Way back in May 2005, less than a month before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected President of Iran, the barking idiot Condoleeza Rice was prancing around the Middle East and threatening Iran with the sort of "major changes" which the United States had already inflicted on Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The Iranians should not consider themselves immune from the major changes that are going on in the region, and we would hope that they would begin to engage in more stabilizing behavior," said Rice, speaking after a meeting with Kuwaiti's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed al-Sabah.
Iranians voters, who were about to choose between the violently anti-American Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the much more conciliatory Mohammad Khatami, and the centrist Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, immediately understood that Condoleeza Rice was sending them a message!
"Elect that hard-liner Ahmadinejad and the biggest bully on the block will open a can of whip-ass on your sorry Islamic butts!"
Ahmadinejad immediately surged out of nowhere in the polls, and won the run-off election against Rafsanjani, because...
Contrary to what goddamned cowards and bullies like Dick Cheney, George Bush, and Condoleeza Rice believe, the world is full of people whom you cannot intimidate!
Maybe you can kill them, maybe you can bomb their cities to smithereens and inflict a genocidal occupation on the ruins, but they will not get down on all fours and obey your stinking orders!
This is incomprehensible to the Bushes and Cheneys of the world, but a brilliant manipulator of public opinion like Barack Obama understands it without even thinking, and so...
When Obama set off on a junket around the Middle East a few weeks before the subsequent Presidential election in Iran, he made much more conciliatory noises at the Iranians, and in my opinion he knocked the main prop out from under Ahmadinejad and his crew of half-witted relatives and mullahs who have totally wrecked almost every segment the Iranian economy for the last four years.
Why bother to re-elect that gang of fanatical boobs when you don't have to make a statement to the bullies and infidels in faraway Washington?
I don't know how the post-election turmoil in Iran will eventually be resolved, but even if Ahmadinejad survives, his authority has been seriously undermined, and that is already a brilliant success for Barack Obama and his foreign-policy advisors.
Since McCain said it several times to batter Obama over his willingness to talk with adversaries before bombing their innocent citizens, it's worth noting that the President of Iran has not called for "wiping Israel off the map." Obama did at least mention that Ahmadinejad is not in charge of the Iranian military and would not be able to order such an attack even if he wanted to, but that he supposedly said this has become one of the right's favourite zombie lies that cannot die.
Barbara Slavin, senior diplomatic correspondent for USA Today since 1996 and author of the recently published book, Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation (St. Martin's Press), writes that,
"Iran and the United States are like a once happily married couple that has gone through a bitter divorce. Harsh words have been exchanged - husband and wife have come to blows and employed others to inflict more punishment. Apologizing is hard and changing behavior even harder. This relationship is unequal, with one side or the other feeling more vulnerable at any given time and afraid the other will take advantage of concessions."
Just in case it's not obvious enough what the right is doing in New York City today by protesting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia University.
1) Empowering Ahmadinejad: He's not particularly important within Iran, but this kind of mindless attention helps him domestically.
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.
2) Leading Us into a New War: Wars require villains. Ahmadinejad, as an ineffective buffoon with a weak domestic power center, wasn't enough of a villain. He must be built up into an all-powerful character that can only be removed by American force. The divestment from Iran campaign, currently swirling around the states, is accomplishing this, and will almost certainly continue, at least PR-wise, into the next Democratic administration. This will make negotiations much harder and the path to a military strike much more likely.
3) Attacking Free Speech at Columbia: Dismantling or weakening institutions that stand up against the right or could conceivably do so is one of the long-term conservative movement strategic interests. The Freedom Watch ad calling Columbia University 'appeasers' is meant to intimate, and it often works in subtle ways.
Anyway, just in case you were confused about Republican patriotism, here's a short primer. The right is suppressing speech, building up the power of an avowed 'villain' Ahmadinejad, and trying to lead us into a larger and more devastating war.
