Why is the US press silent on Brzezinski’s warnings
of war against Iran?
By Barry Grey in Washington DC
3 February 2007
From the World Socialist Website
with permisssions.
The major national newspapers
and most broadcast outlets failed even to report
Thursday’s stunning testimony by former national
security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
Brzezinski, national security adviser to President
Jimmy Carter, is among the most prominent figures within
the US foreign policy establishment. He delivered a
scathing critique of the war in Iraq and warned that the
policy of the Bush administration was leading inevitably
to a military confrontation with Iran which would have
disastrous consequences for US imperialism.
Most significant and disturbing was Brzezinski’s
suggestion that the Bush administration might
manufacture a pretext to justify a military attack on
Iran. Presenting what he called a “plausible scenario
for a military collision with Iraq,” Brzezinski laid out
the following series of events: “Iraqi failure to meet
the benchmarks, followed by accusations of Iranian
responsibility for the failure, then by some
provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed
on Iran, culminating in, quote/unquote, ‘defensive’
US military action against Iran...” [Emphasis added].
Thus Brzezinski opined that a US military attack on
Iran would be an aggressive action, presented as though
it were a defensive response to alleged Iranian
provocations, and came close to suggesting, without
explicitly stating as much, that the White House was
capable of manufacturing or allowing a terrorist attack
within the US to provide a casus belli for war.
It is self-evident that such testimony at an open
congressional hearing from someone with decades of
experience in the US foreign policy establishment and
the closest ties to the military and intelligence
apparatus is not only newsworthy, but of the most
immense and grave import. Any objective and
conscientious newspaper or news channel would consider
it an obligation to inform the public of such a
development.
Yet neither the New York Times nor the
Washington Post carried so much as a news brief on
Brzezinski’s testimony in their Friday editions. Nor did
USA Today or the Wall Street Journal. All
of these publications, of course, have well-staffed
Washington bureaus and regularly cover congressional
hearings—especially those dealing with such burning
political questions as the war in Iraq.
There is no innocent explanation for their decision
to suppress this story. The Washington Post on
Thursday published a large page-two column and photo on
Henry Kissinger’s appearance the previous day before the
same Senate committee. The former secretary of state
under Richard Nixon gave testimony that was generally
supportive of the Bush administration’s war policy.
Moreover, the Post’s web edition carried an
Associated Press report on Brzezinski’s appearance. That
article introduced subtle but significant changes to
Brzezinski’s speculative scenario of the road to war
with Iran which had the effect of underplaying the
sharpness and urgency of Brzezinski’s critique of the
Bush administration. It omitted the suggestion that a
terrorist attack within the US could become the
justification for war, and it removed the quotation
marks from Brzezinski’s talk of a “defensive” war
against Iran.
The World Socialist Web Site on Friday
telephoned the New York Times, the Washington
Post, the Wall Street Journal and USA
Today to ask for an explanation for their failure to
report Brzezinski’s testimony. None of the newspapers
returned our calls.
As for the television news outlets, the “News Hour
with Jim Lehrer” on PBS showed a clip of Brzezinski
laying out his war scenario before the Senate committee,
without making any comment. “NBC Nightly News” ignored
the story entirely.
The suppression of this damning critique of the Iraq
war, the conspiratorial methods of the Bush
administration, and its drive to an even wider war in
the Middle East is one more demonstration of the corrupt
and reactionary character of the American mass media. It
indicates that the establishment media is preparing once
again, as in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, to
serve as a sounding board for the administration’s war
propaganda and lies.
See Also:
A political bombshell from Zbigniew Brzezinski
Ex-national security adviser warns that Bush is
seeking a pretext to attack Iran
[2 February 2007] |
