An Iranian in Iraq
The other day something happened at the Baghdad International Airport that should have been highly illuminating to the American public, yet, though they couldn't totally ignore it, the American media made sure to give that event only passing attention. Their reason was the embarrassment that it had to have given to the Bush Administration, provided that that group still has any capacity to be embarrassed, a trait that I consider to be absolutely indispensable.
That day Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed up in Iraq in his official capacity as the President of Iraq's next door neighbor and once bitter enemy, Iran.
Ahmadinejad is an interesting character, though that doesn't fully explain even to me why one of my points of pride is that not only can I remember that scratchy name of his but also I can spell it correctly, and I believe I even know how to pronounce it. His interest lies partly in the fact that, among national leaders, he is rivalled only by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in his ability to raise hackles among the more powerful. Also I strongly suspect that the only thing that impresses Ahmadinejad about his trappings of high office (though we are told it isn't really the most powerful post in Iran), is the opportunity it gives him to indulge his lust for travel. Every time you turn around he's somewhere other than in Tehran.
At the airport in war-ravaged Baghdad a full array of Iraqi high officials greeted him, and he was given the red carpet treatment. And after whatever the red carpet consists of in the Middle East, he was packed into a limousine and driven off for tea and talks, along one of most dangerous routes in bomb-plagued Iraq.
It is pretty jarring to note that by contrast, the last time that GW Bush, ostensibly the leader of the most powerful nation on earth and excoriator of Iran supreme, visited Iraq, he literally had to sneak in, and he didn't land in Baghdad either. Instead he was brought to a heavily protected base somewhere out in the desert. There he did whatever he came to do, which I guess was to announce mission accomplished yet again, since it didn't stick the first time he said it, way back in 2003, or for any of the other times either, and then he was whisked out of there again, to the great relief of everyone concerned, especially including Mr. Bush himself, I would guess.
As understandable as that need for caution was, it nevertheless backs up the grade that he and his administration deserve in foreign policy, and that is a resounding "F," and this after over seven years of engaging in it.
That shoots a big hole in the beliefs about what foreign policy experience does for a person.
That day Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed up in Iraq in his official capacity as the President of Iraq's next door neighbor and once bitter enemy, Iran.
Ahmadinejad is an interesting character, though that doesn't fully explain even to me why one of my points of pride is that not only can I remember that scratchy name of his but also I can spell it correctly, and I believe I even know how to pronounce it. His interest lies partly in the fact that, among national leaders, he is rivalled only by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in his ability to raise hackles among the more powerful. Also I strongly suspect that the only thing that impresses Ahmadinejad about his trappings of high office (though we are told it isn't really the most powerful post in Iran), is the opportunity it gives him to indulge his lust for travel. Every time you turn around he's somewhere other than in Tehran.
At the airport in war-ravaged Baghdad a full array of Iraqi high officials greeted him, and he was given the red carpet treatment. And after whatever the red carpet consists of in the Middle East, he was packed into a limousine and driven off for tea and talks, along one of most dangerous routes in bomb-plagued Iraq.
It is pretty jarring to note that by contrast, the last time that GW Bush, ostensibly the leader of the most powerful nation on earth and excoriator of Iran supreme, visited Iraq, he literally had to sneak in, and he didn't land in Baghdad either. Instead he was brought to a heavily protected base somewhere out in the desert. There he did whatever he came to do, which I guess was to announce mission accomplished yet again, since it didn't stick the first time he said it, way back in 2003, or for any of the other times either, and then he was whisked out of there again, to the great relief of everyone concerned, especially including Mr. Bush himself, I would guess.
As understandable as that need for caution was, it nevertheless backs up the grade that he and his administration deserve in foreign policy, and that is a resounding "F," and this after over seven years of engaging in it.
That shoots a big hole in the beliefs about what foreign policy experience does for a person.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 6:46 AM
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