"News that's not known, or not known enough."
Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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A convoluted Asia Times article & gatekeeping
Well, the twist is actually the “in tatters” conclusion which those against the US’s aggressive foreign policy would welcome. Generally, gatekeeping articles are not so convoluted. They put forward their propaganda version of events while hiding from us the true facts. So, this article offers an example of a different sort of gatekeeping As for why I figure Bush’s policy is in tatters, it’s because it is based on aggression, lies, ignoring international laws and conventions, torture, shoveling money to Bush’s cronies, disregarding the sovereignty of other countries, disregarding the US Constitution, murdering probably a million innocent people, and sending off US soldiers to die or become maimed for the sake of Israel’s interests. In the article, Bush’s policy is in tatters firstly because oil production, which other articles say is enough or more than enough, is not being increased by Iran, OPEC, and Saudi Arabia. As with all gatekeeping articles, the real reasons/info., here the devaluing dollar and speculation that are the reasons for the price increases, are left out. Check out this Ralph Nader article about the price of oil and his discussion of what a sane government would do. Then, there is the Iran is gaining wealth and “influence” reason, as though a good foreign policy is about wrecking other countries. Of course, there have been various sanctions on Iran for a long time, and they HAVE caused hardships. Next comes, Iran’s “elaborate nuclear apparatus,” which translated means their power station. Of course, the US failure here is that the it hasn’t done enough “shaping of a nuclear Iran.” Not mentioned is that the IAEA has been carrying out inspections and not found Iran diverting any nuclear material. The author does seem to realize that Iran has a right to have its nuclear program for peaceful purposes. NOTE: This detailed article explains how the May 2008 IAEA report is being misrepresented/spun Then, it is on to Bush’s inability to gain support for his “containment policy” toward Iran from Iran’s neighbors as though this is a worthwhile sort of policy. It seems that they are busy trading with Iran. Next, the author is regretting that the US may have gotten “cold feet” related to an attack on Lebanon by Israel, using the street fighting as a pretext It is sad, but it looks like we are now faced with this more difficult sort of gatekeeping. It’s also sad that the US and Israel can’t take up the sort of foreign policy advocated by Turkey By the way here’s another article with a similar title but handled differently, “As Bush policy crumbles, allies pick up the pieces.” It discusses the “engagement” that is “bursting out” all over the Middle East, given the crumbling Bush policy, and presents some of the negotiations that have taken/are taking place.
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