[Peace-discuss] another acute article from Scott Ritter: "The Big Lie: 'Iran Is A Threat'"

[Laurie at advancenet.net]

Stuart,

I really have to wonder if our public officials don't already know all these things but choose to deliberately ignore them; or having bought into the establishment premises, they assume and project onto others what they would do if they were in the position of the others such that any dissonance would be resolved in favor of the premises that they hold.

I find that most of the discussions and writings tend to be directed to the true believers and preach to the choir but are never taken seriously by those outside that small circle.  Even the majority of the population in the US who are against these wars are typically not so on principle or moral grounds but on pragmatic and economic grounds (e.g., their friends and family are getting killed and injured, it is costing too much in taxpayer dollars, it is creating too may hassles and restrictions on their daily lives, it is lasting too long and taking up too much of their time having to deal with the topic, etc.)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:peace-discuss-
> bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Stuart Levy
> Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 10:47 AM
> To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] another acute article from Scott Ritter: "The
> Big Lie: 'Iran Is A Threat'"
> 
> Published Oct 8th by commondreams.org:
> 
>     http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/08/4404/
> 
> It opens with:
> 
>     Iran has never manifested itself as a serious threat to the
> national
>     security of the United States, or by extension as a security threat
> to
>     global security.  At the height of Iran’s “exportation of the
> Islamic
>     Revolution” phase, in the mid-1980’s, the Islamic Republic
> demonstrated a
>     less-than-impressive ability to project its power beyond the
> immediate
>     borders of Iran, and even then this projection was limited to war-
> torn
>     Lebanon.
> 
> and goes on to rebut each of the claims that our blasted Administration
> has made against Iran.  For example,
> 
>     Iran as a nation represents absolutely no threat to the national
> security of
>     the United States, or of its major allies in the region, including
> Israel.
>     The media hype concerning alleged statements made by Iran’s
> President
>     Ahmadinejad has created and sustained the myth that Iran seeks the
>     destruction of the State of Israel. Two points of fact directly
> contradict
>     this myth. First and foremost, Ahmadinejad never articulated an
> Iranian
>     policy objective to destroy Israel, rather noting that Israel’s
> policies
>     would lead to its “vanishing from the pages of time.” Second, and
> perhaps
>     most important, Ahmadinejad does not make foreign policy decisions
> on the
>     part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is the sole purview of
> the
>     “Supreme Leader,” the Ayatollah Khomeini. In 2003 Khomeini
> initiated a
>     diplomatic outreach to the United States inclusive of an offer to
> recognize
>     Israel’s right to exist. This initiative was rejected by the United
> States,
>     but nevertheless represents the clearest indication of what the
> true policy
>     objective of Iran is vis-à-vis Israel.
> 
> This would be a good article to send to our congresspeople.
> Including Durbin.
> 
>    - Stuart
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