Chris Floyd - Drum Machine: Spinning for War with Iran

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Drum Machine: Spinning for War with Iran
Written by Chris Floyd

Chris Hedges, Truthdig, Feb. 23:
"There is a lot riding on whom President Obama names as his special envoy to Iran. If, as expected, it is Dennis Ross...we will be in deep trouble...."


The New York Times, Feb. 24:
"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday appointed Dennis B. Ross, a seasoned Middle East negotiator under Republican and Democratic presidents, as her special adviser for the and Southwest Asia, a portfolio that will include Iran....Mr. Ross had advocated a tough approach toward Iran that included persuading Europe to increase economic pressure on the government in Tehran. He is a co-founder of United Against Nuclear Iran, a group dedicated to stopping the country from acquiring nuclear weapons."


The drumbeat for an attack on Iran -- pounded by American and Israeli militarists, and their multitude of sycophants -- never ceases. At times it blends into the background noise of other events that surface to dominate the howling cacaphony of the corporate media bubble, but it never goes away. Very weighty factions in the American power structure, and their Israeli allies, are strongly committed to making such an attack happen, and they continue to press their agenda -- patiently, relentlessly -- no matter who is temporarily managing the empire.

In recent days, they have upped the volume, bringing the issue back to the fore. As many others have pointed out (most notably Arthur Silber, in this powerful piece), the warmongers have seized on an unremarkable report by the International Atomic Energy Agency noting that it had underestimated the amount of enriched uranium at Iran's nuclear facilities. The IAEA said this kind of undercounting was not uncommon in dealing with nascent nuclear programs. And in any case, the undercounted uranium was not missing or "hidden;" it was there, in plain sight, open to international inspectors -- who, in the due course of a thorough inspection, found it and added it to the total.

The IAEA also reported the fact that Iran has deliberately slowed the pace of its nuclear enrichment program, leaving it even further away from developing a nuclear weapon -- if, in fact, it were developing a nuclear weapon, which both the IAEA and the U.S. intelligence appartus says it is not. In short, the IAEA report was good news that could have provided a clear and fruitful opening to any administration seeking a "new approach" to Iran.

But none of this mattered to the warmongers, who immediately seized upon the drums that are always at their command in the higher reaches of the national media...

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