That's the question cartoon character Peter Griffin asked, during a visit to Ground Zero on "Family Guy". But according to Iranian American journalist Hooman Majd, the people of Iran are not as intent on developing nuclear weapons as some conservative leaders... or Peter Griffin... would suggest.
Judging from feedback we receive, many of you enjoy our reading suggestions before the shows. We’ve heard that it’s like a homework assignment, but not the kind you hated in school. So keeping with that theme we have a new “assignment” for you prior to this weekend’s show. It’s about Iran and the finding similarities between the arguments for war there and the arguments that were made for war with Iraq.
The Iraq war was sold to us on fear more than fact. There were officials and pundits who encouraged us to buy into a new war under the assumption that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Now some of the exact same people are creating a similar threatening storyline with Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
For example, in a recent segment on CNN Erin Burnett told viewers Iran had the capability of building a missile with a 6,000 mile range. “Enough to hit the United States of America,” she said. Glenn Greenwald called Burnett’s coverage a “parody” and “too extreme to be believable.” It was this type of coverage that influenced opinion and led to the Iraq war.
Our team here at “Up” has begun researching examples of subtle and overt supporters for war with Iran, and similar examples ten years ago by the same people. And we want to open the door to your ideas as well.
So if you have suggestions we’d like to hear from you. Who was advocating for war with Iraq and is now advocating for war with Iran? Leave a comment below and be sure to link to the source. Or email us at upwithchris@msnbc.com with the subject line Iran/Iraq. Then watch “Up w/ Chris Hayes” on MSNBC this weekend for more. Of course, if we use your suggestion we’ll be sure to credit you.
We look forward to hearing from you.
-Brett Brownell (@brettbrownell) is video and web producer for Up with Chris Hayes which airs on MSNBC Saturday and Sunday morning.
Over the past decade, Americans watched in bafflement and rage as one institution after another – from Wall Street to Congress, the Catholic Church to corporate America, even Major League Baseball – imploded under the weight of corruption and incompetence. In the wake of the Fail Decade, Americans have historically low levels of trust in their institutions; the social contract between ordinary citizens and elites lies in tatters.
How did we get here? With "Twilight of the Elites," Christopher Hayes offers a radically novel answer. Since the 1960s, as the meritocracy elevated a more diverse group of men and women into power, they learned to embrace the accelerating inequality that had placed them near the very top. Their ascension heightened social distance and spawned a new American elite--one more prone to failure and corruption than any that came before it.
