Why warmongering states claim to be peaceful

Why do warmongering states claim to be peaceful?

Presenting war as forced self-defense is a longstanding propaganda technique, and close study of conflict gives historians strong reasons to distrust it.

Peaceful self-description is treated as one of war's oldest propaganda forms. The familiar claim says that an opponent's provocation forced a state to declare war and commit violence in the name of peace. Close study of war can make a historian less trusting of national narratives instead of encouraging its glorification. Viewers can test official claims of reluctant war against actions and chronology.