There are several excellent sources of alternative media. In the course of my research, there are two or three websites that I make sure I read each day. But the one I read first every morning is Antiwar.com.
Being a truly antiwar, nonviolent website requires great courage and honesty. Obviously, it requires courage because it necessitates speaking words that powerful gatekeepers of public opinion don’t want spoken. Several of the most senior and respected alternative voices I have spoken to have eulogized the current period as the worst they have experienced for the suppression of the pursuit of truth and honest history and reporting.
But being a truly antiwar website requires courage and honesty because of the self-reflection and self-criticism it sometimes requires. It is not always difficult to condemn your own country for launching a cruel and devastating war. It is more difficult, while condemning your competitor for launching a cruel and devastating war, to look honestly at the causes and criticize your own country, and your own allies, and accept your own share of the responsibility for a cruel and devastating war. It is by analyzing those causes that future wars are prevented instead of fought: the purpose of an antiwar website.
On March 1, at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Noam Chomsky condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as "a major war crime." That’s obvious and easy. But he went on to add this important insight: "It’s easy to understand why those suffering from the crime may regard it as an unacceptable indulgence to inquire into why it happened and whether it could have been avoided. Understandable, but mistaken. If we want to respond to the tragedy in ways that will help the victims, and avert still worse catastrophes that loom ahead, it is wise, and necessary, to learn as much as we can about what went wrong and how the course could have been corrected. Heroic gestures may be satisfying. They are not helpful." He then added, "Today that means an effort to understand why this tragedy occurred and what could have been done to avert it, and to apply these lessons to what comes next."
That is the purpose of understanding history: to apply the lessons in order to avert war in the future. That is the honesty and courage that Antiwar.com has maintained in the face of the powerful gatekeepers. Antiwar.com has the courage to look at the causes and the honesty not to censor its writers.
And Anitwar.com provides a platform for impressive writers. Unlike many websites and better than most, Antiwar.com offers a diverse and detailed summary of the most important events every day at the top of the page in its news section. Many of these stories are not to be found in the mainstream media and are not to be included in the mainstream narrative. Their exposure by Antiwar.com informs and alters that narrative.
Below the news, the viewpoints section provides insightful analysis in important articles republished from other sites as well as featuring articles by its own writers, including the respected, reliable, experienced and expert Ray McGovern.
Antiwar is essential. It is a rare honest and courageous voice at a time when stopping the current war and averting the next requires inquiring into "what went wrong and how the course could have been corrected."
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