[Peace-discuss] Pilger on War of Aggression

Thu Oct 1 10:58:25 CDT 2009

--This article should be referenced, perhaps even read, at the Iran  
study symposium on Friday.   --mkb

On Sep 30, 2009, at 11:50 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> "Iran's crime is its independence. Having thrown out America's  
> favourite tyrant, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Iran remains the only resource- 
> rich Muslim state beyond US control. As only Israel has a 'right to  
> exist' in the Middle East, the US goal is to cripple the Islamic  
> Republic. This will allow Israel to divide and dominate the region  
> on Washington's behalf, undeterred by a confident neighbour. If any  
> country in the world has been handed urgent cause to develop a  
> nuclear 'deterrence', it is Iran."
>
> 	The Lying Game
> 	By John Pilger
> 	Sep 30, 2009
>
> In 2001, the Observer in London published a series of reports that  
> claimed an "Iraqi connection" to al-Qaeda, even describing the base  
> in Iraq where the training of terrorists took place and a facility  
> where anthrax was being manufactured as a weapon of mass  
> destruction. It was all false. Supplied by US intelligence and Iraqi  
> exiles, planted stories in the British and US media helped George  
> Bush and Tony Blair to launch an illegal invasion which caused,  
> according to the most recent study, 1.3 million deaths.
>
> Something similar is happening over Iran: the same syncopation of  
> government and media "revelations", the same manufacture of a sense  
> of crisis. "Showdown looms with Iran over secret nuclear plant",  
> declared the Guardian on 26 September. "Showdown" is the theme. High  
> noon. The clock ticking. Good versus evil. Add a smooth new US  
> president who has "put paid to the Bush years". An immediate echo is  
> the notorious Guardian front page of 22 May 2007: "Iran's secret  
> plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq". Based on  
> unsubstantiated claims by the Pentagon, the writer Simon Tisdall  
> presented as fact an Iranian "plan" to wage war on, and defeat, US  
> forces in Iraq by September of that year - a demonstrable falsehood  
> for which there has been no retraction.
>
> The official jargon for this kind of propaganda is "psy-ops", the  
> military term for psychological operations. In the Pentagon and  
> Whitehall, it has become a critical component of a diplomatic and  
> military campaign to blockade, isolate and weaken Iran by hyping its  
> "nuclear threat": a phrase now used incessantly by Barack Obama and  
> Gordon Brown, and parroted by the BBC and other broadcasters as  
> objective news. And it is fake.
>
> On 16 September, Newsweek disclosed that the major US intelligence  
> agencies had reported to the White House that Iran's "nuclear  
> status" had not changed since the National Intelligence Estimate of  
> November 2007, which stated with "high confidence" that Iran had  
> halted in 2003 the programme it was alleged to have developed. The  
> International Atomic Energy Agency has backed this, time and again.
>
> The current propaganda-as-news derives from Obama's announcement  
> that the US is scrapping missiles stationed on Russia's border. This  
> serves to cover the fact that the number of US missile sites is  
> actually expanding in Europe and the "redundant" missiles are being  
> redeployed on ships. The game is to mollify Russia into joining, or  
> not obstructing, the US campaign against Iran. "President Bush was  
> right," said Obama, "that Iran's ballistic missile programme poses a  
> significant threat [to Europe and the US]." That Iran would  
> contemplate a suicidal attack on the US is preposterous. The threat,  
> as ever, is one-way, with the world's superpower virtually ensconced  
> on Iran's borders.
>
> Iran's crime is its independence. Having thrown out America's  
> favourite tyrant, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Iran remains the only resource- 
> rich Muslim state beyond US control. As only Israel has a "right to  
> exist"in the Middle East, the US goal is to cripple the Islamic  
> Republic. This will allow Israel to divide and dominate the region  
> on Washington's behalf, undeterred by a confident neighbour. If any  
> country in the world has been handed urgent cause to develop a  
> nuclear "deterrence", it is Iran.
>
> As one of the original signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation  
> Treaty, Iran has been a consistent advocate of a nuclear-free zone  
> in the Middle East. In contrast, Israel has never agreed to an IAEA  
> inspection, and its nuclear weapons plant at Dimona remains an open  
> secret. Armed with as many as 200 active nuclear warheads, Israel  
> "deplores" UN resolutions calling on it to sign the NPT, just as it  
> deplored the recent UN report charging it with crimes against  
> humanity in Gaza, just as it maintains a world record for violations  
> of international law. It gets away with this because great power  
> grants it immunity.
>
> Obama's "showdown" with Iran has another agenda. On both sides of  
> the Atlantic the media have been tasked with preparing the public  
> for endless war. The US/Nato commander General Stanley McChrystal  
> says 500,000 troops will be required in Afghanistan over five years,  
> according to America's NBC. The goal is control of the "strategic  
> prize" of the gas and oilfields of the Caspian Sea, central Asia,  
> the Gulf and Iran - in other words, Eurasia. But the war is opposed  
> by 69 per cent of the British public, 57 per cent of the US public  
> and almost every other human being. Convincing "us" that Iran is the  
> new demon will not be easy. McChrystal's spurious claim that Iran  
> "is reportedly training fighters for certain Taliban groups" is as  
> desperate as Brown's pathetic echo of "a line in the sand".
>
> During the Bush years, according to the great whistleblower Daniel  
> Ellsberg, a military coup took place in the US, and the Pentagon is  
> now ascendant in every area of American foreign policy. A measure of  
> its control is the number of wars of aggression being waged  
> simultaneously and the adoption of a "first-strike" doctrine that  
> has lowered the threshold on nuclear weapons, together with the  
> blurring of the distinction between nuclear and conventional weapons.
>
> All this mocks Obama's media rhetoric about "a world without nuclear  
> weapons". In fact, he is the Pentagon's most important acquisition.  
> His acquiescence with its demand that he keep on Bush's secretary of  
> "defence" and arch war-maker, Robert Gates, is unique in US history.  
> He has proved his worth with escalated wars from south Asia to the  
> Horn of Africa. Like Bush's America, Obama's America is run by some  
> very dangerous people. We have a right to be warned. When will those  
> paid to keep the record straight do their job?
>
> http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/3999
>
>
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