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WillyT

(72,631 posts) Tue Mar 10, 2015, 12:49 PM Mar 2015

In Case You Missed This... And You Should Not... This Might Have Been Funny... Until Yesterday...

To be fair to the author, I think it was written before we knew of the GOP Letter to Iran's Laeders...

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The hilariously over-the-top fear-mongering of the anti-Iran hawks
RyanCooper - TheWeek
3/9/15

<snip>

If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, it will immediately use it on the United States.

That, at least, is the line being pushed in a new ad by an outfit called the American Security Initiative:

It's an utter crock, of course. But the dissonance between this crazed agitprop and the actual policies supported by those against Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is revealing. If the hardline desperadoes in Congress really believed that Iran was bent on starting nuclear war, wouldn't they propose actions that would actually meet that threat?

The American Security Initiative was founded by three ex-senators, Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Their ad is reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" ad in 1964, which famously featured a nuclear holocaust. Except it's the other way around: "Daisy" implied that Barry Goldwater's snarling bellicosity would lead him to start a nuclear war, not the Soviets. A voiceover from Johnson made clear that, despite the evil nature of the Soviet regime, the USSR and America must find some way to co-exist. "These are the stakes: to make a world in which all of God's children can live... We must either love each other, or we must die."

Probably a bit unfair to Goldwater. But no more unfair than this new ad, which paints Iran as controlled by murderous suicide bombers intent on mass murder of civilians. The message is clear: Do as we say, or the terrorists will nuke American cities to dust. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't go so far as to say Iran will nuke America. Instead he argues that Iran is run by Nazi-esque madmen, and that a nuclear-armed Iran will "threaten the survival of my country and the future of my people," as he said in his speech before Congress. Israel will be the first target, not the U.S.

The bug-eyed madness is key to the anti-Iran argument, because...

<snip>

More: http://theweek.com/articles/542893/hilariously-overthetop-fearmongering-antiiran-hawks