Reza Aslan Takes Chris Matthews to Task for Fear Mongering on Iran's Nuclear Program
By Heather Saturday Jun 13, 2009 3:00pm
Reza Aslan takes Chris Matthews to task for fear mongering on Iran. Matthews seemed positively flummoxed when Aslan pointed out to him that our own intelligence agencies have said that Iran is years away from developing a nuclear weapon, and that Iran might actually have a reason to be afraid of Israel. Matthews also seemed to have a lot of trouble understanding why those in power might want to hype the threat of Iranian nukes for political purposes. Imagine that.
MATTHEWS: Reza, what good does speaking the truth do -- and he has spoken it in terms of our relationship with Iran -- do to our relationship with Iran?
ASLAN: You know, he mentioned the CIA coup of 1953, which most Americans don`t know anything about, but which, I got to tell you, is like the core event, the ur-event of the 20th century as far as Iranians are concerned. It`s their revolutionary war, civil war all wrapped up into a single thing. And to hear a president even mention it, let alone acknowledge it in that way, had a huge effect in the cafes in Iran.
Let`s face it, you know, what Iranians want, and this has been proven over and over again -- just yesterday, a poll came out from Terror Free Tomorrow showing 77 percent of Iranians wanting to open up relations with the United States. This is not just about sort of a better international relationship with America, it`s about Iran`s own domestic situation.
As you know, the economy in Iran is on the verge of collapse. You`ve got a 26 percent inflation rate, you know, 13 percent unemployment rate. They need America in a way that they haven`t before, and it seems like for the first time in many, many years, both sides, both Iran and America, are ready. You know, in the `90s, Iran wanted to talk to America. America wasn`t ready. Later on...
MATTHEWS: Reza, You know, I worry about us facing a situation that could be horrendous, which is to have to choose between living with a bomb in the hands of the Iranian mullahs or -- I mean a nuclear bomb -- or going to war with them in a way that causes hatred for another thousand years, not just a decade or two. And that scares me.
ASLAN: Neither of those are likely. Neither of those are likely scenarios.
MATTHEWS: How so?
ASLAN: Well, as the IAEA itself showed, in 2003 Iran stopped his weapons program. That was a year before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- two years, actually, before Ahmadinejad was elected. And I think that, in a sense, you know, Iran wants nuclear power. They want, you know, a civilian nuclear program, and I think even the Obama administration has recognized there`s nothing to be done about that.
But Iran is a long ways from developing a weapons program, a weapons program, by the way, that is predicated on a sense of fear and a sense of threat, which Obama has taken away. I mean, Obama has said in no uncertain terms, We have no interest in a military engagement in Iran, the military option is off the table, which again has played a huge role in these elections because Ahmadinejad can`t play the national security card. He can`t say...
MATTHEWS: Well, wait a minute. I`m getting a disconnect. We`re going to have another voice on this in a couple shows from now, or pretty soon, because people who care about Israel -- and I`ve talked to a lot of people out here on the West Coast who do, and I`ve talked to people back East about it -- Americans who watch this issue are afraid, and they`re not just Netanyahu types or Likudniks on the far right -- are afraid that the government of Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. You say it`s not?
ASLAN: Israel has been saying that Iran is a year away from nuclear weapons for 10 years. So at a certain point, we`re going to have to start questioning Israel`s intelligence and perhaps trust our own CIA, which has said that Iran is many, many, many years away from developing a nuclear weapon.
But more importantly, as we speak right now, you and I, Israel has an untold number of nuclear weapons pointed at Teheran and a government that has threatened on numerous occasions, Netanyahu while running for office, that he would use those weapons in a preemptive way. Look, I`ll be honest with you...
MATTHEWS: Preemptive way? You have just used double-talk. No Israeli has ever talked about using a nuclear weapon for an offensive purpose.
ASLAN: That`s absolutely not right. In fact, Bennie Morris wrote quite a popular op-ed about it in "The New York Times" a few months ago...
MATTHEWS: Who?
ASLAN: Bennie Morris, the historian and thinker in Israel. But also, Netanyahu himself talked about it repeatedly, that you know -- that those options are going to be on the table. Look, I`m just telling you that from an Iranian perspective, Iran feels threatened by Israel as much as Israel feels threatened by Iran.
