Worldview Politics

McCain, Neocons float new Al-Qaeda Lies
21 March 2008

A 'senior moment' for McCain?

Unchastened by the disaster in Iraq, McCain and the neocons are indulging in baseless new lies regarding alleged ties between Al-Qaeda and Iran, as reported by Joe Conason in Salon. When speaking in Amman, Jordan recently, McCain accused Iran of supporting Al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. Considering that Al-Qaeda are Sunni fanatics who hate the Iranian Shia heretics, this was quite a stretch, for which there is no evidence. Even neocon hawk Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was at his side, promptly whispered in McCain's ear, and McCain apologized and retracted the gaffe. Already, this was an alarming indication of McCain's ignorance, from this supposed seasoned expert on foreign policy. But was that the end of it? Heck no! According to Conason, McCain's staff is now retracting the retraction, at least in part!

First, let us pass along Conason's acute observation that the networks declined to repeat this alarming blooper ad nauseum, as they did with the recent Obama preacher flap. This confirms how the press has been sucking up to McCain, by amplifying his fictitious 'straight-shooter' myth while overlooking his glaring warmonger tendencies. No wonder the largely antiwar American public is confused about McCain, so that he now leads Obama and Clinton by 10 points in the polls! And how can one not suspect the mainstream press of being a kind of self-imposed Pravda for our imperial establishment, a role it has been playing for decades, as analyzed by Chomsky, Herman and others? By the way, Conason is right that McCain was not really kidding when he sang 'Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran' to a Beach Boys tune, which was broadcast all over YouTube.

Reminiscent of the Iraq invasion

Anyhow, notice how this blatantly deceptive linking of the Iranian mullahs to Al-Qaeda parallels the 2002 linking of Saddam to Al-Qaeda, which precipitated the bloodbath in Iraq. People like McCain, Lieberman and the neocons are simply brazen liars, who cynically exploit the Al-Qaeda fear button with total disregard for the facts. Lieberman and many right-wing Jews want us to bomb Iran in order to destroy its unverified nuclear program, whose very existence was recently discredited by a bold and influential NIE. Notice how Iran's one hypothetical and chimerical bomb is claimed to pose an existential threat to Israel, which already has 200-300 nuclear weapons. Much of the Democratic party is secretly (or not so secretly) with Lieberman, or at least they are afraid of the well-funded right-wing of the Jewish lobby. As for McCain, and many like-minded Republicans, their primary concern is not Israel but simply American power, which they love in the depths of their hearts, along with our gigantic and bloated military, equal to that of the rest of the world combined. This is called 'militarism'. It is evil and has ruined many an empire.

McCain's ties to the neocons

Conason goes on to detail the close ties between McCain's campaign and the same lying, scheming neocons who hypnotized our current nitwit president into invading Iraq, based on non-existent WMDs and a non-existent link to Al-Qaeda. One example is Randy Scheunemann, who is McCain's national security spokesman, and who was also a spokesman for the Committee to Liberate Iraq, a neocon outfit which was instrumental in pushing for war with Iraq. Note that that connection has been definitely debunked by a recent Pentagon report, but there was never any good evidence, only the most tenuous and laughable straws. Likewise for the vanishing WMD, which failed to turn up before the invasion, when UN inspectors where getting free access to wherever they wished to go and were finding nothing. That was precisely when Bush decided to invade, before he lost his 'window of opportunity'. We can expect McCain to be even more ruthless.

More details on neocon duplicity are available in Conason's article. The mere fact that the Iranian mullahs denounced Al Qaeda after 9/11 and helped us defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan speaks volumes, but the neocons couldn't care less, and McCain and most Republicans are probably too ignorant to know or remember. And it is preposterous to suppose that the Iranians Shiites are helping Al Qaeda in Iraq to blow up the bodies and mosques of fellow Shiites. But reason has nothing to do with it, only raw power and a fanatical adherence to the principle of empire, whether global in the case of the US or local in the case of Israel. We throw thousands of non-violent blacks in prison for a little dope, while our leaders are intoxicated on the drug of power.

Why is McCain ahead in the polls?

I would like to finish by reflecting on the amazing fact that McCain now leads Obama or Clinton by a whopping 10 points, according to a recent Rasmussen poll. As I said already, part of it may simply be that the fawning press has been promoting the McCain 'straight-shooter' myth while underplaying his dangerous militarism. Another reason may be that many American, filled with fear by administration lies, are yearning for a 'strong man' to protect us. It doesn't matter if the last strong man gave us a disaster, because no strong man would mean annihilation by hordes of wild-eyed, exploding Muslims! Add to this the general ignorance and idiocy of the American public, which seems to be carefully cultivated by our worthless mainstream press, on behalf of their establishment masters.

I am almost too weary and disillusioned to repeat that 9/11 and other Muslim terrorism is due to our meddling in the Middle East, which would surely infuriate us if we were on the receiving end. The same goes for our blind and unprincipled support for Israel's slow strangulation of the Palestinians in the West Bank, which has nothing to do with Israel's security and everything to do with appeasing Jewish religious fanatics (not to mention their fanatical Christian supporters in the US). Then, there is the obvious point that Muslims are far too weak to invade us. The every idea is preposterous. As for the terrorist bombs, these are detonated by individuals and not nations. The military sledgehammer is useless against terrorism; indeed, it only exacerbates terrorism. The best way to keep Iran from even dreaming of a nuclear weapon is to talk to it in good faith and guarantee its security. Instead, we threaten it constantly and spurn its very real attempts to negotiate. Add to this our bloody invasion of their neighbor, and who can blame them for wanting a bomb? Of course, warmongering imbeciles like McCain will never consider the adversary's point of view. It would spoil all their fun. I wouldn't be surprised if he's our next president. We probably deserve it. I'll leave it to God to decide whether the world deserves it.

Joe Conason: Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran?