Sure, you say he has expressed a desire to wipe Israel off the map and that he's denied the existence of the holocaust. His words were more nuanced than that but you accept the most radical interpretations of his Arabic speeches.
Your eagerness to turn Ahmedinijad into the next great "Saddam" threat would be funny if it hadn't worked last time around. If you'll recall, at that time we heard all about how Saddam was the greatest threat to society since WW11, we heard all about his evil intentions and his ability to create a hell on earth, and we heard all about how important it was for us to change the "regime" in Iraq so the Iraqi people could once again be our "friends."
How'd all that work out?
Now we're hearing the same tired rhetoric about another third rate world power and another "great Satan" mideastern head of state. And guess what, most of the drum pounding warnings are overstated and sometimes simply silly.
But you believe every one of them. That didn't change either, did it?
The fact is that I've seen him interviewed and watched his reactions. He made sense, he showed a sense of humor and balance and he wasn't nearly as narrow-viewed as he's been made out to be in the right wing media. Based on how he handled the interview, he has a better mind than Bush.
So I'm not too worried that he's some suicidal maniac with no grasp of reality. And I'm not convinced that he holds a grip on power in Iran. And I'm not willing to give him that grip by sticking my nose, or a barrel of a gun, into Iranian internal politics. That country is very unsettled politically and if we wait it out I think we might be pleasantly surprised at where it goes if left on its own.
And if it all goes bad...it's still a third rate power with very little ability to do us harm and it's in the crosshairs of the wmd mammoth bully of the world. So what do you think its millions of citizens and its leaders are going to do?
Face it, your fear-based overreactions have created one 180 degree wrong projection after another with respect to what we should do, what will result from our actions and what we can do.
What makes you think that this time your "sky is about to fall unless we play God" analysis will somehow be different? Ed |
