OTTAWA—Another one? I must’ve imagined 2003 because there’s no way this is happening again. 

In the latest instalment of failing to mind their own business, on June 21, the United States military launched air strikes targeting Iran in a mission named Operation Midnight Hammer. Ostensibly, the strikes were to end Iran’s nuclear program; but it was most likely to provide support for Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign of Iran that had begun a week prior. U.S. President Donald Trump, in an address to the nation, proclaimed the air assault on Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz nuclear sites a success. In retaliation, Iran fired missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, America’s largest military installation in the Middle East. No casualties were reported. America is involved in yet another conflict in the Middle East due to a commander-in-chief who proclaimed himself the “anti-war president.” Surprise, he lied. 

In response to the unfolding events, Prime Minister Mark Carney tweeted that Iran’s nuclear program is a threat to international security, and called on all parties involved to return to the negotiating table. In a recent press conference, Carney was asked whether he supported the strikes, to which he answered, “the prospect … of Iran having a nuclear weapon is fundamentally destabilizing to peace in the Middle East.” Carney and United Kingdom Prime Minister Kier Starmer fell in line behind Washington to support the thesis that Iran has a nuclear weapon. The uncanny resemblance of both tweets from each western leader demonstrates that they’re not calling the shots on their own country’s Middle East policies. 

Iran has been capable of making a nuclear weapon in six months to a year for the last 30 years.

Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, recently depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s various official speeches accusing Iran of developing a nuclear weapon. The trip down memory lane went back as far as 1995, and included the embarrassment that was the Acme rendering of a bomb in a speech to the United Nations in 2018. The man could not have been bothered to come with a full PowerPoint presentation. The pretence given to invade another sovereign nation, as in the lead up to the Iraq war in the early 2000s, was that Iran was building a nuclear weapon that would threaten Israeli security. Nevermind that this is the same American president who tore up former president Barack Obama’s Iran deal, named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA permitted the nation “to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful,” as explained by the U.S. State Department. China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., the U.S., the European Union, and Iran endorsed the plan. In 2018, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA. 

In other words, like the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) pretence used to invade Iraq—of which none were found—this is an unprovoked act of aggression without justification, or imminent danger. Does Iran not have a right to defend itself? 

Those of us who were around for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan will recognize the evolution of manufactured consent. First is the relentless effort by government officials all over the western world and mainstream western media to turn the lie into the truth. This happened in the case of Iraq. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing about WMDs. When UN investigator, Hans Blix, concluded that Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, the preface for invading the country pivoted to Saddam Hussein and his treatment of Iraqis. And if that didn’t work, former president George W. Bush’s administration perpetrated another lie that Hussein was connected to al-Qaeda, which was a terrorist organization connected to the 9/11 attacks. It was yet another lie. 

Similarly, Carney, Starmer, and mainstream media are trying to convince the public of the justification of the recent aggressive act. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN, released a strong, unequivocal statement on Twitter that negated the necessity of the conflict: “I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today. This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge—and a direct threat to international peace and security.” He went on to say that there is no military solution. U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed the mendacity of the aforementioned pretext on Bluesky: “I was briefed on the intelligence last week. Iran posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States. Iran was not close to building a deliverable nuclear weapon. The negotiations Israel scuttled with their strikes held the potential for success.” In addition, Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns denied there was evidence of Iran building a nuclear weapon. The New York Times reported: “The Israelis, in their assessment, are also looking at satellite imagery from a few days before the U.S. strikes. They believe the images show the Iranians moving uranium and equipment from the Fordo facility.”

All of this political theatre, and they didn’t even destroy the uranium they pretended to seek. What a waste of time, money, and military resources. Wonder when they’ll be threatening regime change, which is unfortunate, since America has never met a country it’s never wanted to bomb.

Erica Ifill is a co-host of the Bad+Bitchy podcast.

The Hill Times

 

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