It's another reason that I don't trust our government whenever I hear the "drumbeats" for war. The evidence better be damn strong that it's "necessary" or I'd prefer that we not get involved.
The many days of misinformation and superficial "patriotism" leading up to the idiotic invasion of Iraq was a bad enough experience for me. It's not like segments of the media weren't telling Americans that inspectors weren't finding evidence of WMD's. It's not like there were no foreign affair analysts who correctly predicted the civil unrest (and the death of many innocents) that an invasion would create.
Someone recommended a book by Thomas Friedman to me and I replied that I never want to read anything by him after he'd written articles in favor of the invasion. The reply to me was that "everyone makes mistakes" and "he's sorry about it" now. Boo-hoo for him!
Remember the scientists who thought they created "cold fusion" years ago? Their careers were ruined by it, yet they didn't make a "mistake" that got hundreds of thousands of civilians killed, a smaller number of our own soldiers killed, and the later turmoil that still exists to this day.
Oh, and let's not forget all the money this country spent on that BS! That's actually a minor point for me compared to my previous ones, but I realize that's most important to some Americans (usually Republicans).
I had flashbacks when I saw reports of the USS Carl Vinson not being close to the Korean Peninsula as previously reported. There were even reports, supposedly from Japanese officials, that the aircraft carrier was in that area and being followed by ships from China and Russia! The news then showed old pictures of ships followed the aircraft carrier, implying that it was happening currently. How was any of that happening when our ship wasn't even remotely close to that area at the time?! And why didn't anyone at the Pentagon correct those mistaken reports after all those days?!
It's so rotten and it makes me ill.
It can easily happen again. All it will take is around-the-clock coverage of supposed "threats" with several "experts" being interviewed about it (like they were while the Russian and Chinese ships were supposedly trailing our aircraft carrier that wasn't even there), and a bunch of paranoid Americans will support something stupid.
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