By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, July 27, 2026
War Is Still A Lie is an updated third edition of War Is A Lie and includes a new 90-page investigation of how lies about wars have changed.
War Is A Lie is a thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify wars, drawing on evidence from numerous past wars, with a focus on those wars that have been most widely defended as just and good. This is a handbook of sorts, an engaging, always informative manual that can be used to debunk future lies before the wars they’re deployed to justify have any chance to begin. This 2026 edition updates and expands on the 2015 second edition, which built on the 2010 original.
The author, David Swanson, is available for interviews and events. Contact him here.
You can also join him for a World BEYOND War, four-session, online book club discussion of two of his books together here.
Or you can sign up for one or both of two free online discussions of this and another of Swanson’s recent books through RootsAction Education Fund here.
Buy the new book at your local bookstore. The ISBN is 979-8-2561-9775-9. The distributor is Ingram.
Buy it at any online book seller, such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Thrift Books, etc.
Buy in the U.S. or UK for $22 here.
Anywhere on Earth, get a big discount on orders of 10 or more paperbacks (this can include copies of this and my other books). Be sure to let us know how many of which books and where they need to be shipped, and we can let you know the cost.
This is the Table of Contents:
Preface 2026 12
Preface 2015 14
Introduction 2010 15
- Wars Are Not Fought Against Evil 22
- Wars Are Not Launched in Defense 58
- Wars Are Not Waged Out of Generosity 103
- Wars Are Not Unavoidable 126
- Warriors Are Not Heroes 153
- War Makers Do Not Have Noble Motives 193
- Wars Are Not Prolonged for the Good of Soldiers 224
- Wars Are Not Fought on Battlefields 241
- Wars Are Not Won, and Are Not Ended By Enlarging Them 265
- War News Does Not Come From Disinterested Observers 282
- War Does Not Bring Security and Is Not Sustainable 300
- Wars Are Not Legal 327
- Wars Cannot Be Both Planned and Avoided 349
- War Is Over If You Want It 361
Epilogue 2015 380
War Is Still A Lie 2026 421
Acknowledgments 512
About the Author 513
Notes 514
Index 548
Praise for War Is A Lie:
“For a sophisticated and systematic demystification of war, consult David Swanson‘s book War Is A Lie.— Johan Galtung, father of peace studies
“A terrific tool for recognizing and resisting war lies before it’s too late.”
— Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower
“David Swanson’s War Is A Lie should be required reading. It lays bare the hypocrisy of American ‘do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do’ foreign policy, exposing the lies and the deliberate glorification of military disasters. War Is A Lie gives you the arguments, outrage and inspiration you need to take action. Read it.”
— Medea Benjamin, author, peace activist
“David Swanson is a truth-teller and witness-bearer whose voice and action warrant our attention.”
— Cornel West, philosopher
“A vital guide to understanding deadly propaganda, War Is a Lie maps out the deceptive terrain where people fall into accepting perpetual war as necessary. David Swanson has done the difficult work of making it easy for readers to grasp the extent of the lies — and the horrific consequences. With meticulous research and moral clarity, this book could transform your view of war and the real possibilities for peace.”
— Norman Solomon, author, film maker, activist
“David Swanson predicates his belief that nonviolence can change the world on careful research and historical analysis.”
— Kathy Kelly, author, peace activist
“Our times cry out for a smart, witty and courageous Populist who hasn’t forgotten how to play offense. Luckily we have David Swanson.”
— Mike Ferner, author, peace activist
“May be the most comprehensive antiwar statement available in the English language.”
— Kevin Young, journalist
“Elucidating, lively, and thought-provoking, War Is A Lie is a must-read for all Americans who bear responsibility for the actions of our government both and home and abroad.”
— Josh Ruebner, author of Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace
“Not since General Smedley Butler’s War is a Racket has a simpler, more brilliant, or truer book been published.”
— Geoffrey Millard, peace activist, veteran
“Debunks every argument you’ve heard used to justify, glorify, instigate, promote, prolong, and expand war.”
— Kim Carlyle, peace activist, veteran
“There are three insightful books I’ve read that explain how and why no good can come of the current U.S. reliance on military force and war in seeking its desired ‘Pax Americana’: War Is A Racket by General Smedley Butler; War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges, and War Is A Lie by David Swanson.”
— Coleen Rowley, peace activist, whistleblower, retired FBI agent
“If you stop and think, and genuinely wonder, and long for a new, better world, I urge you to read a book I’ve just finished. It’s brilliantly and passionately written, and while being truthful is full of hope of destroying the military-industrial-media-congressional-imperial-presidential-complex.”
