TtP's Main Blogging Competition -- Iran

For those of you who don't know, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has entered the blogosphere. Now you can read the president of Iran musings on rainbows, unicorns and governance. His site, affectionately named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Personal Memos, if offered in four languages: English, French, and two squiggly line languages, most likely Arabic and Farsi. You can check out his blog here.

Iranian Students Rally Against Ahmadinejad

The International Herald Tribune reports that Tehran University, aka Iranian party central, was the site of demonstrations against President Ahmadinejad. Mahmoud was giving a lecture to a pre-selected group of students at the university during the protests. The Ahmadinejad administration has attempted to suppressed demonstrations, adding to the rarity this display.

One of the central reasons for the fall of the Shah in 1979 was a lack of knowledge of the mood on the streets. With Mahmoud giving a speech to select students, one must wonder if he has insulted himself from the public as the U.S. and the Shah did almost 30 years ago.

Brief Thoughts on Ahmadinejad

This Ahmadinejad issue at Columbia is a tough one...

If Columbia was completely private, I'd have no problem with Ahmadinejad being invited to speak there. However, Columbia appears to be 1/4 funded by the government, so this necessarily throws politics into it. But let's set this aside for the sake of discussion.

I guess my issue is that I just don't see any educational benefit coming out of a speech by Ahmadinejad. First of all, he's a politician, which makes him ideologically dubious anyway (at least in my humble opinion). But primarily, he's a dictator. So besides being able to ask him questions about his wacky but well known comments from the past - questions which he will most likely dodge anyway - I don't get what anyone is expecting from this speech.

So there are really only two reasons I can think of for Columbia inviting Ahmadinejad.
1) They want a chance to challenge him on his comments (which, like I said, I suspect he'll sidestep)
2) Publicity

If it's just publicity the school is after... well, they're certainly getting it.

But if it's the latter, then this is one of these cases where I seriously hope to be wrong about my predictions.

Let's hope something besides hype comes of this speech...

The Militant French?

For a culture better known for its food, perfume, and high art, the French are not world renowned fighters. Usually they are associated with the tactic of retreat or building long lines of fortifications that the Germans, using their superior intellect, elect to go around. But they French are beginning to feel threatened from another neighbor to the east, Iran.

The BBC reports that yesterday Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, has declared that France is preparing for the worst in regards to confrontation with Iran. In typical French fashion, he wishes to exhaust diplomatic negotiations, but acknowledges that a nuclear Iran poses a great danger. War should be avoiding at all costs, but it takes a lot to make the French even mildly bellicose.

The Latest UK-Iran Hostage Crisis

Of course it was squirrels:

Police in Iran are reported to have taken 14 squirrels into custody - because they are suspected of spying.

The rodents were found near the Iranian border allegedly equipped with eavesdropping devices.

Thoughts Baylen?

Full article here. Via TigerHawk. Baylen's definitive article on the squirrel menace here.

Benjamin Shapiro's Pathological Aversion to War

Anti-porn, douche bag virgin and Ann Coulter clone (or should I say her "mini-me") Benjamin Shapiro beats the drums of war - nothing pornographic about getting off on war, nope nothing at all - at WorldNetDaily.

How far will the West be pushed? For decades, Iran has embraced a strategy of carefully feeling its oats, prodding at the West, testing our mettle in inches. Now, like Germany in 1938, Iran is beginning to realize that the West will do nothing to stop it. Crippled by a pathological aversion to war, America and Britain sit by silently as Iran develops nuclear weapons, fosters terrorism in Iraq and targets Western interests for total annihilation.

I can't help but point out that Shapiro has his own pathological aversion to going to war. At least when it comes to going himself. Force other people to die for his ideals, yes. Join the military himself, never. I'm beginning to think that Congressman Charlie Rangel has a point about restoring the draft. Let's start with Shapiro, Coulter, Bush, Cheney, McCain and anyone else who advocates for war.

Via LewRockwell.com.

Mission Impossible: Making Sense Out of US Middle East Policy

I have stopped trying to make sense of US Middle East policy, as that is a bridge too far for my intellectual ability. But I can point out the nonsense by looking at the totality of our various stances and how they are contradictory at almost every turn.

The recent Iran IED claims: Bush is claiming that Iran's government is providing Iraqi militants with the deadly armor-piercing IED's that are killing US forces. Yet Iran is Shi'ite, and our forces are mostly being attacked by Sunni former Baathists and al Qaeda. Iran hates the Sunnis and is more likely hoping that with the help of the Shi'ite Iraqi army and police we will help Iran achieve its goal of a Shi'ite Iraq.

Saudi Arabia: The US is closely allied with Saudi Arabia, yet Saudi Arabia vows to invade Iraq to protect the Sunnis should the US leave. SA wants to protect the same Sunnis who include the insurgents who actually are planting IED's to kill our troops, and if they invade they will be fighting the same Iraqi army that we have built and funded.

Israel/Palestine: The US chose not to support the moderate Palestinian Abbas regime in any meaningful way or take the US's traditional leadership role in negotiating peace between the two peoples. Abbas was thus marginalized and, while Condi Rice praised the coming elections, their result, which put Hamas in power, caused the administration to clamp down on the Palestinians further as the US doesn't like Hamas. This proves to the world that the US only likes democracy when it goes its way = major credibility eroder. Hamas is Shi'ite and funded by Iran while most Palestinians are Sunni. The US pull of support to Palestine has opened the way for Iran to have unbridled influence over the territories, another door we opened for them.

[Sometimes I think we are working for Iran, Bush's proclamations aside, more to come.]

Lebanon: This country is a rare example of a democracy in the Middle East with a diverse population of Sunnis, Shi'ites and Christians living together under a common government and secular society. This is Condi Rice's fantasy. Yet when Israel started raining bombs and marching into Lebanon after a Hezbollah (they are funded by Iran) provocation the US turned a blind eye for a month. The result was that the Lebanese democracy is now fragile and Hezbollah looks like heroes to besieged Lebanese, as Hezbollah were able to position themselves as protectors of the people.

I cannot make sense of US policy re: Sunnis versus Shi'ites or the Middle East in general. I welcome you opinionated TtP commenters to chime in and add to the dialogue, and please keep it civil. It is much more useful for all of us if you try to persuade your ideological enemies and not just call them idiots.

For a great article on how the geniuses in the White House have fomented a new Sunni/Shi'ite rift crisis that is reverberating around the globe, Anthony Shadid's excellent story is here.