Mainstream Media Suddenly Discovers the Threat of War

Fitting that Trump's replacement of Nation Security Adviser Lt. Gen H.R. McMaster with John Bolton comes directly on the heels of the 15th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. If the United States has been tacitly at war with the world, now it is explicitly so; at least that's "morning after" assessment in the prestige press.

Yesterday, before the Bolton bombshell was dropped, Nicholas Kristof penned "Trump’s Talk Worries Me, Like the Talk Before the Iraq War." When I read Kristof I think of him as a situational progressive whose views when they are enlightened usually line up with the "better angels" at Langley. I stopped reading him several years ago when he wrote a few columns from Ukraine championing the Banderites of Pravy Sektor.

The last part of Kristof's column caught my eye:

Looking back, the biggest problem 15 years ago was that the administration was stuck in an echo chamber and far too optimistic, and Democrats and the news media alike mostly rolled over. Journalists too often acted as lap dogs, not watchdogs — and today I fear that we may be so busy chasing the latest shiny object that we miss an abyss ahead.

I also frankly doubt that we as a nation have learned the lesson from Iraq. A recent Pew survey found that 43 percent of Americans still believe that invading Iraq was the correct decision.

Hello?

Forty-three percent believe invading Iraq was the correct decision because that is the prevailing wisdom found in the mainstream media. Governments and the corporate media outlets that serve them lie repeatedly. It didn't end with the invasion of Iraq. See Craig Murray's latest post, "Boris Johnson A Categorical Liar."

Suddenly war appears to be imminent when it was front and center the whole time.