You can see the powerful graphics, the fear-inducing ticker on our television screens. You can hear the familiar drumbeat, triumphant music swells, and rising anthems to Vulcan escapades. There's music to warm an embedded journalist's heart and thrill a Vice-President's ear. There's even a show on CNN entitled: "This Week at War." Reporters at CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX each falsely claimed a "smoking gun" justifying war against Iran. The so-called mainstream media's television wing cavalierly cheer-lead. They feign their subject is no more serious or monumental than Monday night football. We should "be true to our school," I mean country, as if love of country involved nothing more than mindless rah-rah. All of us here know that that is not love of country at all, but rather a caricature of it.
According to the BBC earlier this week, elaborate "contingency" plans are on the drawing board for a large-scale war against Iran. Read it here.
Here at RK, Lowell today posted the IAEA findings. And the Guardian UK illustrates how the IAEA report and US "intelligence" do not equate. How many people will read or hear about what the report says? How many will know the real extent to which Iran is, and/or is not, a threat to us?
UN action to both monitor and police nuclear proliferation is essential. However, unilateral preemptive US action is not. Because a dedicated, informed citizenry is essential to defending against corrupt and dangerous pre-emptionists, we are more vulnerable to manipulation than ever. We're at the mercy of those who pitch democracy at every turn, but fail to deliver it to US citizens, much less the countries they purports to "liberate."
By their many deceptions, lip-services, and manipulations the so-called MSM, especially televised "news" and talk-shows, are guilty, just as surely as are the "Vulcans," of sacrificing our soldiers, killing an estimated 600,000 civilians (according to the British journal Lancet), destroying a country, wasting our treasury, neglecting whole devastated states at home, neglecting our crumbling infrastructure, privatizing public assets(both here and in Iraq), and eliminating human services.
The propaganda effort is multi-pronged. First, it creates a hostile environment for critics. Recently, Rupert Murdoch made the astonishing admission that he intentionally used FOX to set the agenda for war (Olbermann's Countdown, Feb. 7th 2007). It's happening again. Today, the same relentless pit-bulls savage John Murtha. And the NY Daily News labels a non-binding resolution "treason." Documented by Josh elsewhere on RK's front page, is evidence of the savaging of Barack Obama by Murdoch's henchmen.
Second, the propaganda machine reassures with iterative airings of Bush's claims that he's kept us safe. Ironically, Bush also used the SOTU last month to assure Americans of his protective abilities. But as Dave Swanson and Keith Olbermann ably documented, Bush made up the episodes of his supposed saves from terrorism. Not one of them was true.
Third, the propaganda machine presents an exaggerated or even false threat. Here's the story the television media should have told. Says the AP, "President Bush's tough new stance on Iran and his military buildup in the Persian Gulf recall some of the drumbeats that preceded the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003." There's more.
Media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, has an excellent summary of the media dereliction in the Iran controversy. Notable is that, even while the BBC registered British concern about Iran, it at least clearly stated there was "no smoking gun" concerning Iran's alleged role in Iraq. Not so in the US. Among the US Media, NBC Nightly News (a bit late) and Keith Olbermann's Countdown did reality-check the claims. On NBC we learned that the basis for assuming weapons came from Iran was that they were "sophisticated." The administration and numerous outlets first suggested that serial numbers gave conclusive proof that Iran was killing our soldiers. But, seeming to back peddle, the administration later equivocated, twice delaying its report on the "evidence." But if history is any test, the administration will recycle the same claims, true or not. Bush is playing a dangerous game of what one writer called "Liar's Poker". To put the allegations in perspective, read this report from the Congressional Research Service
Also on MSNBC, security expert Roger Cressey said that about 90% of insurgents are from within Iraq. The remainder are from various countries and include Al Qaeda members infiltrating Iraq since the US invasion. The Congressional Research Service also reports that Iran shares America's goal of fighting Bin Laden and fighting terrorism in general. But it doesn't want permanent US bases in Iraq. Read more about the threat posed by Iran here.
