In parts of the North female literacy rates are less than 5%. In most of the South they are not much short of 100%. I hear little comment from people on the Left (or anywhere else for that matter). Presumably equal rights for women and girls doesn't apply to Africans.
Where was Pilger?
Where is Pilger?
Where were his worshippers?
Where are his worshippers?

Silent.

Gulf of Tonkin incident in which Nth Vietnam PT boats allegedly attacked US war ships, never happened.I wish I knew the motive of wars a long time ago.Wars have always been about power and profit for a few elites.These criminals have gotten away with murdering people for centuries and still continue to do it with impunity.

John Pilger is a searcher of truth and unfortunately there are not enough like him to stop their next war of insanity and cruelty.

Two things.
On Syria:
http://attackthesystem.com/2012/06/27/nothing-safe-nothing-sacred-syrian-rebels-desecrate-christian-churches-photos/

An article similar in tone to Pilger's piece by Pat Buchanan, it seems sincere, old school Leftists and Right Wingers have a lot in common these days:
http://takimag.com/article/has_the_day_of_the_islamist_arrived_patrick_buchanan/print#axzz1ytbxhS69

"This always makes me wonder why you always appear to be trying to incite class war. What haven’t you learned from history?" - by agronist?

What a blithe phantasm.

Dear me. All war is class war - always is, always has been and always will be. Why else would there be a war? Wars are initiated by an elite not by the masses; the purpose is to empower, protect, enrich or in some way satisfy the elite. Whether it does or not is dependent on their competence. The rest of us are cajoled, persuaded, manipulated to enjoin and support the war effort for patriotism, or to forestall the coming apocalypse

This particular history is important, particularly for the fact that it rarely gets an airing compared to the endless cycle of WWII military strategy television documentaries. It is also important because it provides a rare opportunity to perceive 'ourselves' who were implicated in this atrocity, albeit indirectly, in a less familiar way. Agent Orange has implications for other disastrous and more recent military operations, which is perhaps what Pilger is suggesting. And the problem continues to be that we rarely acknowledge the suffering on the 'other side'. But history has a way of getting out sooner or later, despite the media mind managers deciding whether it is 'too political'.