One of the most troubling aspects of all the media coverage of an attack on Iran is that it can make a radically destabilizing act of unprovoked war seem like just another policy choice.
I thought of this when I saw a PBS NewsHour segment (3/28/12) that set out to ponder the consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran. PBS reporter Margaret Warner oddly framed Israeli public opinion this way:
Though the Iranian regime has vowed to destroy the Jewish state, recent polls in Israel show only 19 percent would support their government attacking Iran unilaterally.
Hearing that, you might wonder why there’s a segment of Israeli society that doesn’t support their own self-defense. It’s not clear what Iranian vow Warner might be talking about (presumably not their pledge to not develop nuclear weapons). It’s possibly a reference to the contested translation of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comment about wiping Israel “off the map.” Or it could be a reference to more recent comments from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He called Israel a “cancerous tumor” in February, and vowed to support those fighting Israel. Given that the Israeli government is openly speaking about the need to attack Iran sooner rather than later, and does not exactly deny a role in the killings of Iranian scientists, one could just easily be talking about Israeli belligerence. But that’s rarely the subject.
Then look at the experts PBS lined up to talk about Iran: Hawkish Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg (who served in the Israeli army), a Columbia University defense analyst who speaks of Israeli weapons capabilities (“The Israelis have a really robust military capability”), an analyst from the right-leaning Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a fellow at the right wing American Enterprise Institute (who says that if Iran were attacked it would “depict itself as a victim of Israeli aggression”).
To the extent that there’s any debate at all, it’s mostly about whether or not Iran will retaliate, and where. And then there is some talk about the technical difficulties for Israel in successfully carrying out this massive unprovoked act of war (something we’ve discussed before).
Goldberg sees the possibility of an accidental escalation from Iran–“one hyperactive commander acting on his own to ram or try to ram a U.S. ship”–and it is there that the segment closes, with Warner saying, “It is just this unpredictability that keeps Washington policymakers and many Israeli citizens up at night.”
The calculations and worries of Beltway insiders and Israeli political leaders are well-represented here–but very little else. It’d be nice for discussions about launching a war to include some voices from outside those elite circles–especially when the discussion is happening on public television.
Goldberg sees the possibility of an accidental escalation from Iran–”one hyperactive commander acting on his own to ram or try to ram a U.S. ship”–and it is there that the segment closes, with Warner saying, “It is just this unpredictability that keeps Washington policymakers and many Israeli citizens up at night.”An attack on Iran by Israel may precipitate World War III, a disaster of Biblical proportions.
Think of the movie Failsafe, where the US president destroyed New York City in order to deter a counter attack from the Soviet Union after the failure of the US to prevent the inadvertent destruction of Moscow by means of its own nuclear WMD.
When the USA fails to keep its Middle East attack dog on a tight leash in “Failsafe Redux” a sharp rap would be applied to the snout of the unruly beast, with the USA sponsored aggressor playing the part of a New York City to be leveled.
Of course, this saving sacrificial act of sanity in an insane world could only occur in the movies; in reality we would just become billions of people with radiation sickness and huge stacks of dead and dying bodies.
Goldberg sees the possibility of an accidental escalation from Iran–”one hyperactive commander acting on his own to ram or try to ram a U.S. ship”–and it is there that the segment closes, with Warner saying, “It is just this unpredictability that keeps Washington policymakers and many Israeli citizens up at night.” [Sorry–end of quote here.]
An attack on Iran by Israel may precipitate World War III, a disaster of Biblical proportions.
Think of the movie Failsafe, where the US president destroyed New York City in order to deter a counter attack from the Soviet Union after the failure of the US to prevent the inadvertent destruction of Moscow by means of its own nuclear WMD.
When the USA fails to keep its Middle East attack dog on a tight leash in “Failsafe Redux” a sharp rap would be applied to the snout of the unruly beast, with the USA sponsored aggressor playing the part of a New York City to be leveled.
Of course, this saving sacrificial act of sanity in an insane world could only occur in the movies; in reality we would just become billions of people with radiation sickness and huge stacks of dead and dying bodies.
Since the US circa 2012 is more like Fredonia, here’s an apt quote from “Duck Soup” to fit this memorable occasion which is probably quite close to conversations taking place at the Pentagon:
Ambassador Trentino: I am willing to do anything to prevent this war.
Rufus T. Firefly: It’s too late. I’ve already paid a month’s rent on the battlefield.
Sadly enough, such war-fevered coverage is no longer surprising on “public” television. Nor is it uncommon on their radio sister, NPR. WE should vote with our wallets and stop supporting these outlets till they live up to their monikers and claims of “independent journalism”
PBS is not acronymed as Pentagon Broadcasting Service for no reason!
