Primarydoc just published a diary on Daily Kos contending that the site is contributing to false advocacy and Iran-bashing based totally on false propaganda, principally the long unsubstantiated notion that Iran was contributing to the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.
The ad features these words, with background visuals,
Iranian Bombs Are Killing Americans
On The Battlefields of Iraq
It is accompanied by shots of an IED exploding and a picture of a helmet and rifle, usually a symbol of a dead soldier. The Website skin is the advertising strip across the the top of Dkos’ front page and is prominent, and highly expensive.
The diary itself, The DKos Website Skin is Misleading and Wrong (links are in the original), quoted Juan Cole prominently on the falsity of the accusations.
Fri Mar 05, 2010
Contrary to the advertisement banner at the top of the frontpage, Iran is not threatening the US. The Iranian military isn’t actively killing American soldiers. The Bush administration tried claiming in 2007 that Tehran was funneling weapons to Iraq and even the Taliban but these are unproven accusations — Juan Cole has called it the New Yellowcake Scandal.
The purpose of such accusations is to build up momentum for invasion, and is reminiscent of the 45-minute claim made by Bush and Blair or the mushroom cloud scare tactics of Condoleeza Rice.
Cole says HERE:
Sunni Arab guerrillas are increasingly deploying explosively formed projectiles, roadside bombs that can pierce even tank armor. My guess is that the more sophisticated EFPs supposedly coming only from Iran are also sometimes made in Iraq, and that any Iranian ones are on the black market and could be bought by anyone, including Sunni groups.
Look at the left and right side of the screen: an M-16 rifle, barrel down, is topped by a helmet–clearly a gravemarker for a soldier. A caption floating above mentions Iran and the money it’s using “against us.” In the background a military Humvee or armored vehicle with flames interposed in the distance between.
The skin is warmongering and alarmist and utterly irresponsible.
The ad is paid for by Vote Vets Action Fund at VoteVets.Org, and seems to be masked by a Pass Clean Energy message.
When I clicked the ad to go to their website, my security suite reported, ‘Suspected Fraudulent Web Site Detected.’ Was it a fraudulent website? I continued to the website anyway but was still blocked. A search on Google, however, led me to Youtube and this video:
And here’s the Clean Energy connection:
Everytime oil goes up $1, Iran gets another $1.5 billion to use against us. Pass Clean Energy now.
As of this writing, Fri, March 5, 2010, 10 am EST USA, the ad is still up.
Again we have to ask: is there an Israel connection here?
When General Zinni, a once US envoy to Israel, wrote that Iraq was done for Israel’s sake, are we now getting ourselves in an Iran for Israel’s sake?
Is Iran the New Four-Letter Word?
By Nazee Moinian, 03.04.2010
Three hours since I post this diary, and many hours since Primarydoc posted the original right on DKos, and it is still up. What’s up with Daily Kos?
The time is 1 pm EST.
Another diary says warmongering against Iran is justified. And presumably Dkos has bought into it.
Our New Ad, Kos Wrapper, and Our Oil Addiction
by Jon Soltz
Fri Mar 05, 2010
No mention of Iran so far. It’s all about oil dependence. Then….
And so the evidence is where? The say so?
Website: http://www.votevets.org
Email: jon@votevets.org
I’m Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, a non-profit political organization dedicated to veterans advocacy. We’re most known for our hard hitting political ads that show what it really means to support the troops.
I wouldn’t be sure that Daily Kos has bought into it just because of the presence of the ad. Kos has tolerated many ads before that have offended the majority of the site’s participants (even when it has caused major flamewars on the site and even defections of some of the site’s valued participants).
Of course, hasbara talking points are always available through some participant or other on the site, so there are some voices who will argue loudly that Iran is a threat. But the site’s polling continues to show that a majority of members don’t think that Iran is a threat and oppose a war with Iran.
Reading through the comments, most are negative, and some even emphasize the money-making purpose of the site. Electing democrats is a side-effect of that, I suppose.
Kos has always had the bottom line of his site among his top priorities (whether it has been THE top priority is debatable), even when the blogosphere was the new advertising frontier and money was flush. Now that ad revenue is drying up in many media markets, including the net, even blog owners who have ethical objections to some ads could find their level of blog staffing and services unsustainable if they reject some ads.
Considering the tightness of the economy, I doubt that this series of ads online and elsewhere in the media is sustained merely by the donations of some concerned vets. It could be very enlightening to follow the money for this group that is pushing the “Iran threat.”
“enlightening to follow the money for this group that is pushing the “Iran threat.”
The Iran-Clean Energy connection seems so contrived that many of us have asked to be enlightened concerning who is pushing it.
