Norman Solomon: Is War on Syria Veering Off-Script?

[marmar]

from Consortium News:


Is War on Syria Veering Off-Script?
September 7, 2013

When the U.S. government readies for war, there is a well-worn script. A “bad” guy is defined; some act of perfidy is alleged despite murky evidence; politicians and journalists express righteous outrage; a confused public is dragged along. Except that the war on Syria may be veering off-script, says Norman Solomon.

By Norman Solomon


No matter how many times we’ve seen it before, the frenzy for launching a military attack on another country is — to the extent we’re not numb — profoundly upsetting. Tanked up with talking points in Washington, top officials drive policy while intoxicated with what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the madness of militarism,” and most media coverage becomes similarly unhinged. That’s where we are now.

But new variables have opened up possibilities for disrupting the repetitive plunge to war. Syria is in the crosshairs of U.S. firepower, but cracks in the political machinery of the warfare state are widening here at home. For advocates of militarism and empire by any other name, the specter of democratic constraint looms as an ominous threat.

Into the Capitol Hill arena, the Obama White House sent Secretary of State John Kerry to speak in a best-and-brightest dialect of neocon tongues. The congressional hierarchies of both parties — Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, John Boehner, Eric Cantor — are on the same page for an attack on Syria. And meanwhile, the U.S. mass media have been cranking up the usual adrenalin-pumped hype for war.

More than 10 years ago, American media outlets were filled with breathless idolatry of the latest U.S. weapons poised to strike Iraq. Now, the big TV networks are at it again – starting to hype the Pentagon’s high-tech arsenal that’s ready to demolish Syrian targets. Of course the people at the other end of the weaponry aren’t in the picture. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/07/is-war-on-syria-veering-off-script/

[JohnyCanuck]

1. K&R What the warmongers are counting on is this:

"We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth." Newspaper columnist Sydney Schanberg

But they've told so many lies and spouted so much BS to start wars over the last 50 years, the people are finally starting to get cynical in a big way. And it's about time.

[jsr]

2. People are fucking sick and tired of being lied to