[Media-watch] Won't get fooled again? - Washington Times - 23/11/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20041122-091655-2195r.htm
November 23, 2004
Won't get fooled again?


By Paul Craig Roberts


Web only

    It is not yet Bush's second term. All available U.S. troops are tied 
down in Iraq by a few thousand lightly armed insurgents. Go-it-alone Bush 
has isolated America from her allies. And the neocons want to spread their 
war to Iran.
    The Bush administration is recycling the lies that it used to invade 
Iraq: Iran is acquiring nuclear weapons that will be given to terrorists. In 
a display of loyalty to a ruthless neocon administration calculated to win 
him appointments to corporate boards, outgoing Secretary of State Colin 
Powell told reporters that Iran was working on nuclear missiles.

 The source for this effort to spread hysteria? One "walk-in" source with 
unverified documents. Most likely, the source is a member of an Iranian 
exile group given the assignment by neocons Richard Perle and John Bolton.
    One might think that Powell would be suffering shame enough for lying to 
the United Nations about Iraq. Apparently not, as his last act against world 
peace is to spread neocon propaganda that Iran is going nuke.
    The U.S. media, now a tamed propaganda organ for the White House, 
dutifully repeated Powell's unverified claims, thus providing "reports" for 
Bush to cite as evidence that Iran was rushing ahead with the development of 
nuclear weapons.
    The International Atomic Energy Agency conducts regular inspections in 
Iran. The IAEA recently issued a report stating that it has found no 
evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran.
    Real evidence, however, is no match for neocon propaganda.
    And the propaganda is pouring out of the well-oiled neocon machine. 
French, German and British agreements that confine Iran to the peaceful use 
of nuclear energy are in the way of the neoconservatives' intention to 
spread the war to Iran and must be discredited.
    On Nov. 20, Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem 
Post, hysterically accused Europe of defending "Iran's ability to attain the 
wherewithal to destroy the Jewish state." Glick "exposes" France's efforts 
to prevent the outbreak of wider war in the Middle East as a trick: "France 
wishes only to box in the U.S. to the point that the Americans will not be 
able to continue to fight the war against terrorism."
    The neoconservative Heritage Foundation promptly broadcast Glick's 
hysterical rants into the Republican noise machine, reviving talk radio 
calls for nuking France, "America's oldest enemy."
    Three years ago, Ann Coulter was fired by National Review, a neocon 
publication, when she declared: "We should invade (Muslim) countries, kill 
their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Today, such violent words 
are common parlance.
    There is no evidence whatsoever in support of the claims the Bush 
administration is making about Iranian nukes. The purpose of these false 
claims is to create fear that will breech the public's opposition to a 
draft. The neocons are desperate for troops for their Middle Eastern War.
    For a decade or longer, the neocons who control the Bush 
administration's foreign and military policies have been writing papers 
advocating a U.S.-Israeli conquest of the Middle East. A moronic president 
has given them their chance.
    Anxious to get their war underway, the neocons launched their invasion 
before they had the necessary manpower for the task. Bogged down in Iraq, 
the neocons are desperate to widen the war before the American public has 
enough of the pointless carnage and forces a withdrawal.
    Thus, before the Iraqi war is finished, the neocon propaganda machine is 
at work creating fear that the United States is in danger from Iranian nukes 
unless America pre-emptively attacks Iran.
    Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But Americans 
are perfectly set up to be fooled twice. Right-wing talk radio has 
conservative patriots absolutely demanding to be fooled. Christian rapture 
propagandists have conservative congregations waiting to be wafted up to 
heaven. The Republican, corporate, Jewish-owned media is with President 
Bush. Military types are determined to avenge the Vietnam loss by winning 
the war against Islam into which they have been conned.
    Critics are dismissed as "enemies" who are "against us." Reason and 
common sense are not features of the Bush administration. It is all blind 
emotion, a replay of "The Triumph of the Will."
    Paul Craig Roberts is a syndicated columnist.
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