The incessant propaganda on Iran is having an effect

well, of COURSE it is... you can't have that shit pounded into your head day after day after day without it having SOME effect... even though i know 99% of what i read about iran is flat-out propaganda, i still catch myself thinking, gee, ARE they working on building nuclear weapons, and, if they do, WILL they use them...? it's almost impossible to swim in the terribly polluted pool that is our media without having some of the garbage stick to you when you climb out...

juan cole points out a trend...

Polling shows that the percentage of Americans who view Iran as the number one threat to the United States has risen to 27 percent now. I think it was only 20 percent in December 2006. First of all, how in the world can a developing country with about a fourth of the population of the US, about a $2000 per capita income (in real terms, not local purchasing power), with no intercontinental ballistic missiles, with no weapons of mass destruction (and no proof positive it is trying to get them), with a small army and a small military budget-- how is such a country a "threat" to the United States of America? Iranian leaders don't like the US, and they talk dirty about the US, and they do attempt to thwart US interests. The same is true of Venezuela under Chavez. But Tehran is a minor player on the world stage, and trying to build it up to replace the Soviet Union is just the worst sort of fear-mongering, and it is being done on behalf of the US military industrial complex, which wants to do to Iran what it did to Iraq. It is propaganda, and significant numbers of Americans (7 percent would be like 23 million people!) are buying it.

professor cole hits the nail on the head... our military industrial complex, its appetite whetted by the torrent of riches pouring in from iraq, simply can't wait for the next big thing... cheney can't either...

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