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A Game Plan for Infinite War? 285

[IAEA] inspections."27 The dangers endemic in the "absence of evidence is evi-
dence of an imminent threat" mode of thinking are ignored by those interested in
promoting the Bush administration's notion that Iran is an emerging danger to
U.S. national security. This tendency was also discernable in media reporting of
the "threat" of Iraqi WMD, as chapter 3 discussed at great length.
Attacks on Iran alleging it is developing nuclear weapons have continued,
despite IAEA objections to the thesis. In another editorial from the New York
Times, the editors sought "to make it urgently and abundantly clear to Iran's
President.. .that the West will brook no hrther delays, and that it is serious and
united about imposing stem sanctions if Iran won't abandon its nuclear he1 en-
richment effort^.'"^ Kenneth Pollack of the Los Angeles Times spoke about the
necessity "to hold Iran's feet to the fire," as he discussed the "imperative that the
U.S. take a bigger leadership role" in the crisis by better addressing the "threat."
Condemnations of Iran have also taken a melodramatic, militaristic tone.
Writing in Time magazine, Charles Krauthammer argued: "Ultimately, human
survival" is "at stake in the dispute over Iranian nukes." Iran "is the most dan-
gerous political entity on the planet. . . if we fail to prevent an Iranian regime
run by apocalyptic fanatics from going nuclear, we will have reached a point of
no return."29 In a Wall Street Journal @-Ed, Claudia Rossett deplored the "de-
cayed, despot-infested collective that is the contemporary U.N.," prior to the
Security Council's imposition of Sanctions in 2007, for its failure to prevent the
Iranian regime from developing WMD. Rossett continued: "It is quite possible
that-after years of delay and dithering by the U.N.'s International Atomic En-
ergy Agency, the European Union, and the U.S. itself-there is no initiative that
will by now stop Iran short of direct military force." As self-appointed world
leader, Rossett assumes that "it is clearly the U.S. that will have to do the bulk
of the cajoling, prodding and backroom bargaining to put together any coalition
both able and willing. . . to get the job done."30
In generating the perception that Iran's "weapons of mass destruction men-
acem3' constitutes a threat to the U.S., the mainstream media has largely relied
on official allegations. A small sample of topically relevant headlines from news
organizations like the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News, and the
Associated Press drives this point home in greater detail. The pattern that
emerges is unambiguous in stories such as: "Rumsfeld Says Iran is Developing
Nuclear Arms Under Guise of Civilian Program"; "Iran's Emerging Nuclear
Plant Poses Test for U.S."; "Iran Ends Voluntary Cooperation with IAEA";
"Powell Says Iran is Pursuing Bomb"; "Bush: Iran Poses a Grave Threat"; and
"U.S. has Photos of Secret Iran Nuclear Such reporting does not have to
explicitly state, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Iran possesses weapons or
constitutes an imminent threat. Headlines and articles merely need to cite offi-
cial claims, without consistently incorporating the views of those who challenge
such claims. The absence of counter-evidence implicitly conveys the impression
that Iran poses a threat, while allowing journalists to maintain their status as
"objectively" reporting the news.
The headlines listed above are comparable in that they imply that the claims
of the Bush administration about a WMD "threat" are unworthy of serious ques-