Ahmadinejad - Why The Hate Matters

[Prophet 451]

First off, let's make this clear: Ahmadinejad is an asshole, no question. Either he is himself homophobic and anti-semitic or he's willing to exploit those who are. Oh, there's lots of reasons to dislike the man. That's not why the media is currently demonising him.

When some of us point out here that we fear an attack on Iran is imminent, we are occasionally told that the public and/or Congress wouldn't stand for it. The answer is that they might not, right now. The demonising of Ahmadinejad is propoganda. It works by a psychological trick: Demonise him enough for long enough and hopefully, you convince the average layman to start thinking "Geez, this guy's an asshole, when can we get rid of him?" and is then satisfied when the administration starts threatening to invade. It helps if the subject really is a brutal SOB (as Ahmadinejad is and Hussein was) but in the end, it's about framing the debate: Causing the average person to associate Ahmadinejad and Iran with unpleasent things so that they don't protest as strongly (or at all) when an attack is launched (probably in the form of bombing, there aren't enough troops for a ground invasion now).

Why would the Whitehouse want to attack Iran? Any number of reasons. For Bush, the deciding factor might be the chance to redeem his legacy. If he could execute a quick, successful war with Iran, it would (in his mind) mitigate the disaster of Iraq in the eyes of history. For Cheney, it's even simpler: Oil. If the Iranian oilfields can be controlled then exhorbitant profits can be made even if the oil isn't sold (especially if the oil isn't sold). For the 22% or thereabouts who would vote for Jack The Ripper if he had an (R) after his name, it's even simpler: Killing muslims. For those of us worrying that Bush may not be intending to leave office, a war would probably provide the pretext to declare a national emergency and thereby sieze control. Add in lucrative reconstruction contracts, the bogeyman of Iranian nukes and the extremely lucrative contracts that could be milked by those involved in the arms business (such as the Carlysle Group) and you have a potent little mix of greed, fear, nationalism and religion which the Bush admin has exploited time and again to get their way on, well, virtually everything. Oh, and the whole thing fits into the PNAC plan of remaking the world (starting with the MidEast) as an American Empire.

That's why the beating on Ahmadinejad matters; not because he's a nice bloke (he isn't) but because it's being done for all the wrong reasons. Not to protest the genuine repression of the Iranian regime but to frame the debate, to make everyone more kindly disposed to the (seemingly unavoidable) war to remove them.