The fact is that there is almost no more important job for the news media than to demand answers to these sorts of questions before a president takes the country to war.
There is also some context specific to Trump: He’s erratic, deranged, and impulsive. There can be no assumption that this is a reasoned decision. Journalists should make that clear as well.
And did no one learn the lessons from the cowardly, cheerleading mainstream-media coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War? I’m really agog at how understated the coverage is.
As I wrote last June, I believe journalists have a particular obligation to inform the public about the dangers and horrors of war. They are a repository of certain truths about war: That it is horrible; that it is easier to get into a war than get out of it; that war is often entered into under false pretenses; that when it comes to war, governments lie.
This time though our intentions are pure and war is going to work!
You’re almost there, it’s right on the tip of your consciousness.
p.s. To answer Tiki’s question, the cowboy is conflicted and in the midst of cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance is when you spend all day attacking the exact same things the fascists attack and you think you’re not working for them.