Image by AslanMedia via Flickr
by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
September 27, 2013
The saying goes that a week is a long time in politics – meaning that big changes can surprisingly occur in a short period.
This week, at the 68th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations was one such watershed event.
The engine for this dramatic change was Iran’s diplomatic thrust. Iranian President Dr. Hassan Rouhani delivered a speech to the assembly that enthralled those willing to listen while leaving detractors reeling from their own inadequacy.
Rouhani’s address was a paragon of rational argument that reinforced humane values of respect and equality.
Yet he laid blame firmly on the causes and protagonists of conflict, whether in Palestine, Iraq or Syria. In sum, the Iranian president rejected militarism and warmongering as an archaic blunt and immoral instrument, and he offered a hopeful way forward from conflict based unequivocally on equality and respect.
“Militarism and the recourse to violent and military means to subjugate others are failed examples of the perpetuation of old ways in new circumstances,” said Rouhani.
The bottom-line was that he successfully conveyed Iran is a peaceful nation that threatens no one, and is willing to join with others in creating a peaceful world, including the removal of all weapons of mass destruction.
American and Israeli warmongers were left grappling vainly for detractions.
“Iran has come here to cheat the world,” said an Israeli official, whose grudging sounded paranoid and fatuous.
The trouble for these American and Israeli warmongers and hate-filled psychopath politicians is that we now live in a world of instant global communications where ordinary people can hear the words of others without them being warped and poisoned.
Even the American mainstream media had to give the Iranian leader a fair hearing because, with many alternative sources of information to serve as verification, to not give a fair hearing would expose such media as disreputable agents of disinformation. With the traditional Western media’s credibility at an all-time low among the public, they can’t afford to lose any more respect.
But it was Rouhani’s personal style of calm reason and erudition that won the day. Any one with an open mind had to be impressed by his cogent appeal for peace and a better world free of conflict.
“People all over the world are tired of war, violence and extremism. They hope for a change in the status quo,” he said, adding, “In recent years, a dominant voice has been repeatedly heard: ‘The military option is on the table.’ Against the backdrop of this illegal and ineffective contention, let me say loud and clear that ‘peace is within reach.’”
The only way to counter such reasonable politics is to resort to calumny and propaganda. But Rouhani had that covered too when he warned against those who create “imaginary enemies” and the fictitious “Iranian threat.”
The case for Iran to be treated with respect, without aggression, and to be allowed to avail of its national rights, including peaceful nuclear technology, resonates with world public opinion. People, and the American people in particular, are fed up with baseless aggression whether in the form of militarism abroad or, significantly, economic austerity at home. The significance is that people have made the structural connection between these two aberrations. People are realizing that their personal suffering is related to the way the rest of the world is suffering. It is the common condition of the bankrupt capitalist system and all its predations.
The days when the public could be misled by a warmongering elite are rapidly waning. People can see through the self-serving lies and fabrications and are intolerant of this obnoxious mindset. The people want a totally new arrangement of doing things, to overturn an economy based on exploitation and oppression and warmongering, to be replaced by a more ethical, efficient and equitable system, one that is democratic, not despotic.
In this past week, there was a profound sense of common ground for change, where Iran’s appeal was in synchronicity with international public opinion.
The contrast between Rouhani’s speech to the UN and US President Barack Obama’s was telling. The Iranian leader’s sentiments and aspirations seemed on the crest of a wave – the wider feelings of ordinary people all over the planet – while Obama sounded like someone left behind, thrashing around in a bygone era.
Rouhani listened to the other intently; whereas Obama cleared off from the assembly hall.
Obama’s speech was full of American self-importance and self-justification. It was a subjective parody of history and conflict in which the US is always portrayed as the “good guy.” Unlike Rouhani, Obama did not present supporting facts and objective rationale. It was a propaganda stunt to cover US militarism and illegal wars with a veneer of legitimacy.
Out of Obama’s mouth came not an appeal from the heart for absolute human equality and peace, but rather hackneyed propaganda to excuse US aggression and superiority towards the rest of the world.
“We will dismantle terrorist networks that threaten our people,” said Obama with earnest fakery that is so obvious now it is pathetic.
“Wherever possible, we will build the [terrorist] capacity of our partners, [dis] respect the sovereignty of nations, and work to address [promote] the root causes of terror. But when it’s necessary to defend the United States against [imaginary] terrorist attack, we will take direct action [mass murder].” (Words/letters in brackets added.)
All that and more from Obama is so anachronistic, old school now. What American people and the rest of the world realize more than ever is that the US under its bankrupt economic system does not have international relations. It has predatory, hegemonic instincts that fuel relentless massive violence – all for the enrichment of its banking and corporate elite.
And, what’s more, people realize the inextricable link between the US elite’s aggression abroad and its economic and police-state aggression at home.
The US president declared to the UN delegates, “The United States of America is prepared to use all elements of our power, including military force [state terrorism], to secure our [ruling elite’s] core interests [obscene capitalist profit].” (Words/letters in brackets added.)
In the past, such American blandishments and bluster may have been possible – but not any more. People everywhere across the globe can read what’s inside the parenthesis when official America speaks now.
And the people know the latter is a twisted mouthpiece to disguise destructive interests.
The appeal for reason by Iran is very much chiming with the people of the world. The American elite and their warmongering allies in Britain, France and Israel, among others, know that they are up against a powerful wave of reason and noble sentiment. That is why Obama had to abruptly swerve from the US war plan towards Syria and why the warmonger instincts have been tempered to try the diplomatic route.
US military power is still a dangerous force, especially at this historical juncture of economic collapse. War is therefore always a danger, and diplomacy, peace and justice are far from assured. But the people of Iran are finding a new ally – the rest of the world.
That is because the enemy is one and the same, destructive elitist system, and because the truth is winning out.
Finian Cunningham, is a columnist at Press TV and a Writer on Dandelion Salad. He can be reached at cunninghamfinian@gmail.com.
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[DS added the video report.]
FAIR TV September 27, 2013
fairreporting on Sep 27, 2013
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from the archives:
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BRILLIANT ANALYSIS
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