{"id":356701,"date":"2018-04-14T06:21:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-14T05:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/few-to-no-anti-bombing-voices-as-trump-prepares-to-escalate-syria-war\/"},"modified":"2018-04-14T06:21:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-14T05:21:59","slug":"few-to-no-anti-bombing-voices-as-trump-prepares-to-escalate-syria-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/few-to-no-anti-bombing-voices-as-trump-prepares-to-escalate-syria-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Few to No Anti-Bombing Voices as Trump Prepares to Escalate Syria War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WaPo:<\/p>\n

This Washington Post<\/strong> op-ed (4\/11\/18<\/a>) was one of several that promoted the myth that “the world did nothing” to Syria.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The curators of American public opinion at the three most influential broadsheets in the United States have decided that dissent from the build-up to new airstrikes on Syria is not really an opinion worth hearing. Of 16 columns leveling an opinion about \u201cfresh\u201d airstrikes on the Syrian regime in the coming days, only two\u2014both in the Washington Post<\/b> (4\/12\/18<\/a>, 4\/12\/18<\/a>)\u2014opposed the airstrikes. No New York Times<\/b> or Wall Street Journal<\/b> opinion piece came out against a renewed attack on Syria.<\/p>\n

Ten expressly supported the airstrikes (three in the Times<\/b>, five in the Post<\/b> and two in the Journal<\/b>), two did so by implication (both in the Times<\/b>, both lamenting the US \u201cdoing nothing<\/a>\u201d in Syria), two were ambiguous and two were opposed to the airstrikes. A complete list of the columns can be reviewed here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is slightly less unanimous than the level of support Trump\u2019s airstrikes on Syrian air bases received from the media last year, when only one out of 47 editorial boards failed to back the escalation (FAIR.org<\/b>, 4\/11\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n

On the issue of launching airstrikes against the Assad government, robust debate is nonexistent. Major publications take the bulk of the premises for war for granted\u2014namely the US\u2019s legal and moral right to wage it\u2014and simply parse over the details (FAIR.org<\/b>, 4\/12\/18<\/a>). The Washington Post <\/b>editorial board (4\/9\/18<\/a>), unsatisfied with what they view as token airstrikes, calls for Trump to not just launch \u201ca few cruise missiles,\u201d but for a “concerted strategy” of open-ended “US military initiatives.\u201d This, of course, includes additional permanent military bases scattered throughout Syria.<\/p>\n

As Trump and leaders from France and Britain gear up for war in the coming days, if not hours, perhaps opinion editors could make a little more space for those who oppose the possible opening up of a whole new theater of war.<\/p>\n

<\/span>
\nThis piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Washington Post op-ed (4\/11\/18) was one of several that promoted the myth that “the world did nothing” to Syria. The curators of American public opinion at the three most influential broadsheets in the United States have decided that dissent from the build-up to new airstrikes on Syria is not really an opinion worth hearing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-356701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}