The media war fever for military confrontation with Iran has grown so great that even the media noticed. Writing in the New York Times, Scott Shane asked the reasonable question: how is it that we're having a war fever with Iran, when polls show that after 10 years, the American public is weary of war?
A key part of the story is that we've had a one-sided political debate about Iran. Major media are often ambivalent about the degree to which it's really their responsibility to educate the public about basic facts -- like the fact that the U.S. government is quite confident that Iran is not now trying to build a nuclear weapon. Instead, the media's default position often is to reflect what they perceive to be going on in the political debate. And what the media largely perceive is that one side -- the non-Ron Paul Republican presidential candidates, the Lieberman-Graham-McCain axis, and the pro-Likud lobby groups and think tanks -- is pushing aggressively toward military confrontation, and the other side -- the Obama administration -- is saying, well, not so fast, without strongly and consistently challenging some of the core assumptions of the pro-war voices.
Largely missing from the recent political debate, until now, has been a full-throated defense of diplomatic engagement with Iran towards negotiated agreements that would resolve or mitigate international concerns about its disputed nuclear program, thereby pushing back the prospect of military confrontation.
But that could change. Representatives Keith Ellison [D-MN] and Walter Jones [R-NC] are currently circulating a Congressional letter to President Obama urging the president to redouble U.S. efforts towards a diplomatic agreement.
That Walter Jones is willing to speak up is a particularly welcome development. Jones, you will recall, led the Congressional move to rename "French fries" in the House cafeteria to "freedom fries" in protest over French opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
After attending too many military funerals, Walter Jones took three steps which are all too infrequent in American public life.
He changed his mind. He admitted that he had been duped. And he resolved to make amends.
Since walking that path, Walter Jones has been a leader in Congressional efforts to make the "tide of war" recede in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you're happy that the Bush administration finally agreed to a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, if you're happy that President Obama finally decided to comply with that agreement, if you're happy that President Obama is drawing down U.S. forces from Afghanistan, remember Walter Jones, because he helped bring those three things about.
And now Walter Jones is adding his voice to those calling for real diplomatic engagement with Iran, which at least raises the possibility that some other Republican Members of the House might also speak up.
If we could get 40 Members of the House to sign this letter, including 5 to 10 Republicans, that would be a good start. Insider D.C. press, at least, would report it; Ellison and Jones would have their profiles raised as voices for diplomatic engagement; and to some degree and at long last, the debate in the media would have two sides.
You can ask your Representative to sign the Ellison-Jones letter here.
Follow Robert Naiman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/naiman
Qasim Rashid: Israel and Iran Need Diplomacy, Not Destruction
A great breakthrough. Obama to Iran.... like Nixon to China. Be Bold!
the right to police and influence every possible nation. We are spread too thinly
and not doing that well. It's for good reason that we have plenty of enemies in
the middle east, and now is the time to start remaking friends and understanding
that they also can experience freedom of religion. We just jumped in without
checking the water first.
It's part of the bedrock of our economy that needs to be replaced. With juicy defense contracts available in each of the 50 and many a Reagan democrat dependent upon a job that either serves the MIC or a military base close by, it's a hard cancer to rid ourselves of. Just about every pork-barreling Senator has to remain faithful to the MIC as (s)he is assured of having a base and/or a manufacturing plant dedicated to it in her/his constituency.
It's a brave leader who begins to turn these swords into the necessary plowshares dedicated to sustainable energy and the maintenance of our rapidly flaking infrastructure, among other things.
Love the mini-bio....fanned.
"...Kennan reflected on a topic that had become something of an obsession for him by his 80th year: the “extreme militarization not only of our thought but of our lives”—a phenomenon that had had a profoundly distorting effect on the entire economy. Military spending had become a national addiction. “We could not now break ourselves of this habit,” Kennan wrote, “without the most serious of withdrawal symptoms. Millions of people, in addition to those other millions that are in uniform, have become accustomed to deriving their livelihood from the military-industrial complex. Thousands of firms have become dependent on it, not to mention labor unions and communities.”
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/01/Todd-Purdum-on-National-Security
Consider yourself fanned.
The toe bone is connected to the foot bone etc.
All the 1% businesses feed the other 1% business and they ALL feed the MIC as it is right in there with the rest.
Greed is good.
So is WAR.
TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS has won the century and we are all of us headed for the deep long darkness again.
Vote Blocking, Citizens United, Money is Free Speech all of it is one thing, the same thing.
It is all the biggest ABORTION in history.
It is the death of Democracy in America, before real Democracy was even born, still just a Republic, we are killed by Greed.
Our own Fear is the catalyst.
Our own Greed is the bait.
None of us is a Christian, especially not the Christians.
None of us is even a good person if we looked at the truth of our selves.
We Market the 7 deadly sins using those same sins and it works perfectly.
WAR is the answer always as to how to help us "win".
Americans are fearful and faithless and so easily lead by the 1% wherever they want us to go.
We murder our sons and daughters in our mines and on our oil rigs and highways and in workplaces the world over.
Murdered for the profit of the 1% of which none have even had to see a judge, ever.
And Jesus wept.
dependent on the people alone, and we are not
that. But, fanned and faved for the comment.
dependent on the people alone"
You mean, like ancient Rome, or the USSR?
I used to be a fan of Keith Ellison but he's now a complete disappointment in my mind.
For decades now we've tried the diplomatic engagement tactic with nothing to show for it . . . just leave it be and don't waste our time with them, all it is from their end is a delay tactic.
Leave them alone because they aren't interested in serious negotiations.
General Dempsey Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff enraged Netanyahu with that assessment. He released a statement saying that Dempsey or any other US official who questioned his rationale for war were working for Iran's interests.
Senators McCain and Graham, in Israel at the time, did not defend our American general---no, they bashed him publicly instead.
Who the he11 is formulating our US foreign policy anyway? ISRAEL??
US interests come before a foreign nation's interests, and last time I looked Israel was a foreign nation.
These 'war hawks' are being egged on by pro-war lobbies, determined to make as much profit as Halliburton did in Iraq; and by the sorry crop of republican candidates who need a war to compete in an election.
50-100+ nukes.....if they don't let us run around all of
Israel, and look under every bed, should we
threaten to attack them too ?
Don't let the neocon's push us into another
BLUNDER $$$$$.....Protest Now !
Really?
The IAEA has formally asked Israel, more than once, for permission to inspect its facilities.
Israel has refused.
Why is Israel considered special?
In the impossible event that I am mistaken, you will provide a link to the IAEA reports on Israel's nuclear facilities.
Thank you.