For quite some time now, there has been what I’d term an enforced consensus across “the west” on foreign events and situations. That enforced consensus is bolstered by consigning anyone proposing a critical analysis; one that runs counter to officially endorsed narratives, as being somehow complicit with who-ever today’s ‘agreed’ enemy is. And that consensus gorges itself on endlessly repeated innuendo, rumour and purportedly solid conclusions based on nought but previously reported bullshit and nonsense. Anyone with the temerity to engage their brain is dismissed as a “Putinbot” or similar, and anyone of note who raises their head is either roundly ignored by “our” media, or subjected to some degree of personal ridicule or character assassination by “our” media.
It’s against that backdrop that Emily Thornberry, UK Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, has stepped up with the following in response to a thinly veiled attempt at a “gotcha” aimed at Jeremy Corbyn. Nick Robertson was conducting the interview on BBC Radio 4:- (from 33.00 min)
Our approach now is one of extreme caution when it comes to Iran and a recognition that the society in Iran is an immensely complex one, and seemingly contradictory. For example, with these current riots, sometimes they are calling to reinstate the monarchy, sometimes they’re calling out against [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei, sometimes they’re calling for Khamenei, sometimes they’re calling for the price of eggs. It’s very difficult, in those circumstances, to actually come to a conclusion as to what political forces are behind the current disputes on the streets of Iran. So we take a cautious approach to Iran and we don’t want to leap to judgment and say: “Well, we don’t like the regime in Iran, these people are against it, they must be the guys with white hats.”
Because it doesn’t work like that.
We’ve seen that in Syria, we’ve seen it in Libya, we see it time and time again, in Egypt – actually as westerners we cannot simply impose our views on people who are fighting against Mubarak, who we don’t like.
May her voice be the first of many prominent voices talking sense. It won’t be easy. The Guardian piece that provided most of the above quote, reported her words in a piece that was (yet again) simply “running the lines”, and links in the piece went to similar pieces of uncritical anti-Iranian reporting.
It’s going to be a long, hard and probably thankless row to hoe.
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