He sounds a lot like Bush, only Bush has power.

Once the word "President" is used, many Americans, and not a few people from other systems, assume that it means temporary king, as in the US system. It can be frustrating because they seem to have a hard time shaking the idea.

Point of fact: In Shia eschatology, the "End times" is not something which can be "brought about" by human action. We tend to think that the same apocalypse-mongering that characterizes the likes of Bush advisor Reverend Hagee also applies to other religions.

BushCo™ has so muddled the situation in the ME that even long term allies are openly defying them.

this from the asia times, vis-a-vis the overall situation:

Bush's Middle East policy in tatters

 ...oil and nuclear proliferation make a serious mix. But they form only one facet of the breakdown of the Bush administration's Iran strategy. The breakdown is comprehensive. During his tour, Bush kept trying to secure support for his containment policy toward Iran. However, the regional countries remain circumspect. Iraq's Arab neighbors refuse to get involved in the quagmire in that country despite their constant wailing that Iranian influence in Iraq has reached an intolerable level. They won't allow themselves being lined up with any further efforts by the Bush administration to confront Iran. While criticizing Iran in private to their American interlocutors and urging US counter-measures, they hedge their bets, factoring that the next US president might well engage Iran in unconditional talks.
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...Saudi Arabia and Egypt are backing Arab League mediation efforts, distancing themselves from the US denunciations of Iran and Syria. The two Arab heavyweights would be uneasy about the lengthening shadows of Iranian influence on Lebanon, but they realize at the same time that Iran is a regional power with which they need to come to terms.
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Bush's tour exposed that, alas, the US doesn't have a Middle East strategy to address these manifold trends. It seems all the while, the Bush administration was only pretending it had one. A formidable challenge awaits the next US president.

and the egyptians aren't being shy about their displeasure:

Egyptian foreign minister says US is fueling Middle East turmoil

Egypt's foreign minister criticized President Bush' Mideast policies Monday, a day after the American leader lectured Arab leaders on their approach to governing.

Bush took a strikingly tougher tone with Arab nations during his address to the World Economic Forum on the Middle East than he did with Israel in a speech last week.

Israel received praise from the president while Arab nations heard a litany of U.S. criticisms mixed with some compliments.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit responded Monday by saying U.S. support for Israel and its own actions in the Mideast helped fuel turmoil and a clash of civilizations between Muslims and the West.

"When we see ... an Israeli tank in an Arab city, a Palestinian city or an American tank in an Arab city firing arms, that makes people angry," said Aboul Gheit at a summit meeting linked to the economic forum being held in Sharm El-Sheik, a Red Sea resort town.

"The anger leads to lots of turmoil. Turmoil leads to instability,"...

h/t rawstory

they're just holding their breath waiting for 20 jan 2009...and chimpy is the lamest of lame ducks. the only avenue left open for him would be a another unilateral and unprovoked invasion, or an assault by israeli forces acting as a proxy, and then subsequent u.s. involvement due to treaty obligations; a very risky strategy at best.

we shall see.

244 days to go. tick...tick...tick...


lTMF'sA...the revolution will not be televised...Peace

People forget that the Supreme Ruler of Iran is actually  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not Iran's President. A Supreme Ruler whose own 2005 fatwa against the production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons is viewed by Iran's secular leaders as more binding on their government than the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty of which Iran and the US are both signatories.

YES, let's keep repeating this... over and over and over... until maybe it sinks in.  

President Bush said in his interview (that Olbermann played clips from last night) that his goal was to force Iran to stop even enriching uranium -- which they are allowed to do under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. They have as much right to do uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes as, say, POLAND... and AFAIK, no inspector has yet found evidence that they are pursuing more than that.

Iran is not a threat to the US. I don't think they're even a threat to Israel (Ahmadinejad's quotes notwithstanding, which are also often mis-translated to make them sound more of a threat than they are - as you said, he has no power over foreign policy). I think the "threat" they pose is economic -- to the Saudi regime -- and that's where the real pressure to "contain Iran" is coming from. I

Keith Olbermann speaks for me.

WHether Obama said he's meet with Ahmadinejad or not is really irrelevant.

Bush meets with the CHinese, the Saudis, and the Pakistani Dictator Musharraf.

Why shouldn't someone meet with Ahmadinejad too?

Bravo, Steven!

By the way, Ahmadinajad never said Israel should be wiped off the map, and what he did say was in no way a threat (which he does not have the power or authority to carry out anyway).

And now, to whom, exactly, is Obama pandering when he says things like "the threat from Iran is grave"? The reality is that the threat from Iran is nonexistent.