The Nuanced Left and Ahmadinejad

I may have been wrong early in the week when I said that no one on the Left could possibly think that Ahmadinejad had anything of value to offer the public in his scheduled speeches. I wasn’t wrong that he had nothing of value, I was wrong for giving the Left credit for having a bit of common sense. Apparently, they have none.

While Congress got to work yesterday expanding sanctions against Iran and punishing the corporations that continue to support the 12th Century government, a small crowd of protesters vied for attention in front of the White House calling for a halt to our “planned invasion” of Iran (Washington Post);

The 25 protesters, most of them from the Troops Out Now Coalition, walked in a circle on the sidewalk north of the White House, chanting “Get out of Iraq! Stay out of Iran!” and holding signs that read: “Don’t Terrorize Iran” and “Don’t Appease Israel.”

“There’s a hysteria in the media emanating from New York . . . against the president of Iran,” coalition spokesman Larry Holmes said. “We’re here in response to what’s been going on in New York: the Columbia debate, the front pages of the tabloids, the electronic media, demonizing the president. And we know what it’s about.

“We know that the government is in very advanced stages of planning for a war in Iran. They’ve got a naval armada” in the Persian Gulf, he said. “The Pentagon’s got its plans. And now we see the psychological preparation.”

Um, maybe there are preparations because Iran would be a very dangerous government if if owned weapons with which they could obliterate entire races of people by pushing a button. And the only hysteria I see runs the other way – hysterical defense of govenment bent on destroying its neighbors and the rest of the civilized world.

And the only reason that Iran is the target of the world’s ire stems from the fact that they don’t want to follow international protocols (Washington Post);

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Tuesday not to give in to pressure by “arrogant powers” trying to force him to abandon his nation’s uranium-enrichment program and unilaterally declared that as far as he is concerned, “the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed.”

In a fiery speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Ahmadinejad denounced what he called the “master-servant relationship of the Medieval Age” imposed by the United States and other leading nations through the Security Council. He expressed confidence that God would not allow the Bush administration to launch a military attack against his country and said Iran has “spared no effort to build confidence” that it wants only civilian energy, not nuclear weapons.

Uh-uh, and that’s why they’re working on long-range missiles that reach Israel. Instead of working with the UN, Iran has sticking it’s finger in the eye of the UN and has so far disregarded no less than three deadlines established by the UN to prove to the world that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons – I wonder why they’d do – unless they’re building nuclear weapons, of course.

Instead of working towards being a responsible nuclear power, Iran’s President sticks his finger in the eye of the UN, yet again, and makes unilateral declarations (Washington Times);

“I officially announce that in our opinion the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed and has been turned into an ordinary [regulatory] matter,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, speaking on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly debate, hours after President Bush criticized the country’s human rights record.

So let me guess who the Left is going to blame when Iran eventually becomes a nuclear power and starts firing off missiles at random.

In an amazingly naive article in the Washington Post’s PostGlobal section, Ali Ettefagh writes “Wake Up, America” which turns out to be nothing but a footnote to Ahmadinejad’s three appearances this week in front of the US media. Claiming that we think Iran is still in the 1970’s, Ettefagh chastizes the US media for asking the Iranian president the same questions over-and-over;

It was also amazing to see the American Rainman repeat the same questions over and over again. A reporter from CBS’ 60 Minutes asked tough questions in an interview in Tehran, which was broadcast on Sunday and subsequently reported in newspapers and more than 2000 websites. The very next day, the National Press Club members repeated the same questions, and later that day, an academic put the same questions to President Ahmedinejad a third time. Somehow, the CBS reporter, the National Press Club and the professor did not recall that it is their treasure and blood that funds Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the death and destruction of Iraq. (They are probably too busy congratulating themselves on their massive foreign aid of US$20 per Palestinian!).

Of course, Ahmadinejad’s apologist never bothers to mention that Ahmadinejad never answered any of the questions in a serious manner – and so the questions needed to be asked three times – to no result. But let’s change the subject of the unanswered questions and mention Abu Gahraib, Guantanamo and the fact that we only partially fund terrorist operations in the West Bank. Cuz it’s all the US’ fault – that’s thrown in for all of the guilt-ridden Leftists to get them slobbering and frothing about their sexual inadequacies and to get them raging at the Judeo-Christian neo-cons (and it works in this case).

The truly amazing part of the piece, besides the fact that Ettefagh can apparently type while engaged in an air-tight lip-lock with Ahmadinejad, is the Washington Post’s readers comments which generally thank Ali for “thinking outside the box” as one writer, absolutely unafraid of worn cliches, puts it.

I guess we should over look the fact that the “thinking” in this case, is pure propaganda mouthed by someone comfortably ensconced in Western culture while encouraging a blood-soaked tyrannt to bathe in even more blood while Ettefagh covers for him a half-a world away. And the “box” is nakedly-expressed aggressive intent to wipe out entire races of people so some wizard in a magic well can rise and rule the world. 

I’m just simply amazed that the American Left can just chuck aside common sense in favor of pure politics, despite the risks to national security. Are universities just sucking the brains out of people these days?

Category: Antiwar crowd, Foreign Policy, Terror War