New York Times Promotes War on Syria and Iran

Posted by clnews News Flash Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

(By Stephen Lendman | The Intel Hub)

As America’s leading broadsheet, what it reports matters, especially on war and peace.

Instead of accuracy, full disclosure, and supporting right over wrong, The Times consistently cheerleads US wars and prospective ones.

Enemies are vilified. Rule of law principles don’t matter, nor do decades of crimes of war and against humanity, as well as millions of lost lives in the last decade alone.

In June 1950, The Times called Truman’s war on North Korea the right decision, even though Pyongyang responded defensively to repeated South Korean cross-border incursions.

IF Stone’s “Hidden History of the Korean War” explained what scoundrel journalism suppressed, including NYT feature stories.

Stone called it international aggression. So did Monthly Review co-founders Leo Huberman and Paul Sweezy, saying:

“….we have come to the conclusion that (South Korean president) Syngman Rhee deliberately provoked the North Koreans in the hope that they would retaliate by crossing the parallel in force. The northerners fell neatly into the trap.”

Truman instigated what happened and took full advantage.

Stone explained, saying:

“we said we were going to Korea to go back to the status quo before the war but when the American armies reached the 38th parallel they didn’t stop, they kept going, so there must be something else. We must have another agenda here and what might that agenda be?”

He learned it reflected America’s imperial ambitions. Vietnam followed. He opposed both wars. So did others. The Times supported them and others, including:

Reagan in Central America and elsewhere;
GHW Bush in Panama, Haiti and Iraq;
-Clinton on Rwanda, Iraq sanctions, the Balkan wars, and especially for attacking Serbia/Kosovo lawlessly in 1999;
GW Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan;
Obama’s multiple wars and proxy ones; as well as
every president since Johnson on Israel/Palestine.

When America goes to war or intends one, scoundrel NYT journalism’s front and center supportively. It’s their longstanding tradition. Nothing changed to this day. Syria and Iran are now targeted. Neither threatens America, Israel, or other regional countries.

International law is clear. No nation may interfere in the internal affairs of others. Nor is force permitted against nonbelligerent states. Justifiable self-defense alone is allowed.

Israel’s had no enemies since 1973. America’s had none since WW II. Yet it’s waged aggressive wars for decades with full major media support, including The Times.

In late January, The New York Times Magazine published a scandalous piece of warmongering journalism. Written by Yedioth Ahronoth contributor Ronen Bergman, it supportively argued for war on Iran.

Have all measures to contain Iran’s “nuclear threat been exhausted, bringing Israel to the point of last resort,” he asked? He concluded saying, “I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012.”

He ignored facts to incite fear. Israel benefits by “keeping the pot near the boiling point” to portray aggressive war as justified. His commentary was sensationalist, inflammatory, flawed, and sinister to enlist public support for likely catastrophic war if it’s launched.

The Times featured him supportively. It quoted Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs, stressing Israel’s resolve, saying:

“Our policy is that in one way or another, Iran’s nuclear program must be stopped. It is a matter of months before the Iranians will be able to attain military nuclear capability. Israel should not have to lead the struggle against Iran.”

“It is up to the international community to confront the regime, but nevertheless Israel has to be ready to defend itself. And we are prepared to defend ourselves in any way and anywhere that we see fit.”

Other Israeli and US policymakers concur. By promoting them, Bergman’s complicit. So is The New York Times for providing feature space instead of taking a principled anti-war stand.

Read the entire article….

CLN NOTE – a pertinent quote from the past:

“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years.  It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries.” — David Rockefeller, Speaking at the June, 1991 Bilderberger meeting in Baden, Germany