The Intellectual War Monger

The word monger is not in and of itself indicative of something bad:

mon·ger (mŭng'gər, mŏng'-)
n.

1. A dealer in a specific commodity. Often used in combination: an ironmonger.

2. A person promoting something undesirable or discreditable. Often used in combination: a scandalmonger; a warmonger.

tr.v. mon·gered, mon·ger·ing, mon·gers
To peddle.

(Dictionary). Thus, a drugmonger is someone who traffics in drugs (e.g. pharmacist), and a warmonger is a person who traffics in war.

The intellectual warmonger is one who has been educated in one of the many War Colleges around the globe to deal in war with an intellectual aura.

For example, notice one of the movements within that war college educational system:

Who is SSI?

The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College publishes national security and strategic research and analysis which serves to influence policy debate and bridge the gap between Military and Academia.

(SS Institute, emphasis added). The military teaches how to influence policy debates and sometimes they get jiggy wid it:

Through seven years of war an exclusive club has quietly flourished at the intersection of network news and wartime commerce. Its members, mostly retired generals, have had a foot in both camps as influential network military analysts and defense industry rainmakers. It is a deeply opaque world, a place of privileged access to senior government officials, where war commentary can fit hand in glove with undisclosed commercial interests and network executives are sometimes oblivious to possible conflicts of interest.

(NY Times, emphasis added). The AP finally had to just come out and admit that the intellectual warmongers had had their way with the press:

The Bush administration turned the U.S. military into a global propaganda machine while imposing tough restrictions on journalists seeking to give the public truthful reports about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Associated Press chief executive Tom Curley said Friday.

Curley, speaking to journalists at the University of Kansas, said the news industry must immediately negotiate a new set of rules for covering war because "we are the only force out there to keep the government in check and to hold it accountable."

(AP). The intellectual warmongers had, of course, learned their trade in the war colleges:

Capture their minds and their hearts will follow ...
Psychological Operations (PSYOP) or Psychological Warfare (PSYWAR) is simply learning everything about your target enemy, their beliefs, likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. Once you know what motivates your target, you are ready to begin psychological operations.

(Psyops Psyche!, emphasis added). The bottom line is that the media were swallowed up by those who monger the country's greatest enemy.

The next post in this series is here.