Asking Serious Questions to Get Serious Answeres.

God bless Eugene Robinson. 
In this day when more young Americans get their news from Jon Stewart than from any reputable news source*, Robinson is old-school.  Ask the questions, listen to the answers, follow up.

No matter your beat, you better know the background.  Do your homework, and know the history of what happened at least 10 years back.  Otherwise, you're just chasing facts and transcribing press releases, it seems.

(By the way, when the Obama administration tells us there was a failed rescue attempt earlier this year, in Syria, of James Foley and the other hostages, has anyone checked this out and confirmed?  Any plans to?  It's probably hard to check details of a Special Ops mission, but surely there would be some way of verifying the story, or at least confirming supporting details. Boy that would be something if  the story turns out to be not-so-solid, a lot of bluster and "at least we tried" spin, after the fact that James was dead, gruesomely beheaded as shown in the video.)

Anyways, here's Eugene:

>Have we gone to war again? No one seems to know

By Eugene Robinson

 

WASHINGTON -- I'd like to know whether the United States is at war with the Islamic State. I'd like to know why -- or why not. I'd like to know whether the goal of U.S. policy is to contain the jihadist militia or destroy it.

President Obama? Members of Congress? Please pay attention. I'm talking to you.

The barbarians who decapitated journalist James Foley -- and who commit atrocities on a daily basis -- control territory in both Iraq and Syria. 

 

I'd like to know why it makes sense to conduct airstrikes against Islamic State fighters on one side of a border that no longer exists but makes no sense to do so on the other side.

The answer may be that the U.S. military lacks intelligence about the enemy's positions and movements -- the Islamic State is the enemy, right? -- inside Syria. 

 

This week, Obama authorized surveillance flights over Syrian territory to gather the needed information. Should we therefore assume that airstrikes there will soon begin?

 

 

I'd like to hear an honest discussion by our leaders about what we're signing up for. Obama called the Islamic State a "cancer" and said the fight against it "won't be easy and it won't be quick." To my ears, this suggests that the United States is making a long-term commitment and that time is on our side, not the Islamic State's. I'd like to examine both assumptions.

Public support for extended U.S. military involvement in another Middle East war lies somewhere between negligible and nonexistent. An open-ended commitment would run counter to the thrust of Obama's foreign policy from Day One -- and indeed, he has limited the airstrikes and declared that he will "not allow the United States to be dragged back into another ground war in Iraq."

If there are to be no boots on the ground, one wonders what kind of footwear the hundreds of U.S. military advisers newly sent to Iraq are sporting. One also wonders what the plan might be.

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I like to think of myself as a white, female Eugene Robinson-style writer and reporter.  It will be interesting to see who replaces him, or if the hard-news columnists are a thing of the past for news consumers, as more personal and diverse writers emerge.
The less we cover the facts and the more we cover ourselves, the greater the country declines.  Do you think there might be a casual link?



Personally, I really could give two hoots about the suit the president wore when he was prepping the nation for upcoming action -- or non-action -- in Syria. But ain't that America these days? Focus on the trivial, and let the important stuff pass.
 

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* Today, Scoop Stewart broke the news that Miss Kitty, of Hello Kitty! fame, is not even a feline. What's next: My Little Pony is really a Great Dane with mane extensions? '

Funny, silly stuff, cute! -- like an advanced children's television show, for grown children -- but not really important in the long run...

Like President Obama, it seems Stewart is graying and growing long in the tooth. One wonders how much longer he can carry off this schtick, particularly if the social divisions in the country continue to grow, and beheaded journalists and dead black bodies left in the streets continue to dominate the headlines.

Miss Kitty will be left as a plaything for the lucky little girls -- stuff white people and Asians like?, while the big boys cover the harder news of what is really happening in our world today...