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Iran Nukes Call Bush’s Bluff

A blunter assessment of the dark codependency motivating these talks was provided by Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari: “The US is a major player and so is Iran, and there will be a room for some substantial discussions for the stability of Iraq.” Sure there will, but it will be on Iran’s terms, and soft-pedaling US opposition to that country’s nuclear program is a given. So is the acceptance of a version of Iran’s theocratic model, exported to formerly secular Iraq.

Talk about desperation. To bring peace to Iraq, Bush now turns to the very “rogue regime” he accuses of threatening the survival of the planet with its nuclear weapons program, not to mention support of worldwide terrorism. But what choice does he have? Many of the key players Bush installed in power in Iraq were trained during decades of exile in Iran, and key Shiite militias, according to US military commanders, are increasingly supplied with deadly explosives from Tehran.

The serious subtext here, rarely noticed by pundits, is that the United States created a vacuum for the vast expansion of Iranian influence throughout the Mideast. In the creation of a new hegemony, the fervid goal of the neoconservatives led by now-disgraced World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, our nation appears en route to becoming Tehran’s junior partner. Although a military strike against Iran is certainly a continually examined possibility, such action would ignite an anti-American tidal wave in the region, beginning with Iraq. Of course one should never underestimate the ineptitude of the Bush Administration.

The big losers in all this are the ordinary citizens in Iraq and throughout the Mideast who were promised an infusion of democratic ideals in the wake of the invasion. Instead, they have been left with a widespread resurgence of religious fanaticism. Never have those fundamentalist forces, which produced 9/11, been more popular in the Mideast–particularly in Iraq, where Al Qaeda was ruthlessly suppressed by Saddam Hussein,

If it wasn’t for all the dead I could almost laugh at the irony of it all.

Manufacturing Indifference: Searching for a New ‘Propaganda Model’

In some countries, media dissenters are jailed or even killed. That’s why it was suggested at the conference that the title Manufacturing Consent today should be modified for “Manufacturing Compliance.” Increasingly governments don’t care what people think at all– or if they consent-just that they go along with the program by hook, crook or club. Most prefer that we don’t vote at all. That’s why elections are treated as sports events. The non-voters increasingly outnumber whose who cast ballots.

Even more distressing is the tend towards the depoliticalization of politics through the merger of showbiz and newsbiz to assure that much of the media agenda is noisy and negative, stripped of all meaning: superficial, often celebrity-dominated with little in-depth explanatory or investigative journalism. They would rather market American Idol as the American Ideology. To them, the only “hegemony” in Canada is its beer and hockey.

The people who run our media are, after all, in the end, promoting a culture of consumption, not of engaged citizenship.

I’ve already seen this story on a few blogs and news aggregations, but in case anyone missed it. As another week begins I am sure to learn more about which celebrity is in rehab or what colors are in for spring then I will about what the president or Congress is doing, why they’re doing it and the repercussions - people that wear two thousand dollars suits should make some effort to tie context with events. I include the pundits who seem to know even less then the average ally cat.  Remember the scandal about the shabby treatment vets were getting at Walter-Reed Hospital

Both MSNBC and Fox News devoted more coverage to Anna Nicole Smith — three weeks after her death on Feb. 8 — than they did to the multiple developments involving the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed military hospital.

The most lop-sided coverage by far was aired by Fox News, which featured only 10 references to Walter Reed compared to 121 of Anna Nicole — roughly 12 times the coverage. MSNBC featured 84 references to Walter Reed and 96 to Anna Nicole.