— Mumia Abu-Jamal, author, radio commentator
“In his usual meticulous, forthright style, Swanson does us a tremendous service by outlining, in detail and with a large body of examples, the lies behind all the U.S. wars, the money behind them, and the politicians who sell them to the public. If you want to know why and how U.S. wars are truly waged, read this critically important book.
— Dahr Jamail, journalist, author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq
“This book is every American’s best defense against the greatest danger we face as human beings: the threat of war. Swanson reveals how American leaders (from both major political parties) have confused the public to create the illusion of consent for endless destruction and slaughter.”
— Nicolas J. S. Davies, author of Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq
“David Swanson let us all in on a little secret: Everything we believe to be true about war is a big fat lie … actually, a series of lies that are intertwined and reinforce each other until the lies are the only thing we can see.”
— Leah Bolger, activist, veteran
“This book is revolutionary, and certainly truth-telling in a remarkable and brave way.”
— Jennifer Van Bergen, author
“I’ve been reading a bit of this book every night since I got it. The effect it’s having on me is hard to explain. Like I’ve been born into a cult whether or not I want it, but now the lies are being washed away by the rain.”
— John Bostrom, peace activist
“Activist David Swanson is well respected in the anti-war community as a man who walks his talk in a bold, committed, solid way, that he is a principled leader. Now we must add to that list of credentials authorship of an important, destined to be classic book. War Is A Lie addresses the web of lies, the taboo subjects, the false claims, the mythic messages that are hollow and empty and it lays waste to them.”
— Rob Kall, journalist, radio host
“If decisions to go to war were really made on the basis of reason and facts, rather than greed and power, David Swanson’s brilliant new book would put a stop to them. Those of us who know David understand that he writes quickly and eloquently, speaks honestly and powerfully, and follows a logical point all the way to its conclusion. He has a philosopher’s mind with a computer’s precision. And he always maintains a justifiable moral outrage at the lies of the war criminals — calling out their crimes, detailing their carnage, poking holes in their excuses. Reading War Is A Lie is like reading Mark Twain’s ‘War Prayer,’ only in book form.”
— Steve Cobble, political strategist
“While Americans elect leaders whom they trust are honest, truthful and really care about the kids they send to kill for our country, War Is A Lie reveals decade after decade the sordid side of our history — that our elected officials lie us into war with stunning and embarrassing regularity and are little concerned about the harm to innocent civilians, much less to members of our own military.”
— Ann Wright, peace activist, author, veteran
“Swanson offers an incisive examination of the rationalizations, justifications, and outright lies that have led the United States, and other nations, into battle. And he shows the personal cost to the current generation of combatants returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
— Cynthia Wachtell, author
“David Swanson has taken the mantle of A.J. Muste, who had the guts and the audacity to declare World War II to have been unnecessary and wrong. Swanson takes Muste’s argument further to make the audacious claim that all wars are not just unnecessary, but a crime.”
— Dave Lindorff, journalist, author
“War Is A Lie is a must read for anyone who wants to break the centuries-long cycle of a perennially war-waging United States. In this carefully researched book, Swanson exposes the falsehoods that a willing government sells to a gullible public to gain support for one unnecessary war after another. The profit motives, power plays and perennial chest-thumping, that have all been given more importance than human lives, are exposed in all their ugliness. This book should be required reading in every high school history class in the country.”
— Robert Fantina, author, peace activist
“It was a Republican U.S. senator, Hiram Johnson of California, who is credited with coining the phrase: ‘The first casualty when war comes is truth.’ … Were he serving in the Senate now, Hiram Johnson would go to the floor of the Senate, hold up a copy of David Swanson’s essential new book and demand that the chamber and the whole of the American people recognize the reality of its title: War Is A Lie.”
— John Nichols, journalist, author
“In War Is A Lie David Swanson carves himself a monumental task: to prove the truth of this in every historical instance for which background is available. He accomplishes his task, with a weight of evidence which can only be described as devastating. Swanson sets forth a deceptively simple yet provocative thesis: War is never the only choice, and always the worst one.”
— Ralph Lopez, peace activist
“David Swanson writes in the tradition of Howard Zinn. He always goes for clarity, both in his relentless orchestration of the facts and his ethical vision. War Is A Lie is as clear as the title. Wars are all based on lies, could not be fought without lies, and would not be fought at all if people held their governments to any reasonable standard of honesty. The book is easy to understand, easy to read, if you have the will to face a vast array of facts that hold the United States government to a reasonable standard of honesty.”
