IRAN

I remember when Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The United States never gave up insisting upon it despite a complete lack of evidence before they invaded. They repeated it so often and so belligerently that mainstream media chimed in and - in a so-called democracy - the population could only look on and protest without influence. Many people allowed themselves to be taken in, though it was an obvious lie even at the time.

We now have Iran and its nuclear weapons of mass destruction. The United States never gives up insisting upon it despite a complete lack of evidence. They are repeating it so often and so belligerently that mainstream media is chiming in and - in a so-called democracy - the population looks on and protests without influence. Many people are allowing themselves to be taken in, for it is an obvious lie.

We are having a replay and any lessons from very recent history just pass us by. And this, after a century of mass education.

This new lie stands alongside a breathtaking hypocrisy. Iran belongs to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and within the Treaty wishes to develop nuclear power. Sorry. Israel refuses to belong to the Treaty and has nuclear weapons which it refuses to have inspected. No problem. Pakistan also refuses to belong to the Treaty and also has nuclear weapons. No worries, we are in the process of dismantling its sovereignty in order to maintain "stability" anyway. The United States has just encouraged India to develop nuclear weapons. So far, so good.

Iran is doomed because it insists upon being an independent sovereign state. It has a democratically elected government based upon a distorted form of democracy. In the United States distortion consists in the population having to be mere spectators between elections. Elections constitute a phoney selection between two dominant candidates who are interchangeable and supported by wealthy elites. New Zealand reflects this. Election time is when we imagine we are participating in democracy. Our wonderful free media encourages us in our futile imaginings.

During the Obama election not a principled word was said about Iraq. But there were a few rumblings about Iran. Look to the future. The weapons industry is booming and these weapons need to be tried out somewhere. A lot of people are employed. When we have devastated as much of the Middle East and Asia as is possible and necessary our greed can continue to feed without hindrance upon oil.

What can possibly go wrong?