Joe Klein on Israel, Iran and 'real countries'

Have a listen here to leading Time journalist Joe Klein's welcome denunciation of Netanyahu, accompanied by some sober truths on the 'threat' from Iran, which he defends as a "real country" rather than the oft-depicted crazed state.  Then consider Klein's take on what doesn't constitute a "real country"; namely, those, like Pakistan, which, he says, present a much more irrational, extremist and uncivilized threat to the world. To the liberal ear, it's a fair comparison, drawing us back from the hawkish propaganda against Tehran that's fuelling the case for war. Yet, consider. Never in Klein's liberalised worldview could America itself ever be included in that unworthy category of 'not a real country', despite its foremost role in such fearmongering, mass killing and uncivilized behaviour around the globe - not to mention the rampant poverty and social misery it has inflicted on its own people. Nor are you likely to hear Klein and his fellow liberal commentariat dissect the key role that Washington has played in enabling volatility and violence in 'non-real' countries like Pakistan and Libya. In a further racist denigration of such 'backward' states, Klein offers the added suggestion that Iranians shouldn't be bombed because they're like 'Californiaised us', living in high-rise apartments rather than tents. Note also, at the conclusion of the interview, how Klein tempers his criticisms on who is the greater danger on the world stage, the Iranian Supreme Leader or Netanyahu. The answer, even by his own preceding logic, should be obvious. Yet, like his default defence of Obama, an outright warmonger, Klein reverts back to safe critical territory. How, after all, could 'our' leaders, for all their faults and manoevrings, ever really be worse than such "fascist" others? A classic example of how, even in their open criticism of figures like Netanyahu and rational warnings on Iran, liberal notables still help service the core ideals of 'good America' while intimating ongoing support for Israel.   John