Too Extreme For Even The Mullahs?
While center-right lamentations continue over the absence of a sane Iran policy on the part of the Bush Administration and the broader Western world, the mullahgarchy continues to merrily and openly build its arsenal of mass destruction that it has merrily and openly promised to use against Israel and the United States. And according to this story, they are soliciting the active assistance of the third leg of the Axis of Evil (h/t Powerline):
To employ a highbrow foreign policy term, "Duh!" The NoKos are to the point of cannibalism if it will keep their massive army primed and ready for action. Selling nuclear and missile technology is the Kim family business. Does anybody seriously believe that they'll turn the Iranians away with a sad shake of the head and a wistful protestation of nuclear proliferation being an ethical line they cannot cross? Heck, they'll offer to supersize the mullahs' order and throw in a complimentary side dish of severed fingers.
The only true irony at this stage of the game is that their puppet president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is becoming too indiscretely belligerent even for them (h/t CQ):
It is abundantly clear (if it hadn't been so before now), that "President" Ahmadinejad lacks the necessary appreciation for the finer points of subtlety that a man in his position needs. He would do himself a vast favor by studying the recent and classic example of Bill Clinton, another president who came into office like a bull in a china shop, doing and saying all kinds of extremist things that most of his country's people weren't expecting and didn't like, and ended up paying a stiff, if indirect, price for it at the ballot box. Thereafter he retreated into a highly successful mix of deception and propaganda that proved to be a deft weapon of political defense as well as self-preservation.
Given that self-preservation has more than just a political aspect in an Islamist dictatorship, it's something that Ahmadinejad might want to consider. And given the evident, obsequious compulsion of the Western democracies, including the United States, to believe any crock of BS that the mullahs serve up, it's equally clear that he doesn't have to abandon his desire to "wipe Israel (and America) off the map," to simply resume bloviatingly telling us what we want to hear while his regime continues preparing to carry out what he sees as his country's "mullahfest destiny."
Even Adolph Hitler declared at the signing of the Munich Accords in September 1938 that, "This is my last territorial demand in Europe." And he was, you know, Adolph Hitler. The man in whose footsteps Ahmadinejad wants to follow, and whose life's ambition Ahmadinejad wants to finish.
If this guy doesn't wake up the Bush Administration to the stark and narrowing reality of what needs to be done while (or assuming) there's still time, nothing will - because it will be so easy for him to lull us back to sleep.
[A] leading German newsweekly reported that Iran has offered North Korea oil and natural gas as payment for help in developing nuclear missiles.
A senior Iranian official traveled to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, during the second week of October to make the offer, Der Spiegel magazine reported yesterday, citing unidentified Western intelligence sources.
It was not clear what North Korea's response was, the magazine said.
To employ a highbrow foreign policy term, "Duh!" The NoKos are to the point of cannibalism if it will keep their massive army primed and ready for action. Selling nuclear and missile technology is the Kim family business. Does anybody seriously believe that they'll turn the Iranians away with a sad shake of the head and a wistful protestation of nuclear proliferation being an ethical line they cannot cross? Heck, they'll offer to supersize the mullahs' order and throw in a complimentary side dish of severed fingers.
The only true irony at this stage of the game is that their puppet president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is becoming too indiscretely belligerent even for them (h/t CQ):
Iranian moderates say the president has harmed his country by isolating it internationally, and now Ahmadinejad's friends are lining up against him. He suffered a humiliating defeat last week when his choice for oil minister was rejected for a third time, an unprecedented failure for an Iranian president.
While parliament is dominated by Ahmadinejad's conservative allies, the president's isolationist stance and his failure to consult on Cabinet appointments have annoyed lawmakers. They warn they will not approve any future nominee unless Ahmadinejad first consults parliament.
Pragmatists within the ruling establishment worry that Ahmadinejad's radical agenda has sidelined a cadre of experienced men at home and isolated the country abroad.
Earlier this month, the government announced that 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats, including supporters of better ties with the West, would be fired. Also let go were pragmatists who handled Iran's nuclear negotiations with Europe under Ahmadinejad's reformist predecessor, Mohammad Khatami....
In the works, but still not made public, is a deeper shake-up of the establishment in which Ahmadinejad is replacing hundreds of governors and senior officials at various ministries with young, inexperienced Islamic hard-liners who oppose good relations with the West. The changes include putting fundamentalists in key posts at security agencies.
It is abundantly clear (if it hadn't been so before now), that "President" Ahmadinejad lacks the necessary appreciation for the finer points of subtlety that a man in his position needs. He would do himself a vast favor by studying the recent and classic example of Bill Clinton, another president who came into office like a bull in a china shop, doing and saying all kinds of extremist things that most of his country's people weren't expecting and didn't like, and ended up paying a stiff, if indirect, price for it at the ballot box. Thereafter he retreated into a highly successful mix of deception and propaganda that proved to be a deft weapon of political defense as well as self-preservation.
Given that self-preservation has more than just a political aspect in an Islamist dictatorship, it's something that Ahmadinejad might want to consider. And given the evident, obsequious compulsion of the Western democracies, including the United States, to believe any crock of BS that the mullahs serve up, it's equally clear that he doesn't have to abandon his desire to "wipe Israel (and America) off the map," to simply resume bloviatingly telling us what we want to hear while his regime continues preparing to carry out what he sees as his country's "mullahfest destiny."
Even Adolph Hitler declared at the signing of the Munich Accords in September 1938 that, "This is my last territorial demand in Europe." And he was, you know, Adolph Hitler. The man in whose footsteps Ahmadinejad wants to follow, and whose life's ambition Ahmadinejad wants to finish.
If this guy doesn't wake up the Bush Administration to the stark and narrowing reality of what needs to be done while (or assuming) there's still time, nothing will - because it will be so easy for him to lull us back to sleep.
posted by JASmius at 8:41 AM
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