The danger lies in the elite's propaganda

In the Middle East, Israel and the US share the dubious distinction of being considered the primary threats to world order. Before the double-edged sabre-rattling and hate-based Iranophobic propaganda campaigns, the majority of the public polled had the opinion that, as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the legitimate right to carry out uranium enrichment for domestic energy purposes. Even today, the vast majority favours dialogue and negotiated means for dealing with Iran, opposing harsh sanctions and military intervention if Iranian and Israeli extremists insist on initiating the third world war. The Pentagon reports that Iran does not pose a dangerous imminent threat.

Political spin-doctors and lobbyists have mastered the Washington smear-and-fear blame game. There is a credibility gap between public opinion and government policy. Gullible Americans were misled to believe Bushwhacker lies about yellow cake from Niger, WMDs and Saddam’s connection to 9/11. False wars are big business concocted to enrich elitists, to fund greedy defence contractors and to distract the hoodwinked American people. Lest we forget the lessons to be learned from the Iraq fiasco, the war-mongers killed over one million Iraqis, lost thousands of young American lives and spent hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.

The only so-called winners were profiteering oil conglomerates and their lackeys – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and other sharks who manipulated oil prices sky-high; and Wall Street speculators and monetary fund powerbrokers. Losers included the silenced majority of US and European oil-dependent guzzlers faced with high unemployment, cuts in welfare, a housing-market collapse and global recession. Undoubtedly, the biggest losers were the families of servicemen and women who were killed or maimed, and the physically, emotionally and morally wounded who return to a thankless, dysfunctional homeland.

Charles Frederickson

Bangkok