Iran has no plans to attack Israel, has no nuclear weapons, is not currently designing or constructing nuclear weapons, but is "presumably" developing the technical capacity to develop such weapons in the future. With US military bases surrounding Iran, the constant military threats against Iran seem to prove Iran's need for a DEFENSIVE nuclear capability. But all we hear from our government and the media is "This aggression will not stand!"
It was from this mental image that I watched, in horror, as the same PBS News Hour last night delivered a typical neoconservative propaganda line, under the pretext of giving news. It was a short news update on the Iran situation, centered on the announcement of new U.S. sanctions against Iran. In the course of the report, the news anchor slipped in the formulation that the United States and Israel are in full agreement that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Hold the phone! Yes, that has been the persistent mantra of every Netanyahu government mouthpiece for months and months, and it has been echoed in every American neocon propaganda front for even longer, dating back to the bad old days of Bush and Cheney.
But, the truth is: In October 2011, the National Intelligence Council, the premier agency of the U.S. intelligence community, issued an update to the November 2007 NIE on Iran's nuclear program. Both the published/declassified 2007 study, and the classified 2011 study reached the same conclusion: Whatever work Iran was doing on weaponization was halted in late 2003, and has not resumed. Iran is engaged in enrichment, and is constantly improving their ballistic missile capabilities. But the vital part of any nuclear weapon program--the actual work on converting enriched uranium into a bomb--has been suspended for almost a decade, and the best U.S. intelligence community estimate is that it remains suspended.
This is no light matter. And this is not something that is based on "leaked" information. While the content of the updated NIE has not been released in declassified form, as recently as last week, General James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, issued an annual global threat assessment, in which he summarized the NIE findings, noting that there is no evidence that Iran has resumed weaponization. Nor is there evidence that the Iranian leadership has made a decision to even pursue building a nuclear bomb.
Back to my original point: The media, including the once-respected public broadcasting network, has gone over to the dark side on an issue that is too serious to let pass. We had the experience in the year leading into the Iraq invasion of a flood of neocon propaganda, about "thermonuclear mushroom clouds" and Armageddon from Saddam Hussein's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Are we going to allow ourselves to be railroaded again into a war that would have far more devastating consequences than Iraq? At least some of our taxpayer dollars go to the funding of PBS. Don't we have a right to expect some degree of accuracy and honesty on matters of war and peace?
Matters of war and peace?
This reminds me of a story a diplomat member of family from previous generation once told me. A story of an old Iranian diplomat from the bygone years who was dispatched to face a commander of an invading army about to attack the homeland. Despite the diplomats valiant effort to consider a peaceful resolution, the commander was set in his Path to [conquer] Persia. At that point the diplomat showed his hand to the commander and said;
“If you ever see a hair in the palm of my hand, you will see Tehran”.
I must add, Iranians are literally and figuratively speaking, quite hairy.
In their few thousand year history, they have been over run by outsiders a handful of times and each time they have resurrected. With the Arab/Islamic invasion, they eventually created their own interpretation. With the Mongols, they were eventually converted to Islam and took up Iranian/Islamic names./ culture...
A simple question is, what has US gained since 1953?
25 years of a despotic, accommodating ruler. Frozen Iranian assets. A few arms sales to the compliant Arab dictatorships. Any others?
First it was the British and their sun-setting empire. Now it is the Israeli's and their Wall-Street bankers. What has the US brought to ME in this time frame, except wars, killing and bloodshed?
Where are the men like Marshall with their positive vision?
"Truth in media IS dying"?
You're a few decades late and quite a few dollars short...
Truth in media has been dead since at least William Casey stating quite seriously that the CIA controls ALL the mainstream media...
If you want a clear example, look at the coverage of Syria...
ALL accounts claim Homs was bombarded Saturday with "hundreds" of dead.
But Pepe Escobar in Asia Times published the account of a Syrian Christian he described as utterly trustworthy who declared their family went to Homs on Saturday...and there was nothing going on.
EVERY account you see about Syria is coming from the West-supported activists.
Then the Russians are castigated for vetoing a UN resolution which demanded that Assad pull back ALL his forces to their home bases WITHOUT demanding that the insurgents lay down their arms. As the Russian envoy said, no government would accept that deal.
And today there are reports the Pentagon is planning military intervention in Syria "if Obama calls on that option".
And State's Neuland says, "all options are on the table" for military intervention in Syria. Where have we heard THAT line before?
My prediction is very simple: The US and NATO will be bombing Syria by summer.
In the process, Israel will use the suppression of Syrian military forces by the US and NATO to enable a surprise attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
One armored division will push north into southern Lebanon, a second will push into Syrian territory to protect the rear of the third armored division which will proceed up and left to flank Hizballah in the Bekaa Valley....LOL, we'll be just waiting for them to decimate them again into shreds....
Once Syria and Hezbollah have been weakened (assuming the US/NATO/Israel succeed - which is not a certainty), the next step, probably beginning next year or some reasonable time after the previous events, will be either Israel launching a unilateral attack on Iran in order to drag the US into a war with Iran, OR the US President will begin ramping-up a naval BLOCKADE of Iranian oil exports (once the oil EMBARGO has been proven to have failed.)
Such a blockade will force Iran to retaliate, just justifying an all-out regime change war....lol
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The key to perception management is to disconnect the perception of competence from actual achievement.
Exhibit A: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
We are told that she's a "great" diplomat, but look at her accomplishments: (1) non-reset reset with the Russians; (2) failure to accomplish any meaningful cooperation with the Chinese on trade; (3) zero progress in establishing a relationship with Iran; (4) the final demise of American credibility as a "good faith" broker in Israel-Palestine; and (5) the bungled negotiations with the Iraqis.
Sure, she had Bush's treaty. But she did a lousy job preparing the country for the reality that the Iraqis wanted us out.
She had produced a long list of failures yet she is lionized every day. She's really representative of our political class and the craven sensibilities of the MSM.