The Guardian joins the cheerleading for a war of aggression against Iran

Corporate media doesn't represent humanity's interests. It promotes the interests of billionaires and their hangers-on, who make huge profits from a war machine in constant need of excuses to kill

International law is absolutely clear. If the US attacks Iran, it would be a war of aggression and the “supreme international crime”.

The job of even supposedly liberal media like the Guardian is to persuade you this is not what is at stake. To disbelieve your lying eyes.

Look at this astonishingly dishonest headline and subhead from today’s paper:

“Threat of US-Iran war escalates” intentionally obscures the truth: that it is the US doing the “escalating” – and that its escalating is entirely illegal.

“Trump warns time running out for deal” makes it sound as though Trump has some kind of authority to make this “warning”. Hey, Guardian, maybe he’s doing it on behalf of his Board of Peace.

The truth is he has no such authority. That resides with the United Nations. What Trump is doing is not a warning; it’s a threat – an utterly illegal threat of aggression.

In any case, Iran has been trying to drag the US back to the negotiating table ever since Trump unilaterally tore up their original deal eight years ago. Time is only “running out” because the US has decided it now needs a pretext to launch an illegal war of aggression. Why is the Guardian not making that clear in its headlines?

Instead, it has turned reality on its head. Trump, according to the Guardian, is the one supposedly trying to secure a deal – that’s the very same Trump who tore up the original deal, has refused to return to negotiations and instead bombed Iran last summer – in another illegal act of aggression.

“US president says armada heading towards Iran is ‘prepared to fulfil its missions with violence if necessary’”. That is just the Guardian’s way of obscuring the fact that Trump is preparing to break international law by waging a war of aggression, the “supreme crime”.

The Guardian’s headline and subhead both present an act by the US of supreme illegality as though it is some kind law enforcement measure. This isn’t journalism. It is cheerleading for an illegal war in which Iranian civilians will inevitably pay the heaviest price.

We have to stop thinking that any corporate media represents the interests of humanity. They promote the interests of the billionaire class and their hangers-on, who make huge profits from a war machine that needs constant excuses to kill.

Corporate media doesn’t hold these billionaires to account. Its sole function is to serve as their public relations arm.

[Many thanks to Matthew Alford for the audio reading of this article.]

---

All my posts are freely accessible, but my journalism is possible only because of the support of readers. If you liked this article or any of the others, please consider sharing it with friends and making a donation to support my work. You can do so by becoming a paid Substack subscriber, or donate via Paypal or my bank account, or alternatively set up a monthly direct debit mandate with GoCardless. A complete archive of my writings is available on my website. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.