Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right

by BooMan
Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 10:27:44 AM EST

Mahmoudapalooza would merely be one of the more embarrassing examples of America's right-wing's jingoistic, xenophobic, nationalism if it wasn't likely to get several million people killed.

While the right-wing falls all over itself to condemn Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, it should be remembered, although often it is not, that it was not Ronald Reagan or his DCI, William Casey, that conceived the plan to entice a Soviet invasion of Aghanistan and then bleed them to death using Islamic holy warriors. It was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski who conceived that plan. He knows well that the same plan can be used to bring America to its knees.

"If we escalate the tensions, if we succumb to hysteria, if we start making threats, we are likely to stampede ourselves into a war, which most reasonable people agree would be a disaster for us," he said.
"And just think what it would do for the United States, because it would be the United States which would be at war. We will be at war simultaneously in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. And we would be stuck for the next 20 years."

Actually, I think we'd have our credit cards (and credit rating) canceled long before 2027.

I don't mind people protesting Ahmedinejad's presence in our country or his appearance at Columbia University. That's every American's right. What I do mind is the comparisons of Iran to Nazi Germany. Iran presents no existential threat to America. They present some challenges to our hegemony in the Middle East...that is all. And the only way Iran can defeat us is if we make war on them. If we do that, we will be incapable of winning the war without betraying our own values. We'll be faced with a choice between the difficult decision to institute a draft, militarize all aspects of our country, and attempt to occupy Iran in force...or the relatively easy choice of nuking Iran into submission.

Either way, we will have lost our way of life and any claim to the moral high ground.

The right-wingers are literally putting America, as we know it, at risk.

Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right (none / 0)

I agree entirely. Somehow, we seem to be overtaken by a bout of national stupidity.

by rae on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 11:41:51 AM EST

Re: Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right (none / 0)

I think it's a tad bit more dangerous than that. But I am glad you agree.

by BooMan on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 11:46:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right (none / 0)

Best line Mr. BooMan, is;
"the only way Iran can defeat us is if we make war on them."
Makes for a good sigline.

The difference between theists and atheists is that the atheists don't set the theists on fire for refusing to agree with them.

by KNUCKLEHEAD on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 12:54:55 PM EST

Re: Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right (none / 0)

Without betraying our own values? Please. That horse left the stables many years ago. The real danger occur when the rest of the world moves from seeing us as dangerous clowns to seeing us as the sole axis of evil. A unilateral attack on Iran, on the heels of the Iraq outrage, will put a final cancellation on American democracy, bring about the end of Israel, and isolate the US economically, militarily, politically. Nobody wants to pet a mad dog. They want to kill it.

Unfortunately that would work out well for the neocons, who would then have their chance for theocratic civil war and the establishment of a thousand-year reich, run by their kind of people. You, know, the ones with the stunning chutzpah to call other Americans traitors.

FDR's response to progressive demands: "I agree. Now go out and make me do it."

by DaveW on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 01:47:03 PM EST

Re: Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right (none / 0)

check out this Hersh interview.

by BooMan on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 02:03:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right (none / 0)

Iran presents no existential threat to America. They present some challenges to our hegemony in the Middle East...

That's why Ahmedinejad drives them batty. This is supposed to be the New American Century. There aren't supposed to be any challenges to our hegemony anymore. It is our manifest destiny to dominate this century by force, and by refusing to know their place those uppity Iranians threaten to show the whole world that our Emperor is naked.

Ahmedinejad cannot militarily threaten the US, but he challenges the whole assumption that underlies PNAC, ie that US military domination is the natural order of things. He actually reminds us for a moment that an Iranian or a Muslim might not see anything natural at all about a US/Israeli-dominated status quo in the region. It's not that he offers a more attractive world view than our leaders, but he can make us question the rationale behind theirs by challenging the most sacred of our sacred cows.

I think from a PNAC perspective, Ahmedinejad is dangerous not because he sounds insane when he talks about his nutty religious apocalypticism, but because when he talks about our leadership and its foreign policy, he sometimes sounds more sane than they do.

And on the subject of Ahmedinejad/Hitler equivalence, would this be a good time to blogwhore my:

Everything You Know About Iran Is A Myth

by diane (lawrenceofcyberia_AT_hotmail.com) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 03:06:51 PM EST

Re: Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right (none / 0)

Thanks for the link diane, that was a pleasure to read. Good writing that is fact based always is.

'Poverty is the worst form of violence'--Gandhi

by chocolate ink on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 03:45:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

thanks... (none / 0)

...that was very kind of you.

by diane (lawrenceofcyberia_AT_hotmail.com) on Tue Sep 25th, 2007 at 05:35:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Mahmoudapalooza Takes Over the Right | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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