I don't normally do hit pieces, but this morning I came across a syndicated opinion piece in the local paper so misleading and offensive that I feel compelled to refute its content and expose its author. The sorry excuse for an editorial is "Leggo my 'Argo': Iran's unhealthy fixation on Ben Affleck" by Rachel Marsden.
The not-quite-witty title is apt because it summarizes the article nicely: lame attempts at humor backed up by irrelevant disinformation. "Leggo my 'Argo'" is a sorry excuse for wordplay, and Iran is not fixated on Ben Affleck: Iran's leaders are merely responding Hollywood's recent anti-Iranian propaganda piece "Argo".
Before we deal with Marsden's warmongering stance on modern Iranian/US relations, a little history lesson is in order...
Now that we know what's really going on in Iran, let's dissect Marsden's article point by point. Let's debunk disinformative nonsense with historical fact, irrefutable logic, incisive questions, and unbiased language. In our never-ending quest for universal media literacy it's important that intentionally misleading, warmongering psychopaths are exposed as such.
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by Rachel Marsden
NOTE: Italics are Marsden's words. Bold are mine.
NOTE: Italics are Marsden's words. Bold are mine.
PARIS -- When Ben Affleck's "Argo" -- a film based on the true-life, CIA-assisted Canadian operation to rescue American diplomats during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 -- won the Oscar for Best Picture, all I could think about was how badly Iran blew a prime opportunity to keep quiet for once.
How exactly would Iran benefit from "keeping quiet" while a propaganda film demonizing the country is being heralded as high art?
Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Hosseini is so incensed with the portrayal of his country in "Argo" that the government is financing a film in response. Look, Canadians took issue with some "Argo" distortions, too -- mainly because, as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has said, "90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian," while the film portrays the inverse. But Canada isn't going to get all insecure about something that happened more than three decades ago. Granted, Canada also has a lot going for it -- including a world of "friends" with whom to trade.
How exactly would Iran benefit from "keeping quiet" while a propaganda film demonizing the country is being heralded as high art?
Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Hosseini is so incensed with the portrayal of his country in "Argo" that the government is financing a film in response. Look, Canadians took issue with some "Argo" distortions, too -- mainly because, as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has said, "90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian," while the film portrays the inverse. But Canada isn't going to get all insecure about something that happened more than three decades ago. Granted, Canada also has a lot going for it -- including a world of "friends" with whom to trade.
Marsden has just admitted that "Argo" grossly misrepresents the situation. She then grossly misrepresents Iran by comparing it's political footing to that of Canada. Iran has been badgered by the United States since 1953. See video above.
By contrast, the Iranian regime considers its image to be so fragile that a single Hollywood film must be treated as a threat. Even Affleck is more secure in his manhood than Iran. The director has called Iran's criticism "a badge of honor."
Iran is a nation-state, not a man. Iran has no "manhood", in fact about half of the seventy-five million human beings who live in Iran are women. Let's not paint every Iranian with the same brush, eh?
Iran could learn from Affleck, who has bombed out in the past but has learned whatever lessons he needed. He simply moves on and tries not to repeat the same bad scripts. When Iran bombs out, it never, ever lets go of the script.
Iran's "script" is to retain its sovereignty despite intense political and military pressure from global imperialists. Comparing a Hollywood star's life lessons to the governance of a sovereign nation is idiotic.
Iran's grasp of diplomatic relations hasn't improved much since the "Argo" era, regardless of what Iranians want us to believe. The best image that any country can project is through its day-to-day actions, its relationships, its friends.
Iranians merely want us to leave them alone. If countries project their images through their day-to-day actions, most of the Western world is failing miserably due to endless wars of aggression, bankster bailouts, austerity against citizens, blatant and repeated deceptions exposed, etc.
Sadly, Iran doesn't have many friends. Well, it has Russia and China as besties -- but someone should ask Russian President Vladimir Putin how it feels to have your friend's checks start bouncing, as Iran's did when Russia was trying to help build the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Marsden is 38 years old yet she uses middle schooler words like "besties" in an attempt to dumb down the rest of us. Iran and Russia successfully completed the Bushehr nuclear power plant and it is now running at full capacity though "the work was delayed several years by technical and financial challenges as well as by political pressure from the West." Political pressure from the West was a bigger factor than the "bounced checks" Marsden is conjuring up for disinformation's sake.
While trying so desperately to martyr itself as a victim of the meddling West, Iran is dropping ammo all over Africa. Great Britain's Conflict Armament Research recently issued a report detailing Iranian ammunition used by "foreign-backed insurgents, rebel forces, Islamist-oriented armed groups and warring communities." Speaking of which, Israel just bombed an Iranian general who was hanging out in a Syrian conflict zone -- no doubt handing out cupcakes and balloon animals to children.
Regarding Marsden's source Conflict Armament Research:
"In the cases documented to date neither the outer wooden boxes nor their contents have specified any information that might identify the manufacturer. For these reasons, Conflict Armament Research had to employ cross-case analysis—comparing ammunition and packaging documented in known Iranian shipments with ammunition and packaging discovered elsewhere—to identify the ammunition as Iranian in origin.
