The rightwing noise machine strikes again; Newsmax & Co happy to oblige
By Dwight Carlson
NEWSMAX, a site notorious for its strident, often scurrilous rightwing content, and amply funded and supported from inception by some of the most prominent rightwingers and cryptofascists in America is already hysterically banging the drums for an attack on Iran (see below), on the usual pretexts used by the empire and its international accomplices to stampede the American public into rubber-stamping yet another military adventure.
The evidence so far—riddled with contradictions—suggests an extremely inept conspiracy or provocation, and in any case this is an issue to be treated and resolved judicially as a police matter, not a casus belli. No attack of any kind was being planned on the American homeland, per se, nor on US citizens. Incidentally, many on the lamestream media are already calling this putative murder attempt on the Saudi Ambassador “the only case of its kind on American soil” (CBS Early Show, 12.12.11). Grotesque ignorance, selective amnesia, and bad faith underscore much of the corporate media output, especially on nincompoop television, but for these so-called journalists to forget that the Chilean DINA under Augusto Pinochet, and with the connivance of US intelligence services, blew up prominent Pinochet critic Orlando Letelier in 1976 literally on “Embassy Row”, also killing his assistant Ronni Moffet, an American citizen, is the height of—what should we call it—professional malpractice? But we digress. The issue here is that about THAT sordid event the self-righteous but unfailingly hypocritical rightwing media was curiously restrained; no loud voices were heard asking for any sort of military retaliation against Chile. Of course, the butchering Pinochet was one of their own, and a creature made possible by a web of intrigue run from Washington itself, or, more precisely, by the boys at McLean, Virginia.
Poor little Chile was no Iran. We know that. And, what’s more, whatever importance Chile had for the US government in the 1970s (the perennially feared spread of socialism?), Iran in 2011 remains a much bigger thorn (and prize) on the American and Israeli hegemonic radar for the region. So pretexts to “handle it the proper way” must be found, and demonization is again the order of the day.
For such shady enterprises the rightwing media machine, true to its nature, has little need of prodding. Constantly peddling imbecilities and lies to push national policy to the right, in these cases it provides the “heat” to spark accusations that the government is “being soft” on the enemy du jour. Since most American politicians are distinguished for their opportunism and cowardice in the face of taunts from the right, it’s not entirely out of the question that the Obama White House will cave in once again, and consent to some sort of stupid military action to show it’s not “soft on Iran.” After all, with sagging approval numbers, Obama may be tempted to try another little war to rally the people round the flag while boosting his home ratings. It usually works, doesn’t it? Let’s hope that cooler heads will prevail, including inside the Pentagon, where we should expect to find someone in a position of authority who knows firsthand the true price of war.
Meantime, for the folks at Newsmax and their brethren in the conservative media circuit, it’s clear this jerrybuilt attempt at murder amply justifies the maximum response (we quote at length to remind the audience what kind of mentality we’re dealing with here. Note the redundancies and non sequiturs):
Kessler: Bomb Iran Now for Washington Terror Plot
Tuesday, 11 Oct 2011
By Martin Gould (Newsmax)The Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador and blow up the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington is a clear act of war says former Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Newsmax chief Washington correspondent Ronald Kessler — with Kessler adding the plot should be answered with a U.S attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The plot will “heighten the tensions throughout the Middle East… These are acts of war, and they need to be viewed and treated as such,” said Hoekstra, the former ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told Newsmax in an exclusive interview.
Ignoring the magnitude of the plot by treating it as a criminal conspiracy — rather than an act of aggression by a rogue nation — would be appeasement on a par with America’s acts at the beginning of World War II, said Kessler, an intelligence expert and best-selling author of books on the CIA and FBI.
“This plot shows how foolhardy it is to continue to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon without taking it out,” said Kessler. “The U.S. should bomb their nuclear facilities before Iran gets a nuclear weapon which could be in the next year or two.”
Kessler described the plot to attack sites in our nation’s capital as “an act of war,” adding, “It’s the first overt sign of what everyone has feared, that Iran is a totally out-of-control government, an enemy and a threat.
“To just ignore it and be in denial, as the U.S. government has been, is risking our lives.”
Hoekstra also blasted the Obama administration’s attempts at appeasing Iran. But he stopped short of calling for an attack.
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And bla bla bla, etc. You get the idea.
Frequently adulterating history, the rightwing media have succeeded in polluting the minds of countless Americans (and Britons, too) for generations, so the above is in keeping with their long-established tradition and self-assigned mission. Apparently these armchair warriors and chickenhawks have no compunction about stoking a much wider war in the Middle East & Central Asia, as if the US had not already done enough lethal meddling in that martyred region.
Dwight Carlson is interested in the intersection of politics and media. He currently resides in the U.K., where he hopes to finish his first novel.
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ADDENDUM
NEWSMAX: A WHO’S WHO OF THE RIGHT (Source: Wikipedia)
Christopher W. Ruddy started Newsmax.com on September 16, 1998, supported by a group of politically conservative investors, including the family of the late Central Intelligence Agency Director William J. Casey. Later, Richard Mellon Scaife, Ruddy’s former employer at thePittsburgh Tribune-Review and a supporter of conservative causes, invested in the fledging company.[2] One of the initial board members was author James Dale Davidson who edited a financial newsletter, Davidson’s co-editor, Lord Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times and Vice Chair of the BBC, later became chairman of Newsmax Media.[3]
Other news figures who later joined the Newsmax board included Arnaud de Borchgrave, the longtime Newsweek chief correspondent who also serves as editor at large of UPI and Jeff Cunningham, former publisher of Forbes. The late Admiral Thomas Moorer, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Chief of Naval Operations during the Vietnam War, also served as one of the company’s founding board members. Former US Secretary of State and Nixon administration Chief of Staff Alexander M. Haig Jr. served as special adviser to NewsMax.[
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