http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/261037 U.S. reaction to Ahmadinejad rhetorical overkill TheStar.com - columnists - U.S. reaction to Ahmadinejad rhetorical overkill September 27, 2007 Haroon Siddiqui
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questions the Holocaust and wants Israel wiped off the map. Still, the American reaction to his visit to New York has been way over the top. The city thought that his sinful presence would desecrate the site of 9/11. "The evil has landed," screamed a tabloid. A TV pundit called him "a foul-smelling fruit bat." A councillor likened him to the "snakes slithering through the streets of New York." The president of Columbia University, ostensibly celebrating the civility of academic freedom, unleashed a 10-minute tirade, pandering to agitated patrons. But was the petty politician from Tehran worth all this attention? The president of Iran has little power. This was proven during the tenure of his predecessor, the popular and suave Mohammed Khatami, who could not get much done despite holding a commanding majority in parliament. Iran itself has little or no power to wipe Israel off the map. It can only support Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran is also nowhere near making a nuclear bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly said so, even while noting some minor cheating. Iran cannot develop the bomb if the agency inspections continue. (North Korea, Pakistan, India and Israel made the bomb on the sly by not letting the inspectors in). Recently, the IAEA and Iran agreed on even more intrusive inspections. Yet the United States, joined by France and Germany, wants to pursue bilateral and Security Council sanctions. The latter would pave the way for a possible war on Iran (not likely, given the quagmire in Iraq) or the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, its oil installations as well as military and civilian infrastructure (highly likely). This makes Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA chief, "shudder." The U.S. is pounding "war drums" the way it did prior to invading Iraq. Congress, too, is caving in, just as it did then. Demonizing Ahmadinejad fits in this bigger picture. Not all those angry at him want war with Iran. But many do. He obliges them with dangerous and sometimes stupid statements, such as that there are no homosexuals in Iran (he should read Farsi literature). Either he's the fool we think he is or he's playing to his constituency of poor Iranians who he promised economic gains but failed to deliver. Lobbing rhetorical bombs at the U.S. and Israel is a diversion. The way he has been pilloried in the U.S. has won him the sympathy of even those Iranians who don't like him but are offended that their elected president has been subjected to gratuitous insults. He will also win admiration well beyond Iran for claiming that the Palestinians are being made to pay the price for the Holocaust; for attacking America's double standards on nuclear issues; and for pointing out George W. Bush's hypocrisy in lecturing the world on human rights while violating them. His bombast aside, Ahmadinejad's country, unlike the U.S., has not launched a war in recent memory, though it has been implicated in terrorism. It is also not presiding over the killings of tens of thousands, as is the U.S. in Iraq. For Bush et al., Iran is a good diversion from all that has gone wrong in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Israeli occupied territories. They are angry at Iran for grabbing the opportunities they have handed it on a platter. They are now trying to slay the dragon of their own creation. _____ Haroon Siddiqui, the Star's editorial page editor emeritus, appears Thursday and Sunday. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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