MATTHEWS: OK, let me tell you something. Israel will never use a nuclear weapon in an offensive first strike situation because they`d lose their number one ally, us.
ASLAN: Of course they wouldn`t. Of course they wouldn`t. It`s all talk.
MATTHEWS: Well, then why talk about it?
ASLAN: Because it`s talk in the same way that Iran is all talk. This is for domestic consumption. You know how politics works, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Well, if I were living in Israel...
ASLAN: These are people looking for votes.
MATTHEWS: ... right now, I wouldn`t -- I would take it quite to heart that me or my kids or all of us would end up the target zone for Ahmadinejad the minute he has his finger on that button.
ASLAN: First of all, Ahmadinejad doesn`t even have the national security clearance to even look at Iran`s nuclear portfolio, let alone make any decisions about it. The president doesn`t have national security briefings in that regard.
MATTHEWS: Right.
ASLAN: But second of all, Iran by all accounts is so far away from the possibility of weaponizing its program that the best way to make sure that it never happens is to engage Iran now. I think Obama`s speech in Cairo, going back to where we started, was brilliant in that regard.
MATTHEWS: Look, I hope you`re right. I would love your optimism to be the case. I hope it`s closer to the truth than I think it is. But thank you for coming on, Reza. You know your -- you grew up in that country. You come there from there. I hope you`re right. Reza Aslan from the Dailybeast. By the way, I love the Dailybeast. Thank you for joining us tonight.
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it's always redundant to state the obvious,
tweety is a moron.
Reza Aslan boxed Tweety in so tight, he was completely bereft of talking points by the end of the interview.
What I want to know is, who writes Matthews' script?
he is unwatchable, and I am constantly amazed at posters here saying he's OK from time to time. He's not. In fact his effect is worse because he's thought of as OK.
He gets it wrong more often than not, and his man crushes are beyond unprofessional for anyone other than a male prostitute. And when you think of it, that is precisely what Matthews and his ilk are. Poorly informed assclowns with audiences exponentially larger than they could get outside of Bizarro USA
The law of probability says that Chris Mathews will be right some of the time. Much like throwing darts at a board; if someone throws enough of them, eventually one of them will hit the center - even if it’s an idiot that’s throwing them.
.....is right twice a day. But I think your equating Tweety with a dart board is more like it. He's a brown noser. His obsequious treatment of some Republicans he has on his show is almost unwatchable. But I can't stand him either...he is mostly a moron. I watch the Ed Show and Countdown, but go read a book for the hour between that Hardball is on. That's more productive.
If you take a clock and move the minute hand to the 6 while keeping the hour hand on any number, the clock will never be right, much like Tweety. Of course, then the clock would be wrong on purpose, but isn't that really the point? None of these guys is doing anything except filling their Extreme Word Wrestling tights, beating their chest, and portraying their character. The Pres. is right, all they are doing is filling their roles and in the end you don't learn anything from them.
You have taken the thoughts out of my head and worded them perfectly.
I watch him when I must and ultimately am reminded of his "vision" for life, the whole "treat your life as if it were an election" bullsnot that Jon Stewart so rightly and well skewered him for espousing. He's not in any of these discussions for the truth. It's ratings, both for his show and for his personal career that he goes after. Nothing else matters. I agree 100% with Stewart, that is a shitty way to lead your life.
He's never good, he has just played the game so the right people think he's indispensible. I wish he would run for office simply to see that there are more people like you and me out there that think he's a blustery vat of mostly wrong instead of this great "journalist."
This interview is case in point about how the Israeli cabal in this country controls the message about Iran. The main talking points of these pundits and politicians is that Iran is a crazed Islamic state determined to build a nuclear stockpile...in order to bomb Israel.
Nothing could be further from the truth, as this gentleman points out. You can't listen to the Goldbergs, Krauthammers and Kristols when it comes to Iran. These are the same chicken hawks who continually pushed for our young soldiers to go to war with Iraq because Iraq poised a threat. Remember!!! This is act two of the same war crazed Jewish cabal who want to push this country into another war. A war where their sons and daughters will not partisipate in the fighting.
Israel, for instance, will only wage war on people who have only limited means of fighting back, and here I speak of the Palestinians and other regions that have no way to counteract against the US supplied weapons and aircraft.
