The intoxication of war, fueled by the euphoric nationalism that swept through the country like a plague following the attacks of 9/11, is a spent force in the United States. The high-blown rhetoric of patriotism and national destiny, of the sacred duty to reshape the world through violence, to liberate the enslaved and implant democracy in the Middle East, has finally been exposed as empty and meaningless. The war machine has tried all the old tricks. It trotted out the requisite footage of atrocities. It issued the histrionic warnings that the evil dictator will turn his weapons of mass destruction against us if we do not bomb and “degrade” his military. It appealed to the nation’s noble sacrifice in World War II, with the Secretary of State John Kerry calling the present situation a“Munich moment.” But none of it worked. It was only an offhand remark by Kerry that opened the door to a Russian initiative, providing the Obama administration a swift exit from its mindless bellicosity and what would have been a humiliating domestic defeat. Twelve long years of fruitless war in Afghanistan and another 10 in Iraq have left the public wary of the lies of politicians, sick of the endless violence of empire and unwilling to continue to pump trillions of dollars into a war machine that has made a small cabal of defense contractors and arms manufacturers such as Raytheon and Halliburton huge profits while we are economically and politically hollowed out from the inside. The party is over.
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Always Question Authority 
I am in accord with Chris Hedges about 90% of the time and I get what he is saying about the war industry. At the same time, how can he so off-handedly refer to the “…requisite footage of atrocities.” These are real people dying in an especially horrible way, not just images on a screen or monitor. Does he wish to say force is never an option? Is he suggesting that our only role in the face of genocide, mass rape, and other atrocities is to bandage the wounded and comfort the victims before the next round of carnage begins?
I do not believe he is downplaying the atrocities so much as he is expressing his frustration with the hawkish policies of the U.S. that continually resort to military violence as a sole solution to all U.S. foreign policy issues.
It is not unlike the requisite vacuous statements made by the President after each, and every, mass shooting where he sends out his prayers and thoughts to the victims and their families, calls the shooters cowards and praises the first responders.
The U.S. responses to both foreign and domestic issues are predictable, violent and vacuous, and the few that are aware of this vacuousness, unfortunately, become somewhat immune to the emotional “…requisite footage of atrocities.” that are used, not as a show of atrocity, but as a rhetorical devise to perpetrate an atrocity of even greater magnitude.
In Reason,
Madison