The National Intelligence Estimate shows Iran poses little threat to the US (read more here.) Newsweek found that the evidence of Iranian influence and meddling in Iraq was ambiguous . See also stories by the Los Angeles Times here and here. And here's an AP article on the same subject.
Meanwhile, we've learned belatedly that last fall, the then-GOP-led Congress slipped into a defense bill a mechanism for George W. Bush to declare martial law almost at will. And the NY Times finally opined about it Sunday. Why didn't the Times or others report it sooner? Read about it here.
The media silence on this subject is, as they say, deafening. With a few exceptions, the media keeps singing the same old White House tune. And the dereliction of duty continues...
Update: Since I wrote this, Seymour Hersh wrote another of is excellent articles on the Bush Iran strategy. Here's the link
Personally, I do not believe that Mr. Bush is busy protecting us, or that he himself is convinced that Iran is an immediate threat. What he does believe in is the self-created "Clash of Civilizations." I suspect he is actually setting the stage for the Armageddon he plainly believes is coming, based on his born again evangelicalism. Therefore, nothing will halt his march to war so long as he remains in a position of power. He is so hell-bent on End Times that even an attempt to impeach him would only speed up execution of his pre-ordained time table.
Sorry to be so gloomy, but he strikes me as a man obsessed. It is as if he secretly sees himself not as an American leader protecting his country and people, but rather as delighted that he is in a position to use America as an instrument to bring about Armageddon, and prepare the way for the Second Coming.
I realize this may sound fantastic to most rational people, yet consider the signs of his obsession, and the ever more apparent hysteric behavior and statements coming out of his Administration, the bitter portrayal of anyone who opposes him as traitorous, even evil in their opposition. Look at the long trail of events, the near carelessness with which after the war the occupation was undertaken, how the suffering and chaos have been practically ignored (including being oblivious to the needs and care of returning wounded veterans), how oblivious he has been to other problems like Katrina. Throwing a hush puppy or two to the conservative base (stem cell research, Schiavo, school vouchers) and making a stab at co-opting Democrats' issues like health care are only window dressing which give Bush time to get about his true business, that is, doing what he coneives is God's business. Did he not in the beginning say he believed God made him President? For a reason, for a purpose, of course, and Armageddon is that purpose.
Why bother with details when God has told you to set about the final war and End Times?
and Teddy for your comment, even if it has provoked random thoughts this morning about stockpiling food, water and bullets; building a big fence around the whole damn thirty acres; getting larger, meaner dogs; and checking on Amazon for a survivalist manual....
If you haven't seen the website www.stopiranwar.com, please go there and sign this petition. Everyone was silent with Iraq, and we can't let that happen again.
I won't be surprised if Bush develops a reputation equivalent to Hitler's in the world community if an invasion occurs. The president and the vice president are simply out of control. They are mad. We aren't the first country which has been led by mad men. There is a long history of this in Russia, Germany, and many other countries.
Meanwhile the Taliban (avec Al Qaeda) has taken over the local governments of two localities in Afganistan. They are back with a vengence. There is a recent quote from an Al Qaeda leader which says he is happy Bush invaded Iraq because it gave them a chance to regroup and rebuild their organization. That's one quote from Al Qaeda you won't hear on Fox News.
In my own mind I can't help but wonder if it shouldn't be illegal for media to lie to the American people. We already KNOW its illegal for presidents to lie us into war so what are we going to do about it?
Teddy, I agree with your take on Bush. He really does seem to think he's been chosen by God for something, and even a light dip into some of the hard-core Biblical literalist evangelicals' literature shows tons of "prophecy" about this being the endtimes and Armageddon on the way. Listen to C-Span on any given morning and you'll always get at least one caller who asserts that "the Lord Jesus appointed Mr. Bush" and he's "doing the Lord's work." I've heard this at least thirty times. He seems to believe it himself. He never ever questions his own assumptions or thinks he might have made a bad choice. He'll say he regrets something worked out as it did, or that he regrets things he started didn't go well, but never have I heard of him saying he made an error in judgment or that there may have been other viable alternatives to any course of action he's ever taken.
In light of this I'd say a lot of people are concerned about Dubya's messianic delusions.