With the commitment and courage of this chamber, we can build a world where people are free to speak . . ." --Bush Tuesday, addressing the UN General Assembly - September 25, 2007
After all of the saber-rattling toward Iran, and their designation of Iran as our public enemy number-one, I suppose the Bush administration should be given credit for allowing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to even travel to America, much less give a public address. In an atmosphere where songman, Cat Stevens can't travel freely into the country, it was surprising to see the leader of the regime which the Bush administration has characterized as "the leading sponsor of world terrorism, sponsor of attacks on our troops in Iraq, and a potential nuclear threat," allowed any movement at all among our precious citizens.
Of course, there was that ban on Ahmadinejad making his planned pilgrimage to Ground Zero to lay a wreath in remembrance of those killed on 9-11. Such a sentimental display from the point man on Bush's 'axis of evil' would undoubtedly clash with the deliberate, calculated campaign by the White House to paint the Iranian president as a monstrous figure whose evil deeds are somehow obscured by his everyman facade.
One look at the sleight foreigner mingling among the hordes of visitors to the site of New York's tragedy; paying respects to those innocents who found themselves in the way of the madness of Bush's other nemesis, bin-Laden (the one who actually threatened America directly and followed through with devastating effectiveness . . . the one Bush became bored with after he let him escape 6 years ago) and Americans might mistake the Iranian president as someone who actually gives a damn.
Vice President Cheney's daughter Elizabeth, from her $20 million State Dept. office -- the self-described 'democracy czar' charged with regime change for Iran -- got her father to release Sec. of State Rice from her noticeable exile from the recent Iraq debate to serve-up her administration master's special dish on Iran's Ahmadinejad. Rice went on CNBC Monday to declare that the Iranian president's planned visit to Ground Zero would be a "travesty."
"I think this is somebody who is the president of a country that is probably the greatest state sponsor of terrorism, someone who is a Holocaust denier, someone who has talked about wiping other countries off the map," Rice said.
The principle orchestrator and cheerleader of the violent (and enabling) overthrow of Iran's enemy, Saddam -- still insisting that the Bush administration intends to use diplomatic pressure to confront the Iranian regime about a nuclear weapons program which only exists in some torn page Cheney covets from one of his wife's spy novels -- Rice revealed the administration's new strategy to target Iran's military in a bold attempt to deny the Quds force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard the ability to proliferate the fictional nukes.
"Remember that the problem with the Quds force is that it has a network of activities in support of terrorism but it also, we believe, has a network of activities in support of proliferation," said Rice, as she wove the administration's Iran-in-Iraq narrative together with her new proliferation fantasy.
As in Iraq -- where the U.S. forces are the most pernicious and dangerous influence among all of the resistant ones which receive the bulk of the administration flack for standing in the way of Bush's swaggering advance into their territory -- the U.S. military forces' opportunistic advance into the Mideast under Bush has become the most pernicious and dangerous world and regional threat. The deliberate proliferation of weapons by the U.S. military in a deliberate, cynical arming of both sides of Iraq's civil war makes any discovery of weapons from Iraq's next-door neighbor (and now security partner) seem superfluous to Bush's occupation's own role in fostering and fueling the resistant violence.
It is the Bush administration which has pushed to develop more nuclear weapons, with more justifications for their use; for the first time in our nation's history advocating the use of 'smaller more usable' mini-nukes against nations which possess no nuclear weapon capacity at all. Moreover, Bush's unilateral abrogation of the non-proliferation treaty makes all of this action against Iran, demanded by the U.S., bizarre and self-serving.
Jimmy Carter, no fan of Iran, called attention to the Bush regime's nuclear ambitions in a comprehensive article. "The United States is the major culprit in this erosion of the NPT." he wrote. "While claiming to be protecting the world from proliferation threats in Iraq, Libya, Iran and North Korea, American leaders not only have abandoned existing treaty restraints but also have asserted plans to test and develop new weapons, including antiballistic missiles, the earth-penetrating "bunker buster" and perhaps some new "small" bombs. They also have abandoned past pledges and now threaten first use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states," Carter said.
Perhaps it is that very lack of any credible base for this administration's (so far) rhetorical war against Iran which prevents any of the mobilization and defenses one would expect to be staged against the New York invasion of the most 'evil' man in Bush's evil axis. From our television screens, we could see nothing of the Iranian president which would cause us to experience any of the administration's fear of Ahmadinejad we've been urged to share.
