The de facto censorship which leaves so many Americans functionally illiterate about the history of US foreign affairs may be all the more effective because it is not official, heavy-handed or conspiratorial, but woven artlessly into the fabric of education and media. No conspiracy is needed.

Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.

Our leaders are cruel because only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment. People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or national security adviser or secretary of the treasury. Nor do they want to.

A terrorist is someone who has a bomb, but doesn't have an air force.

Change comes from a degree of discomfort that allows for and spurs thought and action.

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II

No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine.