Weapons of Mass Deja Vu

Are the mainstream media buying into yet another bellicose Bushie tactic, this time in Iran? Polls show that fear and loathing are being whipped up among the American people, just as they were during the run-up to the -- snort! -- ''liberation'' of Iraq.

PRINCETON, NJ -- A recent USA Today/Gallup poll finds that just 33% of Americans say they are confident in the United Nations to handle the situation relating to Iran's nuclear program. At the same time, only one in three Americans would support the United States taking military action against Iran if all economic and diplomatic efforts fail to get Iran to shut down its nuclear program. Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to express confidence in the United Nations; liberals and moderates express a higher level of confidence than do conservatives. Conservatives and Republicans are more inclined to support military action than are liberals, moderates, and Democrats.

This week, the big news has been the unprecedented letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to U.S. President George W. Bush in which, as Juan Cole notes, he insists "on Iran's right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to conduct scientific research on uranium enrichment."

To be honest, I haven't been tracking this Iran thing as closely as I should be, perhaps because I feel I have seen this movie before. To confirm that sense, along comes Chris Floyd with his deconstruction of the media treatment of the, for lack of a better word, stand-off with Iran. There's a lot to read but here are some bits that may surprise some:

(I)t is worth noting here, yet again, that despite the attempts by Bush and the corporate American media to turn Ahmadinejad into another Saddam, he is in fact not the ruler of Iran, he is not the dictator of Iran, he has very little real power -- and no power at all over Iran's armed forces or its nuclear program. Iran is ruled by the Ayatollah Khamanei and his Supreme Council of clerics. But herein lies the importance of the Ahmadinejad letter, for it would never have been sent without Khamanei's approval. It does represent an unprecedented public step for the Iranian regime.

<SNIP>

There is also the point -- again, almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media -- that Iran has denounced, over and over, in every way possible -- any intention to develop nuclear weapons. Khamanei has issued a fatwa against such a move, calling it un-Islamic, raising the prohibition to the highest possible level in the theocratic regime. Ahmadinejad also denounces -- yet again -- any act of aggression and the taking of innocent life, and reaffirms -- yet again -- the Iranian people's condemnation of the September 11 attacks, a spontaneous outpouring of sympathy for America that, in those brief, post-attack days -- before Bush and his gang began cynically exploiting the tragedy to pursue their long-held goal of "full spectrum dominance" -- made it seem that the world had indeed been changed.

<SNIP>

But there is no chance -- zero, zilch, zip -- that Bush will make any move at all to lessen the tension. We will probably never know if Iran's nuclear ambitions are peaceful now because the Bush gang is taking every possible step to goad Tehran into leaving the NPT and girding itself for the coming war -- by seeking nuclear weapons. They are moving systematically to cut off every possibility of a peaceful solution -- save the abject surrender of Tehran.

Floyd has the full text of the letter. It's worth reading and comparing it to headlines such as this and this. I especially like this headline: "Iran's President's Letter Could Be Mistaken for Dem Talking Points"

God help us.

Tip of the sun hat to Arthur Decco.

Comments

[Stephen Reeves]

Hey Iran is a peace loving Democracy, why should they not devolop nuclear power for their energy needs,, even if they are sittin on the 3rd largest oil reserves in the world.Eh their reactors are even on fault lines, so what?, we are not talking about Ontario here, where nuclear power is a no no to be condemmed
by all the Greens and Dippers etc, but nuclear power is OK for Iran, and of course if evil, fascist Amerikka has nukes why not peaceloving
Iran, which is helping the oppressed peoples
everywhere, overcome the tyranny of US Imperialism,

[arthurdecco]

I couldn't have said it better myself, Stephen. Thanks for saving me the trouble. hehe

[Jay Currie]

Of course, by Floyd's reasoning we also have to assume that the "elimination of Israel" notion is coming from the real rulers of Iran through Mahmoud "sock puppet" Ahmadinejad. But, by all means invite the man to the White House and have a chat. Seriously. And ask him to bring Ayatollah Khamanei as well.

It is certainly no skin of the American's nose to have a chat and a chat is far better than having to dig out the bunkers one by one at enormous cost in blood and treasure. But I fear that not much will change.

[Mark Francis]

There is doubt that the translation regarding "elimination of Israel" is at all accurate.

Be very careful. Many games are being played, again.

I think that the spin and the lies are a separate issues from whether we'd like Iran to have nuclear power.

[Jay Currie]

Mark, you must have been drinking the Cole-aid again. Here's the NYT version of the quote,

"Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime [Israel] has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world. But we must be aware of tricks." http://tinyurl.com/pkxkp

[Jinoole]

I hope you've read that lengthy letter from Mr Ahmadinejad, lecturing Bush about everything, from the Zionist regime to what the real Christianity is about, point by point. It reminds reminds one about a schoolteacher diligently trying to teach an inattentive pupil.

[Stephen Reeves]

He does not want to eliminate Isreal, just send back the jews to Germany, then change the name of Isreal back to Palastine I suppose.
He has not actually said he wants to nuke the place,alhough if I lived in Tel Aviv, I would be nervous when the missiles are eventually aimed that way.

[Stephen Reeves]

Of course we do not know what is going on behind the scenes at them moment, only the public blusterings of both sides.

[Bill-Muskoka]

The thing that stuck out the most regarding the letter was Condoliar Rice's constant badgering that the letter failed to address the issues she and Bush want to make an issue of.

This attitude has been, is, and will most likely continue to be the root cause of the United States of America's foreign relations problems. They won't friggin' listen to anyone's view unless it is their own!

They are a disgrace to very word democracy, and are the world's biggest hypocrites!

[Dana]

"I don't do nuance." Remember that anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

That's still the case, they still don't do nuance, and the circumstances are more urgent now.

They know that come November they're likely not going to have either the House or the Senate and that the administration will be under heavy scrutiny.

They also know that the one remaining card they can play to hold off that eventuality is to get the country into another war. They've already proved that they're capable of starting a war of aggression against a spectre of indiscernible threat.

The only thing they may not know, in their puffed up mighty arrogance, is just how much and how deep is the global fear, disdain and even hatred the behaviour of this current US administration has generated.

I've said before and it bears repeating - the US cannot unendingly count on having their adventurism bankrolled by the rest of the world's financial institutions.

As grim as the potential might be in a global economic dump of USD and securities it's far less grim than what would result from a global conflagration resulting from the bellicosity of this US administration.

If the flow of financial support from the rest of the world into the US stops, or even slows dramatically, the US government ceases to be able to operate. Anywhere, for any reason, including at home. They're completely dependent on off shore money.

That's a truth that's rapidly being recognized as being the only hammer for this nail.

[sooey]

i bet it's nice to get a letter, though. no one writes letters anymore.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Dana,

RIGHT ON! It is well past time that the world uses its best non-military means to bring an end to the U.S. fiasco abroad. Cutting off the money is the one and only sane way to do it!

Sort of like curing the alcoholic or drug addict...Cut off their supply of dependency and VOILA! Sobriety will happen!

Interesting how Bush has had that very problem!

[Bill-Muskoka]

sooey,

How true and on Official stationary too! LOL

[amj]

This world needs a lot more people/bloggers like sooey! :)

[Jay Currie]

Jinoole, I have indeed read the letter but I was not reminded of a school teacher with an inattentive pupil; rather I was put in mind of the sorts or rambling discourses favoured by the Unibomber.

[sooey]

ah... the unibomber. a terrorist you could understand. like... if he made any sense... well... at least he was OUR terrorist.

[Jim Trautman]

Interesting Antonia about the Iran situation, since I write full time for a living I sent a query to the Star about doing a piece on how the US/UK will become involved in attacking Iran. The editor at the Star told me it would be an interesting story, but only after the events unfolded. Any day we will treated to Iranian dissidents with their tales of horror before the Congress. You know they come forward from that $20 million pot of money that Condi had the Congress approve. Maybe even the same batch of dissidents that received the money for telling phony stories about Iraq. The pieces are there to be connected. Two nights ago a small news story that Iranian buildings had been bombed on the border with Iraq. The US/UK warned Turkey last week not to keep its troops massed at the Turkey/Iraq border even though the Kurds have been attacking targets in Turkey. The Economist has a story on how Turkey is slipping by attacking the Kurds and may harm its path into the European Union. In the past several months there have been Kurdish attacks into Iran and several bombings which have killed Iranians. Getting the message that one of the ways into attacking Iran will be the excuse that they are killing Kurds even though those Kurds are the aggressors. Its the same ploy the Kosovo Liberation Army employed to get the West involved. Now of course the Kosovo Liberation is in charge. While the Serbs were on trial for war crimes the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army that slaughtered thousands as well, their leader has been charged,but allowed out on parole until his trial. When who knows. One thing about the media they never like to be ahead of the curve to busy on the bandwagon and currying favor with their masters. Oh, the war is coming, American policy is always when you cannot win one war start another. Vietnam was lost, so the solution was more bombing, invade Cambodia, Laos and then eventually leave a mess. The sad part is after Iraq how stupid people can be to look at the demonizing of the Iranians in the same manner.

[Antonia Z.]

Maybe it won't be so bad.

This afternoon on CNN, I watched Daryn Kagan, usually a hardline rightie (she used to be, and may still be, Rush Limbaugh's gal pal), conduct a couple of rather soft-on-the-Iranian-people interviews.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/11/lt.01.html

[Bill-Muskoka]

Jim,

'since I write full time for a living' I assume you have heard of paragraphs? Please use them so we can read your, otherwise, worthy comments! Thank you kindly.

The real U.S. policy is to maintain the status quo of the military industrial complex to which 50% of each federal tax dollar flows for 'defense'. Eisenhower warned about it in about 1950's.

Lockheed/Martin, Boeing, McDonnell Douglass, et al, and thousands of unheard of 'consultants' and sub contractors reel in billions annually from the DARPA and DoD contracts.

One wonders how many of those checks go to front corporations that funnel the money right back into political party coffers, nice and cleanly laundered of course!

For those who fail to comprehend how it works its called buying votes. The workers vote for the same morons decade after decade because to not do so means no more contracts, hence no more job!

Remember that weapons systems have to be outdated, new ones created, and all the development costs involved. Take the great battle ships for instance. No longer will the 16 inch shells be made, because they already had a stockpile and no war to use them in. Solution, decommission the battle ships. Build new AEGIS Destroyers with Tomahawk missles at $250,000 or more per pop!

The Cold War was great for the U.S. economy and maintaining the perpetual State of Fear!

Watch Ottawa my fellow Canadians. The Arrow is not the only thing that can get scrapped.

[Jim Trautman]

Yes, Paragraphs next time, just fall into the old email typing in the box routine.

[Antonia Z.]

Connect the paragraphs, connect the dots.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Jim,

Thank you!

Antonia. Dots? You mean those little epriods that end sentences? Where's the graphics function, eh? LMAO!

[Sean Pelette]

Iran has done nothing to allay any worries about the intentions of its nuclear program. They could simply open it up to the IAEA and be done with it. But no.

And no Fatwa either. The so-called Fatwa that Chris Floyd refers to has never been seen by anyone. It is probably a fiction. Blogger Shahram Kholdi searched in vain for it in order to translate it for interested parties. He discusses the technicalities of a Fatwa here; http://secularcaniranik.blogs.com/scaniranic/2005/08/_on_the_technic.html
"I am not sure the Fatwa that has been cited in Iran's statement to the IAEA's Board of Governors, look at IRNA for the original here, has actually been "a fatwa". Neither of Khamenei's official websites (velayat.ir or Khamenei.ir) in their Fatwa sections list such a fatwa. Is it a secret Fatwa? Is it a Fatwa based on Exigency? What is the primary source of the Fatwa?....

....Now, the Islamic Republic of Iran's hardliner ruling establishment, despite all the mixed signals that it sends about its commitment to peace, has to give an unequivocal, practically supervis-able, guarantee: its commitment to the reasonable use of the nuclear technology, not just for the sake of the rest of the world, but for the sake of its own survival, the well-being of the people that it rules, and the state that it is responsible for. It basically has to use any theological or means of good faith to prove its good-faith."

[Bill-Muskoka]

Sean Pelette,

'not just for the sake of the rest of the world, but for the sake of its own survival, the well-being of the people that it rules, and the state that it is responsible for."

Those are very high standards. Perhaps, as they hold great validity, certain western nations could enact and make them their norm for decisive actions abroad?

[Dana]

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/US_military_seen_ready_for_Iran_0511.html

Raw Story's been right more often than not about a lot of things...could be next month.

Something's gotta happen before November.