Today, one has to look outside the mainstream news media to find serious questions being raised about the skimpy U.S. intelligence that is undergirding President Obama's case for bombing Syria. You certainly won't find much of it in the opinion columns from the star pundits at the New York Times and the Washington Post.
In justifying the U.S. claim that the Assad regime must be punished for a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21, the Obama administration has released only a four-page white paper that is filled with "assessments" but lacks any verifiable evidence. It turns out that Congress has been given very little additional evidence, a 12-page version of the same dodgy dossier. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Congress Denied Syrian Facts, Too."]
Prejudicing the Case
Rather than presenting verifiable evidence of the Assad regime's guilt, the Obama administration has been staging "intelligence briefings" for Congress that feature videos of people convulsing and twitching from apparent exposure to chemical agents. In the legal profession, this strategy is known as prejudicing a jury, i.e., showing graphic pictures of a grisly crime knowing that the normal human reaction is to want to punish someone even if it turns out to be the wrong person.
In a healthy democracy, the counterweight to such government propaganda is supposed to be an independent news media that asks the tough questions and demands accountability for government deceptions. But that is again not what we have seen from the U.S. news media, as journalists again jump on the juggernaut to war.
Like the U.S. government's propaganda, the mainstream media's punditry, including Kristof's columns, focuses on the emotional tug of the human suffering from the Aug. 21 chemical attack (and on the political stakes for Obama if he loses the congressional vote) rather than on the evidence proving who's responsible (and on the most rational way toward peace).
Among the many facts that are still hidden from the American people is the U.S. military's classified estimate of how many civilians will be killed as "collateral damage" from the expected American missile strikes. When Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made reference to the Pentagon's estimate during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, he said the figures could only be presented in closed session.
One might think that the "humanitarian" Nick Kristof might want to know that fact before endorsing a plan to bomb, bomb Syria. He also might want to reflect on his duty as a journalist to inform -- rather than disinform -- his readers.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