As for Kos and money, well I always felt that he was a businessman first, and a Democrat second. None of his other blog ventures have come close to the success of Daily Kos. His partner of sorts, Jerome Armstrong is not doing well at all, but his site, MyDD is also hosting the ad, I notice.
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VoteVets.org Political Action Committee continued to endorse Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for Congress in the 2008 elections. Those include Rick Noriega (D-TX) who ran for Senate in Texas against incumbent John Cornyn, and many who ran for the House, including John Boccieri (D-OH), Mike Lumpkin (D-CA), Ashwin Madia (D-MN), Jill Morgenthaler (D-IL), Steve Sarvi (D-MN), and Jonathan Powers (D-NY).
The group also endorsed the candidates who it endorsed in 2006 and reached Congress, Representatives Patrick Murphy, Joe Sestak, Tim Walz, and Chris Carney.
While VoteVets did not officially endorse a candidate for president in 2008, the group did publicly support Barack Obama’s plan for Iraq and actively opposed John McCain’s campaign for President, despite McCain being an honored war veteran.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Did not support Obama? It seems to otherwise be a Democratic leaning org.
Still the faulty logic in this ad is almost right wing Neoconservative. Perhaps some political minds will disect it in coming days.
It says DID support Obama, not “did not”. My recollection is that VoteVets was a liberal group, and that they supported liberal-leaning candidates who were opposed to the aggression against Iraq, and the way it was sold to the pulbic. That makes this ad coming from them very odd indeed. Something just doesn’t make sense here.
That makes this ad coming from them very odd indeed. Something just doesn’t make sense here.
My thoughts as well – maybe there has been a change in the executive of the organization?
Including the pie war ads for The New Gilligan’s Island.
They might reasonably make a case that dependency on “foreign oil” leads to wars & more veterans .. but instead of spreading the blame across multiple nations (Saudis? Russian oil? etc) .. they focus on only Iran, which is hypno-wired into Fox viewers as a call to war.
The fallacy being to blame it all on Iran, when there are more valid oil suppliers that are worth defunding.
It is possible that Soltz thinks he has the smoking gun. And the focus is on Iran.
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The rapid rise in casualties over the past two years is attributed in part to the increased lethality of the Taliban mines.
But according to the Pentagon agency responsible for combating roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, the increased Taliban threat to U.S. and NATO vehicles comes not from any new technology from Iran but from Italian-made mines left over from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s military assistance to the anti-Soviet freedom fighters (jihadists) in the 1980s.
In response to my inquiry, the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) said in an e-mail that Italian-manufactured TC-6 anti-tank mines are “very common” in the Taliban-dominated areas of the country and that they have been modified to increase their lethality in IED attacks.
The JIEDDO response said TC-6 mines are being “arrayed in two or three in tandem to ensure the charge is large enough to inflict damage against Coalition vehicles.” The TC-6 mines “continue to pose a significant threat to Coalition Forces”, JIEDDO said.
British writer Jason Elliot, who has traveled extensively in Afghanistan since 1979, reported in a 2001 book Min(d)ing Afghanistan that the Italian-made TC-6 was the most commonly used anti-tank mine used in Afghanistan. The 15-pound charge of TNT, wrote Elliot in the TC-6, he wrote, could “flip a tank the way a seagull flips a baby turtle.”
Millions of mines remained buried in the ground from the Soviet occupation period, Elliot observed. However, only some 20,000 anti-tank mines have been destroyed since 1989, according to the United Nations.
Further evidence that the Taliban are relying heavily on the TC-6 to damage NATO tanks is a picture published by al-Jazeera on May 1, 2007 in a Taliban storeroom of explosives in Helmand province.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
In 2005 and 2006, the Bush administration was making similar claims about Iran supplying IEDs in Iraq. The Cole article, dated 2007, was intended to cast doubt on administration claims.
But with the assertion in this ad that “Iranian bombs are killing American soldiers,” it would behoove anyone making it to provide proof. America cannot afford to open up another front that might develop from an attack on Iran’s nuclear faciities, but that may not apply to Israel, if it is foolish enough to drag itself and America into another war.
The ad is irresponsible.
Don’t know if this was your source, but it is totally in agreement. Asia Times.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KI05Ak02.html
The drums are being beaten and all are falling into line. Daily Kos is hardly some repository of enlightened thought so why would anyone be surprised?
The Vote-Vets add is not just web. It’s airing on broadcast TV in the upper Midwest. My main problem is that it’s ineffective.
The connections this ad attempts to make are so farfetched that it is surprising the ad is airing at all.
Never ceases to amaze me that an attack by a bunch of Saudis was used to manufacture war and warmongering on Iraq and Iran.
