[Fresh Ink] Never Mind the Facts, Let's Have a War...

[Richard Menec]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16834

Global Research, January 8, 2010
Gulf Daily News - 2009-12-23

Never Mind the Facts, Let's Have a War...

By Finian Cunningham

A missile test-fired by Iran last week was reported on the BBC World Service 
as being "capable of striking Israel".

The choice of words was not unusual. On previous occasions when Iran has 
test-fired a long-range rocket, the BBC and other western news media 
dutifully inform us that the said device is "capable of striking Israel". 
The well-worn phrase is so reliably heard in these news bulletins that its 
use betrays a coded script. The not-too subliminal implications are that 
Iran is: a) a hostile state; b) doing something illegal in test-firing a 
long-range missile; and c) gearing up to deliver on its alleged threat to 
wipe out the state of Israel.

Within hours of these reports last week, the US government weighed in with 
the pious accusation that the test-firing "undermines Iran's claims of 
peaceful intentions".

This is a propaganda system at work: the choice of words and framework of 
logic designed to condition people into accepting certain options. In this 
case, the pre-determined option is a unilateral military strike on Iran 
either by the US or Israel. In that event, it will of course be reported by 
the BBC and other western media as a "pre-emptive" military measure to 
"prevent" Iran from attacking western interests in the region. Reported too, 
no doubt, will be the "collateral damage" of civilian casualties - 
unfortunate victims in an otherwise "just cause" to bring a "hardline 
 regime" to abide by "international norms". This is classic thought 
engineering that British political essayist George Orwell exposed so 
brilliantly - the official use of sanitised words to cover the sordid truth.

So let's rewind and play back the news with some pertinent facts and context 
that are routinely omitted in western media reporting.

Iran has test-fired a long-range missile - within its sovereign borders. The 
US and its western allies carry out such weapons testing all the time, as is 
their sovereign right. One of the US' allies, Israel, has a stockpile of 
nuclear weapons in contravention of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. This same 
ally has previously committed acts of aggression (war crimes) by launching 
air attacks on neighbouring countries. Israel, with overt approval from 
Washington, has repeatedly said that it is prepared to militarily strike 
Iran "soon", The US itself has warned several times that it reserves the 
right to use a military option in its relations with Iran. The US is waging 
illegal wars in three of Iran's neighbours: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. 
A dynamic of fear and distrust between Gulf countries is fuelling a regional 
arms race. This dynamic is being pushed by the US with, what should be, 
obvious self-serving interests (massive arms sales, geopolitical influence) 
that are instead disguised by its bogeyman illusion of Iran, which, 
unfortunately, Gulf states appear to buy into. All told, these facts 
actually do "undermine US claims of peaceful intentions".

Here are some other facts that the western media curiously underplay. Iran 
is not at war with any country, although it is routinely accused in the 
western media, without supporting evidence, of covert subversion across the 
region. Iran is conducting a nuclear energy programme, which it has 
repeatedly said is for civilian power supply. After a decade of close 
monitoring by UN inspectors, which would never be permitted in its territory 
by the US or its western allies, the inspectors have reiterated that there 
is no evidence of Iran building a nuclear weapon. Nevertheless, this 
conclusion does not restrain Washington and London in their dogged assertion 
that Tehran is building nuclear weapons (cue more arms sales).

Given these facts, the test-firing by Iran of a long-range missile is far 
from being a quasi-criminal act laden with hostile intentions. It is the 
action of a country that needs to show it can defend itself amid relentless 
provocations from proven and much more greatly armed aggressors, whose 
arsenal also includes a propaganda system that Nazi spinmeister Joseph 
Goebbels would have marvelled at.

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