I stopped listening to NPR/watching PBS about 5 years ago, once it became very obvious and clear that neocons and neoliberals were directing content, and disseminating war and policy propaganda for the war and 1% profiteers, all on the public dime and their well-publicized steering committee 1% “front” groups of “foundations” and “family trusts.” Similarly, their other, more “fluffy” content was decidedly geared toward these same viewership demographics, so much so that, like the overall wealth distribution statistics in the US, the middle-class viewer/listener content was simply being erased from their programming schedules. And moreover, like the ideals of the 1% who run things there, the venom and hatred for the poor and the middle-class, no matter what country they reside in, their programming content continues to ooze a classist sadism that can no longer be ignored.
PBS has been under the thumb of the wealthy conservatives since its beginning. Same with NPR who are both described as “liberal” by the various Reich Wing types who want no tax payer money going to them even as they own them. These are so hard line that nothing less than a Corporate-Theocratic state will remedy their protestations.
People should look at the internals in the society. It’s most likely to fall apart soon anyway. The people are fighting for a change, look at all the uprisings going on. The sanctions will only serve to piss the people even more because they affect them more than those in charge. I generally sort of disagree that sanctions work, but in this case they might because of the turmoil already in the country. Why not sit and watch the country fall apart? Furthermore, an authentic, organic revolution that changes the leadership in the country, will more likely mean that Iranians create a better government, for themselves. Having the people actually create their change instead of forcing it upon them is always better. This, however, also depends on the clerics (which people tend to forget about, and they are a very powerful force in Iran), who may just raise another strong man and not allow for some sort of democracy.
Yeah, and remember: Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons! Thus, there’s no reason to attack that country in the first place.
I stopped watching PBSnews because of Margaret Warner. She is a right wing shill, and you will find her guest commentators are always shills.
I’m a Canadian who travels a lot in the U.S. and am glad to see these comments about PBS and NPR. Their frequent “quaintifying” of so much of American life reeks of a smug, comfortable and unattractive sense of superiority. The parade of corporate sponsors makes everything they say suspect. I no longer share their sense of well-being.
Thank you, David Cooper, for your input to this discussion. It helps Americans to understand how we look in the eyes of the world outside of our own country. We may take that feedback any way we choose, but without it, there would be no source of objective criticism.
However, while we are on this rather testy subject (testy, at least for some Americans), how do you feel about your own CBC going commercial? I try to catch The National as often as I can; I like the format, and the investigative journalism is much more compelling than anything I see from this side of the border.
Thank you for your comments!
Israelis like Americans are sick of war.That is why the majority want no military actions against Iran.Even the Germans and the English had a summer of relative peace often called the phony war.German people hoping it was all over ,and the English sick over the prospect.Behind that was one man.One sick twisted man.Waiting with a will power of steel to carry out his aims.Now I suppose there are those who would still say,it was all the fault of the Western allies….or even the Jews that war spiraled out of control.In Iran today there is not ONE quote or two quotes that point to the Iranian leaderships hatred of the Jews and their hopes for there destruction.Drive down the main roads of Tehran and read the giant posters that line the streets.Believe me you will never see one that maligns the Iranian leadership.Read the farsi to English translations of their press and news.Daily you here rhetoric that would turn your hair white …if you were Jewish.That aside ,lets hope the Iranian leadership are not evil liars ,and are in fact standing down and keeping to their sworn oath never to build a nuclear weapon.Sworn on the Koran as I recall.If they are not telling the truth- then they are a danger beyond reckoning.I just don’t know how long we can act like Chamberlain ,waving a paper of peace as the Evil powers gauges the level of weakness among their prey as they can move forward on their designs.
“Israelis like Americans are sick of war” says Michael e. Israelis are very positive about war with Iran if the U.S. assists or, better yet, wages war on Iran by itself on Israel’s behalf. These were the other options polled.
Sadly, war is frequently “in the air” in America; we’re just not as smart as we are rich, content, and arrogant. As a Vietnam Veteran, it’s discouraging to note that we’re such slow learners of basic truths: War is seldom a winning solution. But we keep trying, and failing. Meantime, we continue to lose important battles at home.
One of those is over public broadcasting. Part of the problem is our misguided persistence in turning it into a political issue; another key part is the wide misunderstanding of the enormous difference between PBS and NPR. With the narrow exceptions of Sesame Street, Frontline, and a spotty record elsewhere, PBS is distinguished by its abject failure to provide consistent, quality programming, especially in news, for the general public. NPR, dramatically on the other hand, has established itself as one of the best broadcast news services in the world today, eclipsed only by the BBC.
