Preface: Roubini says that attacking Iran would lead to global recession [8]. The IMF says that Iran cutting off oil supplies could raise crude prices 30% [9]. War with Iran would kill the American economy [10]. and see this [11] and this [12]).
So yes, this is a newsworthy economic and financial story.
THE AMERICAN AND ISRAELI BEAT THE WAR DRUMS … BUT THE PEOPLE WANT PEACE
The American and Israeli Beat the War Drums ... But the People Want Peace
While the same neoconservatives [13] who pushed the Iraq war are now loudly beating the drums of war against Iran, neither the American or Israeli people want war.
A new United Technologies/National Journal “Congressional Connection Poll,” finds [14] that only 13% Americans think the U.S. should “take covert action against Iran such as sabotage and assassination of scientists working on their nuclear program”.
Only 17% support “tak[ing] military action against Iran, including bombing weapons facilities inside the country.”
And most Israelis are against war with Iran as well.
As University of Maryland professor of government, and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Shibley Telhami and director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes, Steven Kull, note [15] in the New York Times:
Despite all the talk of an “existential threat,” less than half of Israelis support a strike on Iran. According to our November poll [16] (.pdf), carried out in cooperation with the Dahaf Institute in Israel, only 43 percent of Israeli Jews support a military strike on Iran — even though 90 percent of them think that Iran will eventually acquire nuclear weapons.
Most important, when asked whether it would be better for both Israel and Iran to have the bomb, or for neither to have it, 65 percent of Israeli Jews said neither. And a remarkable 64 percent favored the idea of a nuclear-free zone, even when it was explained that this would mean Israel giving up its nuclear weapons.
The Israeli public also seems willing to move away from a secretive nuclear policy toward greater openness about Israel’s nuclear facilities. Sixty percent of respondents favored “a system of full international inspections” of all nuclear facilities, including Israel’s and Iran’s, as a step toward regional disarmament.
Given that the elites who profit from war [17] will do their best to try to pretend we must attack Iran to protect ourselves [18], we must all be wary of a false flag attack [19] against Iran. Indeed, it almost seems as if some have already hinted in that direction [20].
Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
- Nazi leader Hermann Goering