AMY GOODMAN: Your response to Mitt Romney, Paul Krugman?
PAUL KRUGMAN: Boy, you know, don’t even know where to start. I mean, Romney’s technique is that—since basically every word he says is a lie, including ‘a,’ ‘and’ and ‘the,’ you never know where to start.
DemocracyNow! May 17, 2012.
I think the question isn’t why he makes so many false statements but why he goes unchallenged. I mean this isn’t quantum field theory. These are issues anyone who cares about the facts could easily uncover. When we read statements like “we should employ any and all measures to dissuade the Iranian regime from its nuclear course, and it is our fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures will do so. In the final analysis, of course, no option should be excluded. We recognize Israel’s right to defend itself, and that it is right for America to stand with you” it is useful to look at the assumptions behind them.
Leaving aside the irony the U.S. is telling another country they can’t have nuclear weapons, the constant barrage of statements like these carry the implicit assumption Iran is a threat and since it came from Washington it is true by definition. But even the most rudimentary analysis shows the hollowness of such claims. If we are serious about these questions, questions that have potentially disastrous consequences for human civilization; if we recognize left unchecked words have the potential to cause tremendous suffering we need to look honestly.
In 2010 the Defense Intelligence Agency issued a statement on Iran’s military power before the U.S. Senate. (The full report can be downloaded here). Given “the strategic objectives of Iran’s leadership are first and foremost, regime survival” it would be pure insanity for them to even consider launching a nuclear attack. The other option could be a conventional attack on Israel but “Iran has historically placed the majority of its conventional force strength–to include armor, mechanized infantry, and infantry units–close to its borders with Iraq and Turkey. This reflects its defensive military doctrine, which is designed to slow an invasion and force a diplomatic solution to hostilities.”
A plausible case can be made that most people don’t spend their free time reading senate committee transcripts. But if we are to call ourselves a democracy the minimum criteria is a functioning media that will inform the public on issues of such existential importance.
When we begin to see the truth we may start to ask the right wrong questions. If Iran is not a threat why is the opposite constantly repeated? Why are our leaders deliberately working to escalate the possibility of violence? Perhaps Israel feels the need to flex its muscles? Maybe the U.S. doesn’t want another regional power in the Middle East? The answers to these questions are not easy but exposing the standard narrative as nonsense is; and this is where the road to truth begins.
