Thomas Barnett takes on The Atlantic Monthly and Newsweek in one fell* blog:
What Newsweek recently did in its story on interrogations was the journalistic equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowed theater. People died as a result, and they should answer for this professionally.
What Kaplan does in the Atlantic Monthly piece is, in my opinion, basically the same thing--only in slow motion, so to speak. Fear-mongering and war-mongering is reprehensible and morally wrong. If you believe a legitimate case for war exists, like enforcing the global community's emerging rule sets against certain forms of very bad behavior (e.g., Saddam, Kim, Mugabe, etc.), that's one thing. But there's no such argument with China along these lines, and Kaplan does not even seek to make such arguments. Instead, he's just pushing the inevitability argument and trying to plant that seed in the minds of Americans: Get used to thinking about war with China!
I like seeing some of this righteous indignation!
*(as in fell swoop)
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