Trump Is Trying to Bully America Into Supporting His War. It Won't Work.
Donald Trump must envy George W. Bush for the cultural compliance he got while dragging America to war in Iraq.
If you didn’t live through it, it’s hard to convey the atmosphere of stifling conformity that choked the country in the run-up to that disaster. Much of the Democratic Party fell in line; authorization for military force against Iraq passed the Senate 77 to 23. Phil Donahue was fired by MSNBC for giving voice to the antiwar movement. Artists were canceled for expressing their opposition.
When, on the eve of the invasion in March 2003, Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, denounced Bush from a London stage, the fallout nearly buried the band. Radio stations boycotted their music and two Colorado D.J.s who played their songs were suspended. Once one of the most popular country acts in America, the band fell out of the Billboard Top 40.
The same month, when the documentarian Michael Moore gave an antiwar speech at the Oscars, he was met by loud boos in addition to applause. “One pundit after another was saying, ‘Well, that’s the end of Michael Moore,’” he told The New York Times.
Trump has received no such deference for his adventurism in Iran, so he’s trying to force it. On Sunday night, during a tirade on his Truth Social website, the president attacked The Wall Street Journal for reporting on an Iranian military strike against American planes in Saudi Arabia, and called on other news outlets to be charged with “TREASON.” Brendan Carr, Trump’s thuggish Federal Communications Commission chairman, threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their war coverage. Criticizing CNN’s reporting on the war last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made clear that he’s hoping its new owners quash its independence: “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/opinion/trump-iran-war-support.html?unlocked_article_code=1.T1A.DW8w.LTRfuWdZeff6&smid=url-share
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