Posted by
A Closer Look on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:00:00 AM
Regrettably, it has begun. All the rhetoric and the spin that will embroil us in a war with Iran has commenced in earnest. Subtly words are injected into phrases and comments unchallenged by the mainstream media, these comments that seem innocent at first will begin to shed that innocence revealing a much darker and costly agenda as the crisis escalates. To better understand how a President prepares a nation for war, we only have to roll the year back to 2002. It was at that time, that then President Bush made his speech to the United Nations on September 12, 2002. He stated clearly,
"Saddam Hussein continues to develop weapons of mass destruction. The first time we may be completely certain he has nuclear weapons is when, God forbid, he uses one......[Iraq presents] a grave and gathering danger." U.S foreign policy had turned a dark corner. We were no longer going to cradle our military forces as a last resort defensive use only policy, but now in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union, and the attacks on 9/11. The Bush administration was quick to exploit the situation. His target Iraq. He turned our military into an offensive weapon and adopted a policy of preemption. If the United States even thought a sovereign nation had the capability to attack the U.S. they might be subjected to aerial bombardment and ground invasion. This was a dangerous turn in diplomacy and the first intended victim Saddam, though by no means a good man, posed absolutely no threat to the United States, but if Bush was going to have his war. He needed to convince the American people otherwise. During a trip to Cincinnati, Bush lamented,
"Hussein is a threat to peace and must disarm. The Iraqi dictator must not be permitted to threaten America and the world with horrible poisons and diseases and gasses and atomic weapons.....Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group.....Saddam Hussein is harboring terrorists and....the instruments of mass death and destruction......Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -the smoking gun- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Bush was increasing his rhetoric in his attempt to stampede this nation into an ill conceived, poorly planned war.
But it wasn't only George W. Bush stirring fears in the minds of many Americans. He dispatched his henchmen to carry the same fearmongering line to the networks and mass media to sell the argument for war. On August 26, 2002 Vice President Cheney argued,
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." and again on September 8, 2002 on Meet the Press, he declared, "We do know, with absolute certainty, that Hussein is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon." However, not to be out done, Condoleezza Rice reiterated the warning of looming mushroom cloud when she stated on CNN September 8, 2002,
"We do know that [Saddam] is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon....We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." In Bush's effort to make his case for war, Colin Powell addressed the U.N. Security Council on February 5, 2003,
"The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world.....There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons..." And lastly but not least Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld addressed the Senate Armed Services committee on September 19, 2002,
"No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people the the regime of Saddam Hussein and Iraq."
Of course in hindsight we know there were no weapons of mass destruction, but that did not stop Bush from stretching, bending or right ignoring the truth when the evidence did not fit neatly into his grand vision of becoming a war time President. The opportunity that was made available to him by the events on September 11, 2001. Bush concealed and distorted the facts about Saddam and his purported weapons program, fortunately he is no longer our President and another man sits in the White House.
Unfortunately, all the rhetoric and spin that got this nation involved in Iraq is beginning to stir again. Only this time, it is Iran. During an interview with George Stephanopoulos, David Axelrod Senior advisor to President Obama made the following comment,
" think the president's sense of solicitude with those young people has been very, very clear, and we're very mindful of that. We are also mindful of the fact that the nuclear weapons in Iran and the nuclearization of that whole region is a threat to that country, all countries in the region, and the world. And we have to address that. We can't let that lie." this was an unchallenged comment by George. It was the first assertion that Iran already had Nuclear Weapons. But according to Worldnetdaily.com, a Israelis security official said there was no indication Iran currently possesses a nuclear weapon. Did Axelrod speak in error? Maybe. But he is not the only official from the Obama administration speaking about Iran. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N, Susan Rice had this to say,
"We are concerned for our own national interests to ensure that Iran doesn't pursue its nuclear program," she told CBS News. "It is in the United States' national interest to make sure that we have employed all elements at our disposal, including diplomacy, to prevent Iran from achieving that nuclear capacity." Axelrod insists we "can't let that lie." Meanwhile Susan Rice is stating we need to make sure we have employed all elements at our disposal." This is easy speak for military intervention. Like the Bush administration before it, the Obama administration will no doubt let this verbriage subtly premeate the mainstream media until the media is unindated with talking heads and pundits discussing the Iran question.
The Obama administration is taking a page from Bush's playbook. Obama will ratchet up the rhetoric over the next couple of years until the Iran question turnes into the Iran crisis. The crisis will happen in 2012, as Obama's socialist policies begin to loose momentum, his poll numbers sagging battling for re election. There will come an Iranian related incident that will require U.S military action. The American people will rally and back Obama sweeping him into a second term. Axelrod already took the first step by indicating Iran possessed nuclear weapons, the rehetoric will build from there. These comments that seem innocent at first will begin to shed that innocence revealing a much darker and costly agenda as the crisis escalates. How many more lives are willing to expend in costly military misadventures that only profit the few at the cost of the many? It is time the American people wake up and take a closer look.