Those Washington DC-based "Think Tanks". They sure can say the darndest things. It would be bad enough if you saw this kind of organized hate being produced by the fringes of society, then anonymously wheat-pasted on walls in the middle of the night or some obscure website... but these people are not fringe. They are well-respected by the Washington establishment, supported by some Democrats and Republicans. They collect millions of dollars in contributions every year. they produce journals. Yet some of them call for mass killing on a scale that inhabits our worst nightmares.
For example, what to do when the media is questioning the war effort in some future conflict?
Here's a suggestion:
...It seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media.
This gem of insight and future planning is written by Ralph Peters, from the Journal of International Security Affairs, the publication of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA).
Peters reasoning for such an immodest proposal is that he believes the media acts as "Killers Without Guns".
Today, the United States and its allies will never face a lone enemy on the battlefield. There will always be a hostile third party in the fight, but one which we not only refrain from attacking but are hesitant to annoy: the media.
For most of us who read and watch the mainstream media, we must ask ourselves what universe Mr. Peters is speaking from. After all, it was the New York Times et. al. that gave us the steady drumbeat of "How to Respond to the threat of Saddam" and hardly ever questioned if there were a threat whatsoever. Didn't Judith Miller, New York Times "journalist" perform an essential service for the War effort as a propaganda tool? Isn't the mainstream media doing the same thing again, by prepping the US public for a war with Iran? By its silence about the US support for a massive illicit, covert, nuclear arsenal already in Israel, thereby rendering all those words about "stopping nuclear proliferation" nothing more than window dressing for a possible war of aggression against the people of Iran?
That's not enough for Mr. Peters. If in any way the media might bring up that the US is suffering too many casualties, or might, god forbid, actually talk of the suffering of the people under attack by the US military, then it is reasonable for the military to consider yet another target.
Is Mr. Peters, though writing in a journal of the US establishment, a kook we can ignore? No. His suggestions actually reflect policies.
Britain's Daily Mirror reported that during an April 2004 White House meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, George W. Bush floated the idea of bombing Al Jazeera's international headquarters in Qatar. This allegation was based on leaked "Top Secret" minutes of the Bush-Blair summit. British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has activated the Official Secrets Act, threatening any publication that publishes any portion of the memo (he has already brought charges against a former Cabinet staffer and a former parliamentary aide). So while we don't yet know the contents of the memo, we do know that at the time of Bush's meeting with Blair, the Administration was in the throes of a very public, high-level temper tantrum directed against Al Jazeera. The meeting took place on April 16, at the peak of the first US siege of Falluja, and Al Jazeera was one of the few news outlets broadcasting from inside the city. Its exclusive footage was being broadcast by every network from CNN to the BBC. -- The Nation
Or Consider a very recent development of the arrest of a Israeli journalist Amira Hass in Israel, after she dared to enter Gaza to report first-hand on the reality of the Israeli war on the people of Gaza. The only Israeli reporter that has gone into Gaza for several years. Yet, unlike the rightful outrage that accompanied the arrest of Roxana Saberi by Iran, that eventually led to her release, there are no headlines about Amira Hass.
No, Peters is speaking and Washington is listening. He was, after all, writing in a respected journal of a respected organization. JINSA sits on the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations -- (All of the members of the Conference sit on AIPAC's Executive Committee.. and we know that AIPAC gets respect among the Washington elite). JINSA not only works with people like Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, but has been supported the work of Democrats like Dave McCurdy and Jane Harman. It gives awards in the honor of the late Democrat "Scoop" Jackson.
It is up to us to crash this party. to support human rights, to support an end to the concept of perpetual war and violence without limits. We can join together, people of peace, people of all religious traditions and those with no religious affiliation, people of every ethnic identity to call for a stop to our common threat:
WAR.
Support Reporters Without Borders.
Oppose Lobbies and "Think Tanks" that support war and Occupation.
Stop AIPAC.