The drums of war are beating but many people are too far removed to hear them. Many of us would rather play another round of Modern Warfare or Battlefield than pay attention to foreign affairs. We attend to these fictionalized wars with our money and time, despite the relative boredom with which we regard the ones taking place in our real lives. Last Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the President and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, but what he had to say will likely not register with those of us outside the Washington D.C. beltway.
The gravity of a war with Iran, a fourth overall in less than 12 years, seems not to have dawned on most Americans. In political debates, public deliberation, and media interviews, America’s military conflicts are glossed over. Since the early aughts, the nation has been engaged in two prolonged ground wars, provided air and naval support in a third, and executed airstrikes, covert raids, and training missions in several other countries. None of this occurred with extensive oversight by Congress or energetic scrutiny from the public.
After 9/11, then President George W. Bush asked Americans for …
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