The Road To Iran 2

The V.P., or the Notorious V.I.P. ( Vice Intensive President ), seems to see a good deal more to Pres. A. of Iran than I do. Pres. A. did not come off to well during his recent visit. Actually, nobody involved in that charade came off too well. As I said at the time, it is hard to build a case that somebody is a cunning and malevolent evil entity when said entity is acting like a dimwit. Yet the V.P. seems determined that this country Iran, a country which cannot control the distribution of gasoline to its citizens without having riots break out on every corner, is the source of all our woes.

To quote Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek:  
Stalin, Mao And … Ahmadinejad?

Conservatives have become surprisingly charitable about two of history's greatest mass murderers. Oct 29, 2007 Issue  
"Here is the reality. Iran has an economy the size of Finland's and an annual defense budget of around $4.8 billion. It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are quietly or actively allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?" 

... "We're on a path to irreversible confrontation with a country we know almost nothing about. The United States government has had no diplomats in Iran for almost 30 years. American officials have barely met with any senior Iranian politicians or officials. We have no contact with the country's vibrant civil society. Iran is a black hole to us—just as Iraq had become in 2003."

and finally  

"Last year, the Princeton scholar, Bernard Lewis, a close adviser to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal predicting that on Aug. 22, 2006, President Ahmadinejad was going to end the world. The date, he explained, "is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the Prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to 'the farthest mosque,' usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back. This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world" (my emphasis). This would all be funny if it weren't so dangerous."

More wit and comedy from the Bush White House. Seriously, if indeed we are the wealthiest and the most powerful nation in the history of mankind, is this really the best we can do? George W. Bush? Richard Cheney? And President Amedinejad was really, really - literally - going to end the world?

Th-th-that's all, folks!