Again, Modern America Shows Its Vast Political Knowledge

Don't get us wrong. Ahmadinejad spews a lot of hatred and says a lot of horrible things. But that's essentially all he does. Today's NY Times reports that Iranians are puzzled by this White House's attention on him while Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the real leader if Iran.

Of course, FreedomsWatch (the group whose leader, Ari Fleischer, couldn't name the lone soldier in their pro-war TV commercial) has a full page ad a few pages later calling Ahmadinejad a terrorist, a threat to the United States and that we must have victory in the region. A collective "Duh" rings out among anyone who reads a freakin' newspaper...while the FreedomsWatches continue to wet their pants over two-bit dictators who had nothing to do with 9/11.

Since his inauguration two years ago, Mr. Ahmadinejad has grabbed headlines around the world, and in Iran, for outrageous statements that often have no more likelihood of being put into practice than his plan for women to attend soccer games. He has generated controversy in New York in recent days by asking to visit ground zero — a request that was denied — and his scheduled appearance at Columbia University has drawn protests.

But it is because of his provocative remarks, like denying the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be wiped off the map, that the United States and Europe have never known quite how to handle him. In demonizing Mr. Ahmadinejad, the West has served him well, elevating his status at home and in the region at a time when he is increasingly isolated politically because of his go-it-alone style and ineffective economic policies, according to Iranian politicians, officials and political experts.

Political analysts here say they are surprised at the degree to which the West focuses on their president, saying that it reflects a general misunderstanding of their system.

Unlike in the United States, in Iran the president is not the head of state nor the commander in chief. That status is held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, whose role combines civil and religious authority. At the moment, this president’s power comes from two sources, they say: the unqualified support of the supreme leader, and the international condemnation he manages to generate when he speaks up.

“The United States pays too much attention to Ahmadinejad,” said an Iranian political scientist who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “He is not that consequential.”

Comments

[Mark Richards]

It amazes me that Americans do not fully understand that IRAN, like most of the states in that region, are run by religious nutcases. The president of IRAN is a figurehead religious nutcase and is the servant of a supreme religious nutcase overseeing a nation of repressed religious nutcases.

IRAN, IRAQ, ISRAEL and the rest of these states require mental health assistance, including medications, along with a good dose of deprogramming backed up by education that emphasizes science, math, and the arts. The deep south of the US would benefit from the same.

Instead, we will send bombs and then drop some bibles, but first a little time-out to throw tomatoes at the face of the enemy. Can't kill what you haven't learned to hate.

[terri]

Indeedy. This is just propaganda to get the next war bandwagon rolling. Anyone looking for logic or intelligence is simply looking under the wrong rock.

[oldgringo]

From what I gather about this whole exercise is that the "rag head" just held up a mirror to the WHOLE FLIPPIN' GAGGEL O' GEESE Which IS NOW TEARING THIS COUNTRY TO SHREDS......throwing back the same type of garbage that THEY have been spewing for YEARS.....

[C.P.T.L.]

I missed the Ahmadinejad news today. Well... I confess, I was afraid to look.

Did America's psyche and soul weather that titanic whithering assault on decency itself?

Did Columbia University survive? Can it ever be the same?

Did those brave, true and honest good Americans who entered the maelstrom repel the invader's evil?

Did his horrid words strike down any of our best?

Did good ol' New York pluck and courage carry the day?

[YY]

What tires me out, as in the case of Chavez, is the character being framed as some sort of an evil incarnate (and dictatorial as well) enemy. Ahmadinejad strikes me as a fairly simple fella who in any event doesn't rise to the level deserving of danger warning and hatred being orchestrated. The usual establishment argument instructs to interprets Ahmadinejad making beligerent comments as believable and when he's making peaceful comments that he is lying and besides he is IRRATIONAL therefore a danger. The argument is don't listen to what he says because he is already the enemy, which in the context of being able to declare anybody an enemy is not all that surprising. American foreign policy should not be based on (or rather justified by) ascribing insanity and evil to other political actors/entities as a staring point. It isn't their evil and irrationality that is going to destroy you, but your own.

[C.P.T.L.]

Infantile Nation

"Does this generation possess the gravitas to lead the world?

Considering the hysteria that greeted the request of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at Ground Zero, the answer is no.

What is it about this tiny man that induces such irrationality? "

"Much of what national leaders do is symbolic. But that wreath-laying would have said something else, as well.

It would have said that, to Iran, these Americans were victims who deserve to be honored and mourned and, by extension, the men who killed them were murderers. Bin Laden celebrates 9/11. So do all America-haters. By laying a wreath at Ground Zero, the president of Iran would be saying that in the war between al-Qaeda and the United States, he and his country side with the United States.

How would we have been hurt by letting him send this message?

To the hysterics, Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler and we are all at Munich, and we should behave like Churchill and gird for war.

This is absurd. "

by Patrick J. Buchanan

[C.P.T.L.]

Bed-wetter Nation

"...what is conservative rule doing to our nation's soul? How is it rewiring our hearts and minds? What kind of damage are they doing to the American character? And can we ever recover?"

"...an illustrative example: one week in September of 1959, when... Nikita Khrushchev disembarked from his plane at Andrews Air Force Base to a 21-gun salute and a receiving line of 63 officials and bureaucrats, ending with President Eisenhower."

"Had America suddenly succumbed to a fever of weak-kneed appeasement? Had the general running the country, the man who had faced down Hitler!, proven himself what the John Birch Society claimed he was: a conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy?

No. Nikita Khrushchev simply visited a nation that had character. That was mature, well-adjusted. A nation confident we were great."

Rick Perlstein