— Charles M. Young, journalist
“Swanson’s penetrating analysis of the lies behind wars, backed by his extensive historical knowledge, shine a light not only on the destructive wars but on the irrational, delusional thinking and propaganda that starts and prolongs them and leads to so much death, destruction, and suffering.”
— Jay Kvale, peace activist
“David Swanson’s new book has given me a fresh perspective on a topic I’ve dedicated my life to: America’s war culture and its ever-nuanced fall out. Economic collapse, pollution, dependence on fossil fuels, even global warming: you can’t begin to fathom our predicaments until you conceive of the American war monster. Swanson rips away the public relations/advertising of this military industrial giant to show its true cancerous colors. Read slowly, America. This is a powerful mirror for those still clinging to our media distortions. It’s an indictment of a culture grown dependent on, and distorted by the machinery of violence. But there is a compassion, an empathy to the author’s tone. We are all victims, Swanson argues. We are a people kept blind to the true costs, the human tragedies, by the never ending lie of war.”
— Charles Bivona, writer, professor
“It’s been a week since I finished War Is A Lie, and I can’t stop thinking/talking about it…. Everyone in my life is getting a copy for their birthday this year and I’m composing a letter to the editor of every major paper in Idaho. Thank you for rocking my world.”
— Kim Mazik, peace activist
“This book is a nonviolent assault on the acceptance and justification of war, of all wars. For those of us who already are familiar with the uncountable arguments supporting Swanson’s position, he was successful in compiling them in a very readable work which also serves as a reference book. For those of us who more or less blindly accept our culture of militarism, I am hopeful that the exposure to the clear, compelling, evidence-based debunking of general war myths and lies laid out by Swanson will open new windows of understanding.”
— Patrick Hiller, conflict transformation scholar
“No one has worked harder than David Swanson to free the U.S. from the grip of militarism. War Is A Lie brilliantly exposes just our profound addiction to war. I hope it jumpstarts a conversation about how we can achieve enduring peace.”
— John Horgan, science journalist, author, The End of War
“David Swanson is one of the greatest peace strategists alive today. You will find War Is A Lie to be engaging, insightful, inspirational, and useful.”
— Michael D. Knox, PhD, Chair, US Peace Memorial Foundation
Books by the Same Author:
War Is Still A Racket (2026) ISBN 979-8-3492-9165-4
NATO What You Need to Know (2024). Medea Benjamin and David Swanson. OR Books.
*The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With (*2023). David Swanson. ISBN 979-8-9869811-0-9
Snippers Saves the World (2021). David Swanson. ISBN 978-1734783704
Leaving World War II Behind (2021). David Swanson. ISBN 978-1734783759
20 Dictators Currently Supported by the U.S. (2020). David Swanson. ISBN 978-1734783797
Curing Exceptionalism (2018). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0998085937
War Is Never Just (2016). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0998085906
War Is A Lie (2010, 2016). Just World Books. ISBN 978-1682570005
Killing Is Not A Way of Life (2014). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083061
War No More: The Case For Abolition (2013). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083054
Tube World (2012). Illustrated by Shane Burke. David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083047
The Military Industrial Complex at 50 (2011). Editor and contributor. David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083078
When The World Outlawed War (2011). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083092
Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union (2009). Sevent Stories Press. ISBN 978-1583228883
The 35 Articles of Impeachment (2008). Introduction. Feral House. ISBN 978-1932595420
About the Author:
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is the executive director of World BEYOND War, a global nonviolent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace. He is the campaign coordinator of RootsAction.
On November 10, 2024, Swanson was awarded the Real Nobel Peace Prize by the Lay Down Your Arms Foundation in Oslo, Norway. Swanson was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. He was also awarded a Beacon of Peace Award by the Eisenhower Chapter of Veterans For Peace in 2011, and the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award by New Jersey Peace Action in 2022, and a Global Peace Leadership & Excellence Award in 2024.
Swanson has been on the advisory boards of: Nobel Peace Prize Watch, Veterans For Peace, Assange Defense, BPUR, Military Families Speak Out, Fields of Peace, and Peace in Ukraine Coalition. He is an Associate of the Transnational Foundation, and a Patron of Platform for Peace and Humanity. He is on the Consultative Council of the SHAPE Project. He is on the International Coordinating Committee of No to War – No to NATO. He is on the Steering Group of Warheads to Windmills. He is on the Board of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice.
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