On Tuesday, big alarm bells went off in the national media echo
chamber, and major U.S. news outlets showed that they knew the drill.
Iran’s nuclear activities were pernicious, most of all, because people in
high places in Washington said so.
It didn’t seem to matter much that just that morning the Washington
Post reported: “A major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran
is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a
nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years,
according to government sources with firsthand knowledge of the new
analysis. The carefully hedged assessments, which represent consensus
among U.S. intelligence agencies, contrast with forceful public
statements by the White House.”
By evening -- hours after the Iranian government said it would no
longer suspend activities related to enriching uranium -- American news
outlets were making grave pronouncements, amplifying the statements from
French, British and German officials closing ranks with the Bush
administration. On television in the United States, a narrow range of
talking heads detoured around the USA’s profuse nuclear hypocrisies.
Yes, officials in Washington and their allies conceded, an Iranian
restart of uranium enrichment activities would not violate the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. But, as a Washington Post article put it
Wednesday, the Iranian nuclear program was “built in secret over 18
years” and “the clandestine nature of the effort created deep suspicions
in Washington and elsewhere about Iran’s intentions.”
In sharp contrast, no “suspicions” are needed about the nuclear
activities of two of Iran’s bitterest enemies, Israel and Pakistan. Both
have produced atomic weapons. Unlike Iran, those two U.S. allies have
refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and do not submit to
inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
For good measure, last month the U.S. government announced plans to
engage in cooperation on atomic energy projects with the Indian
government, which has nuclear bombs and has not signed the NPT.
So, the nuclear moralists in Washington have no problem with
Israeli, Pakistani and Indian nuclear weapons, developed and stockpiled
with contemptuous disregard for the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But the
White House and talking heads of U.S. television are insisting that Iran
has no right to do what the treaty allows it and other signers to do --
develop nuclear power, ostensibly to generate electricity.
The latest U.S. media uproar about Iran’s nuclear program is part of
a dream starting to come true for neo-cons in Washington who fantasize
about “regime change” in Tehran. More realistically, for the nearer term,
the Bush administration is setting the agenda for a U.S. air attack on
Iran.
“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran
is simply ridiculous,” President Bush told a news conference in late
February. He added in the same breath: “and having said that, all options
are on the table.” Assembled journalists laughed.
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Norman Solomon is the author of the new book “War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” For book excerpts and
other information, go to:
www.WarMadeEasy.com