The Bush mob makes no secret of its wish to destroy the government of Iran. Toward that end, the Bush White House has set in train a media campaign to build public support for an attack by U.S. forces on the Islamic Republic of Iran. On Sept. 13, the latest boom from Bush’s war drum sounded in an AP articlethat was featured without analysis in The Wall Street Journal and in other “news” organs that collectively comprise the Bush-media orchestra. Among other things, the article reports that:
“The U.S. said a fatal attack two days ago against a major U.S. military base in Iraq was carried out using a type of weapon provided to Shiites by Iran.
“Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said military experts had so far determined that the 240 mm rocket's markings and manufacture were ‘consistent with’ Iranian produced munitions. He insisted the U.S. had a ‘good sense’ of the rocket's source. He said Shiite extremist leaders under U.S. detention had acknowledged that Iranian Quds Force operatives were providing 240 mm rockets to Shiite militias.
"’Can I hold up a piece of fragment today that has a specific marking on it that traces this back to Iranian making?’" he said. ‘At this moment I can't do that, but explosive experts — as I said — are still analyzing all the different fragments that they have gathered.’ He added that the rocket was a type of weapon that Shiite extremists ‘have received from Iranian sources in the past and used against coalition forces.’
“Gen. David Petraeus said Wednesday that the U.S. military had ‘very, very clear’ evidence of Iranian involvement in such attacks. ‘It certainly has contributed to a sophistication of attacks that would by no means be possible without Iranian support.’"
In a bow to objectivity, the article also notes that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejects U.S. charges that Iran is meddling in Iraq.
Now I don’t believe Ahmadinejad and neither should you, because Ahmadinejad is clearly lying. One knows Ahmadinejad is lying if one merely stops to think what the truth would be if the strategic shoe were on the other foot. Suppose China invaded Mexico, for example, and China charged that U.S. commandos were interfering with Chinese operations in Mexico and that the U.S. was arming Mexican insurgents and killing Chinese soldiers. Would anyone then believe the president of the United States if he denied the accusation?
The answer is obvious. Our Uncle Sam would do the same as Iran if our Uncle Sam found himself in a similar situation. America’s economic and strategic interests and its ethnic makeup would dictate such an action, just as Iran’s economic and strategic interests and religious/ethnic makeup dictate Iran’s involvement in Iraq. Seen in that light, Iran’s meddling in Iraq is justified, and U.S. complaints of Iranian involvement in Iraq are both hypocritical and ridiculous. Our Uncle Sam in this case looks like the schoolyard bully who went crying to the teacher and tattled because one of his victims had a friend who dared to hit him back.
On the other side, Generals Bergner and Petraeus charge that Iran supplies munitions to Iraqi insurgents, and that Iranian weapons help the insurgents kill and maim more American troops every day. I believe the generals, absolutely. I’m certain they are telling the truth. Unfortunately, for America and Americans, the AP story is written in such a way that it twists even true statements into lies.
The trick is turned by omitting context: If you read and interpret the story literally, you see that American troops are being killed with weapons supplied by a foreign government. The inference is that Iran has no right to interfere with U.S. interests in Iraq. The article aims to make you angry, so angry you do not see that the same charge could be leveled against the United States: Iraqi citizens are being killed with weapons supplied by the U.S. government, which is a foreign government that has no right to interfere with Iraqi interests in Iraq.
Generals Bergner and Petraeus and the AP wire would have Americans believe that many American casualties in Iraq are hapless victims of Iranian meddling. But the real situation is that the Iraqis don’t want Uncle Sam in Iraq and have said so publicly. The Iraqi government — which Uncle Sam set up and claims to support — tells Uncle Sam that the Iranis are friends of Iraq who are in Iraq by invitation. Clearly, then, it is our Uncle Sam and our American troops who are meddling in Iraq and most emphatically not the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Stories of Iranian meddling in Iraq that don’t frame the issue in that broader perspective are lies of omission. They are lies told toward a threefold purpose: 1) justify to the world an American attack on Iran; 2) make Americans angry enough to support such an attack; 3) stiffen the spines of the few who still support Bush but are now reluctant to follow the leader who bungled Iraq to another bungle in Iran.
Don’t listen to stories that beat the drum for another, bigger, more costly war. Demand context. If you’re not getting context from your usual news sources, look around for other sources that report in depth. You’re being systematically lied to in ways you won’t realize if you don’t read widely and think about what you read.
Writings 
The Bush mob makes no secret of its wish to destroy the government of Iran. Toward that end, the Bush White House has set in train a media campaign to build public support for an attack by U.S. forces on the Islamic Republic of Iran. On Sept. 13, the latest boom from Bush’s war drum sounded in an AP 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
