When we discussed how the government is always pro-war in class, the discussion was really an eye opener for me. I am not heavily involved in politics, and to be honest, I never really even thought about current day negative affects of war. Sure I learned in history class how past wars had negative affects on our country and the world, but I never thought about the negative affects today. I am also so used to hearing pro-war voices from the government, social media, and people I interact with that I never really thought about anti-war points of view. Because of this, Pur discussion in class as well as the websites Antiwar.com and Theamericanconservative.com offered me a new perspective on war and politics.
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| Anti-War March at the University of Michigan 1969 |
Antiwar.com and Theamericanconservative.com
When I entered the Antiwar.com website, I immediately saw a bunch of articles about the war between Israel and the Hamas. I clicked on one article entitled US Weapons Shipments to Israel Are Enabling War Crimes. This article discussed how sending weapons to help Israel defend itself has led to the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza. The writer of the article, Stephen Semler, clearly expressed that he disagreed with President Biden's choice to send weapons to Israel. Similarly, an article from Theamericanconservative.com had an article entitled Endgame for Gaza. A portion of this article also discussed how aiding Israel in the war has had negative effects for innocent people in Gaza.
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| People in Gaza after an Israeli Airstrike |
However, if you were to view the U.S. Department of Defense website, you could find an article on the same topic that supports President Biden's point of view. Another article from AP News detailed what types of aid the U.S. has sent to Israel in the war. Neither of the websites explained the repercussions of sending aid to Israel like Antiwar.com or Theamericanconservative.com did.
I found it interested that both a website run by the government and an independent news organization never mentioned the negative effects of the U.S. government's involvement in the war. I found it equally interesting that I had never heard of the two anti-war websites provided for this assignment, but I have heard of both of the websites that seemed to support the Biden Administrations decisions in the war. I think there is a reason I had never heard of these websites. I think the government intentionally tries to keep people from finding these anti-war websites because the government is pro-war. The government wants Americans to view websites that support its decisions, not go against them. However, it is our right as Americans to have our own political view points, and as Dr. Smith would say, it is our duty to criticize the government.
I think it is definitely a flaw in our system that the government can censor what we view.
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