A dictation lesson

We know this world is insane, but sometimes, you really need to step back to get enough perspective to realise how really fucking insane it is.

President Ahmadinejad of Iran has indulged in some fruity rhetoric (although he did not say that Iran wished to wipe Israel off the map; that is simply a lie, and does not become truer for ceaseless repetition -- he said that in time the regime in Israel would be wiped away, just as others have been). But he was elected in a fair election. He is an outcome of democracy. And his actions have not on the whole been aggressive. Yes, Iran "meddles" in Iraq. Iran is Iraq's neighbour. The situation in Iraq concerns it. That a nation that has attacked its neighbour for no good reason should hector Iran for being involved in its own region is ridiculous.

But America has decided it is having another war, and Ahmadinejad must be painted as a bloodthirsty tyrant. However, when you talk to him, the meme doesn't play as well as it does in the rightard echo chamber, as airhead CNN reporter Scott Pelley found out when interviewing him. Pelley was handed a thorough spanking by Ahmadinejad. He repeated a bunch of rightist talking points, and Ahmadinejad simply answered "those are a bunch of rightist talking points".

It must frustrate and bemuse him that he is faced with this wall of sheer insanity. What must he think to be called a "warmonger" (when he has not started a war and is not fighting one) by people who are still occupying his neighbour, having destroyed it thoroughly, and intend to attack his nation shortly?

It is like Hitler lecturing the French! Is America so insane it doesn't see itself? Ahmadinejad is not the "new Hitler". He is the head of a regional power (and only the head of its civil administration, equivalent to the Majority Leader, not the president), a nation that has every right and expectation to lead in its region, a contestant for influence, which does no more, no less than any other power to keep itself secure and sway its neighbours to its own goals. He has not attacked anyone, nor is his "regime" any fiercer than any previous Iranian regime (indeed, his internal power is not so firmly held, and his position is quite shaky). He doesn't like Jews, true, but I doubt George Bush likes them much either (one should note that Bush's version of Christianity has the firm belief that Jews who do not convert to Christianity will be slaughtered en masse in its apocalypse -- if anyone believes Jews should be wiped off the map, it's not Ahmadinejad). There is though an extremist nationalist aggressor in his region -- two of them. He is opposed to, and opposed by, both. But who wouldn't be? It would be insane not to, given their aims for his region and his nation.

posted by Dr Zen @ 10:33 am