Here's a well written article that will cause your blood to boil and confirms some of our most serious concerns about how far some of the neoconservatives have been willing to go to influence our nation to go to war against Iran. Willian O. Beeman reviews Gareth Porter's book, "Manufactured Crises," and answers in the affirmative the question "Did Robert Gates Manufacture the Iran Crisis?" Beeman praises Porter's "meticulously documented" expose of the many "lies and half-truths that have been promulgated over more than two decades to try and convince the American public and the world that Iran is the chief danger to international peace through its nuclear program."
Porter identifies former Secretary of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as a primary instigator of "unsubstantiated claims that Iran is manufacturing nuclear weapons."
Before plunging into the details of Porter's book or his information about Mr. Gates, let me state the book's conclusions unequivocally: Iran has never been proven to have a nuclear weapons program. Any claim to the contrary is absolutely false. The attempt to claim that such a weapons program exists was the result of a decades long effort on the part of American neoconservatives allied with right-wing forces in Israel to legitimize hostile actions against Iran designed to effect regime change there.
Just as I've always suspected. We've heard many small reports suggesting this, but I look forward to a complete documentation.
Porter presents example after example of the U.S. Press, notably the New York Times, distorting the facts about Iran's nuclear activities. Every action and decision was placed under a microscope, and though Iran had only completed one reactor in development since before the Revolution, and was far from completing any facility for additional generation of nuclear power, the hyperbole in the press made it seem that Iran would have a bomb tomorrow. Lobbying groups such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) influenced these writings and lobbied the U.S. Congress for more stringent sanctions on Iran with the aim of completely dismantling Iran's forty-year old nuclear program. They also supported military action against Iran either by the United States or by Israel. Porter's book features the famous picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointing to a picture of a Warner Brothers cartoon bomb and inveighing against Iran. ...
Aside from the intriguing clues to Robert Gates' probable role in constructing a false picture of the Iranian nuclear danger, Porter's book is essential reading for all Americans wary of manufactured paths to war that have become a major theme in U.S. foreign relations after World War II. Porter shows how ideology can distort facts, and be used as a weapon to sway public opinion in directions that are inimical to world interests. As talks with Iran in Vienna over its nuclear program proceed, Porter notes that the Obama administration, only after ridding itself of the extended influence of Robert Gates and his ilk, has finally made attempts to wind down the two decades of baseless attacks on Iran to try and forge a rapprochement. The question remains whether war mongers in Washington, Israel and some nations in Europe will come to their senses and let this happen.
I would add that William Beemis' outstanding book review should be essential reading for all progressive Democrats. The corrosive affect the neoconservatives and the Bush-Cheney administration has had on the integrity, values, and fabric of our nation has been as damaging as any other threat I can think of over the last several decades.
The threat continues. One of the highest priorities of the Democratic Party and other Patriotic Americans, ought to be to resist the neocons', and Prime Minister Netanyahu's long standing effort to compel us to lead military strikes against Iran without due cause. Many in the right wings both here, and in Israel, have announced their dedication to subverting President Obama's wise and noble attempts to negotiate a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issues, even on the very day Senator Menendez recently stood down on his shameful and subversive sanctions bill. Sorry to be so blunt, but to ally with the opposing party to attempt to undermine a sitting Democratic President of the United States in his effort to pursue peace and our national security best interests is unforgivable, in my opinion.
I strongly suspect that one of the reasons I am still here on this planet is so I can help current and future generations become aware of, and fix as much of this damage as is possible, that these American based neoconservatives have done, and are still trying to do. As part of that effort I intend to read this book, and will let you know what I discover.
5:59 PM PT: Yikes, I just corrected a stray paragraph between the two blockquote of William Beeman, which fell outside the blockquotes to appear as if it had been written by me. Sorry. I should probably call it a day. Sheesh. I need to take a break.