Friday, July 01, 2005

Probing Iran for a provocation

The United States says it will investigate whether Iran's latest President-elect was involved in the 1979 kidnap of US embassy staff. Of course, it can be taken for granted that the United States will not investigate the reasons behind the kidnapping. That is, the role played in the 1979 hostage crisis by the United States's support for the repressive Shah of Iran. An excellent analysis of this is available in Steven Kinzer’s All the Shah’s Men.

It would be more appropriate for Western media reports to read thusly...

United States seeks new way to advertise Iran's pariah status so as to prepare Americans for the invasion of that country. "Plans for the invasion of Iran have been prepared for some time now," Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld explained today...

Expect the usual, very casual moral relativism that would make Winston Churchill proud. Why would Winston Churchill be proud, you ask? I’m glad you did. The same Winston Churchill, better known for his stubborn defiance of German fascism, once remarked:

I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have been there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.

(Palestine Royal Commission, 1938).

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