Downer was Australia's foreign minister in John Howard's Liberal government when that country decided to join the United States invasion of Iraq. In "staying the course" on that disastrous decision, Downer was clearly among those deceived by the US Bush Administration's bogus case for war. To my mind, that would make him an excellent person to NOT listen to where the lives of innocent people are at stake. He was a key part of a government that signed Australia up to kill and be killed based on lies Iraq had weapons it did not have.
Fast forward to July 2008.
Since at least 2003, conservative governments in both Israel and the United States have been claiming Iran is making a nuclear bomb. They have never provided proof to support these claims.
Despite that, many media outlets and journalists treat these unproven claims as fact, just as they did prior to the invasion of Iraq. Some people never learn. Fran O'Sullivan would appear to be one of them.
Iran has responded to these threats to attack it by saying it was not making a bomb and that anyone who attacked it would be very sorry. In 2005, it was claimed in the world's media that Iran had said it would wipe Israel off the map. This claim was false, but the true story was never verified and the error never corrected.
This erroneous claim has since then been a prominent propaganda tool used by conservatives everywhere to build popular support for Israel and any measures taken against Iran, including attacking it with nuclear weapons.
Fran O'Sullivan, arguably the NZ Herald's most doctrinaire neo-conservative columnist in political matters and neo-liberal columnist in economic matters, starts her column by saying:
"Australia's longest serving foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has ignited a behind-scenes debate here over just what position Western democracies should take to Israel's right to defend itself against Iranian threats."This is an interesting way to frame what is happening right now between Israel and Iran. By any objective measure, Israel's government and military establishment have been making the threats while Iran's official response has been firm but measured.
O'Sullivan then proceeds to repeat the same propaganda referred to above:
"While the Western world debates what steps should be taken to deter Iran from carrying out threats to wipe Israel from the earth, New Zealand's foreign affairs triumvirate - Helen Clark, Phil Goff and Winston Peters - remain relatively silent."Fran O'Sullivan has clearly bought into the Bush / Olmert narrative without apparently attempting to verify any of it. Is she just lazy or sloppy? You'd think a senior journalist like O'Sullivan would be skeptical of claims made by proven liars like George W. Bush and Israeli PM, Ehud Olmert, but apparently not.
Given she has not verified the claims she has signed up for, her advice to take note of anything Alexander Downer says should be ignored. He went to war without verifying Bush's claims in 2003. They have a lethal (for others) credulity in common.
In this case, their misconception is based on a very one-sided view of the situation in the Middle East that holds the Israeli government can do no wrong and never has. The consequences of past actions of the Israeli government are thus translated into aggression unconnected to the cause. Evil.
It's a view that gives the Israeli government a free pass to continue its slow-motion ethnic cleansing in Palestine and use any level of violence against people who dare resist the never ending encroachment of Israeli settlements into Palestinian lands.
Meanwhile, Israel's government continues to threaten Iran with nuclear attack while people like Fran O'Sullivan and Alexander Downer pretend that Iran is the aggressor for claiming the right to defend itself if attacked as both the US and Israel have threatened to do.
Is Fran O'Sullivan merely misguided? Or is she a propagandist with a job to do?
Next term Labour needs to introduce a Ministry of Truth to protect democracy in NZ.
ReplyDeleteThe likes of Downer must not be allowed to spin the US world view on the unsuspecting, nor should the rabid right journalists have free rein in our press.
anon: Ideology should be reality dependent....not the other way around. Conservatives like O'Sullivan (and yourself, presumably) too often ignore reality to construct their own self-serving narratives. The consequence of this deception for some people is injury and death.
ReplyDeleteTruth important. You should try it sometime. Try engaging on the facts instead of vaccuous comments that avoid the issues.