Community | December 30, 2011 | 31 comments

Slip-Sliding to War with Iran

source: http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/289-134/9168-slip-sliding-to-war-with-iran

Image
Vierotchka

http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/289-134/9168-slip-sliding...

The USS John C Stennis is reportedly heading into the Persian Gulf in response to Iranian war games held earlier this month, 12/29/11. (photo: US Navy)

By Robert Parry, Consortium News
29 December 11


ith the typical backdrop of alarmist propaganda in place, the stage is now set for a new war, this time with Iran. The slightest miscalculation (or provocation) by the United States, Israel or Iran could touch off a violent scenario that will have devastating consequences.

Indeed, even if they want to, the various sides might have trouble backing down enough to defuse today’s explosive situation. After all, the Iranians continue to insist they have no intention of building a nuclear bomb, as much as Israeli and American officials insist that they are.

So, this prospective war with Iran – like the one in Iraq – is likely to come down to intelligence assessments on Iran’s intentions and capabilities. And, as with Iraq’s alleged WMD, the many loud voices claiming that Iran is on pace to build a nuclear bomb are drowning out the relatively few skeptics who think the evidence is thin to invisible.

For instance, the recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran’s supposed progress toward a nuclear bomb was widely accepted as gospel truth without any discussion of whether the IAEA is an unbiased and reliable source.

In framing the story in support of the IAEA, the major U.S. newspapers and TV networks ignored documentary evidence that the IAEA’s new director-general was installed with the support of the United States and that he privately indicated to U.S. and Israeli officials that he would help advance their goals regarding Iran.

These facts could be found easily enough in WikiLeaks cables that the U.S. news media has had access to since 2010. Yet, the Big Media has ignored this side of the story, even as the IAEA report has been touted again and again as virtually a smoking gun against Iran.

This pattern of ignoring – or downplaying – evidence that runs counter to the prevailing narrative was a notable feature during the run-up to war with Iraq. It is now being repeated not just by the right-wing news media, but by the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC and other centrist-to-left-leaning outlets.

(click on the link for the full article)
  1. groups:
    Community,   Culture,   World News,   Opinion,   2 more
  2. tags:
    US,  War,  Iran,  Wikileaks,  5 more
  3. recommended by:
    pjacobs51,
    Vierotchka
  4.     
    |

31 comments // Slip-Sliding to War with Iran

  • MotherForTruth
  • MSII
    • 0
      MSII  

    • Wrong-wingers are so very hungry for their next war-fix. Gotta get that money flowin to our buddies in the military-industrial-contractors!

    • 1 year ago
  • wally60
    • +1
      wally60  

    • http://weapons.it

      a war with iran has nothing to do with nuclear weapons.its about irans growing power in the region all of irans neighbors fear what is happening.also i believe iran is trading oil in euros and the us will have none of this.the good thing about
      our media or most of it is you cant believe a thing they say

    • 1 year ago
  • rf_dude
    • +3
      rf_dude  

    • This time, when it's all over, anybody who has ever bought a Roach-Motel or a can of Raid is gonna have to answer to our new 8-legged masters...

    • 1 year ago
  • Anonmaly
  • H3ADLINE
    • +4
      H3ADLINE  

    • Hey troops: refuse to fight this time. The American people have had enough war. We don't want this. Don't let these war-profiteers throw the world into what could be a world-wide conflict to distract us from the economic collapse they created.

    • 1 year ago
  • AmericanStandard
    • +1
      AmericanStandard  
    • Image

    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

      On 18 February 2010 the IAEA released a new report on Iran's nuclear program. Ivan Oelrich and Ivanka Barzashka, writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, suggested "the media has seriously misrepresented the actual contents of the report" and that "in fact, no new information has been revealed." They wrote that there was "no independent assessment that Iran is engaged in weapons work" and that this was "hardly the first time that the agency has discussed potential evidence of Tehran's nuclear weapons research".[86] Iran's envoy to the UN atomic watchdog criticized Western powers for interpreting the IAEA report in an "exaggerated, selective and inaccurate" manner.[87] PressTV reported that the report verified the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran and that Iran started enriching uranium to a higher level in the presence of IAEA inspectors.[88]

      In an April 2010 interview with the BBC, former IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Western nations were seeking harsher sanctions "out of frustration". "I don't think Iran is developing, or we have new information that Iran is developing, a nuclear weapon today .. there is a concern about Iran's future intentions, but even if you talk to MI6 or the CIA, they will tell you they are still four or five years away from a weapon. So, we have time to engage," he said. ElBaradei further said the building of trust between the parties would "not happen until the two sides sit around the negotiating table and address their grievances. Sooner or later that will happen

    • 1 year ago
  • circlesquared
  • MarkAssBuster
  • circlesquared
  • MarkAssBuster
  • circlesquared
  • pjacobs51
    • +4
      pjacobs51  

    • It's election year after all, they need these "games" to take the attention off the really BIG problems we have YET to deal with, like the current climate changes we are going through.

    • 1 year ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • remanns
  • circlesquared
  • remanns
    • +1
      remanns  

    • We probably wont go to war till they actually test even a single nuke,....then Israel bombs the fuck out of them,...we side with Israel,...and the world is at war. ( probably )

      It HAS been a while,....about time. ( What to fatalist ? Really ? YOU predict better ? OK -only a LOT of the world goes to war. )

    • 1 year ago
  • Vierotchka
    • +5
      Vierotchka  
    • remanns:

      It is doubtful that Iran is seeking to have a nuclear bomb - there is no evidence that they have such an ambition, the US disinformation propaganda notwithstanding.

    • 1 year ago
  • good_stuff
  • infiniteblackbox
  • KB723
  • csmonut
  • KB723
  • JustZ
    • +1
      JustZ  

    • I hope this is nothing but saber rattling by Iran.

      I've been to the straits of Hormuz and watched the Iranian tankers steaming by all day and night. Iran needs the straits of Hormuz open as much as anyone in the area. Furthermore, despite what you think of the MIC, Iran knows full well they're cities and infrastructure have no hope of surviving a war against the most powerful military in the world, no matter how broke they say they are.

    • 1 year ago
  • csmonut
    • +6
      csmonut  

    • I knew we were going to have another "enemy" as soon as the people tired of hearing about Al Quieda and the killing of Ben Laden, and I had a sneaky feeling it would be Iran.
      Gee....why not? Gotta have an enemy....gotta keep the people stirred up against someone.....
      I just wonder how the justification for war with Iran will play out? More misinformation likely...THEY HAVE WMDs!!!! They're coming after us! They're want to take away our way of life and reduce us to slavery!
      Nationalism sucks.....
      It makes me wonder why I still even try...for anything....

    • 1 year ago
  • circlesquared
  • csmonut
  • circlesquared
  • trueforyou
  • Gravity_Man
  • circlesquared
more from Community:
from the community

top videos