Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is again making headlines, this time due to his visit to the United States. While in New York City, he’ll be addressing the United Nations General Assembly. I expect he’ll say some incendiary things, that’s just his way. His rhetoric, which is often if not regularly out in left field, has made him a pariah in polite circles, and nothing exemplifies his alleged nuttiness than his continued disavowal of the Holocaust.
Much of what Ahmadinejad says needs to be taken with a grain of salt, including his denials of meddling in Iraqi affairs. Nonetheless, he is a loose cannon and even a threat to American interests in the Middle East.
All of that being said – others are better able to address the Iranian threat better than me – which brings me to my point. I do believe that much of the American anti-Iranian rhetoric stems not from the content of the Iranian president’s tirades, but from his willingness to stand up to our imperial reach. Like Hugo Chavez, and Fidel before him, the Iranian leader (who isn’t all that popular back home) has made a name for himself by offering the developing world an alternative voice. That, of course, doesn’t sit well with the Empire (and I say this as a loyal citizen of the Empire).
We have grown accustomed to being the sole super power, and we view Iran as an unwelcome upstart. That it would inject itself into the affairs of its neighbors is unacceptable to us, even though we are quite content to do so ourselves. In part due to this rhetoric (including regular threats against Israel) as well as the alleged Iranian pursuit of a nuclear weapon, the drum beats of war have been heard within the Administration and its supporters.
I have no desire to defend the Iranian leader, but I do think that we should examine our own motivations. Much of the disorder in the region is a result of our own misplaced actions in Iraq. We have stirred up a hornets nest and have gotten stung, and one of those hornets is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. If we as Americans have learned nothing from the fiasco in Iraq, we should have learned that our continued insistence on imposing imperial rule will stir up resistance and will lose us friends around the world.
[...] Faithfully Liberal – I have no desire to defend the Iranian leader, but I do think that we should examine our own motivations. Much of the disorder in the region is a result of our own misplaced actions in Iraq. [...]