Having Lost on the Battlefield in Syria Washington Continues to Engage in Ideological Warfare – New Example of Gray Propaganda – NY Times Publishes Iranian Classified Documents
November 18, 2019
Map of the Iran-Iraqi War of 1980-1988. More than a million people died as Washington encouraged Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to attack Iran
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Having lost the war it provoked in Syria, Washington had the options of either a graceful or graceless withdrawal. Gracelessness, once again, has won the day
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At the same time that Washington is essentially crucifying Julian Assange for embarrassing the United States for the trove of Wikileaks revelations, the Intercept and the NYTimes just published stories on 700 pages of classified Iranian documents on Iranian influence in Iraq… The Times article claims they do not know who leaked the documents, but insist on their authenticity.
Rather than publishing US classified documents on the U.S Occupation of Iraq – the Times and the left-leaning Intercept (whose stuff is generally quite good) get hold of Iranian documents to try to shift the narrative. You’d think it’s Iranian bases in Iraq, that Iran rather than the U.S. invaded the country and destroyed its infrastructure…
I am not in a position to evaluate the legitimacy of these documents – they could be legit – but note their timing and intent. I do wonder for how long they’ve had this information and why they have published it now, and of course, from whence it came
This comes at a time when US influence in Iraq – where Washington maintains one of its largest embassies along with a slew of important US military bases in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion – is wobbling and where massive demonstrations are, to a certain degree, yes, targeting Iranian influence but more importantly calling for a withdrawal of U.S. troops and the closing of U.S. bases in Iran. More generally, it comes at a moment where US influence and credibility in the Middle East region as a whole and that of its chief allies – Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia is weakening and seriously so.
This comes at a time when US influence in Iraq – where Washington maintains one of its largest embassies along with a slew of important US military bases in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion – is wobbling and where massive demonstrations are, to a certain degree, yes, targeting Iranian influence but more importantly calling for a withdrawal of U.S. troops and the closing of U.S. bases in Iran. More generally, it comes at a moment where US influence and credibility in the Middle East region as a whole and that of its chief allies – Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia is weakening and seriously so.
One cannot help to notice the upsurge in demonstrations – and the attention given them in the U.S. media in Lebanon and Iraq – come just at the moment when the balance of power in the region is shifting away from Washington’s control, at a time when by any objective standard Washington is suffering its biggest strategic defeat since the Vietnam War in Syria and is trying desperately to engage in damage control (agreement with Turkey to invade northeastern Syria, seizing control of Syrian oil reserves which will be used to fund mercenary/terrorist activities, shifting of ISIS and like groups to Iraq, Afghanistan and into the Horn of Africa).
To what degree is Washington encouraging or actually behind these Lebanese and Iraqi demonstrations having fine-tuned the fanning of mass upsurges – the so-called “colored revolutions”, much of the upsurges referred to as “the Arab Spring” which resulted in “all the change necessary to maintain the status quo?” After all, who benefits from a weaker and more divided Lebanon than Washington and Tel Aviv? Who would like to shift the world’s attention away from the sixteen year U.S. Occupation of Iraq and to suggest, that it is not Washington intervening – and controlling – the Iraqi government, but Teheran?
Of course Iran is anxious to strengthen its relations with Iraq, with which it shares a 905 mile border and millennia of history. Regardless, to publish such revelations in the manner that the NY Times did is a classic example of gray propaganda – distorting the truth by amplifying one aspect of a situation without putting it in context, the context of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, decades of covert and overt intervention. It is an excellent example of ideological warfare, something the NY Times has never hesitated to engage in.
Read these documents…but remember to keep in mind who is the occupying force in Iraq, who invaded it in 2003 and remains, controlling its energy industry, who pushed Saddam Hussein in 2000 into an eight year war with Iran that cost the lives more than a million people and which country is 7000 miles from Baghdad, and which country is Iraq’s neighbor and SHOULD be concerned about what its neighbor is up to.
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View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 
Typo at the start of the second paragraph: “…the US occupation of Iran.” Should say Iraq.
thanks… again. will correct
These smell like the documents discovered from the soviet files after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Thanks Rob for your thoughts.