How to Think About War

Just found a link to a terrific piece by Dan Froomkin over on FireDogLake, in which he tells journalists how they should approach matters of war and peace. It applies equally well to those of us trying to evaluate the information we get through the media and other sources:

Lessons we thought had been learned from Vietnam were forgotten in the rush to invade Iraq. And now, as we cover President Bush’s ratcheting up of the rhetoric against Iran, it’s looking like the lessons we should have learned from Iraq may not have been learned at all. So at the risk of stating the obvious, here are some thoughts about what those lessons were.

It's a great read, and perhaps a good checklist to keep around. Sadly, people seem to keep falling for the same tricks.