Looking surprisingly comfortable in a country (and a city) in which our citizens encourage and celebrate their mostly-unbridled outspokenness and frankness, the Iranian president was allowed to wage his "ideological battle" with words; a contrast, in the place where another dedicated ideologue saw fit to wage his own battle with violence instead; and another in response, standing on a pile of rubble and humanity as he shouted to the world through his bullhorn.
How positively engulfed the Iranian president was by our democracy as he addressed the Columbia University crowd who had gathered to hear him speak and answer their questions. How completely dwarfed Ahmadinejad's strident rhetoric became as he stood his declarations and denials up for scrutiny against a new generation of students -- more aware, perhaps, of the world's history and his country's relevance than he. How completely irrelevant Ahmadinejad seemed as he parried his ideology with the myriad of free-thinkers who came to confront him; and in some cases, cheer him on.
There was nothing, so enamoring of the Iranian president that anyone can credibly assume that his appearance generated any widened appeal for his objected views on Jews, gays, or God. Although I couldn't help thinking back to the days before Clinton blundered his way into sanctioning discrimination of gays in the military, how so many quarters of that institution had been flatly denying that gays existed among their ranks. Republicans and conservatives, too, had their own penchant for denying the presence of gays in their own flock.
And Ahmadinejad and the spiritual leadership in Iran aren't alone in using religion as justification for their aggression, posturing, and oppression. Bush, himself has said repeatedly that he believes he was ordained by God to carry out his militarism. "I trust God speaks through me," Bush explained in 2004. "Without that, I couldn't do my job," he said.
Ron Fullwood, is an activist from Columbia, Md. and the author of the book 'Power of Mischief' : Military Industry Executives are Making Bush Policy and the Country is Paying the Price
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Secretary of State Rice has a point, you just do not make statements as big as Ahmadinejad has made against Israel and not feel real small when you get in front of Americans that know the truth you have neglected so long to boaster about.
>> "I think this is somebody who is the president of a country that is probably the greatest state sponsor of terrorism, someone who is a Holocaust denier, someone who has talked about wiping other countries off the map," Rice said.
Now we know Iran has sponsored militants and insurgants within the Iranian borders, some of whom are Sunni and whom could be the ones that favor Aghanistan ties so weapon sales is their way of saying fair exchange we get for weapons is our paycheck regardless if no one will pay us to battle, now some Iranian officials who know the inventory so well will soon learn of the scandle Sunni's are involved in if Ahmadinejad has never known it he will soon and this scandle will be his downfall. Ahmadinejad plays on religious leaders, in Iran it is a custom to have a religious identity therefore Kurds are not allowed to participate in government or administration, Kurds fought with Saddam against Iran. The Syrian control of the events taking place in Palestine is major traffic, once denoted as being the middle man for Iran weapon supplies. All this points towards hatred which is another form of the definition 'ANTISEMITISM'. The onslaught of Iranian propaganda is soon to be smashed because the United Nations is going to enter Iraq and the United States Troop engagement will begin withdrawing forces, only a few educational services will remain according to the timeline this will take a year to transpose. Your guess is as good as mine when we see the U.N. engaging so close to Iran time will only tell us what to expect from new leaders in Iran if the old leaders have gone away. I figure exile of some while some will be eliminated by internal death squads that hold the upper hand and we are back at prohibition again like we had seen in America yet this is about weapons and terrorists instead with government officials, religious identities and military officials being in the middle. War is about to come to a head and maybe without a shot fired. We cannot believe any propaganda a scholar such as Ahmadinejad has to offer the world any longer.
by
Noteworthy (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Wednesday, Sep 26, 2007 at 1:29:54 AM
Syria may well be a conduit for Iran's supplies to Hzbollah and all the other things you accuse it of, but nowhere is there ever any sign of EVIDENCE. Just like the road side bombs photographs with ENGLISH markings shown by anonymous military personnel supposed to have come from Iran. that one soon went down the memory hole didn't it, because it is unbelievable, that's why. Road side bombs were 'found' in Algeria when the French were having problems with the Algerian 'terrorists' Guess what, the markings were in FARSI, just like any other munitions manufactured in any other country, like Russian on Russian shells and tanks, like Chinese similarly and Uzbek and Brazilian bullets and guns. After all you don't want an ignorant Russian trying to read the instructions in English on his weapons do you? He might shoot himself in the foot, like your written piece.
by
ibrahim turner (26 articles, 32 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 184 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 29, 2007 at 11:44:26 PM
1 | 2
Contact Author
View Authors' Articles
(0+)
Must Read (0) 
Well Said (0) 
News (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (0) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0) 
Valuable (0) 
