WHERE IN HECK IS THE MEDIA?
Given the facts, the American people can figure out most things on their own. Not everything, but in a democracy they should be given a chance. America's media have been in decline for a long time. Once the envy of the world, today's American media are all smoke and no fire. In case you haven't noticed, more and more reporters on American network and independent international news have British accents. Why? Because media in the U.S. is depending more and more on BBC-trained and influenced reporters. Media in this country have become lazier and lazier, more and more focused on advertising revenue and less and less on real news.
Do you realize what is going on, for example, in the Middle East? Really? The U.S. has been spending literally trillions of dollars in that region, and our media have been horribly negligent in keeping us informed. Thousands and thousands of Americans have died and are dying in the Middle East and you have no clue about what is really happening there. Would you like some clues? Consider...
Determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weaponry, our own government has been lying to us about its CURRENT plans for Iran. We are being kept in the dark. We are being lied to. And our media have been a literal shill in preventing us from knowing, or are too damn lazy to investigate, or make more money on silly events and celebrity happenings that pass for news.
The U.S. has secretly sent thousands of American military personnel to Israel. Why? In part or in whole to prepare for a military intervention in Iran. We hear no reports about their being there or their whereabtouts.
The U.S. has joined in establishing a conference of Arab/Moslem nations to meet with our representatives and plan strategy for how we will proactively handle Iran's nuclear developments and threat. Meeting regularly, this group has plans to do what is necessary to prevent Iran, a non-Arab nation, from posing a nuclear threat in the region. Of course Israel is already a nuclear nation in the midst of all these nations. We hear little or nothing about this strange conference in which the U.S. plays a key role.
In a real sense, the road to Iran will be going through Demascus. Syria, Iran's main regional partner, must be neutralized and made militarily and strategically impotent when the axe falls on Iran. With all the news coverage [without any American news agency in Syria], have you read much about the connection between getting at Iran through Syria, directly or indirectly? Somehow the BBC manages from Syria.
Couple the above with the mounting anti-American movements in Iraq and Afghanistan, where we have experienced tremendous losses of American lives, spent about 2 trillion dollars, and have alienated a former ally Pakistan in the process, and you have some idea of how muddled and costly have been our policies. And that is not only in the past, but is currently escalating. Remember, the U.S. once strongly supported Saddam Hussein's government in its fight with Iran. Oh, how that became a major catastrophe! American policies in the Middle East have been, for the most part, utter failures. Our leaders and decision-makers have no idea of the history and character of Middle Eastern developments. Ignorance reigns in Washington. And when that ignorance is championed by a dull President like Bush, well, what do you expect? But where have the American media been in telling us all this? The American media were blind-following puppets when we illegally invaded Iraq. And when Bush lied over and over to the American people, not even a whisper from the press until much later.
I am certainly not giving any support to the schemes of Iran. There are already too many nuclear weapons in the world. And the government in Tehran, lay and clerical, is atrocious. But, for goodness sake, the U.S. leadership should be forming policy decisions based on knowledge and intellect, not idiocy and giving money to selfish American war corporations concocting money-making adventures.
If the U.S. makes many more mistakes as it did in invading Iraq and mishandling policies in the Middle East, eventually we will cause a major worldwide catastrophe. We keep stumbling along in that region, and the American people are left uninformed until after the results explode in our face. The American media need to get off their butts and inform us and not just entertain us. You have been given a blank when it comes to international affairs, especially in the Middle East. The fuure looks bleak, and you have not been kept abreast of developments.
Taking out Iran's nuclear sites will not be as easy as it was with Syria. There, just one bombing raid by Israel took out Syria's nuclear program. Iran has things buried in mountains and guarded by rather sophisticated armaments. What are we told? Don't worry, sanctions will prevent Iran from actually developing nuclear weaponry, or the U.S. can handle it. How? When? With whom? Projections of satisfactory results? Likely outcomes? Regional impact? Cost in lives and money? Intelligent sensitivity regarding what we will be doing and what will happen? Americans deserve to be better informed. Don't hold your breath.
