Media, Politicians in Lockstep Behind New Iraq War

Congress Split Between Pro-War and Even More Pro-War

After the overwhelming unpopularity of the US occupation of Iraq in its waning years, the new US military operation, announced last night by President Obama, has proven surprisingly non-controversial among Congressmen and media outlets. The war has been embraced with open arms.

The major cable news channels trotted out round after round of pro-war guests, all parroting the administration’s “genocide” narrative, hyping the humanitarian problems of the ISIS war and pushing US intervention as the end-all, be-all solution of it all.

On the Congressional side, bipartisan support, virtually without exception, was assured. The only real public complaints from Congressional leaders were that they thought the war should’ve begun sooner, and should be bigger than it has gotten so far.

A handful of antiwar Democrats expressed concern about mission creep, though this too was included amid backing the war as currently laid out by the administration, and was more about reserving the right to complain about the quagmire the war will inevitably become, as opposed to not wanting to start down that path to begin with.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.