Re: SC34

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=RUD20070119&articleId=4524

Media Distortions: Preparing us for War with Iran

For the past decade or two, US journalism has become deficient, dysfunctional, defunct when reporting on international events. For finding out what is going on in the world, it is best to read Hong Kong’s Asia Times or Britain’s The Independent

A recent article in The Independent entitled "Tensions rise as Washington accuses Iran over militias" (by Andrew Buncombe, January 14) reports the anti-Iran rhetoric of President Bush and cites a secret executive order directing US troops to attack Iranians in Iraq. This order apparently authorized two recent US attacks on Iranian diplomats, who had in fact been invited and authorized by Iraq’s elected government. In contrast, the December report of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) had in fact recommended diplomatic engagement with Iran as part of a plan to pacify Iraq and save America from defeat. But Bush has rejected that advice and would rather attack Iranians than talk to Iranians.

The article in The Independent also reported deployment of two US aircraft carrier fleets to the Persian Gulf and deployment of Patriot Anti-Missile batteries to the region, presumably to defend against Iranian missiles should US actions provoke a wider war. The British newspaper, The Times, last week reported that Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran. Recalling Vice-President Cheney’s threat on 21 January 2005 that Israel could attack Iran if the USA does not, and recalling the report in the New Yorker on 14 August 2006 that Israel’s war on Lebanon was planned and provoked as part of preparations for war on Iran, then it looks like the USA and Israel are in the final stages of preparation for a wider regional war. This new war will definitely not serve US national interests considering the dire consequences for US military personnel in the region and considering the catastrophic consequences for the US economy...............

.................American journalists writing for US media are much less careful, and much more comfortable reinforcing beliefs for which there is no evidence, other than the repeated over and over and over. For example, ABC News headlined a report, "EXCLUSIVE: Iranian Weapons Arm Iraqi Militia". The report quoted unnamed authorities that "smoking-gun evidence" has been found, that "the material is going directly from Iranian factories to Shia militias" and that "the weapons have been supplied to Iraq's growing Shia militias". But the alleged weapons and other evidence are only hearsay, never made public and not seen by the reporter. The "smoking gun" is actually smoke and mirrors made by repeated use of the definite article " the ". THE WORLD IS AGAIN BEING TRICKED INTO WAR BY EMPTY RHETORIC AND FEAR, UNSUPPORTED BY FACTS.

Americans and everyone else have good reason to be alarmed. We may be on the verge of an horrific war, that will kill people by the hundred thousands if not millions, that will send economic shock waves around the world, that can come to no good end. The US is now governed by INCOMPENTENT AND DELUDED LEADERSHIP; there is no reason to trust its judgement on matters of war, and certainly not nuclear war. Citizens around the world need to make known to their representatives in government that they insist on effective actions to prevent the US and Israel from starting a new war. Active military personnel need to review their oaths and their codes of conduct. All experts, whether military, academic, political, journalistic, or theological, need to use what authority they have to PREVENT A NEW WAR, PERHAPS A NUCLEAR WAR...................