First of all, allow me to say Stephen Colbert's speech in front of Dubya last weekend was priceless and super balls!
The left blogosphere is alight with all sorts of praise and joy that someone would dare speak the truth, no matter how tongue in cheek, right to the man's face and should you wish to express thanks go to thankyoustephencolbert.com.
IN other news; Juan Cole, a well regarded history professor from of Michigan had recently been horrifically misquoted without permission on Slate.com by one Christopher Hitchens regarding Iran's awesome president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Now, I am not too interested in the issue at hand regarding Hitchen's idiotic methods of reporting (see the actual post for details) so much as some rather enlightening items Cole had to say about dear Ahmadinejad that characterizes American understanding of Iran and how we bullshit ourselves to buy into America's next great enemy.
To be sure, I am not seeking to show everyone how Iran is so great and we all need to be buddies. Ahmadinejad is definitely a nutter and surely isn't our pal in the world and will never really will. However, did he really say he wanted to wipe Israel off the map? Cole says;
I object to the characterization of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as having "threatened to wipe Israel off the map." I object to this translation of what he said on two grounds. First, it gives the impression that he wants to play Hitler to Israel's Poland, mobilizing an armored corps to move in and kill people.
But the actual quote, which comes from an old speech of Khomeini, does not imply military action, or killing anyone at all. The second reason is that it is just an inexact translation. The phrase is almost metaphysical. He quoted Khomeini that "the occupation regime over Jerusalem should vanish from the page of time." It is in fact probably a reference to some phrase in a medieval Persian poem. It is not about tanks.
Hmm, that is a little different than actively threatening to invade Israel, don't you think? Do you believe that this will be corrected within the American lexicon/media discussion regarding Iran? Of course not! The more we think Iran is being run by a nutter and there is no alternative other than bombing Iran into nothing the better. Cole continues;
He made an analogy to Khomeini's determination and success in getting rid of the Shah's government, which Khomeini had said "must go" (az bain bayad berad). Then Ahmadinejad defined Zionism not as an Arabi-Israeli national struggle but as a Western plot to divide the world of Islam with Israel as the pivot of this plan.
The phrase he then used as I read it is "The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] from the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad)."
Ahmadinejad was not making a threat, he was quoting a saying of Khomeini and urging that pro-Palestinian activists in Iran not give up hope-- that the occupation of Jerusalem was no more a continued inevitability than had been the hegemony of the Shah's government.
Quite different from the usual rhetoric we are told by our super-good media! Cole goes on to point out:
As for the matter at issue, Ahmadinejad is a non-entity. The Iranian "president" is mostly powerless. The commander of the armed forces is the Supreme Jurisprudent, Ali Khamenei. Worrying about Ahmadinejad's antics is like worrying that the US military will act on the orders of the secretary of the interior. Ahmadinejad cannot declare war on anyone, or mobilize a military. So it doesn't matter what speeches he gives.
Moreover, Iran cannot fight Israel. It would be defeated in 72 hours, even if the US didn't come in, which it would (and rightly so if Israel were attacked). Iran is separated by several other countries from Israel. It has not attacked aggressively any other country militarily for over a century (can Americans say that of their own record?) It has only a weak, ineffective air force. So why worry about it?
What is really going on here is an old trick of the warmongers. Which is that you equate hurtful statements of your enemy with an actual military threat, and make a weak and vulnerable enemy look like a strong, menacing foe. Then no one can complain when you pounce on the enemy and reduce his country to flames and rubble.
The War-machine in Washington are clearly establishing a pre-text for war with Iran and it's evil, villain leader. Sound familiar? Kind of Iraq-ish? Will anyone in Washington ever learn? Will any of us learn to scream loud enough so that this ridiculous conflict doesn't happen? Cole drums his anti-war drum quite loudly at the end of his post and if you haven't read it yet, please be sure to check it out now.
Posted by Ahlberg
at 5:44 PM CDT
