Everybody knows that we mere mortals who headquarter our newsgathering and commentary operations in places like Nevada (flyover country) cannot possibly know as much about international affairs as, say, folks from the media capital of the world, New York or the political capital of the world, Washington D.C.
But, every once in a while, we stop breaking rocks, milking cows and driving dump trucks long enough to have an opinion about what is going on beyond our borders, even our continent and it would behoove those masters of the universe who inhabit those capitals to give it some thought.
I cannot help but think that the fighting now going on in Iran is essentially between two groups, one led (figuratively, of course) by Adolph Hitler and the other led by Adolph Eichmann.
And the folks who are followers of Eichmann are upset because Hitler won an election which was even more crooked than some which have taken place in Chicago.
The only advantage to us in this situation is that when they are fighting with each other, they can’t fight with us.
Current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an official nutjob because he has taken the time to prove it. His challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, however, has Ahmadinejad’s track record without his portfolio. He was the last Prime Minister of Iran before the governing mullahs had their own version of a constitutional convention and reconfigured the government more to their liking.
He was the guy who started the Iranian nuclear program by cutting a deal with our “friends” in Pakistan for the precursor technology. It would appear that unless Mousavi has become a born again Christian and had a religious epiphany his view of the west—and especially us—is that we are Satan lite as opposed to the current view.
Folks, despite that kid in the White House’s concept that you could look into one of these guys’ eyes and see their soul (OK, I’m taking some liberties here) these guys are nuts and will never, ever share our agenda as long as we exist. Those Iranians who want reform live largely in Los Angeles and most of those million people would probably not go back if you paid them.
What’s happening in Iran isn’t about freedom, or human rights or even allowing women to have an equal place in society.
It’s about power and, to some extent, money.
If Eichmann (Mousavi) were to take the President’s job and set up a new government, they would still send IED’s to terrorists in Iraq and they would still send rockets to Hamas and Hezbollah, just as they are doing today.
Engaging these jerks is simply a waste of time. As they are busy proving right now to each other, the only thing they understand is pure, brute force and the sad fact is that we didn’t learn that lesson in 1979.
For too many years, our foreign policy has been that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
So we chose up sides with the Shah of Iran and created an opportunity for Ahmadinejad and his buds to come to power. Don’t forget that Ahmadinejad has made a previous appearance on ABC’s Nightline back in 1979 when he and his fellow “revolutionaries” took over our embassy and held our people hostage for a year. (Except for Ross Perot’s people who he, personally, rescued.)
We sure had a lot of success in Afghanistan back then, as well, when we backed what would become the Taliban against the Russians. (For you kids, watch Charlie Wilson’s War for some very accurate background. It’ll be hard to tell the villains from the good guys, but then hindsight is 20-20 these days.)
And lest we forget, the late Saddam Hussein was once our friend as well.
We actually do have some friends. You can tell our friends from our eventual enemies by seeing who’s nuts and who’s not.
In general, those with the strongest historical connection to the United States are not nuts. Those whose governments rule from a religious text are nuts.
All the tolerance in the world won’t change that.
It’s time we recognized that and stopped choosing up the wrong sides. And in this specific case, we hope President Obama will soon realize that there is NO side we should choose.
We should just sit back and enjoy the show.
FRED WEINBERG
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