I say let Israel wage their own wars with their weapons and we should discontinue our aid to Israel.
The world would be more peaceful if it wasn't for Israels constant propaganda.
At least not news that requires thought and analysis.
does not represent the state of israel
mathews may be off base here, but aslan doesnt help with exagerations on the other side
and how about a comment from aslan post the huge election fraud?
And so, you're saying what? That Iran has no reason to fear Israel? That Iran doesn't feel threatened by Israel? That Netanyahu doesn't speak belligerently toward Iran (and other countries in the Middle East)?
What's the exaggeration? Maybe Netanyahu wouldn't preemptively strike Iran, but did he not threaten to do something of this nature during the election?
exaggerations on the other side????? Go to AIPAC website if you want to see exaggerations. Go to the floor of Congress to see exaggerations. Read the MS press and see who gets treated fairly or not.
Aslan represents many who want to see a nonviolent form of diplomacy and part of that is calling out Israel for there atrocities in Palestine and engaging in threatening rhetoric towards Iran.
I picture Netanyahu as another exterminator. He sees Arabs and Iranians as cockroaches coming out of the sewers, like that comic in the news about a year ago.
Here it is. Maybe Netanyahu drew it???
http://www.payvand.com/news/07/sep/Racist-Ira...
(PS uncle Joe, it isn't being anti-semitic, it's an opinion. I am not a fan of Hitler, but have many German friends. So save it. You've told me many times.)
Otherwise, Israel would shut their traps about attacking Iran.
Aslan was describing the politics on the ground in Israel, away from the proclamations from the government that are anti-Tehran and indeed gung-ho warlusting for Iran. This is where Morris falls.
What he said was true, Israel has said for 10 years that Iran's going to nuke them within a year. There's nothing wrong with checking that out and abandoning it when the years go by without any attacks and Iran's economy is going into the shitter.
Reza Aslan, the intelligent voice of sanity and reason in an area of the World sorely lacking in both. I would love to see him debating that deluded neo-con asshat John Bolton.
they will be slapped down with accustions of being anti-semitic.
Netanyahu is a right wing hawk, and he will never allow Israel to broker any kind of peace with Iran..
There are people on both sides who want peace, but they are not the ones in power..
It doesn't seem to matter who's in charge in Israel, their policies don't change. They pretend to negotiate with their neighbors, while at the same time doing all they can to ensure that peace will never happen.
tweety is a republican -- he readily admits to supporting overwhelmingly republican candidates in past elections. his current crush on obama is temporary and is being chipped away by, i suspect, that nantucket sugar daddy responsible for bringing tweety to cable -- jack welch. notice how he adopts all gop talking points; he's a defender of torture ('24' is a huge influence with him); he welcomes the most dishonest, gop assholes on to spew their lies; but mosstly he's a wdc gossip queen eager to provoke dissension in the political discourse because it's a fucking game to him and his ilk. you never will hear a detailed, informed discussion of an issue on that program.
is a moron
He is just following the party line: Iran nukes bad, Israel nukes good. It is so hypocritical; there were plenty of world voices against Anerican nukes and nuclear testing back in the 60's but that didn't seem to faze the government in the least.
Also, I am pretty sure Iran noticed that if Iraq had nukes they wouldn't have been invaded.
Why do other countries not have the right to nuclear weapons? If the USA can have them why not others?
The USA is the only country foolish enough to use them, and is still making new "improved" bunker-buster ones. It's like you will/plan to use them again, and we're supposed to be OK with that?
"I hope it`s closer to the truth than I think it is. But thank you for coming on, Reza. You know your -- you grew up in that country. You come there from there. I hope you`re right."
Yes Chris,that is right.He "come's there from there" and now that you've learned something,let's see if you can remember it and not keep repeating the same blather over and over.
Pffft. Facts.
Who needs facts when we need someone else to be afraid of? Rational discussion of facts like the Iranians are years away from a bomb ain't gonna be helping Carlyle Group or GE's bottom line. C'mon people, won't somebody think about the bottom line for once?
Option #1
ASLAN: That`s absolutely not right. In fact, Benny Morris wrote quite a popular op-ed about it in "The New York Times" a few months ago...
