Like It or Not, Barack, Ahmadinejad’s Iran is A Super Power

Posted on April 20, 2010


He can lower his voice, remind you he is like any other academic looking for proof of a case and you are lulled into thinking here is a reasonable man.  He puts a smile on his face and delivers a clever, sarcastic stinging line concocted to tweak Obama and he appears irresistibly clever, or he stands behind a podium being pummeled by his fist and thunders that no country will tell Iran what to do.  And we listen and we parse his words and we weave our dreams that have nothing to do with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reality: Iran is the power in the Middle East and he is calling the shots.

The silence from Syria to the Saudis is deafening. Turkey, our NATO ally,  is inclined to work with him diplomatically in recognition of their common border.

Obama is unable to quickly and convincingly get the major powers to sign on to stiff sanctions against Iran and now seems decidedly ineffective and weak.  In the first hours of the Nuclear Summit in Washington last week, Ahmadinejad warned that an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities would result in nuclear attacks by elements able to reach into the American homeland.

Ahmadinejad followed this with a letter to Obama. In it he issues an invitation to work with him toward a diplomatic solution – to give up on his failed policies. The result would be that he would be reelected as having been a successful negotiator.Ahmadinejad the king maker? [DebkaFile]

Again thundering from the podium, Ahmadinejad this week ordered all foreigners and their troops out of the region. He sees clearly that “interference of foreigners served the root cause of all tensions and divisions in the region…[.]“  No one in the region has spoken this forcefully – not even Saddam. [news.xinhuanet.com]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may rule over a land prone to earthquakes (Tehran may have to be relocated);  a land hobbled by the medieval pronouncements of mullahs (women who bare their bodies cause said earthquakes), and a land filled with thousands of citizens who have taken to the streets against his presidency, but he’s still standing.  And he is still the one, strong voice from the Middle East.  Few, including the United States, would take him on.

Somehow a Middle Eastern country with not the largest oil reserves has oil-needy nations cowering. Chasing oil or chasing terrorists – whatever it is that took us to the region, the big obstacle now is Iran.  While Obama obsessed about health care reform; Ahmadinejad perfected his rhetoric and his nuclear capabilities.

Ahmadinejad now boasts his army is invincible; its weaponry equally so.  An American President believes this.  America needs the oil.  It looks as if it will be Ahmadinejad’s way or the highway. Word is that already behind the scenes contact between Washington and Tehran has begun. So much for America as super power.  Israel knows it is on its own, without our unquestioned support and everywhere the mind and mouth of one angry little man in Tehran has caused knowing hearts to stop.

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