To summarise these investigations in brief, Conflict Armament Research observed ammunition packed in green battle bags in Kenya (2008) and Côte d’Ivoire (2010). It also documented complete packaging (outer wooden boxes and their contents) in Côte d’Ivoire in 2009 and 2012. In none of these cases did it find any evidence to indicate manufacture by Iran."
SOURCE: Page 15 of "The Distribution of Iranian Ammunition in Africa" by Conflict Armament Research (NOTE: Conflict Armament Research is a private corporation founded in 2011 and as an information source it is neither credible nor reputable. Humorously, CAR's Facebook page only has 44 likes. Please tell them how you feel about their falsified information and warmongering.)
Regarding the "Iranian general hanging out in a Syrian conflict zone", there are no credible reports that this actually happened, and Iran has every right to help Syria defend itself from foreign mercenaries disguised as freedom fighters who are attempting to overthrow the Syrian government.
Meanwhile, Iran's own trade partners seem to have relegated the nation to "Mr. Right, For Right Now" status, with China, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan qualifying for exemptions from U.S. sanctions for having significantly reduced their imports of Iranian oil.
All Iran wants is to sell their oil on a FREE MARKET, not within the corrupt, rigged Petrodollar System. Any self-respecting Conservative -- which Marsden claims to be -- should see the validity of this desire.
I can't even begin to imagine how this must anger the knee-jerk anti-Americans who chronically fly off handle at the thought of Iran not having a God-given right to trade with the United States and its allies while simultaneously bad-mouthing them all. Pretty soon the anti-Westerners will be the only ones left on earth who will want to do business with Iran -- and by that I mean them personally. Like, they can go online and send over some pizza or something.
Marsden now decides to demonize and ridicule anyone who believes Iran has a right to defend its interests, retain its sovereignty, and trade on a FREE MARKET. If the United States wants Iran to stop "bad mouthing" it, maybe the United States should stop "Argoing" and sabotaging Iran.
As China keeps colonizing Africa and going into resource-rich nations to drink their respective milkshakes dry, Iran will be increasingly relegated to flophouse status -- a pit stop for Chinese imperialists in transit between their de facto African colonies. China could even fill up Iran like a giant foam ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese because it will be all theirs.
The West has been colonizing resource-rich nations and drinking them dry for over a century. This is the pot calling the kettle black. Once again Marsden's attempt at humor falls flat on its face/ass/bullshit-spewing-organ.
Oh, so you haven't heard about China seducing and colonizing various African nations rich in resources but poor in their ability to exploit them? That's likely because there are no corporate logos at which to point fingers of blame -- unless you count the Chinese Communist Party as a massive corporate entity unto itself.
Meanwhile NATO and associated Western nations are militarily invading African and Middle Eastern countries because they don't want Westerners impeding at all. At least China is conducting itself respectfully and diplomatically instead of operating with economic sanctions, drone warfare, sabotage, and state-sponsored terrorism.
I guess bilious anti-Westerners who foam at the mouth with every incursion Western nations make into Africa -- usually for national security or humanitarian purposes -- figure that the sort of dubious labor conditions they abhor in China would still be preferable to anything a Western corporation would introduce in Africa.
How about we let the Africans, the Syrians, the Iranians, and the rest of the world decide for themselves what the best way to manage their own lives. Invading sovereign nations "for national security or humanitarian purposes" is total BS. The blood of innocents is on Marsden's hands as much as it is on our politricksters and hired guns.
That's the reality Iran has created for itself -- and the movie that it should really be worried about.
That the disillusioned misrepresentation of reality that Marsden has created for herself -- and the sorry excuse for journalism that the rest of us are laughing about.
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If you really want to know how crazy and delusional Marsden is, you need to check out her Wikipedia page. She has apparently created scandalous controversies around herself for decades in a deluded search for fame...
Rachel Marsden on Wikipedia (she sure comes off like a crazy person)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Marsden
Please take the time to help expose Marsden in hopes of getting her to STFU. Perhaps you should visit her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, etc and let her know that you don't appreciate her deceptive and deluded opinions flooding our airwaves.
Rachel Marsden.com (hideous website looks like a D- school project)
http://www.rachelmarsden.com/
Rachel Marsden on Twitter (389 followers... a nobody in the world of social media)
https://twitter.com/rachelmarsden
Rachel Marsden on Facebook (242 likes... a nobody in the world of social media)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-Marsden/35953208312
Rachel Marsden Consulting on Facebook (9 likes... nonexistent social media sway)
https://www.facebook.com/RachelMarsdenAssociates
Rachel Marsden on Pinterest (one follower... schweet!)
http://pinterest.com/marsdenrachel/
Rachel Marsden's book on Amazon.com (one review total, earning one of five stars)
http://www.amazon.com/American-Bombshell-Domestic-International-Invasion/dp/1466380969/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326626649&sr=8-1