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by Polly Mann, W A M M
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It would be interesting to analyze some of the countries that were attacked by the United States during the last 50 years, especially in respect to how their leaders were presented. I suspect there would be a noticeable pattern best understood by a discovery made early in World War II: When faced with an enemy target only twelve to twenty-five percent of U.S. soldiers were pulling the triggers of their weapons. Obviously, these men did not want to kill another human being. In order to do so, they had to be motivated to kill. The military addressed this by an intensive campaign based on demonizing the enemy. The success of this continued programming is borne out by an escalating kill rate in each U.S. war since then. George Orwell describes this process in his novel 1984. Demonizing an entire country most often begins with demonizing the country’s leader.
For example, prior to 1959 the leader in Cuba was Fulgencio Batista, a most repressive dictator. He was a friend of the U.S. government, but even the mainstream media couldn’t characterize him as a “good guy.” When the revolutionary forces led by Fidel Castro took over Cuba, there was a question as to how Castro would be regarded. However, the revolutionary government’s appropriation of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company and the United Fruit Company made Castro a persona non grata to the U.S. government. President John F. Kennedy later authorized a military invasion of Cuba, which failed. From time to time the U.S. public is reminded of the possibility of another military attack upon Cuba; but it would be difficult to justify such an attack on this tiny island, which poses no threat whatsoever to U.S. national security. But then neither did Grenada in 1983.
Grenada’s prime minister at the time was Maurice Bishop, a graduate of the London School of Economics. Five years after Grenada received independence from Britain, Bishop attempted a social experiment in self-determination for this tiny Caribbean island. This experiment was not to the liking of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Thus, when the Grenadian minister of finance conducted a successful coup against Bishop, arresting and later executing him and many of his ministers, Reagan sent in the Marines, who took over control of the island and remained until a centrist government was formed.
Many repressive dictators have been supported by the U.S. government but abandoned when their actions have been deemed no longer in the U.S. national interest. So it was with Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who figured heavily in providing ways and means for the Contras in Nicaragua. (The Contras were a U.S.-led terrorist army put in place to overthrow the popular Sandinista revolution of 1979). When Noriega fell into disfavor with the U.S., Panama was brutally attacked, neighborhoods were destroyed, civilians killed, and Noriega was imprisoned.
The situation in Iraq, being a subject of daily news, hardly requires review. However, it is well to remember that the U. S. government supported Saddam Hussein knowing full well that he was a dictator responsible for the deaths of multitudes of people, a leader who used both chemical and biological weapons against the people of Iran, weaponry that the U.S. had sold to him. It was only when he abandoned his role as U.S. puppet that his demonizing was instituted and the country of Iraq invaded and devastated, its people slaughtered.
With the sensitive situation in Iran today and President George W. Bush expounding his right to declare a preemptive war, it is especially imperative that people be wary of unfounded reports about the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The current crisis centers on the right of Iran to develop nuclear power. (Iran’s first ventures into nuclear power back in the 1950s were launched with the help of the U.S.) Iran’s current effort includes several research sites, a uranium mine, a nuclear reactor, and uranium processing facilities that include a uranium enrichment plant.
The Iranian government asserts that the program’s goal is to develop nuclear power plants; the U.S. administration says the program covers an attempt to acquire nuclear weapons. (According to the C.I.A., even if Iran works as fast as possible, it could have access to nuclear weapons no sooner than ten years from now.) As the self-declared “supreme world power,” the U.S. believes it has the right to define nuclear policy for all the nations of the world.
The U.S. media denigration of Ahmadinejad is consistent with U.S. policy regarding “out of favor” leaders. As the former mayor of Teheran, holding a PhD from the prestigious Iran University of Science and Technology, Ahmadinejad is the highest elected official in the country, having received 62 percent of the vote at his election. However, according to the Iranian constitution he has less total power than the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is commander-in-chief of the armed forces with the final word in foreign and domestic policies.
Current media criticism stems from statements he made regarding Israel, and certainly these statements were disturbing and not to be ignored. Although there have been questions about the accuracy of their translation, they have produced a firestorm, similar to the one produced by Pope Benedict’s quotation regarding Islam and Mohammed. Ahmadinejad has also been criticized for his attendance at a conference characterized by some as one composed of Holocaust deniers, though one of the conferees, British Rabbi Ahron Cohen, said, “We certainly say there was a Holocaust. But in no way can it be used as a justification for unjust acts against the Palestinians.”
At the same time, Ahmadinejad has made several attempts to discuss Iranian policy with the U.S. administration. On May 8, 2006, he sent a personal letter to President Bush to propose “new ways” to end Iran’s nuclear dispute. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley both reviewed the letter and dismissed it as a negotiating ploy and publicity stunt that did not address U.S. concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. On November 29, 2006, Ahmadinejad wrote an open letter to the American people, condemning all terrorism and presenting some of his anxieties and concerns. The mainstream media either downplayed the letter or ridiculed it.
With this country still embroiled in an immoral and illegal war manufactured by lies and costing billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, we must not let ourselves be drawn into other unjustifiable conflicts. How can Iran possibly be a threat to this country? Is Ahmadinejad being demonized as a prelude to military intervention? These are questions that must be addressed, sooner rather than later. |
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Word UP
Do not worry over the charge of treason to your masters, but be concerned about the treason that involves yourselves. Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on Earth.
—Eugene V. Debs,
Speech, June 16, 1918
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© 2007 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete June 2007 Index - click here
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