By Paul T. Angel —
On February 17, 2016, Willis Allison Carto (1926-2015) was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, on property once owned by the family of Confederate war hero General Robert E. Lee. Carto earned this honor, having received a Purple Heart after being shot by a Japanese sniper during his time in the United States Army in the Pacific Theater of World War II. “I never held any animosity for that Japanese soldier,” Carto told this writer many years ago. “He was doing his duty, and I was doing mine.”
Carto, a fierce opponent of perpetual war, spent most of the rest of his life exposing the horrors of war to any and all who would listen. “World War II was the greatest tragedy to befall the world and the white race in the long history of man,” he said, joining forces with the likes of General Robert Wood, General Hugh Johnson, Colonel Charles Lindbergh and other war heroes who fought tirelessly to condemn war, and praise the efforts of those fighting for peace between nations.
Of course, many in the establishment media saw it differently, namely The Huffington Post, whose editors went to great lengths to defame Carto as an “anti-Semite” for his efforts to expose to the world the forces behind the global war machine—those politicians and armaments makers who profit greatly from the death and destruction wars bring about. His burial at Arlington is a “national disgrace,” one rabbi interviewed by the Post said.
Of course, you can bet that rabbi has never set foot in a battle zone in his life, nor have the vast majority of the politicians who so willingly have sent our children to fight and die in the devastating wars of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries—with more to come.
The Post also trotted out self-proclaimed “expert” on the right wing, Todd Blodgett, a self-avowed crack head who has publicly admitted he had a brain-addling $250-a-day cocaine habit while acting as a consultant at Carto’s Liberty Lobby. How did snitch Blodgett pay for his insatiable lust for illegal drugs? He was on the payroll of the federal government—drawing nearly $100,000 per year from the feds—spying on Carto and Liberty Lobby, trying to dig up Internal Revenue Service violations or other misdeeds. Of course, he did not find any, as Carto and Liberty Lobby were scrupulously honest in their business dealings.
We have been encouraged to “let Willis rest in peace,” but, of course, Carto never rested while alive, and he’s probably not resting now, lecturing any soul who has made it past the pearly gates on the horrors of war and the nefarious forces profiting from the mayhem war spawns.
How can we honor Willis’s legacy of peace? By continuing to support the publications he created during his lifetime, including AMERICAN FREE PRESS newspaper and THE BARNES REVIEW history magazine.
To find out what Willis really thought about war, I encourage you to contact AFP at 202-544-5977 and get a free copy of Willis’s last monograph on the subject, A Straight Look at the Second World War, in which he lays out his case that war is the worst of preventable disasters.
Willis dedicated his life to peace, and we will continue on with his mission, despite what the warmongers think or say.
Paul T. Angel is the art director and production manager for AMERICAN FREE PRESS newspaper as well as an amateur historian. He is the author of the popular booklet The Mysterious Megaliths of New England available for just $7 on Amazon.
