Christopher J. Coyne - Manufacturing Militarism

MANUFACTURING MILITARISM

U.S. Government Propaganda in the War on Terror

Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall

Stanford University Press

Stanford, California

Stanford University Press

Stanford, California

2021 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Coyne, Christopher J., author. | Hall, Abigail R., author.

Title: Manufacturing militarism : U.S. government propaganda in the War on Terror / Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall.

Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020045727 (print) | LCCN 2020045728 (ebook) | ISBN 9781503628359 (cloth) | ISBN 9781503628366 (paperback) | ISBN 9781503628373 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: MilitarismUnited States. | PropagandaUnited States. | Propaganda, American. | TerrorismPreventionGovernment policyUnited States. | United StatesMilitary policy. | United StatesHistory, Military21st century. | United StatesPolitics and government21st century.

Classification: LCC E897 .C69 2021 (print) | LCC E897 (ebook) | DDC 303.3/750973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045727

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045728

Cover design: Kevin Barrette Kane

ADVANCE PRAISE

Immersed in militarism since birth, Americans have a choice: the blue pill of aggression and self-righteousness disguised as fostering democracy and freedom, or the red pill of truth. Coyne and Hall offer us the red pill and a path to freeing ourselves from the military machine. They believe we can handle the truth. Prove them right. Read this book.

William J. Astore, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Ret.), and author of Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism

This book brilliantly analyzes one of the deepest problems of American democracy: the role of mass media in reinforcing government propaganda that promotes war, intervention, and militarism. From Washington to Hollywood, from Iraq to American sports stadiums, the order of the day is inflating threats, inventing enemies, and fanning the flames of fear and xenophobia. Manufacturing Militarism explains why the world that Americans see is so different from the world that actually exists.

Stephen Kinzer, Watson Institute, Brown University, columnist for The Boston Globe, and author of Poisoner in Chief

In Manufacturing Militarism Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall offer both a vital rejoinder to uncritical American exceptionalism and this dirty secret: democracies, too, peddle in propaganda. Blending analyses of recent history, politics, and culture, they chronicle a narrative game long riggedthe U.S. governments ceaseless post-9/11 campaign to sell wars we dont need, that people dont otherwise want. Their disturbing conclusions ring as collective alarm bells for a republic in its long night of peril.

Major (Ret.) Danny Sjursen, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and the author of Patriotic Dissent and Ghostriders of Baghdad

Manufacturing Militarism is a timely and far-reaching study of the role state-sponsored propaganda has played and continues to play in 21st century American life. Coyne and Hall show how, since 9/11, successive administrations held back relevant information and deliberately misled journalists and the public, damaging Americas democracy, national security, and international reputation.

David C. Unger, Johns Hopkins University SAIS Europe and author of The Emergency State

You cant handle the truth! At least thats what your government thinks. Manufacturing Militarism shows how democratic governments utilize their monopoly on classified information to propagandize their citizens in order to enable government actions that benefit the politically elite at the expense of average citizens. Coyne and Hall superbly illustrate how we have been propagandized by the U.S. government throughout the war on terror.

Benjamin Powell, executive director, Free Market Institute, Texas Tech University

In Manufacturing Militarism, Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall document the pernicious effects of the governments control and dissemination of information. They describe the threat inflation that characterizes government propaganda, facilitating citizen compliance and shifting power away from citizens and to the political elite who control public policy. More than just a tool that enables government policymakers to enact policies they prefer, Coyne and Hall make a persuasive case that government propaganda is a real threat to a free society.

Randall Holcombe, professor of economics, Florida State University

Rich with maddening examples, Manufacturing Militarism demonstrates that the U.S. government constantly emits lies and half-truths meant to shore up public support for endless wars against an endless stream of enemies, real and imaginary. And Coyne and Hall show us what to do about it. Read this book: Democracy is hanging in the balance.

Roger Koppl, professor of finance, Syracuse University, and author of Expert Failure

To F. A. Baldy Harper
A peacemonger in search of peace

Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.

Samuel Johnson (1758)

Contents

Acknowledgments

This book has benefitted greatly from detailed comments from Yahya Alshamy, Diana Thomas, and two anonymous referees. We thank Alan Harvey and Caroline McKusick at Stanford University Press for their guidance on this project.

Portions of this book were presented at the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Institute for Economic Inquiry at Creighton University, and Bellarmine University. Parts of this manuscript were also presented at the Southern Economic Association and the Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Conferences as well as a special meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society. We are grateful to the organizers and participants for their feedback, comments, and suggestions, which undoubtedly improved the work.

We would like thank Jordan Hurwitz for research assistance and Matthew Alford and Tom Secker for correspondence related to .

Chris would like to thank his wife, Rachel, and daughters, Charlotte and Cordelia, for their love and support. He also thanks his colleagues in the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University for creating a supportive intellectual environment. Finally, he would like to express gratitude to the Institute for Humane Studies, where he was a Senior Fellow during the final stages of this project.

Abby would like to thank her husband Edgar and her daughter Elizabeth for their support and encouragement. She would also like to thank Jerod Hassell, whose interest and queries into the project provided a wonderful source of motivation. She is grateful to her former colleagues at the University of Tampa for their support.

PREFACE