American lie machine springs into action, again

© 2019 Peter Free

 

14 June 2019

 

 

Remember the Vietnam War's Tonkin Gulf "incident"?

 

The Johnson Administration concocted a report that North Vietnam had attacked the US Navy. That became an excuse for escalating the war.

 

 

Today, the Trump Administration is manufacturing the same BS in the Strait of Hormuz

 

This time as an excuse to war with Iran:

 

 

Washington claims Iran is behind a succession of recent shipping attacks in the Gulf. It said grainy video published on the US Central Command’s website provided evidence of Iran’s involvement in Thursday’s attacks.

 

Donald Trump said the attacks had “Iran written all over it”, while US defence officials claimed the mainly Russian crew of one of the ships, the Norwegian-owned Front Altair, had been detained.

 

Trump vowed the US would ensure the narrow Strait of Hormuz would be kept open for oil traffic.

 

He added:

 

“Iran did do it. You know they did it because you saw the boat. I guess one of the mines didn’t explode and it’s probably got essentially Iran written all over it … You saw the boat at night, successfully trying to take the mine off – and that was exposed.”

 

© 2019 Patrick Wintour, US accuses Iran of detaining crew after oil tanker attack, Guardian (14 June 2019)

 

 

What escapes American attention . . .

 

. . . is that an Iranian attack of this kind would run counter to Iran's actual geopolitical interests.

 

Why would Iran provocatively try to get the United States to obliterate it?

 

 

"But that's such a minor detail, Pete!"

 

When a lie makes no sense at all — scrotum-heavy, wand-waving 'Murikans will believe it anyway.

 

 

Even one of the damaged ship's owners thought the US was bullshitting

 

For example:

 

 

During a press conference just hours after the U.S. released video footage that purported to show an Iranian boat removing an unexploded mine from the side of an oil tanker, the Japanese owner of that vessel said Friday that the ship was likely damaged by a "flying object" and called claims of a mine attack "false."

 

"I do not think there was a time bomb or an object attached to the side of the ship," Yutaka Katada, president of the Japanese company that operates the Kokuka Courageous tanker, told reporters in Tokyo.

 

Katada's account of the attack appeared to contradict the Trump administration's suggestion that Iranian mines were responsible for the explosions that damaged the Kokuka Courageous and one other oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.

 

[C]rew members who were aboard the Kokuka Courageous at the time of the attack believe the vessel was damaged by "something [that] flew towards them."

 

"That created the hole, is the report I've received," Katada said.

 

"It seems there was a high chance they were attacked by a flying object. The impact was well above the water. I don't think it was a torpedo."

 

© 2019 Jake Johnson, Contradicting Trump Claim of Iranian Mine Attack, Owner of Japanese Oil Tanker Says 'Flying Object' Likely Caused Explosions, Common Dreams (14 June 2019)

 

 

If History be the guide . . .

 

. . .  our Central Intelligence Agency has repeatedly (and very cleverly) manufactured false flag incidents.

 

 

The moral? — Truth and American government (historically) have very little in common

 

If you want someone's kids to die — in an unnecessary war with comparatively hapless Iran — keep drinking American government Kool-Aid.

 

The rest of us should make ourselves aware that the American Lie Machine supports the Military Industrial Complex's parasitic profit-seeking.