by James Glaser
March 29, 2007

Today I read a column titled, "Four years later, war comes home" written by Rod Dreher, an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News.

In this column, Dreher writes about how he felt four years ago when George Bush told the country that we were attacking Iraq. "It was quite honestly thrilling. Shock and awe, baby. Payback time." He went on to say that the chance that his brother-in-law , a National Guard Officer might have to go gave him pause, but he then went right into, "The cause was just, the war was necessary, and that was that."

Now four years later Rod Dreher, like so many American pundits has changed his tune. Now his brother-in-law is going to Iraq, and he says, "There is the tragedy of sending more Americans to risk their lives and their futures in a vain effort to stop a civil war that everybody knows is coming."

One has to wonder if Dreher changed his tune because now a loved one will be involved in Bush's war, or if he has finally figured that Bush's War in Iraq has been a folly from the start.

Four years ago there were thousands, no make that millions of people all over the world who protested this war and predicted that things would go bad for us over there.

It seems strange that Mr. Dreher is still using the line that a civil war hasn't yet started there yet ("stop a civil war that everybody knows is coming"). Most of the world, including most of those in Washington, now admit that we are in the middle of a civil war already.

One of the main reasons that George Bush got his way with Congress and was able to start his war in the first place is because media people like Rod Dreher, were thrilled with the idea of "shock and awe" bombing. To them it must have sounded so heroic. So many of our media bought into the idea that attacking Iraq was some sort of payback for what happened here on September 11, 2001. The only trouble with that is not one of the terrorists who attacked us came from Iraq, and the Iraqi government had nothing to do with that operation.

Our media is supposed to ask the tough questions. They are supposed to probe and dig and find out the facts about what our government is doing, but that isn't the way it works any more. Now it is about supporting the government no matter what lunatic idea they come up with. Our media has become the cheerleader for America's foreign policy, no matter what that policy is.

I can't help but wonder in Mr Dreher feels a little bit of guilt for the thrill he felt four years ago, now that his loved one has to put his life on the line for Bush's folly in Iraq?

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