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seems every year right around this time between martin luther king day and the
beginning in black history month
you always hear about people trying to insists that martin luther king
would be one thing or would be another thing if he was alive today oftentimes
forgetting
the actual words
of martin luther king some years we hear that
martin luther king would supposedly be part of the neil confederate republican
party of today if you were alive other years it's crimes of omission you hear
martin luther king's nineteen sixty three i have a dream speech
but you don't hear
on t_v_ or in the media
you don't hear mention what he said in his nineteen sixty seven
riverside church speech
well the pentagon
as it always
often does
is topping everybody
the biggest of big government departments
is now claiming that martin luther king if he was alive today
he would support more defense spending
more weapons procurement
and more military's m
in general
if you think i'm making this up
think again
to celebrate martin luther king day
the air force
on its website
put up an essay
arguing that it was paying tribute to martin luther king
and arguing in that suppose tribute
that martin luther king would support
more militarism and more defense spending here's what happened
the air force's website
four
it's a global strike team put up an essay on martin luther king day
saying this
dr king would be proud to see
our global strike team insuring the most powerful weapons in the united states
arsenal remain the credible bedrock of our national defense
maintaining our commitment to our global strike team
our families in our nation is a fitting tribute to dr king
as we celebrate
his legacy that was the air force
the marine's followed that up
post on its twitter feed
quoting a martin luther king quote
in a not-so-subtle effort
to claim that the civil rights leader the
most famous order
uh... brand
proponent of non-violence
claiming that he
would probably support
the marines
in their war-making operations they put up a on their twitter feed
it pulled from dr king in which he said quote
a man who won't die for something
is not fit
to live now dr king did say that but
he did not say that as a way to support the missions of the united states
marines now this what was a follow up
from last year
in which they see me two thousand eleventh in which the defense department
put on its website
a story
with the headline quote king might understand today's wars pentagon lawyer
so dr king apparently according to the pentagon
according to your government according to your u_s_ defense department doctor
king would support more defense spending
more weapons spending and more wars or at least the current wars
that were fighting right now is this true
or is this what cornel west is called
the santa clause of the cation
of martin luther king
i think the record is pretty obvious i mention that nineteen sixty-seven
riverside church peach
martin luther king i encourage everybody who's watching us to go actually
listen to it watch it
worried an entire transcript of it is one of the most important speeches i
think ever given
in the united in the in u_s_ history
and here's some key exerts of it
put it in contrast to what you just heard the pentagon say
about martin luther king cures one quote
from that speech a nation that continues year after year
to send more money on military defense than on programs of social with
is approaching
spiritual death the same speech another quote
the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today
is my own government
another quote from martin luther king quote
there's nothing except a tragic death wish
to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace
will take precedence
the pursuits
of war
so this is
having quite obviously
an effort to santa claus apply martin luther king
and glenn greenwald at the guardian
who first reported on this
put it i think exactly right he said this quote the u_s_ military's actually
publicly claiming
that the nineteen sixty four nobel peace prize winner and steadfast critic of
u_s_ imperialism would be in admire of its massive stockpile of nuclear weapons
as globalists estimation programs and its covert use of violence in multiple
countries around the world including where
no wars are declared merely to describe this abject prob
is to illustrate
it's repulsive nurse and i completely agree with glenn except for one
additional point that i think is worth making
it is repulsive
taking the legacy
taking the record taking the words
of martin luther king
which were very explicit
uh... there's not a lot of wiggle room
in the riverside church bits to claim martin luther king
would support more militarism and defense speech taking those words
using the image of doctor king
to pretend that he would support the larger pentagon and more wars
is repulsive
but in a political world
where lives
often
shull
a level of desperation
there is something encouraging here
and that is that the pentagon seems to realize
big ships
in public opinion
the pentagon is clearly
in the business right now when it comes a doctor king
of desperate lives
that to say that doctor king would support more militarism defense spending
weapons that is a desperate demonstrably pitfalls y
there's no way over there
and so in so brazenly lying
the pentagon is showing that the views more and more desperate
to prevent more and more americans
for appreciating
the spirit of what doctor king hussein
the pentagon
essentially seize public opinion polls
that show that more and more americans don't want us to be spending as much
money on defenses were spending
don't want militarism to be the central organizing political factor
in american political life more and more americans in other words
are actually coming to the same kinds of realization
that doctor king came to
in that nineteen sixty-seven speech
and so in response the pentagon
getting desperate
they're lying about one of the most revered one of the most part one of the
most respected leaders in american history that doesn't excuse the
propaganda
i'm not saying it's great military brass
this is deciding to lie about doctor king
what i'm saying though is
is that the desperation reflects
a welcome
granite slow but welcomed change in american public opinion
the pentagon is trying to fight that change
but they are increasingly fighting
a losing battle