You do know you’re being lied to, right?
Just like the butchered Belgian babies of the First World War, babies being ripped from incubators in the first Gulf War and the weapons of mass destruction in the Iraq war, we are being fed a bill of goods about Iran.
The implications, in terms of lives and treasure, should the sabre rattling turn to open war, will be much more difficult to count.
I don’t think there’s much question that we were lied to about the need to invade Iraq. The weapons of mass destruction were never there and, more importantly, the warmongers who initiated that tragedy never for a moment believed there were. They lied to us from day one and thousands died.
That’s the past though. What about now? Let’s take a look at the Afghan war. A report released this week by U.S. Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis detailed how the picture being fed to the public about Afghanistan getting ready to take control of its own destiny, is patently false.
Davis wrote, “I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level. In all of the places I visited, the tactical situation was bad to abysmal.”
In particular, Davis highlighted the credibility gap caused by the gulf between the official version of the war and the situation on the ground.
“If Americans were to compare the public statements many of our leaders have made with classified data, this credibility gulf would be immediately observable.”
Why then, is everybody leaving? Is it because the whole war was a failure or is it because the troops are needed elsewhere?
Similarly, the chest beating about human rights in Syria rings pretty hollow, in light of the U.S. government kidnapping a Canadian citizen, Meher Arar, and flying him to Syria because — and only because — that regime uses torture. You can bet we are being lied to about what’s really going on in Syria, too.
So what’s really behind this lust to attack Iran? Is it really about weapons of mass destruction? It’s interesting to note that the Iranian oil bourse has recently begun selling its oil for a basket of currencies rather than the U.S. greenback — something Saddam Hussein also did shortly before he was attacked.
If Canada joins in the fight in Iran, our men and women will be sent into harm’s way and, just like every war before, it will be demanded of us that we support our troops — which is code for supporting the war to which our government has sent them.
Our leaders will have to lie to us, because an aggressive war of this nature is clearly spelled out as a war crime under the Geneva Convention, so a plausible casus beli will be concocted and this latest crime against humanity will be sold to us — once again — as a just and necessary war.
news@pqbnews.com
Neil Horner is the associate editor for the Parksville Qualicum Beach News and a regular columnist