Fear-Fuelling Conspiracies

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. --Aristotle

(MANAMA, Bahrain) - I don't believe in conspiracy theories. However I do believe in conspiracies.

All that's necessary is to have two or more conspirators conspiring to do something--anything--together.

This includes every imaginable conspiracy, from a couple of kids conspiring to tease other kids, to thieves planning a robbery, to countries creating coalitions against other countries.

Usually conspiracies come out of situations where the facts are known to few and the conspirators remain hidden.

Presently there's a conspiracy among those creating propaganda for bombing Iran. These war hawk politicians in both the U S and Israel use misinterpreted intelligence and incredulous rationales to argue that Iran should be bombed because they are working toward developing nuclear power.

It's not enough that Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons. According to Israeli hawks, Iran must not be allowed to work in the direction of developing nuclear weapons.

That argument is currently too weak to garner enough support from the American public to go into another costly war, primarily because it doesn't create enough fear.

A conspirator who wanted to see that ingredient added would find a way to create fear in the American public.

Old tricks like those employed to create fear leading to the Iraq war won't work. No one will easily buy the argument that another Islamic country has WMDs.

Even if fear for Israel is strong enough to make an argument for them, the stock of Israeli nuclear weapons convinces anyone with half a brain that they can defend themselves.

On the other hand, something going on in America can provide enough fear by Americans to support another war.

One only needs to follow closely the fear inspiring attacks on Islam picking up steam in America.

Combine the building fear of Islam in the US with the propaganda about Iran as a potential nuclear power and the conspiracy is almost complete.

Throughout his life as an educator, Dr. Paul J. Balles, a retired American university professor and freelance writer, has lived and worked in the Middle East for 40 years - first as an English professor (Universities of Kuwait and Bahrain), and for the past ten years as a writer, editor and editorial consultant.

He’s a weekly Op-Ed columnist for the GULF DAILY NEWS . Dr. Balles is also Editorial Consultant for Red House Marketing and a regular contributor to Bahrain This Month. He writes a weekly op-ed column for Akbar Al Khaleej (Arabic). He has also edited seven websites, including bahrainthismonth.com, womenthismonth.com

Paul has had more than 350 articles published, focusing on companies, personality profiles, entrpreneurs, women achievers, journalists and the media, the Middle East, American politics, the Internet and the Web, consumer reports, Arabs, diplomats, dining out and travel. Paul's articles on Salem-News.com are frank and enlightening. We are very appreciative of the incredible writings Dr. Balles has generated for our readers over the years, and we are very pleased to list him among our most valued contributors.

Indulging the hard subjects that keep the world divided is our specialty at Salem-News.com, and with writers like Dr. Paul Balles on our team, we amplify our ability to meet challenges and someday, will see the effects of this exist in context with a more peaceful and generally successful world.