Category Archives: Iran

Axis of Illogic

Bush, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Politics

Don’t forget that at the time Bush was preparing to invade Iraq, he was giving North Korea room to maneuver freely on the axis of evil. While Iraqi palm dates were being subjected to strict trade embargoes, North Korean Scud missiles were allowed to safely reach their destinations: the jammed-with-Jihadist nations of Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Libya and Yemen.

In 2002, a North Korean vessel was not allegedly—but actually—apprehended in the Arabian Sea, carrying 15 well-concealed Scud missiles. At the time of its invasion, Iraq was suspected of hiding a total of 60 Scud-variant missiles. While Bush was revving up for war with Iraq, North Koreans were sailing the seas in search for markets for the equivalent of a fourth of the entire Iraqi arsenal.

You see, North Korea didn’t and apparently doesn’t sell missiles to Al-Qaida. While Iraq might have. That’s an important distinction.

The weapons inspectors, who were criss-crossing Iraq before the invasion, were not allowed to finish their uneventful task (Bush threw them out so he could invade). At the same time, Bush exempted North Korea’s Yongbyon research base from inspections, but not before bribing the North Koreans with $95m.

So long as you understand that North Korea’s belligerence is ultimately all Clinton’s fault.

Iran's Majnun-in-Chief

Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President: what a loathsome lout. Former diplomat Martin Indyk of the Brookings Institute described him aptly: wily, ignorant, smarmy, and not mad, just crazy like a fox. Ahmadinejad ignored CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s question (admittedly easy to do; that girl’s a mess) as to his wipe-Israel-off-the-map routine. Instead, he fixed his dead, beady eyes on the coy Cooper, and shot back with this: “the Zionist regimeâ€?—why can’t anyone criticize it in the US?â€? gormless git. Has he never visited his buds at The American Conservative, Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, A.N.S.W.E.R, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and other tinfoilers, whose views at their tamest represent maybe 13 percent of American opinion? (See this poll from the Phew Research Center. “The Hebraic Bondâ€? will help provide a deeper understating of Americans’ moral affinities. That, and suicide bombings.)
Next, smirking as though he’d come up with something super smart, Iran’s Majnun-in-Chief asked the inept Anderson, “Why don’t they allow more research and studies to be done about [the Holocaust]?â€? For Pete’s sake, hasn’t this fool, with his Ph.D. in traffic and transportation engineering and planning, had an invitation from the Institute for Historical Review, our premier Holocaust denial coven of kooks? They can rattle off reams of “researchersâ€? who’ve dedicated themselves to proving the gas chambers were really Jacuzzis (the sum-total of Fred Leuchter’s “scholarship, for instance).
Or does Ahmadinejad think he’s on to something?

Iran’s Majnun-in-Chief

Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President: what a loathsome lout. Former diplomat Martin Indyk of the Brookings Institute described him aptly: wily, ignorant, smarmy, and not mad, just crazy like a fox. Ahmadinejad ignored CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s question (admittedly easy to do; that girl’s a mess) as to his wipe-Israel-off-the-map routine. Instead, he fixed his dead, beady eyes on the coy Cooper, and shot back with this: “the Zionist regimeâ€?—why can’t anyone criticize it in the US?â€? gormless git. Has he never visited his buds at The American Conservative, Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, A.N.S.W.E.R, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and other tinfoilers, whose views at their tamest represent maybe 13 percent of American opinion? (See this poll from the Phew Research Center. “The Hebraic Bondâ€? will help provide a deeper understating of Americans’ moral affinities. That, and suicide bombings.)
Next, smirking as though he’d come up with something super smart, Iran’s Majnun-in-Chief asked the inept Anderson, “Why don’t they allow more research and studies to be done about [the Holocaust]?â€? For Pete’s sake, hasn’t this fool, with his Ph.D. in traffic and transportation engineering and planning, had an invitation from the Institute for Historical Review, our premier Holocaust denial coven of kooks? They can rattle off reams of “researchersâ€? who’ve dedicated themselves to proving the gas chambers were really Jacuzzis (the sum-total of Fred Leuchter’s “scholarship, for instance).
Or does Ahmadinejad think he’s on to something?

Default Diplomacy

America, Iran, Iraq, Islam, WMD

Diplomacy, not bribery à la Bush, is a good thing, for sure, all the more so if it averts violent confrontation. The goal with Iran ought to be to get IAEA inspectors in there, and have them criss-cross the place—and keep doing so—as they did Iraq before Bush banished them (to wage war, in violation of international and every other law, including natural). Treat Iran’s nuclear facilities like CSI would a crime scene.

But let’s be perfectly clear on who is offering whom a way out. The package of incentives (and disincentives) made to Iran, a pivotal member of Bush’s “axis of evil,” contradicts the Bush Doctrine in every possible way, not least in ignoring the poisonous drip-drip of dissident groups urging action (and that’s a good thing: think Mr. liar-liar-pants-on-fire Chalabi).

By allowing them to front the Iran “deal,” the Europeans have lifted Bush and Rice from the blood-soaked Iraqi soil, dusted them off, and let them save what they lost in “Mess-opotamia”: face.

A way out for Iran? More like a way back in for America.