Jesus.
This Ahmadinejad business is embarrassing. We manage to make ourselves look like collective idiots by a mediocre and marginally insane twit.
Somebody just pointed out that Iran is waging an effective propaganda feat vis a vis Chinese and Russian audiences and the dumbass “journalist,” the fire to the feet of our government, looks befuddled asking “How would he do that?” -- as if nothing the man says makes any sense at all.
I don’t know how many “journalists” I’ve seen hang this guy and besmirch everything he might say in advance. Some kid is interviewed after the speech at Columbia, “I thought the chancellor did a good job of undermining him from the start.
This is a trainwreck unfolding here. Groupthink on acid.
The guy is rambling and ineffective, caught up in some opinions which offend many people. And yet, nobody figures it’s incumbent upon them to sort out the bullshit (insofar as it is bullshit) from the possibility he may have a point on several matters.
But nooooo. Even the “journalists” routinely echo question-begging assumptions about his being “a terrorist” and a “sponsor of terrorism”. Scott Pelley the other day just ooozed emotionalistic pus when he questioned Ahmandinejad over ground zero, as if Iran had attacked us. Nevermind that in Iran we saw an outpouring of sympathy and pro-American expression right after 9/11. Here’s a nation with no history of aggression, being framed as the worst threat on Earth by a nation with not only a history, a near history! of hyper-aggression, but who has illegally invaded Iraq (if Nuremburg Principles and the UN Charter are to be recognized) bloviating about Iran while poised to attack.
Some inconceivably stupid bag of air is on MSNBC (she’s the “journalist”) framing Ahmandinejad almost in total sync with Administration propaganda. It’s unreal.
She’s wondering how Ahmandinejad could have any sway with Russia and China! So full of shit she can’t even see straight, can’t even see how Chinese or Russian leaders might view the US nowadays. It doesn’t take a doctorate in International Studies! It takes two minutes reading foreign newspapers. You know, they exist.
I didn’t catch it all. I did catch the part where he said homosexuality doesn’t exist in Iran. Sure does sound stupid, eh? But, matter of fact, the view could be defended given that an Islamic religious worldview might deny any homosexuality exists as such, i.e. as some actual/real collection of discrete homosexual units. Hate the sin, love the sinner; it’s easier for us to look down our nose with our vaunted 21st Century revealed wisdom at a crude little man. But nooooo, he is “a holocaust denier”… even though he denied any denial of the holocaust. But noooo, he’s said “Israel should be wiped from the map”… when it’s clear upon patient listening that he distinguishes between Zionism and Israel proper, even in the speech likening Zionism to Apartheid (which has been wiped off the map while leaving the RSA intact -- and which was the other “regime” modern Iran had specifically refused diplomatic contact with, and I don’t think anyone would fault them on that one). We just cannot listen to this man…. why, we must condemn and deplore Columbia for giving him the stage wherein legitimacy might be conferred! He can’t say anything we want to hear…why look at the funny things he has said about x, y and z.
But aside from the fact he may be a crude, unsophisticated, petty man -- even a delusional buffoon -- it could still pay to try and actually listen. Democracy in Iran was overthrown by the US in ‘53. We shot down one of their civilian airliners, bodies floating in the Persian Gulf. We supported Saddam Hussein in aggressive war against Iran in the ‘80s, a war that employed chemical weapons. If Iran wasn’t trying to impress other nations like China and Russia, they might have demanded an apology for such things before he would speak at Columbia!
Why we’re in a hyper-emotionalized oblivion here, the (sniff) sanctity of beloved Ground Zero… the wonderous intent of our noble war for freedom, regardless of horror upon horror. We’ve brutalized Iran and look down our nose at them as though they are warmongers. They can’t have nukes under any circumstances, even though the looming immediacy of an American attack on Iran would appear to justify the desire… the need as like nothing else!
And then Pat Buchanan comes on and speaks contrary to the regnant, gaseous Groupthink! Pat fucking Buchanan! And up against his points the “journalist” says: “If you were running for President again you would not be making this argument… politically speaking, you would not be making this argument.” Fox and MSNBC are resonating to the same ludicrous chord; did Condi hand out the talking points in person?
Christ, we’re all going to hell. Pat Buchannan speaks the truth and Cadillac Trucks are being sold to the tune of Led Zeppelin. It’s insane. We’ll be at war with Iran soon, and the kids will still refrain from protest, heads plugged into iPods… and all of us with our heads up our ass.