Friday, April 14, 2017

Pod Pundits celebrate war (Yes, I know, what else is new?)

This is both disappointing and fascinating. But, sadly, not surprising. I mean the giddiness of our Pod Pundits after the Syrian missile strike last week. Followed by the MOAB bomb drop in Afghanistan this week.

It's on full display in this Morning Joe segment from today, Trump White House Undergoes Shift In Policy And Tone Toward Foreign Policy MSNBC 04/12/2017:



And in this one, Ignatius: President Donald Trump Becoming Credible Foreign Policy Leader 04/14/2017



This is a symptom of the problem that Gregory Daddis describes in the Army War College's quarterly journal Parameters (Faith in War: The American Roots of Global Conflict 46:4 Winter 2016–17):

If subversive Islamic fundamentalists selectively interpret the sacred text of the Qurʾān to justify violence, is it possible Americans are equally discriminatory when defending their own, seemingly moral, obligations for waging war? In truth, much of America’s deployment of military power during the last 50 years, even back to the early twentieth century, rested on a set of absolute beliefs, convictions amounting to a sort of secular fundamentalism. Policymakers and citizens alike possess an enduring faith that the United States, via its military forces, has the power to transform societies abroad.
Some of the more sober commentary on this matter includes:

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