Framing the Next Great Story

Trey Smith

For several years, the U.S. and Israel threaten on an almost daily basis to aggressively attack a country, all while engaging in multiple acts of war against them, and then when their leaders suggest they may not acquiesce to such an attack with passivity and gratitude, those vows of defensive retaliation are used to depict them as the threat-issuing aggressors. And the American media, as always, eagerly implants the propaganda. Thus, if such a war breaks out, NBC News‘ [Jim Miklaszewski] announces, “the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet would be the world’s first line of defense,” though those crazed Persian leaders have threatened to use “Iran’s massive stockpile of ballistic missiles” and to “launch those missiles at U.S. targets.”
~ from U.S. Media Takes the Lead on Iran by Glenn Greenwald ~

It's difficult not to anticipate that the next US war will be in Iran. As it always seems to happen, the US government and media (along with Israel) is working hard to frame the next great story. Anything and everything that Iranian leaders do/don't do is being painted as hostile and menacing. This entire narrative is being created to produce the political will of the American people for our next brutal foray.

By and large, it is producing the intended results. Opinion polls show that the majority of Americans are ready to go mano-a-mano with the "evil" Persians. Hey, they are different than we are and they worship the wrong god. So, it doesn't take much to whip up nationalistic fervor.

Greenwald goes on to address the bloodlust in the American psyche.

I used to find somewhat baffling this bizarre aspect of American public opinion: time and again, Americans support whatever new war of aggression their government proposes, then come to regret that support and decide the war was a “mistake,” only to demonstrate that they learned no lessons from their “mistake” by eagerly supporting whatever the next proposed war is. Thus did the widespread belief that Vietnam was a “mistake” have no impact on their support for the attack on Iraq, and now — with some polls showing Americans, before their government even proposes it, preliminarily willing to cheer on an attack on Iran — it is clear they have learned nothing from their acknowledged “mistake” in supporting the attack on Iraq. Most Americans continue with this strange mindset: we realize we were wrong to support those past wars you gave us, but we stand ready and eager to support this next one!

While I do think that Greenwald yet again has is thumb on the pulse of an American-created "situation," I do disagree with his perspective in one respect: I think the Obama administration is orchestrating the storyline from behind the scenes.

As this is campaign reelection season and the Occupy Movement is making Team Obama a tad bit nervous -- they can't be confident that they can count on as much grassroots support as before -- the last thing Obama needs right now is a resurgence of Occupiers infused with anti-war protesters. So, rather than act as the front man for a war in Iran, administration officials are feeding the storyline to the mainstream media and these lapdogs are eager to run with the story.

It certainly is not hard to understand why -- tension sells! War, just like a major earthquake, oil spill or nuclear disaster, generates viewers to news shows and the more viewers you have, the greater your advertising revenue will be. Consequently, the mainstream media will benefit economically from the prospect of war.