Friday, August 30, 2013

Who wants to attack Syria?

A Reuters poll says 60% of we Americans don't want to, 9% do.  The English Parliament doesn't want to, David Cameron does.  Conor Freidersdorf thinks that only the "tiny, insular elite that mostly lives in Washington, D.C." want it.  And, in his view, the media is reporting only that last point of view. He writes:
The political press unconsciously treats hawkish positions as if they're more serious and legitimate, in part because they've thoughtlessly bought into the frame that experts can control geopolitics. This is a consequence of so many political journalists living inside a Washington subculture that attracts foreign-policy thinkers with an inflated sense of their own ability to understand and shape global events. The American people are well aware of the shortcomings of those elites, having witnessed their performance in Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs, Beirut, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, among other places.

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