Are the liberals clueless?

Kurt Nimmo writes on his blog about an discussion on "Democracy Now":


Ervand Abrahamian, Iran expert at CUNY, made a few interesting comments to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now in regard to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia. Abrahamian was baffled by Ahmadinejad’s lack of response to the increasing “tempo” of the neocon plan to shock and awe Iran, kill countless grandmothers and toddlers, and usher in “democracy” by way of cruise missile and bunker buster.

“I was surprised because he didn’t really use the opportunity to try to lower the tempo, the serious problem we have now, which is we’re at the abyss of war, basically. And there are people pushing for war in the next few months. And this would have been a very good opportunity to try to smooth things over, try to calm the tempo down,” Abrahamian told Goodman.


Nimmo then asks "Is Ahmadinejad clueless". He also repeats the view of conspiracy theoristst that Ahmadinejad might be deliberately playing in the hands of the Neocons.

But maybe Nimmo, Abrahamian and Goodman are all blinded by the cynical world-view they have had to acquire when looking at the words and actions of western politician.
There always is a hidden meaning behind whatever a western politician says.
We westerners can no longer understand, that somebody who is threatened with war against his country can talk about peace.
How could Ahmadinejad could possibly calm down the tempo to war?

Don´t you see, what Ahmadinejad is doing?
He is rallying world opinion behind him.
If Ms Goodman or Mr Abrahamian would have read the whole speech with an open mind, as many people around the world did, not only Muslims but also Christians and secular people from both industrialized and developing countries, they would have seen, how he is portraying his country as a champion for peace and justice.

Interesting is also the translation of the speech by the Washington Times.
This bastion of secularism has been actually improving on the translation taking into account secular western sensitivities.

I read the speech as translated by the office of the President of Iran at first and there a few phrases were different, like using the word "creature" for woman, which according to Islam only means a created being, just like man is a created being, created by God.
In western ears it would sound offensive, so it was replaced in the Washington Post by "human".
(Oh and b.t.w. when Ahmadinejad talks about the denigration of women, he means the pornographic industry, which is seen in all Islamic societies as the absolute proof that western values are worthless and destructive for human dignity)

There are other instances where the Washington Post translation sounds better than the Iranians´own translation, like the inclusion of Jesus Christ in the second coming, when peace will reign on the earth.

This is, in my opinion, the beginning of a miracle.
There are people within the American establishment, who have connections with the Washington Post who are interested in letting the Iranian President look good.

Ahmadinejad is lauded by many Europeans even on TV.
His vision of "the second coming" is preceded not by an age of war but an age of peace.
He talks about the problems of poverty in the world, about the inequality between nations, about the abuse of UN institutions for the increase of power of the few powerful countries.
He talks about the history of Iranians nuclear program and the hindrances, which quite obviously were put into the way not to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but preventing it from scientific progress and it´s goal of becoming a fully developed industrial nation.

He portrays Americans as victims of power plays as well as Jewish people who have been duped by false promises into settling in Palestine and being brainwashed into hostility towards the Palestinians.

He talks about the plight of the Palestinians, of course. And he talks about the undemocratic structures in the UN, which were the result of WWII.

He emphasizes over and over again the brotherhood of men and of nations. He believes in sovereignty of nations. He calls for repentance, but not for repentance from false faith, but repentance from "evil deeds" of war-mongering, hatred, oppression and the disrespect of human dignity and ethical values.

Although he is deeply religious, most of the values he presents as universal are indeed universal, not only to religious people but also to secular humanists.

Ahmadinejad as an agent of Britain or Israel sounds very far-fetched indeed.
Read the aricle written after his speech at Columbia. The Israeli government seems to be afraid of his appeal to people.
Israel firsters believe that he might "turn" some people.

The clear loser from Ahmadinejad's visit is Israel

Is Ahmadinejad just a cynical hypocrite?
I researched his political and economical policies in Iran.
His main economic concern is social justice.

His government actually invests into social infrastructure, especially for people living below the official poverty line. It invests in industries which will boost employment for the poor and in the poorer provinces of Iran. It has stopped the policies of sweetheart deals and nepotism of past governments and it has empowered the judiciary to go after the cases of large public and private fraud, something the Iranian public has asked for years under previous governments.

This has made him enemies within the Iranian business class, who also owns the private Iranian press.

Fact is, that large segments of the Iranian business class supported the Islamic revolution.
This is the reason why the leading clerics have allowed this very same business class to run the economy unimpeded in previous years.

However the business class did not have the same ideals as the clerics like believing that a country ruled by Islamic law must be an example of honesty and social justice.
Corruption under those what the west called "reformers" had run so rampant, that finally the leading clerics have put their whole weight and the national media behind Ahmadinejad who as mayor of Tehran had the reputation of being incorruptible.

When Ahmadinejad came to power, he did not roll back any of the reforms of women´s rights or restrict women´s access to education, employment and the public life.
Neither did he impress higher restrictions on the Iranian media.

The reality is that there are certain topics concerning the foundation of the state, the Islamic constitution, religious law and everything considered blasphemious, which are banned and taboo, but then we in the west have our own taboos and bans on certain subjects.

What is, however, allowed is all criticism of the government and government policies.
And Ahmadinejad has been heftily criticized by private Iranian media mostly on his economic policies, of being too harsh to the private sector.

Iran is an oil-exporting country, however, it does not yet have refinery facilities sufficient for its own population, so Iran has to import fuel.
But for the sake of the poorer segments of society, and for small business Iran is subsidizing this imported fuel.
This led to a big smuggling business. When sanctions were slapped on Iran, the outflow of public money due to this smuggling had to be stopped.
So Ahmadinejad had a choice of either stop subsidizing or rationing the fuel.
He rationed fuel in order to not hurt the little people and the small businesses, while the Iranian business class wanted him to rather sell fuel on free marked prices.

As for the Iranian blogger scene, especially the ones blogging in English: Iran is still a developing country with a large part of the population just above or below poverty line.
Who do you think has access to computers and to the internet and who do you think would prefer to blog in English instead of in his own language?
So how representative is the Iranian English speaking blogger scene to the whole of the Iranian population?
- just a thought.

I do not think that everything is perfect in Iran. There is still the death penalty for violent crimes, not only murder. And women have lower rights in family law.
But fact is, that Iranian women are indeed seen in all parts of public life: academia, science, economy, big and small businesses and employment in nearly all possible areas and even in politics.
And still 60% of Iranian university students are women.
Iranian women actually excel in many areas. One of the few people on earth who solved an Einsteinian equation for the relativity theory is an Iranian woman, who in her main-job is a researcher in the Iranian medical field working on an AIDS medication, I think.

It is a sociological fact, that women, who are given the opportunity for higher education and who becoem economically independent, are also being empowered to demand their equal rights in all other spheres of life.

The Iranian system of criminal punishment is backwards in some way, but things are changing here as well.
Iran has a wide spread drug problem but also a large non-punitive drug recovery program.
I read in the Iranian press a quote by the police chief of Tehran. He told the public, the reason for the high crime rate is poverty. Sometimes poor people are pressed into criminal activities because of their condition.
When was the last time you have ever heard a western official make a connection between poverty and crime, let a alone a chief of police in the largest city of the country?
Seeing these kind of connections was the high-point of western ethics and sign of a high standard of civilization, wasn´t it?

In my opinion Iran under its current president is slowly but certainly moving up the ladder of economic justice and democratic development, and we in the west, Europeans and Americans alike under our corrupt and cynical leaders are moving downwards rapidly.

As for the question Kurt Nimmo is asking: Is Ahmadinejad clueless?
No, he is not. He knows about the dangers very well, but he believes in the good of mankind.
He is not a cynic as we westerners have learned to become by watching our own bunch of politicians.
Ahmadinejad is calling on ethical principles which most people still believe in around the world.
And believe it or not, there actually is a positive reaction.
If you see the goodness in others, no matter how hidden, it does come to light. It´s called a self-fulfilling prophesy.