U.S. Focus on Ahmadinejad Puzzles Iranians

[ProSense]

Memo From Tehran

U.S. Focus on Ahmadinejad Puzzles Iranians

Abedin Taherkenareh/European Pressphoto Agency
The image of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, looking down on a street in Tehran.

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: September 24, 2007

<...>

Since his inauguration two years ago, Mr. Ahmadinejad has grabbed headlines around the world, and in Iran, for outrageous statements that often have no more likelihood of being put into practice than his plan for women to attend soccer games. He has generated controversy in New York in recent days by asking to visit ground zero — a request that was denied — and his scheduled appearance at Columbia University has drawn protests.

But it is because of his provocative remarks, like denying the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be wiped off the map, that the United States and Europe have never known quite how to handle him. In demonizing Mr. Ahmadinejad, the West has served him well, elevating his status at home and in the region at a time when he is increasingly isolated politically because of his go-it-alone style and ineffective economic policies, according to Iranian politicians, officials and political experts.

Political analysts here say they are surprised at the degree to which the West focuses on their president, saying that it reflects a general misunderstanding of their system.

Unlike in the United States, in Iran the president is not the head of state nor the commander in chief. That status is held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, whose role combines civil and religious authority. At the moment, this president’s power comes from two sources, they say: the unqualified support of the supreme leader, and the international condemnation he manages to generate when he speaks up.

“The United States pays too much attention to Ahmadinejad,” said an Iranian political scientist who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “He is not that consequential.”

more

[babylonsister]

1. I'm puzzled, too. Why is this admin always responding to what he

says? Doesn't Ayatollah Ali Khamenei talk? Has anyone tried talking to him?

[burythehatchet]

14. you know better than that

they need an evil antagonist, that's all. If it wasn't him, they would create another.

[ProSense]

2. Kick! n/t

[moc]

3. Yes, this is what I'm told by my Iranian friends.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. He is a convenient Big Bad Villain figure for gullible imbeciles

Including many on these very boards.

The sheer ignorance of Americans (including progressives) is astounding. Any half-wit could tell that Ahemedinejad wants precisely the kind of reaction he's getting, that he needs it in fact. Br'er Rabbit begging not to be thrown in the briar patch. And yet he gets it, in spades. Of coursae, the media and the administration are seeking that tipping point where Big Bad Villain becomes Big Looming Threat, and thereby the bombs commence, while the gullible progressive fools want to share their very serious indignation about Mr. Ahemedinejad's very dangerous positions. Harrumph. Needless to say, the progressives are being played like fools once again, with the issues that most concern them being slyly deployed by the administration to make objections to the coming war untenable. What, do you support murder of gays and suppression of democracy activists? No, you say? Then we have a solution for Iran...

It's the same logic that had no small number of DUers reminding the others about those "rape rooms" (tm) in January-March 2003. Harrrumph. Can't get fooled again? Oh yeah?

This week of stupidities on the Left has proved only one thing: we never learn, and there's no saving a fool from his folly.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. Very true and I think that's why he was allowed

into the U.S.

Wolf Blitzer showed films tonight of Hugo Chavez, Nikita Kruschev, and Fidel Castro speaking at the UN, a reminder of all our enemies (never mind that the Castro and Kruschev tapes were from the late Fifties.)

Time for a new Emmanuel Goldman. . . and here's Ahemedinejad!

[Zywiec]

5. I bet all the gay Iranians are puzzled by Ahmadinejad n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. There's actually quite a bit of extremely good research

coming out in the last few years about homosexuality in the Middle East. Probably Western gays would do better (this time) than to assume that sexuality trumps culture in every case. One would hope that very informed DUers would guide the more ignorant through such research, or at least point the way, so that we don't get the same know-nothing nonsenses thaqt led us into the Iraqi disaster, all left after the fact with our dicks in the wind going "Oh, is THAT what it's like over there?..Huh....that would have been useful information before..."

[Zywiec]

9. I was only commenting on today's statement that there were no gays in Iran n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Oh, I know

I'm also not sure he was saying that. He sounded like he said (given the translator as intermediary) "We don't have gays in Iran like you have here." Those of the exact words of the translator. I'd be curious to hear a Farsi expert provide the original expression and parse it. Even in the translation, it could easily mean "We don't have open homosexuality; we simply don't allow it." Of course, that parsing would make him sound NOT like a complete ignoramus and ideologue, which is not in keeping with the days flavor. It's better that we pretend Ahmedinejad simply does not believe homosexuality EXISTS in Iran than have him say something like "It is not our custom to allow homosexuality" (i.e., we don't "have it there like you have it here"), which would sound less buffoonish, if equally despicable. This latter version also makes sense in context (his discussion of the drug war and the death penalty as custom). Of course, the real danger is that if Ahmedinejad is saying "We don't allow it" rather than "It doesn't exist," that would put him in step without just about the entire Islamic world (which is why the research I mentioned in the previous post is interesting). And that's just a messy can of worms.

So, do you know Farsi? Do you have his words in Farsi? Just wondering.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. Because it's easy to confuse Americans who know virtually nothing about Iran

That "he is not that consequential" when his title is President doesn't compute to most here.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Never underestimate the ignorance of the American people, eh?

:shrug:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. Well, not in large groups anyway.

It's the title that he carries that throws most people for a loop.

Also, it's not as if the media goes out of its way to explain that he's really not much of anything in Iran.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." - Ernest Bevin

[Lone_Star_Dem]

16. I never thought I'd say this, but in that case...

I'd rather Americans remain ignorant. :(

[kineneb]

10. exactly- Ahmadinejad is a figurehead

The Iranian "President" has very little real power. His position is mostly decorative, and was probably designed to be that way so the mullahs don't have to speak in public that often. Somewhere on the web there is an actual org chart for the Iranian government; I have seen it.

Things are not good there, but the more the BushCo pushes, the more the people are backed into supporting their existing governmental form. The US does not have a very good track record regarding Iran.

[mattclearing]

19. And this is different from the U.S. how?

As powerful as we like to think Bush is, his agenda was 100% dictated by Corporate America. Substitute "Wall Street" for "Mullahs" and I fail to see the difference between the two systems in your description.

When Bill Clinton was in office, it was different, but on the big corporate issues (like NAFTA), he still had to play ball. The next president will do the same, or face early retirement.

[vssmith]

17. Ahmadinejad rejects the Holocaust?

So he said but he knows better. He's aware of where the Israelis tie their goat and he got it. He knows they use the Holocaust to justify everything they do and he likes to poke and prod at them.

[mhatrw]

18. You Must Join the Two Minutes of Hate! Again!

http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html

Wirthlin's job, Alsop explained, was "to identify the messages that really resonate emotionally with the American people." The theme that struck the deepest emotional chord, they discovered, was "the fact that Saddam Hussein was a madman who had committed atrocities even against his own people, and had tremendous power to do further damage, and he needed to be stopped."

[zippy890]

20. kick

:thumbsup:

[bdamomma]

21. there you go, apparently Ahmadinejad 's title of President is

not consequential. The Ayatollah Khamenei has more power than Ahmadinejad.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. It's hardly puzzling.

We need a boogeyman, and he enjoys being one.