Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

A shockingly awful public relations campaign is underway for yet another war

Kevin Clarke | 05.06.2007 21:50 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Terror War | World

Let me light a lantern in a bell tower for my fellow Americans. You must awake. There are PR armies of the night with shiny media kits and Dick-Cheneyfied “intelligence” reports quietly at work right now, building momentum for a strike on Iran and a vast broadening of this too costly—and let’s just say it—too crazy war on terror.

We get all kinds of mail here at U.S. Catholic: scripture interpretation pasted together from magazine headlines with biblical verses twisted in a manner King James could never have anticipated, bitter screeds from subscription-canceling conservatives, ranting monologues from conditionally renewing liberals, and lengthy appeals from our non-Catholic Christian brethren worried over our eternal damnation.

We can also count on our share of press releases. Most come from agents representing new authors or seeking to sell the latest incarnation of the commodified Jesus. Many seek some editorial inches to promote worthy advocacy or direct-action campaigns.

And then there are those efforts whose audacity or inappropriateness leaves a fella shaking his head in disbelief. A recent series of slick dispatches from the public relations front of the war on terror falls into this mail pile. Typically illustrated by an 8?-by-11 glossy of a mushroom cloud rising from an atomic blast (small irony department: if I’m not mistaken, the photo actually captures a detonation over the Nevada desert during America’s wild and crazy what-me-worry-about-nuclear-fallout days), the scary memos from the Israel Project’s copywriting crew breathlessly depict the various threats represented by a “nuclear Iran,” patiently explaining why that radioactive outcome is “dangerous for everyone.”

These regular mailings from the Israel Project to “opinion agents” such as yours truly are, in effect, a public relations campaign for war. The monthly missives I receive from this one pro-Israel lobby are a small part of a broader effort to “secure the information stream” and prep Americans for the next exotic stop in the war on terror: sunny Iran. Now to the average shmoe, even contemplating another war while the overtaxed U.S. military machine seems bogged down in Iraq and losing ground in Afghanistan might seem laughably disconnected from reality.

But see, average schmoe, you lack the long-term vision and patience of the folks at the Israel Project and their fellow travelers at, say, the New American Century Project or the vice president’s office. This proposed Iranian bloodletting was penciled in years ago by the war-mongering proponents of the Pax Americana. Now it’s time to hard-schedule the main event.

Iraq was supposed to be the demo-sideshow to the real fight to alter the political reality on the ground of the Middle East, an effort that “logically” ends not in Jerusalem or Baghdad but in Tehran. The fact that the build-up stages to this “inevitable” confrontation—taking out Saddam Hussein, removing the Taliban from power, and neutralizing Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza—have not exactly gone according to script has not deterred these determined folks. Now like bourbon-addled, nicotine-fingered Vegas high-rollers on a bad run, these guys are asking America to double-down on the great Islamic Enlightenment project. After all, we’ve invested too much in sacrificed souls and taxpayer treasure to bail out now from this increasingly barbaric clash of civilizations. Right?

Let me light a lantern in a bell tower for my fellow Americans. You must awake. There are PR armies of the night with shiny media kits and Dick-Cheneyfied “intelligence” reports quietly at work right now, building momentum for a strike on Iran and a vast broadening of this too costly—and let’s just say it—too crazy war on terror.

A U.S. attack on Iran may include “mini-nuke” weapons and could begin a cascade of unplanned and increasingly unpleasant outcomes, including an actual nuclear war. That is a lot to risk for a campaign aimed at setting back by a handful of years Iran’s nuclear program, which its leaders likely see as a counterbalance to Israel’s nuclear threat and American bellicosity.

Americans have to step up today to demand that Congress not repeat the cowardly abdication of constitutional responsibility we witnessed before the Iraq debacle began. They must make clear to the warmongers in Washington that an Iran adventure—morally dubious, strategically short-sighted, and almost certainly geopolitically disastrous—cannot be sold to the American people, even if you’ve got the best PR money can buy on your side.

Kevin Clarke is senior editor at U.S. Catholic and online content manager at Claretian Publications. This article appeared in the June 2007 (Volume 72, Number 6; page 38) issue of U.S. Catholic.

Kevin Clarke
- Homepage: http://uscatholic.claretians.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12368&news_iv_ctrl=0&abbr=usc_&JServSessionIdr009=ww7tvbbi41.app5a&printer_friendly=1

Comments

Hide the following comment

The US Military desperately doesn't want another war...

06.06.2007 09:25

The US Military is barely holding it together just now; they don't want to start anything with Iran. Its going to take them decades to get back to strength. Practically they can't do it which would only leave air strikes: which just don't work. Ask Israel about that.

Bush and his need to prove something to pop has enough of a headache with Iraq to want to start Iraq part 3; this time its Iran and an even bigger disaster.

Non of the Bush replacements wants to follow up a disaster like Iraq with an identical disaster; they won't go along with attacking Iraq.

All this guff is just paranoia; all that will happen with Iran is blustering and maybe more sanctions.

Soldier Sam


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech