US Sets Up Ahmadinajad as Patsy

The excellent Washington semi-insider blog, The Washington Note, provides a keen analysis of the way that the US and Israel are setting up fanatical Iranian President Ahamadinajad as nuclear patsy. As I have noted in numerous postings, Agmadinajad does not have the type of absolute power that an American president might have.

Indeed, there are indications that he is in dispute with the ruling mullahs. While his rhetoric is seemingly all-powerful, the ruling mullahs are the ones that can check and balnce his quite limited powers. These mullahs are much more pragmatic and level-headed than the Iranian president. They are also much more open to rapprochement with western nations--even the US. ...

According to Steve Clemons at The Washington Note:

But what is strange is that there are numerous forces inside Iran working overtime to impede Ahmadinejad from fulfilling his ambitions -- while America and Europe are doing much to empower him and give him exactly what he wants.

The question of checks-and-balances in Iran is important -- whether they are theocratic or democratic institutions. We need to understand how executive authority in Iran flows -- or Europe and the U.S. may, out of ignorance, empower Iran's president while undermining other players who keep the blustery rhetoric of Ahmadinejad just that.

This fiery, anti-Israel, nuclear-obsessed President in Iran failed to get his preferred Oil Minister past the Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami, or Islamic Consultative Assembly three times. Finally, he had to compromise with other power centers in Iran's government -- who wanted competent manager in that post rather than one of Ahmadinejad's retainers.

What seems clear is that the Bush administration is once again playing on Americans' ignorance about the rest of the world. Whether this ignorance mirrors Bush's own faulty education or not, the plan seems to be to portray Iran as the anti-semitic anti-christ, thereby scaring people into a fearful trance a la 911. Given the growing fear of outswiders in America, this strategy by the Bushites is easy to do since it plays on stereotypes and jitters associated with 911.

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