Intro: However this time around 20 years later it's not the same old re-play of tired re-treading of entrenched media strategies. It's a different world approaching Mutually Assured Destruction.
It is MAD Drumming-Up The Heat for War Hysteria
There are different voices from different media sources - for example this one, a think tank.
The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
NOTE: 
1 day ago · Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with Anatol Lieven, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
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An American-Russian Conversation - Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. What are Russia and America's real interests and goals in the conflict over ...
America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” — John Quincy AdamsThe Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is an action-oriented think ...
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Opinions|Ukraine-Russia crisis
The keyboard cavalry is back
The pundits who rallied for the war in Iraq are now giving advice on Ukraine.
By Andrew Mitrovica Al Jazeera columnist
Andrew Mitrovica is an Al Jazeera columnist based in Toronto
". . .Lately, they have been churning out their paint-by-number, testosterone-fuelled copy about how “good” (the West) has to confront “evil” – ie that “thug” in Moscow, Vladimir Putin, who is going to invade and enslave Ukraine.
The West, they say, has to call Putin’s bluff.
The West, they say, must not give in to Putin’s demands.
The West, they say, has to save Ukraine from Putin’s KGB-trained talons or else he will take a bigger bite out of Eastern Europe.
Back then (circa 2002), they penned columns and were invited on TV and radio to say that “good” (the West) had to confront “evil” – ie that “thug” in Baghdad, Saddam Hussein, who was going to unleash his secret store of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) on London.
They said there had to be war.
They said diplomacy meant appeasement.
They said the invasion of Iraq was legal.
They said it was a war to prevent the end of civilisation.
They said the war would be quick, cheap and easy.
They said the liberators would be greeted with garlands and kisses.
They said: sure, some Iraqis may be killed, but “democracy” is worth the sacrifice.
They said democracy would bloom where there was once only desert.
They said it all with a cocky, gunslinger’s swagger while they accused other writers, politicians, academics and demonstrators of being quislings in the naïve service of a mad tyrant with a hidden cache of chemical weapons.
They were wrong. Every word of every column, of every interview where they said all of the above and more again and again and again – with the certainty of their smug, defining hubris and obstinance – was wrong.
[...] You see, important journalists who spend a lot of time and space demanding that all sorts of important people with important jobs be held to account for the wrongs they commit, refuse to hold the keyboard cavalry and their enablers to the same standard. . .
> In the incestuous world of journalism, friendship tends to trump principle.
These “top flight” editors and their “award-winning” stable of white, male pundits are friends. They go to parties, weddings and funerals together where they drink, laugh and say how marvellous each other’s work is.
They win ephemeral awards – like a Pulitzer or a Peabody – together.
They get paid a lot of money to talk on the lucrative speaker-circuit where they, inevitably, cross paths.
They go on TV, radio, and, these days, podcasts together where they are still, incredibly, treated with deference and respect.
So, all of this translates into giving your good mates what amounts to the journalistic equivalent of a mulligan – even after they helped to gin up, defend and champion a war that has killed, maimed, disfigured, traumatised and made refugees of millions of human beings who should be alive, whole and at home.
[...] Anyway, it happened ages ago. It is time to move on. . .
So, every time a member of the keyboard cavalry shows up in your newspaper, on TV or the radio to talk tough about Putin and Ukraine, you should be reminded of their disqualifying history.
Some of them admit that they got everything wrong about the Iraq war. . .Some of them deny that they got everything wrong about the Iraq war.
Despite having gotten everything wrong about the Iraq war, we have chosen to give them time and space here to get it all wrong again, this time, about what may or may not happen in Ukraine. Govern yourselves accordingly since we won’t."
Reference: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/1/26/the-keyboard-cavalry-is-back
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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