ABSTRACT
On this crucial matter, the media upheld the party line virtually without deviation. The silence in the United States was deafening and instructive. Throughout, Iraqi democrats were in essential agreement with the mainstream of the US peace movement and indeed with most of the world. But all these sectors were opposed to the stance of the US government and were therefore not fit subjects for the media, which had quite different responsibilities. The significance of the media suppression of the diplomatic option was made dramatically clear by polls taken just at that time. A decision to go to war is always a grave matter, particularly so with the means of violence and destruction now available, and even more so when those means are largely monopolized by the side that has historically been committed to extreme measures of violence and that faces no deterrent.