Of course, the media field is undergoing another paroxysm of change, thanks largely to the internet and digital technologies. But content should be king. And as David implies, NPR drew heavily at its creation on the excellent CBC Radio, now greatly diminished by government cutbacks. PBS has never had anything close to the excellence of CBC-TV’s The National. So, we’re stuck with the pedantic, glacial pace of Newshour which is little balance to the jingoistic superficiality of our network and local TV news. And if anybody wonders about the truth of No Difference’s accurate point on the importance of international perspectives, one need only look at 9/11 and its shocking message (for many Americans) that we are not universally loved. Our media should have given us a heads up.
As full disclosure, I should say that I’m a 42-year global broadcast journalist and public broadcasting manager and executive. We will rue the day that we as a nation and lapsed-global leader did not re-energize and modernize our public media to work and for the people. As scores of interviews in Asia and the Middle East told me during the 1990’s, aggregating here, “we love the American People, but we hate your government for its lies, empty promises, and ham-fisted actions.”
The US and Israel are constantly threatening to bomb Iran but that is not heard by the American and Israeli people as a threat worthy of contempt! The US has been toppling democracies and/or supporting rogue nations (including Israel) since WW2. Israel just committed genocide in Gaza, attacked boats carrying humanitarian aid, bombed the hell out of Lebonan, and is slowly ethinically cleansing Palestinians from their tradition homeland. And Americans and Israelis have the audacity to refer to Iran (which BTW has not attacked another country over 200 years) as a rogue nation! What hubris! The government of Iran is a tyrannical theocracy and it should be overthrown but by its own people. Yes, they believe in helping the resistance to the Israeli occupation. Although the notion is noble, coming from mullahs who have utter contempte for human rights in their own country is hypocritical at best! But nonetheless, I keep asking, in light of the fact that both Israel and the US are rogue nations too, why should they have nuclear weapons and not Iran? I will tell you why. Even compassionate and enlightened people who frequent these halls do not bring this up because the people in the west (and I include Israel because they are mostly from European dissent) are raised to think like imperialists. “Do as I tell you and not as I do” is their motto. Iran is a political threat to Israel and despite what the CIA says the rabbid Zionist regime of Israel is going to attack it using the excuse of nuclear weapons. As unlikeable as the government of Iran is, the people of Middle East consider the US and Israel a bigger threat in the region! Hmmmm!
The democratic government of Iran (under Mosaddegh) was overthrown in 1953. I know because I was born in Tehran 5 years later. We Iranians have not forgotten that. Who is the rogue nation here? You guys talk about Iranians as if they are cattle. The ruling elite are bastards but the people are not. The sanction are killing the people and their blood is on your hands.
This is exactly how the war on Iraq started. With lies and sanctions. Hope you guys are compassionate and smart enough to stop it before another 1000,000 innocent people (among whom are my relatives) are killed and radiation from the bombed Iranian nuclear plants circulates the Earth.
I agree with the above. Include the NYTimes in this. Judy Miller if Iraq warmonging notoriety has been replaced by David Saenger for Iran, whose twisted views couched in reasonableness one can hear on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show on a regular basis. Brainwashing is going on, but I’m glad not everyone falls for the bait.
Why are people freaking out about something that Iran said or not, depending on the translation? Oct. 29th, 2005? Has Iran attacked in the last 7 years ? Oh….they haven’t seemed to have attacked anyone for a long time ( as opposed to the U.S. and Israel.)
I am more concerned about seeing what is happening to the actual people in Palestine, than I am about what a bunch of newspapers say will happen. Why are we giving another 700 million to Israel anyway?I think the U.S and Israel could wipe out the world several times over with the armaments they have now.
I looked on the Wikipedia story as the Guardian suggested, and wow, imagine that. The U.S keeps referring to the world agreements made because of what the nazis
did, but in the 21st century, everyone is doing what the nazis did.
No one is paying any attention to all the things that were supposedly put in place because of Nurenberg. The idea of a rule of law has just become ridiculous; however, the changing climate is looking more and more horrifying than the insane humanity.
I am really wondering if there will be any livable planet left to fight over at all.
Israel pretty clearly seems to be upping the ante for its own domestic political purposes as well as to pressure the US into tight sanctions, but we are walking a tightrope where the same people who drove us to war in Iraq are pushing so hard for this and there is little push-back. We are stunningly close to open war with a country the president does not want to fight, with a country that wants to negotiate, with a country that wants better relations with the US, with a country whose supreme leader has renounced the use of nuclear weapons in any case as un-Islamic and immoral, with a country whose cooperation we need to settle the messes we have made of its neighbors Iraq and Afghanistan. War in Iran could well break the US as a world power and bring about the real destruction of Israel-goals that advocates of tensions with Iran would presumably want to avoid. Our “leaders” are insane.
