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59% of America Says YOU BETCHA!!!!
By Libby Liberal
April 05, 2010 "Libby Liberal" -- I caught part of a podcast of Meet the Press. A part where David Gregory sets up Senator Joe Lieberman to "war monger" once again for war with Iran. That part begins at 30:25 if you access the podcast link for Meet the Press before next Sunday 4/11/10.
Of course Lieberman has already earlier in the show reminded all of us we were attacked on 9/11 and we are at WAR WAR WAR ... but that is when he was talking about ... what was it.... not throwing out the law in dealing with enemy combatants.. but the question was more aptly WHICH LAW should be used with them. That is the question, he said. You mean the real law, Joe, or the jingoistic faux-law that Bush imposed and Obama is following up on? But that is for another blog ... grrrrrr. Anyway, .... back to Iran ....
Lieberman leaps in to say that we are not acting quickly enough, David, as if Gregory does not know damn well how Lieberman views this issue. Inflammatory war-mongering language, sorry I did not transcribe it but it is there, yadda ... yadda ... yadda ... including how it is the LAST CHANCE we are giving Iran and ourselves.
Drum roll .... (Why do I have the image of a mushroom cloud in my mind?)
More yadda yadda yadda .. but we can count on Congress to get serious .... as Jane Harmon nods vigorously and there is Michael Chertoff. Michael Chertoff? What is he doing there? Didn’t he leave his post?
But then Gregory often likes to ask Greenspan and old timers who f*cked things up to give their expert opinions on what should be done. (I keep thinking I must have an old TV when I see Meet the Press and all these guys back. Did Gregory not get the latest memo with the personnel changes of the Obama administration? I mean, I know some of them are depressing, too, but Gregory likes to recycle the old toxic status quo neocon guard.)
ANYWAY ...
Iraq memories anyone?
I find myself rushing to read Glenn Greenwald as an antidote for all this. Greenwald who reliably, but is one of the very few who does, calls out the war-mongering for what it is. Whether Fox News or the New York Times, etc. After Iraq and Afghanistan, maybe generalized jingoism is not the way to go senators, Congresspeople, disingenuous soft-ball lobbing media anchors, et al. YA THINK????
Mr. Greenwald:
Fox News currently has an article at the top of its website that is headlined: "CIA: Iran Moving Closer to Nuclear Weapon." The report, by DOD and State Department correspondent Justin Fishel, begins with this alarming claim:
A recently published report by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iran is still working on building a nuclear weapon despite some technical setbacks and international resistance -- and the Pentagon say it's still concerned about Iran's ambitions.
But, as blogger George Maschke notes, that statement is categorically false. The actual report, to which the Fox article links and which the DNI was required by Congress to submit, says no such thing. Rather, this is its core finding:
Greenwald has this to say about the war mongering of the New York Times:The report says the opposite of Fox's statement that "Iran is still working on building a nuclear weapon." And, of course, the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate which concluded that Iran ceased development of its weapons program has never been rescinded, and even the most hawkish anonymous leaks from inside the intelligence community, when bashing the 2007 NIE, merely claim that analysts "now believe that Iran may well have resumed 'research' on nuclear weapons -- theoretical work on how to design and construct a bomb -- but that Tehran is not engaged in 'development' -- actually trying to build a weapon."
Meanwhile, The New York Times' David Sanger -- who is the Judy Miller of Iran when it comes to hyping the "threat" based overwhelmingly, often exclusively, on anonymous sources -- continues his drum beat this week. In an article co-written with William Broad, Sanger warns -- "based on interviews with officials of several governments and international agencies" ("all" of whom "insisted on anonymity") -- that "international inspectors and Western intelligence agencies say they suspect that Tehran is preparing to build more sites in defiance of United Nations demands." But rather than the secret, nefarious scheme which the NYT depicts this as being, these plans for additional sites were publicly announced -- by the Iranian government itself -- many weeks ago.Greenwald is not refuting that Iran may want to arm itself with a nuclear weapon. It is not IRRATIONAL given US militarism in that part of the world and the desire of having a nuclear weapon to ward off US pre-emptive defensive (oxymoronic) attacks. And I am skating over the concerns of Israel and that dimension, I know, no small issue, but saved for a later blog. Again, I am not leaping in to defend Iran. I am leaping in to say WAF-Minute!!! Okay, America????
Greenwald:
As I've noted before, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Iran wanted a nuclear weapons capability. If anything, it would be irrational for them not to want one. What else would a rational Iranian leader conclude as they look at the U.S. military's having destructively invaded and continuing to occupy two of its neighboring, non-nuclear countries (i.e., being surrounded by an invading American army on both its Eastern and Western borders)? Add to that the fact that barely a day goes by without Western media outlets and various Western elites threatening them with a bombing attack by the U.S. or the Israel (which itself has a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons and categorically refuses any inspections or other monitoring). If our goal were to create a world where Iran was incentivized to obtain nuclear weapons, we couldn't do a better job than we're doing now.Finally, Greenwald stresses how important ACCURATE reporting is on this subject.
A CNN poll from February found that 59% of Americans favor military action against Iran if negotiations over their nuclear program fail (see questions 31-32) -- and that's without the White House even advocating such a step. As the invasion of Iraq demonstrated, the kind of fear-mongering, reckless, and outright false "reporting" we're seeing already -- and have been seeing for awhile -- over Iran's nuclear program poses a far greater danger to the U.S. than anything Iran could do.So, thanks to Gregory and Lieberman and so many in the war mongering press and Congress, 59% of the population favor military action over Iran if negotiations fail without it being even a very bright twinkle yet in Barack Obama's eye. Great.
Does the American public really know what the negotiations are truly about? What the history is? Why the rush to judgment? Why all this trust? Why not some critical thinking? I know the media is seductive. But come on!!!! This is war we are talking about!!!!
There is 59% of America. 59 f*cking percent!!!!! Ready to trust this government that has looted their tax dollars. Killed off their sons and daughters in combat for years and years and literally millions of innocent civilians in other countries for questionable (a kind word), mega-corporate friendly agendas.
Ready for war with another Mideast country? Really? Down the garden path to another hell ... another quicksand ... mass deaths that all these deciders will be safely away from in their comfortable and important high rise conference rooms, congress chambers, or in front of the cameras on Meet the Press, Fox News, Charlie Rose, et al., playing their egotististical war games as innocent civilians in Iran this time, civilians btw whom they recently professed to admire and care about, die from or be devastated by (not to mention exponentially increasing global anti-Americanism and revenge terrorism) and again, these heartless power wielders risking the young soldier sons and daughters of this country, who will possibly be killed from such war or risk severe physical injury or at the very least psychological scarring for the rest of their lives if they make it through all those deployments now SOP. As Iraq soldiers are launching their FOURTH deployments!!!! Let's play Russian roulette over and over and over with the same chamber with the same people, America.
But hey, we are the United States of Amnesia as Gore Vidal once quipped.
That nice David Gregory. Such a trustworthy face. And Charlie Rose with his talking heads (that wording needs to be reconfigured, Charlie, but I don't have time or respect to do that) ... inevitable war with Iran. Good going guys. We are up to 59% ripening of the American public for another war.
What is that definition of insanity again?
There is nothing civil about civil wars!
