November 18th
Wag The Dog
Wag the Dog, directed by Barry Levinson in 1998, features a screenplay by David Mamet and Hilary Henkin, based on a book by Larry Beinhart. If, at first glance, the premise that the American public will accept even the most absurd of fabricated government pronouncements with enthusiasm may seem overstated, it has only increased its credibility with time. Beginning with Bill Clinton's Operation Infinite Reach,1998 Afghanistan/Sudan, Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003 Iraq, Obama’s Operation Odyssey Dawn, 2011 Lybia, and Trump's assassination of Iran's General Qasem Soleimani, 2020, the American public has developed a heightened degree of skepticism about the necessity, if not the motivation, for foreign military interventions. Indeed, the phrase, wag at the dog, has entered our political lexicon for this very reason.