Tishado I loved your blog.It says a lot of things but ends with “Our leaders are insane’.I think the problem is OUR leaders think THEY(their leaders) lie like Persian rugs ,and are in fact….insane.We do seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum here.
It’s a post, not a blog. C’mon! That’s a simple distinction, and it’s not my opinion. It’s just a Goddamn fact. Glad that you loved tishado’s reasonable and truthful post.
Our leaders aren’t insane, tishado. They just don’t often know any better, literally. The problem is that they think they do; when one gets to that point in one’s professional political career, one doesn’t see clearly, often because it doesn’t pay to see clearly, and I mean that both figuratively and literally.
Again! my gosh, while congress recklessly arms Israel just to help their armament manufacturer friends. I, as a US voter have had enough of paying for senseless war.
@ Tishido
Don’t know if our leaders are insane as much as insanely prowar…especially since their kids never have to fight in them
Sorry Tim, I deal so much with Bloggers in other things it was automatic.Of course it was a post.
Question………If our leaders are insane or don’t know any better(with Obama Iagree),what makes you think the Iranian leaders are any better?And if they are not- isn’t it wonderful we get to vote our leaders out every 4 years?No such mechanism in Iran.The founding fathers gave us that ability thank God.
tishido
Actually Sarah Palin’s son is in the service.There are others in the house and senate who have sons and daughters serving.But basically you are right that those who govern us often are not touched by their decisions.But lets not believe ANYONE is pro war.That is such a stretch.To say those who are willing to fight those who they feel threaten our national security….are lovers of war is nonsense.They simply are defenders of lines in the sand.Very different from the retreat defeat and surrender crown
Isn’t it pretty much true of the entire DC-NYC-Atlanta GA media that they have been pushing for yet another disastrous war to go with the two that they’ve brought us in the past decade? PBS is a mouthpiece of right wing corporate consensus. It, like almost all of of the electronic media, is a tool to destroy democracy. PBS could die and the world would be no worse off for it.
As long as other nations have nuclear weapons, I do not care if when Iran or other nation states acquire them. The West has no right to a nuclear monopoly of any sort, and it has no moral authority when it comes to developing, possessing, or using nuclear weapons. The West and Israel already have many nuclear weapons deployed for immediate use against unspecified enemies, and both were quite comfortable with apartheid South Africa having them. In the future, the nations of the West, and/or the permanent members of the so-called Security Council will try to deny other nations access to nano technology, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering technologies because they all have “dual use capabilities”.
Pleasehead I do care.I care if you being of sound mind have a gun in your house to protect your family as opposed to the guy next door who has threatened your life.Your wifes life.Your childrens life.And who has promised to kill you all once he gets a gun.Today is his birthday.Can you guessed what he asked for and got?Yeah I care…why dont you?
Israel’s anti-Muslim rhetoric is every bit as ugly as anything coming from its enemies. Unlike most of its peace-loving Western critics, Iran hasn’t invaded or occupied any territory outside of its borders in living memory. It has, however been both occupied by, and attacked in countless ways by Western powers for decades, including several disastrous attempts at imposing regime change. I don’t buy the thesis that America, Israel, and the West are always right and everyone else in the world, especially those who disagree with them, is always wrong. I don’t buy the thesis that the world was a safer place, especially for non-Whites, back in the good old days when White Westerners held a monopoly on firepower. I also don’t buy the thesis that Israel, which has been threatening and invading its neighbors since the so-called Suez Crisis, is a peace-loving force for good in the Middle East or anywhere else. It looks and behaves like just another White Western colonial, settler state similar to its old allies in Rhodesia and South Africa, and it has the same entitlement mentality that the Whites in those other societies have. There is no difference between the way that modern China behaves in Tibet and the way modern Israel behaves in the territories which it occupies. These facts are obvious to most people outside of the West. America, Israel, and the West are all going to have to get used living with nations which they do not like and which they cannot bully, bribe or overthrow. It’s tough no longer being the king or the world, but it’s also inevitable. Get used to it.
Pleasehead you got an ax to grind, and you don’t know what the hell you are talking about.I hope you never visit Israel.Your understanding of the country is horribly stilted.You may even be a part of the self haters here.If you were there and a terrorist bomb blew off your legs I can see you saying don’t blame them I DESERVE IT!Admitting your tie to the historical record of abuse that YOUR people has transgressed upon the Arab factions there.Of course if it somehow was the fault of Israeli authorities you would want a Nuke strike on them.As I say ….you have an ax to grind.No logic need apply