The imperial spin machine operates by reversing victim and victimizer, aggressor and defender — claiming to act in self-defense while existing in a continuous state of attack, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
The funeral for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at Tehran University on Aug. 1, with Ali Khamenei leading prayer. (Khamenei.ir, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
In an article titled “U.S. Warns Iran of ‘Serious Risk’ if It Conducts Major Attack on Israel,” The Wall Street Journal reports that officials within the Biden administration have been warning Iran not to “escalate” against Israel in its planned retaliatory strikes for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran.
“The United States has sent clear messaging to Iran that the risk of a major escalation if they do a significant retaliatory attack against Israel is extremely high,” an anonymous U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal, adding that “there is a serious risk of consequences for Iran’s economy and the stability of its newly elected government if it goes down that path.”
As we sit awaiting Iran’s planned reprisal attack and hope dearly that it doesn’t lead to a major new war in west Asia, one can’t help but read such reports and think it sure would’ve been nice of the Americans to issue these kinds of warnings to Israel against escalating before it went on its insanely escalatory assassination spree in the capital cities of Iran and Lebanon.
Report: US Warns Iran of ‘Serious Risk’ If It Launches Major Attack on Israel
US officials don't know when the expected Iranian reprisal attack is coming
by Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #Iran #Israel #Gaza #Haniyeh https://t.co/YqCcPkCOaC pic.twitter.com/ZmwEbyWFOa— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) August 8, 2024
You’ll never see Western officials so enthusiastic about the idea of de-escalation as they are in those time periods when their side has just severely escalated tensions with an extreme act of aggression, but the other side has yet to retaliate.
They remind you of a parent who lets their kid run around clobbering other children at the playground, then when another child goes to hit them back they rush in and start yelling about the need to play nice.
They’ve been doing this song and dance for the last few days, ever since it became clear that Iran was going to retaliate for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was a guest on their territory.
“Earlier, Vice President Harris and I were briefed in the Situation Room on developments in the Middle East,” President Joe Biden’s Twitter account posted on Monday.
“We received updates on threats posed by Iran and its proxies, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, and preparations to support Israel should it be attacked again. We also discussed the steps we are taking to defend our forces and respond to any attack against our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing.”
“Further attacks only raise the risk of dangerous outcomes that no one can predict and no one can fully control,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken proclaimed on Tuesday.
“Further escalation in the Middle East is in no one’s interests,” tweeted U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy. “I spoke to Iran’s acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, and cautioned that any Iranian attack would have devastating consequences for the region. Iran and all parties must urgently and immediately de-escalate.”
Further escalation in the Middle East is in no one’s interests. I spoke to Iran's acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, and cautioned that any Iranian attack would have devastating consequences for the region. Iran and all parties must urgently and immediately de-escalate. pic.twitter.com/Bds2Oru5jT
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) August 6, 2024
Israel’s powerful Western backers are happy to let it run rampant throughout the region without making any meaningful warnings against its criminal actions or imposing any consequences on it whatsoever.
But as soon as it becomes clear that Israel has crossed a red line and is about to get hit, these Western empire managers turn into a bunch of hippies who just want peace and love.
When Iran does whatever it’s about to do, we may be certain that the Western empire and its propagandists in the mass media are going to frame it as an unprovoked and outrageous act of aggression and start babbling about “defending” Israel against its “attackers.”
Imperial history always begins right after Israel’s aggressions, and starts the clock as the retaliations for them emerge.
That’s how the imperial spin machine operates: reversing victim and victimizer, aggressor and defender, claiming to always be acting in self-defense while existing in a continuous state of attack.
When the inevitable blowback from these aggressions turns up, they stare with Bambi-eyed innocence and call it an unprovoked attack launched by deranged madmen with hatred in their hearts, and use it to justify even more mass military slaughter in the parts of the world where they already wanted to inflict it.
Are you not tired of having your intelligence insulted like this? I know I am.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Its useful to have a group of people who are shameless and always the victims to let them scapegoat themselves doing what they claim everyone Else wants to do to them.
“Israel is a bulwark for us – It’s almost like having an aircraft carrier in the Middle East”. RFK Jr.
“… and the stability of its newly elected government…”
Juan Guaido has not yet been designated by Blinken and Freeland as the true heir to the Presidency of Iran?
The US is now complicit in genocide of the Palestinians. The reasons are because of relentless and multipronged attacks on how we function as a society. Our democracy is being severely damaged.
The IHRA Jewish Leaders Insult our Intelligence
(Not just human intelligence, but AI as well)
One of the problems, I think, is that we have way too many people in the media and Congress whose first loyalty is to Israel. Whether they are Zionists or just bought really doesn’t matter.
thank you, caitlin johnstone, for yet
another commonsensical contribution!
the utterly shameful thing is
that they don’t feel any shame
when they put the blame for
their own mistakes on others.
it has worked so many times,
that out of [bad] habit they think
“taking responsibilty!” is never
for them but always for others.
and as long as it is mainly the blood of “others”
that flows profusely they won’t come to what’s
left of their senses and won’t change course …
On the last day of the world/I would want to plant a tree. – W. S. Merwin
David “leave now” Lammy? Where do they find these people? He’s a clone of James (not) Cleverley. Foreign secretaries? They haven’t a clue.
I think that’s intentional, otherwise they might get something right by mistake!
Of course, like many politicians, lammy and cleverly, have received funding from Israel. As well as being stupid they are also corrupt.
In Poland between the wars, a poet with a satirical bend wrote a piece how a compulsive pun-maker would manipulate events (if he could), and not-so-clever Cleverley and lame Lammy suggests that pun-makers rule UK from behind the scene.
I don’t know about puns, but this lot are certainly a joke. Just like their counterparts in the US. Stupid and corrrupt, like Steve said.
So the US freely escalates war while cautioning other countries who suffered deaths and destruction at our hands
to deescalate. Did I miss something?
Should be US-Israel, since they operate in tandem.
This arrogance and stupidity has no bounds! When and if a major conflict breaks out, I have no doubt that the Russians will be blamed and the Jews will complain about The Holocaust and how six million Jews are worth more than the over fifty millions who died in WWII. A Jewish writer wrote a book in the fifties entitle, ‘What Price, Israel.” We know the price now: incalculable.
Horatio, please don’t conflate “the Jews” (“… the Jews will complain…”) with the Zionists. Thank you.
Paula, do you think the people in Israel are Episcopalians? I would like a survey to be done of the Jews who live in this country. I suspect that more than 50% would be for what is happening in the Middle East, Media Benjamin notwithstanding. If most agree that most Jews are adverse to the slaughter in Gaza, I would gladly agree with you.
David Lammy, the man who said that women were dinosaurs hoarding their rights because they wanted to continue to have sex-segregated spaces. A tool and not a very bright tool.
Lammy is another of the inexp0licable phenomenon of POC embracing and perpetuating the racism and imperial oppression of those that oppressed them…like Greenfield the pathetic US UN Rep and Uncle Tom Austin the Sec Def.
“House Ns” as Malcolm X explained
I’ve had a pin since the ’60s that reads:
Lemmings are silly;
Dinosaurs are extinct.
So…who best fits the metaphor of “dinosaurs”? Wouldn’t it be the ones convinced heavy armaments are the solution for all economic and political problems?
As for lemmings, how about people in thrall to the belief that the U.S. isn’t ruled by an oligarchy and isn’t about empire? However, real lemmings don’t jump off cliffs; they’re smart enough not to follow idiots.