Balanced News Blog

Many people are sheep in the crowd, believing whatever story the news media chooses to put in front of them. Saddam, Dolly the sheep (those two not together for any particular reason by the way…), Pakistan’s uncontrollable provinces, knife crime nearing anarchic levels in the UK (even though knife crime has actually fallen…), the media will spin one side of the story all the time.

Iran… it seems to me that we demonize them just because we can. There’s nothing illegal about them pursuing nuclear weapons. There’s nothing wrong with them pursuing nuclear power (even though they do sit on one of the world’s largest deposits of gas and oil) – except that the way they do it could branch into nuclear enrichment leading to nuclear weapons.

Tonight the news was all hopped up about how dastardly they were to develop such horrific weapons like those they tested today. But erm, aren’t they like the weapons we all have? The USA, Russia, UK, France, Germany, China, India, Pakistan, etc.,

What the media is really trying to get at is that “they”, the Iranians (or muslims if you read between the lines), should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons (like us) or long range missiles (like us: tomahawk and so on). Isn’t that a bit unfair? Here’s an example of the two-faced nature I’m talking about. This is from a White House spokesman who called Wednesday’s tests “completely inconsistent with Iran’s obligations to the world.”

“The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity,” said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council.

“They should also refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world,” he added, speaking from Japan, where President Bush is attending the Group of Eight summit.

Interesting. So it’s ok for say, the USA to test weapons, to send troops into two nations, to position provocative weapons systems in eastern Europe, to position how many carriers right off Iran’s coast, and to possess how many thousands of nuclear weapons – but not for them to test weapons in their own country.

I’m like the majority of people, I don’t want war. I don’t want cities razed in an instant. But what idiot in Tehran is going to do that unless provoked? And by provocation incidentally, I mean something like Israel bombing their nuclear facilities, I’d call that a definate act of provocation, should it ever happen…

Step back from all the news coverage you see for a minute and look at it from their side of the fence. Our forces warring in Afghanistan and Iraq (two of Iran’s neighbours). Our forces in the Gulf, large navies on their doorstep, large armies in their neighbouring countries, wouldn’t you feel just a little bit paranoid? Don’t you think they have a right to defend themselves, like we say we have?

Isn’t this all just a bit of Islamaphobia in action, subtle though it may be?

Don’t misunderstand my point of view though. I find that their religious rhetoric, their need to push a strict version of Islam onto all of us, or exterminate us in the process, abhorrent. It’s not something that is needed, or wanted, in today’s world. It -is- worrying that an entire government and nation is in place that does just that, but to push for war to remove it is a bit extreme.

I just don’t believe however, that ostracising muslims and trying to keep them and their nations in a pseudo-third/second-world state is actually going to achieve anything lasting. Why would they trust us if all they see is our armies marching across their lands, killing innocent civilians (and who would doubt innocent civilians have died), and telling them what to do?