There’s no doubt that the recent violence in Iraq and Syria would bring out the war hawks, proposing military intervention and, as Dan Rather said, “beating their war drums.” On Sunday, Rather appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” with Brian Stelter.
During the interview, Rather commented on the “savagery” and “brutality” of war. He commented where once being a journalist made one safe in war zones, the profession now turns one into a target. Stelter asked Rather if there had been cries for war concerning the events in the Middle East, to which Rather responded “I’ve been hearing the war drums beat along the Potomac.”
Rather continued:
As a citizen — let me take my journalist hat off for a moment — but, as a citizen, this worries me a great deal. Because as a journalist who has seen war zones, I’m not padding my part here, but I’ve seen war up close not like the combatants do, but the savagery, the brutality of war once we put the nation at war … All of these people on television — some of whom I have enormous respect for — but it unsettles me to hear them say, listen, we, the United States, we have to, quote, “do something” in Ukraine, we have to do something in Syria, we have to do something in the waters around China, we have to do something about what’s happening in Yemen, we have to do something in Iraq, we have to do something about ISIS, what they are talking about are combat operations.
My first question to anyone who is on television saying, “We have to get tough, we need to put boots on the ground and we need to go to war in one of these places” is, I will hear you out if you tell me you are prepared to send your son, your daughter, your grandson, your granddaughter to that war of which you are beating the drums. If you aren’t, I have no patience with you, and don’t even talk to me.
Americans are tired of war and would rather focus on fixing the issues within our borders. The over-exaggerated, forced patriotism associated with supporting America as the world police has become exhausting. Many of us now just want to go to work, earn a decent living, pay off debt, and get a good night’s sleep.
Watch Dan Rather’s interview with Brian Stelter below:
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.