I’d guess that over half this country would eat paint if you spent enough money on ads for it.
Yep, not only eat it, but like it.
If I understand this correctly, the ad is pushing support for clean energy, not for an attack on Iran. It uses Iran as a boogeyman, but this ad is clearly targeted for a right-leaning audience that already sees Iran as public enemy #1 – not exactly apropos for Daily Kos unless the intent is to rile up the DFH’s so that the intended audience can see that the ad speaks their language.
The message of the ad is this: support the troops by reducing our dependence on the stuff (oil) that is getting them killed. That core message is something that I’d think we all agree upon.
Well, Oscar, if that is the case, then the ad seems to be sending a very different message than the one intended.
I think that’s a matter of audience – this audience hears “Iran is the reason why our soldiers are dying” and takes that as an implied message of “attack Iran” but the ad itself promotes a solution of reducing our dependence on oil that comes from Iran. Standard ad fare is to present the problem and then present the solution – this ad does not try to convince people that Iran is the problem, it assumes that the intended audience already believes that and plays upon that assumption. Remember, effective advertising does not target the logical parts of the brain but the emotional, so using the intended audience’s fear/hatred/irrationality/whatever regarding Iran in order to motivate them to support clean energy is the apparent intent of this ad.
My only question in this regard is why it was posted on Daily Kos since that clearly is not the intended audience.
It is unbelievably irresponsible to say or do anything for any reason that promotes the demonization of Iran, or confirms the false belief that Iran is a threat. I find it completely appalling that VoteVets would use this device in this way.
“why it was posted on Daily Kos since that clearly is not the intended audience.”
Thanks for at least recognizing that this ad is more of an appeal to the right wing and especially the Neconservative branch that still lurks around trying to influence where it can, and certainly if there is any country today in its sights, it is Iran.
Juan Cole would call it the new yellow cake after one rationale used for invading Iraq, a false one of course, like all the others. And that’s the point: the ad is not about Clean Energy, it is about demonizing Iran by indicating that Iranian bombs are killing Americans in Iraq. Frankly, I thought that the US troops over there were actually pulling back. However, they couldn’t say that Iranian bombs are killing Americans in Afganistan, because that proposition was already undermined. So why Iran” Why not the Taliban or Al Qaeda itself?
Good luck with your marriage, by the way.
The message, Iranian bombs are killing Americans in Iraq, is first of all unsubstantiated. Previous claims about Iran supplying IEDs and IEPs in Iraq (Bush, 2006) and Iran (2009) were proven false. The current claim is therefore without basis, and frankly a lie.
Then we are informed that if we reduce dependence on oil, Iran will suffer and no longer be capable of supporting terrorism, if I can carry through the intended associations. This notion is just preposterous.
There are many reasons to fault Iran beginning with its repression of internal democratic forces, which seek to overthrow its theocratic government. But this kind of nonsense from VoteVets.Org is just simply warmongering at its worse, and I think that most liberal bloggers are capable of seeing through it. Why a liberal blog like Daily Kos and others agreed to run the ad is beyond me. Rusty Pipes suggests that there may be a dry-up of advertising monies recently, which deserves consideration.
I notice that the ad is now off the top banner, replaced by a smaller ad down below, but it is not possible to say that the disturbance it caused is the reason.
And if we use Tag body spray then we will get mobbed by cheerleaders, MILFs, random new friends, hot nurses, or twinks. Advertising is often (always?) inaccurate because it has no intention of educating – it’s intent is to motivate you to act (to modify behavior). Connections between advertisements and objective reality are often coincidental – at least when it comes to effective advertisements – and that’s how we invaded Iraq in order to secure our freedoms.
I say if it’s good for the goose…
My god, Oscar! How in the world can you bring yourself to equate lying that amounts to warmongering – lying that could help lead to the destruction of a country, and the deaths of tens of thousands of human beings with lies about the benefits of body spray?
Come ON! Stop making excuses for this. VoteVets, an organization supposedly opposed to trumped-up wars, is helping to promote the lies being used to trump up a war.
I suppose it’s a matter of perspective, but I don’t see this as promoting anything other than the support of clean energy. The people to whom this is targeted already believe that Iran is supplying weapons/bombs in Iraq so there’s nothing to promote – that would be akin to promoting unions to Democrats or gun rights to Republicans. They already believe in these things, and this ad simply plays on those already-existing beliefs.
It is more than understandable if it offends the sensibilities of those who are not the target audience, and I somewhat believe that is its intent as well – to give it credibility with its actually-intended audience when the DFH’s lambaste it.