MATTHEWS: Who?
ASLAN: “The New York Times.”
MATTHEWS: Who’s that?
Option #2
ASLAN: That`s absolutely not right. In fact, Benny Morris wrote quite a popular op-ed about it in "The New York Times" a few months ago...
MATTHEWS: Who?
ASLAN: Benny Morris.
MATTHEWS: Benny Morris? Never heard of him.
The editorial in question is most likely this one from back when W was still prez and we were totally expecting W to bomb Iran any day. I would imagine that the possibility exists that this editorial prevented a war.
Using Bombs to Stave Off War
If it means eventually normalization of diplomatic relations, and more hot Iranian chicks emigrating here. Some of the hottest girls I've met were Iranian.
Haha. You have your priorities in order.
But seriously, so am I. We've been isolated from them for 30 years. Maybe some dialogue would work. It'd be nice to do the same with Cuba, too. I'm really dreaming there.
Really good guest. At least Matthews didn't end up completely rejecting what he was saying. It is odd, though, that so many of us can only see the fear Israel has and seem to completely miss the fear the palestinians, iranians, iraqis, egyptians et al have of Israel.
Tweety's world view is political.
That's to say that he sees everything through political motivations and machinations. In Tweety's world if an action is done or word is spoken it can only be for political gain or suppression of a political foe. Facts and morality are tools in the political game to be spun and manipulated.
Is a superficial idiot.
But I think all republicans are!
republicanism is a mental illness.
If Reza keeps telling Matthews' audience that Israel has nuclear weapons, GE will get scared that he will next tell them that Israel has violated more UN Resolutions than anyone else.
Aslan won't be back anytime soon, that's for sure. Chris was against the Iraq war, but other than that, he's been so wrong so often, he actually thought he could run for the Senate in Pennsylvania while Ed Rendell was Governor.
For a guy who professes to love politics, he sure read the tea leaves wrong there. Hmmm, Rendell backed Clinton. Matthews trashed Clinton for 10 years. Now why would Rendell let Matthews use his fund-raising network?
If Reza keeps telling Matthews' audience that Israel has nuclear weapons, GE will get scared that he will next tell them that Israel has violated more UN Resolutions than anyone else.
The truth, in that case, would certainly scare GE... Good point.
He was even dismissive in his smarmy way of Reza's points. Chris acted as if he somehow took his argument as fact and Reza's as merely "optimism"... Fear is the mind killer and Mathews doesn't know where his is half the goddamned time!
"Well, wait a minute. I`m getting a disconnect. We`re going to have another voice on this in a couple shows from now..."
Oh, does he now? Would he ever say that to Jonah Goldberg? He was terrified that the truth was coming out, and succinctly, and he had nothing to counter with.
"...because people who care about Israel are afraid that the government of Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. You say it`s not?"
Yes, yes he is, Chris. Too bad. Is he expecting Aslan to retract his statement? What about "people who care about Israel AND Iran?" Chris MUST have talked to some of them at some point, right? Maybe on the East coast? Or West coast, perhaps?
Boy, Tweety is pretty transparent.
What about "people who care about Israel AND Iran?"
Exactly!
I hate giving affectionate names to jerks like Chris Matthews. The guy is a light weight in the intelligence department. He flatters his guests like a teacher's pet, it's embarrassing to see a grown man act that way. He is way too kind to Repugnants like Delay, and others. He can be praised for being professional maybe once a week, but that's not enough to be a loyal viewer. I don't watch him much anymore because I can learn much more in that hour in other ways and avoid the corporate spin at the same time. He's to the "right" but at least he's not an extremist like Faux, that channel is a total waste of time to most of the nation.
He constantly interrupts his guests, too. It's so annoying. If you ask a question, let someone answer.
When Chris Matthews says, "tell me something I don't know", he needs to be told, he is not a man, he's a woman.
...Tweety had my jaw drop. Cleaning up his question:
"Reza, what good does SPEAKING THE TRUTH truth do to our relationship with Iran?"
Yeah. "Truth." What good is that? Why should we speak the truth to any nation, including our own? Bush never did, and look at the glory that surrounds us.
Just shoot me.
Matthews is awful. I've said here on a few occasions that he is to politics what Joan Rivers is to celebrities. That's his show.
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