Iran Stirring Violence on the Pages of the NYT

NYTimes eXaminer

by Ben Schreiner

As the speculation continues to mount over whether or not Israel will come to strike Iran, the purveyors of U.S. propaganda hurriedly work to churn out story upon story assessing the potential fallout.  Just imagine the sheer terror, the stenographers of the powerful repeat ad nauseum, that those crazed mullahs of Iran will unleash. 

Needless to say, omitted from these so-called assessments is the assured horror to be unleashed on the Iranian people by Israeli bombs.  Hardly surprising though, for such carnage is routinely deemed to be mere “collateral damage.”

So it is then, that we see a story appearing in today’s New York Times (“Iran’s Efforts to Stir Afghan Violence Worry U.S.”) proclaiming to assess—yet again—the Iranian response to an Israeli attack.  In particular, today's story warns of Iran's ability to “stir violence” against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.  As the piece states:

[W]ith NATO governments preparing for the possibility of retaliation by Iran in the event of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, the issue of Iran’s willingness and ability to foment violence in Afghanistan and elsewhere has taken on added urgency.

So in the event of an illegal Israeli strike, we learn, Iran may just muck-up the U.S. adventure in Afghanistan.  Indeed, quite the cause for concern. 

The Times continues:

Iran has denied any government-backed effort to foment unrest in Afghanistan, but American officials see a pattern of malign meddling to increase Iran’s influence across the Middle East and South Asia. Iran appears to have increased its political outreach and arms shipments to rebels and other political figures in Yemen, and it is arming and advising the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Where exactly does Iran get the nerve?  What tyrannical regime would dare meddle into the affairs of others in order to gain influence?    

The truth, of course, is that it is the U.S. that has long been the principle meddler (to put it quite kindly) in the national affairs of the countries of the Middle East—if not the world over.  And it is U.S. “mischief” that has long sowed unfathomable violence and terror on the people of the Middle East.  

This fact is of rather elementary knowledge for the people of Iran.  For they no doubt remember the “meddling” of the U.S. that orchestrated the 1953 coup d'etat, which brought to power the brutal and ruthless Shah.  Just as they will no doubt remember the U.S. “mischief” that saw the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988, killing all 290 aboard.  And we can go on.

But all of this is unfit to print for the Times.  The paper’s imperial blinders simply don’t permit such historical analysis. 
   
Read at NYTX.