Oscar, this ad repeats as if they were truth the lies that are being used to promote attacking Iran. And you cannot see that this is, at best, deeply and dangerously irresponsible?! You cannot see how repeating, and not challenging these warmongering lies confirms them in the minds of those who already believe them, and is likely to move others who may be undecided to believe them? And you do not see how dangerous this is, especially coming from an organization like VoteVets?
This is not about offending sensibilities, it is about repeating, confirming, and promoting dangerous lies.
Maybe someone has already noticed that Eschaton is also blithely telling us in the banner that ‘Iranian bombs are killing Americans'(Tuesday). Is it possible for a country to sue for slander/libel? It’s disgusting.
Checking around, the ad has appeared on Daily Kos, Open Left, MyDD, and now as you you say. Eschaton, all allegedly liberal/progressive blogs.
As one possible reason, Rusty Pipes suggested that adverising monies for political blogs may be getting scarce. But that’s hardly an excuse for publishing what is essentially a warmongering ad against Iran. I don’t understand it, frankly.
it’s aimed at getting people to support climate change legislation by making the same point that we wouldn’t have to occupy half off central Asia if we didn’t need their oil and gas. The problem is that that argument is bullshit. What we’re trying to do with Iran is avoid a nuclear arms race between the Persians and the Arabs. We’d be interested in avoiding that even if we never needed Asian energy sources again. Their solution won’t avoid a showdown over Iran’s nuclear program, but it sounds nice and fits in with what people already think.
They are not demonizing Iran, they are saying we wouldn’t have to give a shit about them if we passed cap and trade. You’re offended by the wrong thing. It’s not whether Iran has helped kill Americans, because they have killed plenty (see Beirut, among other places), it’s that the ad is just stupid.
Stupid indeed.
As a theocracy willing to kill its own people for advocating democracy, Iran is not any9one’s favorite country. But in 2005-6, Chency-Bush were making similar claims about Iran killing Americans via imported IEDs, which was addressed by Juan Cole addressed in the original Daily Kos blast. Then in 2009, we had similar claims about IEPs in Afganistan, for which Oui provided the reality. Now we have Iran allegedly killing Americans in Iraq, at a time when American troops are in the process of pulling out of the country leaving it to Iraqi troops and policemen to take on the territorists.
Then there is the claim that Iran would suffer from Clean Energy legislation with specific numbers applied, 1.5 billion a year, a pittance as far as oil revenues are concerned.
Stupid indeed. So what is the point of these ads?
Sorry about the typos. My mind races ahead my fingers.
And let’s not forget, in the proposition that Iranian bombs are killing Amerians, “are” refers to the present tense, if my high school English doesn’t fail me.
No, the ad is dangerously irresponsible. The ad does not say that Iran has killed U.S. soldiers in the past, it repeats the inflammatory and dangerous lie that Iran is killing U.S. soldiers now. Just because some people in your intended audience already believe a lie does not make it OK to repeat it.
I hope that some insider or a perspicacious individual can get to the bottom of what really motivated this ad, because it is frankly stupid, even naive. Only the most uninformed people could buy into it, and I’m not that informed. It’s central lie and maybe even its intentions were easy to discern.
Shergald, American people are in general appallingly uninformed and unskeptical, and that includes otherwise intelligent, liberal-minded people. You can be sure that plenty of people who see this ad, and know VoteVets as a liberal, non-warmongering organizaiton are going to believe that if VoteVets says Iran is killing U.S. soldiers, then it must be true. I would also not be surprised to see the warmongering right citing this ad some time in the future as evidence that Iran needs nuking. We should not underestimate just how danerous this ad is.
I can’t disagree. It is being shown in eight states, probably to be seen by average people who don’t even own a computer. I also don’t believe that this organization doesn’t know precisely what it is doing, and in the context of current Middle East politics, it knows damned well that it is providing a basis for the justification of the bombing of Iran.
I just can’t see it any differently. And therein lies the Israel connection. So now we have to ask: where did the one million dollars come from which supported this advertisement campaign.
Sorry to sound suspicious, but there are just too many loose ends yet to be tied. Smoltz is not a stupid person, I assume. He has been running this org since its inception, a cofounder.
I see your beef with the ad. And I don’t disagree that it is off the mark. But their intention is not to make people hate Iran, it is to make people support Cap and Trade. I was talking about intentions. It’s a stupid ad.
Three to one on Daily Kos believed that the ad sucked (that’s a comparison of recommendations for primarydoc’s diary versus the one posted by Jon Smoltz, co-founder of VoteVets.Org, himself). Didn’t seem to bother Kos, or for that matter, Chris Bowers at Open Left.
It’s not just off the mark, it bases its argument on a lie.
As for intentions, we all know what road is paved with what kind of intentions.
BooMan, Would you accept the ad if it was offered to your blog?
No.