Your thoughts on the purpose of media regarding military threats?

The same as their purpose regarding all threats, potential threats, possible disasters, armageddon, and just about any bad thing that anyone could imagine possibly happening, because it all goes into the media to keep people living in fear so they'll go out and buy things they don't need that'll sit in a box in the garage till they die or be forced to sell it in a garage sale because they need cash to pay the interest on the enormous mortgage they can't afford to pay off and will eventually become larger than the value of the house, the debt to be inherited by their obese unemployed kids.

I reckon that in a civil society (i.e. civilized and reasonably democratic) all citizens are responsible for what is done in their name. That includes military operations, interrogations, captivity, etc. So these must conform to the standards of behavior, ethics, morality, etc, we profess as both internal community standards, and those by which we want our society to be judged - and those we would therefor seek to extend. Otherwise we betray ourselves. We become vulnerable internally as well as externally. Ultimately ethics are self enforcing, however difficult they may seem to pursue in the short term.

Perhaps all war seems most effectively pursued by ruthless dictatorship But Hitler failed, didn't he. And the apparently puny voluntary communal support of insurrection in Vietnam defeated the mighty USA, didn't it - largely because the Viet Cong embodied the beliefs, aspirations, and values of the mass of Vietnamese (who historically had a collective, or communistic, village structure outside the colonized urban centres).

In a reasonably open society like the USA etc, we not only have the privilege of being able to inform ourselves, and the power to act on our convictions (even with uncertainty) - but the obligation to do so. That's the burden of democracy. Drop it, and we risk enslavement, however subtle.

That's why the apathy and ignorance of so many Americans and others, frightens me on behalf of the species. Convictions can be illusion, certainty is frequently delusion, and some ignorance is unavoidable - but disengagement is stupid, irresponsible, reprehensible, and dangerous. It devalues humanity itself, and all life. It's why we tolerate outrages, avoid confronting climate change which threatens all life - and suffer the consequences. In all things, inform yourself - and act, ready to respond to the consequences (from which one learns). The alternative is the Taliban format.

I don't think that the general public should have any say so what so ever when it comes to military actions, threats. If I perform surgery you don't want one of your neighbors (lets say he is a construction worker) as my assistant, do you?