Pre-emptive journalism

In a recent article in the New Statesman John Pilger outlines how he believes the US is setting up a war against Iran.

The US is stuck in a catch 22. They are under tremendous pressure from the oil lobby to wage a war and secure more reserves but if they go through with an attack on Iran the public is not prepared to back it. With election campaigns gathering steam parties need all of the votes they can get.

U.S. citizens are becoming increasingly critical of how money is being spent, especially with 12 billion dollars cash sent to Iraq completely untracked and lost, which garnered a lot of media attention this past week.

A war, in my opinion, is not imminent. The government coffers are overstretched, there is pressure from many fronts to pull out completely of Iraq and I do not believe the US government can fabricate a strong enough story to rally gullible citizens into believing Iran is a large enough threat to warrant an attack. Especially since the the myth of weapons of mass destruction has been thoroughly exposed.

However, John Pilger did not write this article in vain. He has written it because he is playing a role in convincing the public an attack in Iran is wrong. By comparing the United States set up of the war on Iran with the way they set up the war on Iraq Pilger manages to convince the reader that attacking Iran is the wrong choice.

I admire Pilger for his journalistic activism, and hope the evidence he has gathered does not pan out into the crime of war.