A story in repeat: How can breaking news affect our lives
According to breaking news covered broadly by all international media, two tankers in the Gulf of Oman were exploded on June 13th. As mentioned, the first tanker was owned by a Norwegian shipping company and the second one by a Japanese one.
The story behind the scenes, can be better orchestrated and served to the public opinion, given the fact that Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister (first Japanese leader to ever visit Iran after 1979-Iranian Revolution benchmark), visited the Islamic Republic of Iran this week, in an effort to strengthen diplomatic relations with Tehran and warned that Iran could "accidentally" slip into conflict.
After a while, the news of two tankers being exploded in the Gulf of Oman came out, with Washington blaming Tehran for the explosion. Tehran denies all allegations. But is that enough, when some days ago Iran threatened to close the Strait of Ormuz, due to Washington penalizing Tehran for its nuclear program? And how easily can truth in this political tantrum, be obscured and used by superpowers with specific supergoals, simply by cutting phrases used in one circumstanse and pasting them to another?
Are we, the public opinion, ever capable of getting the whole picture or not? The answer is no. It is obvious that Washington manipulated the fact of the formal visit of Shinzo Abe to Tehran a couple of days ago, by relating it to the news of the tankers' explosion (one owned by a Japanese shipping company), thus showing how untrustworthy Iran is, when it comes to its political agenda.
On the one hand Iran has every reason to roar against Washington, while it is still considered as a "rogue state", not allowed to perform any nuclear programs, even though noone ever defined why "evil" states can't and "piece-keeping" states can...
On the other hand, i never understood why Iran is untrustworthy, while, even under Ahmadinejad, an extreme fundamentalist, Iran never carried out a nuclear attack. Iran's nuclear behaviour is extremely rational, even though the West is constantly trying to make it appear as an evil state with unpredictable behaviour. Facts show it is nothing like that, and everything is a matter of a communication war.
So given the facts, U.S.A. has every reason to denigrate Iran to the public opinion, thus gaining credibility as a "piece-keeping" superpower with a "good-will" towards the rest of the world. Iran directly, challenges Washington's uniqueness by achieving nuclear "assets" out of a western context control.
Iran, has every reason to proceed to such an act, as the U.S. constantly poses sanctions to Tehran, because of its nuclear program, by prohibiting iranian oil conveyance through the Straits of Ormuz.
Noone will ever reach a safe conclusion about the incident of the tankers being exploded, and if it is a fact caused by Iranian diplomacy, or a fact orchestrated by the U.S. in an attempt to "legalize" its tactics in the following days, which probably will be characterised by even more sanctions against Iran and an even tougher external policy against it.
The ground is fertile enough for such games, while this incident happened only days after the visit of the Japanese leader in Tehran, the one tanker blown is owned by a japanese company and some days earlier Mohammad Bagheri, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps military commander, threatened that if Iran was not allowed due to sanctions to convey oil through the Straits of Ormuz, then other countries shouldn't be allowed as well...
But was that a threat followed by actions, or was it another allegation (like many other in the past), trying to "export" iranian diplomacy as an independent player, thus, acquiring credibility and force...?
Iran never showed an irrational face considering its use of its own nuclear power. It all stems from a witch-hunt which took place during the Reagan era, when the islamic Democracy of Iran could not anymore be considered as a "puppet state" and became a "rogue one". We are not able to get to know though, if the tankers were exploded by Iran, or if it is a communication game of the West. One thing is for sure, U.S. has every reason to play such games and even to orchestrate stories (it has also done it in the past), and Iran has every reason to act and resist against sanctions in an environment full of strong american allies like United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
In politics, massive deterrence in known to be a doctrine, used broadly in nuclear language, meaning, that a state is answering a military attack, with a much greater force than that of the acting power.
In our days, massive deterrence is transfered to people, more than it ever happened in the past. Oil prices are already on extremely high level, and we remain observing facts served to us by international media, challenging us to be a part of this political and communication propaganda, while economy is failing to give birth to a financial structure that will be in favour of people.
So, is "breaking news" or not nowadays the strongest weapon to manipulate economies, stock markets and public opinion? And should we find or not a "massive deterrence formula" against it, so as to let it know, it is the world that matters...?
written by Themis Panagiotopoulou, PhD in Political Science