Playing the West Like a Fiddle
For all of the public relations "muscle" held by the U.S. and Britain, Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, keeps winning each round. This reminds me of a Judo principle where you begin to push against your opponent causing them -- in pride -- to start pushing back even harder. When they do, you simply fall backwards and throw them over your back to the ground. There aggressive forward motion will cause them to tumble.
This has been the consistent tactic of the Iranians; and it's working. The hubris of the West is the ideal snare for Iran to use against Western propaganda. The latest involves the release of the 15 British sailors being held in Iran since last month. Today, President Ahmadinejad released the 15 sailors in honor of the prophet's birthday. He then decorated the arresting Iranian sailors with medals of honor.
Adding insult to injury, he offered a rebuke to British officials for deploying the female Seaman, Faye Turney, who is presently pregnant. Ouch!
Ahmadinejad smiles. He is almost never seen with a tie. He writes letters to President Bush, and makes trip to the U.S. to speak with the U.N. and the CFR. The CIA has no footage of him torturing political opponents. There are no mass graves. No buried WMDs. So, how do you nail this guy? Well, you hope he acts like an idiot after arresting 15 British sailors. He doesn't. He gives them back just in time for Easter and then corrects you for sending pregnant women into war.
He's a PR nightmare. If you recall, prior to the invasion of Iraq the U.S. population was subjected to old footage of Saddam throwing prisoners off of buildings, cutting off their hands, and beating them with rods. We heard about the torture rooms as well as the abuse of his two sons. We were supposed to loathe Saddam--to wish his demise.
This is more difficult with Ahmadinejad. Sure, you can get him on holocaust denial, but is that reason enough to invade his country and sacrifice more American lives? But what about his statement that Israel should be wiped off the map? Well, that's not exactly what he said. He was not saying Iran was going to attack Israel and erase it from existence. He basically gave Israel an old-fashioned curse! He believed that the Arab resistance to Israel's occupation of Palestine would lead to her eventual demise.
It's certainly not a smart thing to say, but is it justification for invasion? We are coming up to the six-year marker since 9/11, and it's getting more difficult to exploit that event for greater war. It would help if Ahmadinejad acted more like Saddam. His tie-less smiling is killing the Manhattan PR firms.
This has been the consistent tactic of the Iranians; and it's working. The hubris of the West is the ideal snare for Iran to use against Western propaganda. The latest involves the release of the 15 British sailors being held in Iran since last month. Today, President Ahmadinejad released the 15 sailors in honor of the prophet's birthday. He then decorated the arresting Iranian sailors with medals of honor.
Adding insult to injury, he offered a rebuke to British officials for deploying the female Seaman, Faye Turney, who is presently pregnant. Ouch!
Ahmadinejad smiles. He is almost never seen with a tie. He writes letters to President Bush, and makes trip to the U.S. to speak with the U.N. and the CFR. The CIA has no footage of him torturing political opponents. There are no mass graves. No buried WMDs. So, how do you nail this guy? Well, you hope he acts like an idiot after arresting 15 British sailors. He doesn't. He gives them back just in time for Easter and then corrects you for sending pregnant women into war.
He's a PR nightmare. If you recall, prior to the invasion of Iraq the U.S. population was subjected to old footage of Saddam throwing prisoners off of buildings, cutting off their hands, and beating them with rods. We heard about the torture rooms as well as the abuse of his two sons. We were supposed to loathe Saddam--to wish his demise.
This is more difficult with Ahmadinejad. Sure, you can get him on holocaust denial, but is that reason enough to invade his country and sacrifice more American lives? But what about his statement that Israel should be wiped off the map? Well, that's not exactly what he said. He was not saying Iran was going to attack Israel and erase it from existence. He basically gave Israel an old-fashioned curse! He believed that the Arab resistance to Israel's occupation of Palestine would lead to her eventual demise.
It's certainly not a smart thing to say, but is it justification for invasion? We are coming up to the six-year marker since 9/11, and it's getting more difficult to exploit that event for greater war. It would help if Ahmadinejad acted more like Saddam. His tie-less smiling is killing the Manhattan PR firms.
