Started with a lie

[Franconicus]

It is well known that truth is the first victim in any war. But some wars already start with a lie. One example is the German attack on Poland in 1939. The lie that the Polish had attacked a German broadcast station as a cause for the attack.

Do you know any other?

[AggonyDuck]

The Winter War started by the Soviet Union faking a Casus Belli with the Shelling of Mainila. Basically Russian Artillery shot at the village of Mainila and then claimed that finnish artillery had shot at the village causing personel losses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelling_of_Mainila

[Geoffrey S]

Oh, could get very political...
Anyway, I'd be tempted to go for the third Punic war. Not certain if it's technically a lie, but Carthage was by no means the threat she was made out to be.

[Watchman]

A fair number, no doubt. Even dictators, god-kings and other absolutist autocrats seem to always have wanted some sort of formally acceptable casus belli to help their underlings justify things with, no matter how far-fetched or transparent. Naturally enough, what constitutes "formally acceptable" has tended to vary enormously over the times... but the trend is there. Even empires hellbent on conquering anything and everything they can possibly reach have had a curious tendency to go to some serious and as-such pointless trouble (say, issuing ludicrous demands through the diplomatic channels of the period and using the other side's refusal as an excuse), or been willing to wait specifically for a suitable incident before pouring over the border; the way the Mongols started their invasions into Khwarimzam, Hungary and Japan are probably good examples.

[Kralizec]

The fire of the Reichstag in 1934 (I think)

Hitler and his ilk had the people believe that it was done by a half blind communist, and used it as an excuse to change to the tyranical regime we all know the nazis for. IMO it was to convinient for the nazis not to have been their own doing, especially as all of Hitlers closes associates were at the scene minutes after the fire broke out.

[Csargo]

The fire of the Reichstag in 1934 (I think)

Hitler and his ilk had the people believe that it was done by a half blind communist, and used it as an excuse to change to the tyranical regime we all know the nazis for. IMO it was to convinient for the nazis not to have been their own doing, especially as all of Hitlers closes associates were at the scene minutes after the fire broke out.

My history teacher told me that Hitler and his Nazi leaders blamed the fire on a retarded Communist Jew that started the fire.
I think that only an idiot would believe that story.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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[Censored] claimed in the early [cersor]st century that [censored] had mass destruction weapons. The rest is [censored].
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[Advo-san]

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[Censored] claimed in the early [cersor]st century that [censored] had mass destruction weapons. The rest is [censored].
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I haven't seen a post from Mouzafpherre for a long time...But it was worth the wait....

[Idomeneas]

I haven't seen a post from Mouzafpherre for a long time...But it was worth the wait....

It sure did!!

[Reverend Joe]

It is well known that truth is the first victim in any war. But some wars already start with a lie. One example is the German attack on Poland in 1939. The lie that the Polish had attacked a German broadcast station as a cause for the attack.

Actually, this wasn't entirely made up- then again, it was. There was actually a staged attack on a German broadcast station, during which, I believe, several members of the station were wounded- but the attackers were actually Waffen-SS soldiers dressed in Polish uniform, so that it really looked like an attack. So, the lie was a little more intricate than just making up a story about an attack- but it was a lie nonetheless.

There's my one cent. (Not being an origional idea, I could hardly call it 2 cents... maybe one and a half.)