Saturday, December 17, 2005

"What to Offer Ahmadinejad?"

Oh the dilemmas of post-modern statecraft.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad`s recent anti-Semitic remarks may have dealt a fatal blow to the already fragile negotiation process due to restart next week over Iran`s nuclear program, German experts have said.

'His comments throw a shadow over the whole negotiation process,' Erwin Haeckel, Iran expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin-based foreign policy think tank on Thursday told United Press International in a telephone interview. 'There is a
certain feeling of helplessness: What to do with Ahmadinejad, what to offer him?' (ht: Regime Change Iran)

Two things. First, the Europeans feel helpless because they are helpless. They have allowed themselves to wither into this state of abject helplessness. To quote Robert Kagan, when you don't have a hammer, no problem looks like a nail.

Second, the German quoted above, Haeckel, is a perfect example of everything that's wrong with contemporary "internationalism." He flounders about trying to decipher the Iranian "signals," examining the larger context and then the context still larger than that. He sends emails and makes phone calls trying to decode the subtleties. Haeckel and his associates throughout the diplomatic elite always try to make things more complicated than they are. Ahmadinejad has been very clear and honest and straightforward. He is nothing if not sincere. He has repeatedly answered the hapless German's question.

What to offer Ahmadinejad? It's simple: the Jews.

6 comments:

Rick Darby said...

Let's hope that American and Israeli clandestine forces are working together to make sure this maniac Ahmadinejad either finds himself with no doomsday weapons to launch or finds himself dispersed into very many, very tiny pieces.

Pastorius said...

It won't help to kill Ahmadinejad. The Iranian Foreign Minister, just yesterday, said, Ahmadinejad's proclamations with regards to Israel are the offical policy of the state of Iran.

The only solution is to destroy the Iranian regime. Taking out the nukes will only be a start.

Thomas, you articulated the situation beautifully.

Krishna109 said...

Excellent post. The situation is very dangerous, and the last thing that is called for is the nuanced assessment the Europeans so prefer. Their running helplessly in circles can only encourage Iran . . . their conduct is disturbingly reminiscent of their reacts in the early days of Hitler's rise (before Churchill set things right). "La plus que ca change, la plus que c'est la meme chose". (Very roughly translated that means that most of the Europeans have always been total morons, and probably always will be!)

What some countries don't seem to realize is that Iran possessing nukes would pose a danger not only to Israel, but to other nations in the area...in fact, use of nukes would be a danger to the entire world. However, as Pastorius points out, taking out the nukes would not completely solve the problem. There are many other dangerous aspects of Iran's insanity. I could be wrong about some of this, but here are just a few things that I believe are cause for worry:

Its not mentioned all that much in the media, but apparently Iran has given Hizbollah literally thousands of missiles which are in southern Lebanon and aimed at Israel. I believe they can reach as far as Haifa.

In addition, after a long period of quiet, Hizbollah has recently launched an attack on the Lebanese-Israel border and Israel retaliated. (Somewhat OT: Michael J. Totten has a very interesting report & pictures of his recent visit to the border area http://adeeperlookweblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/situation-on-lebanese-israeli-border.html).

If Hizbollah persists in cross border attacks, Israel will not sit idly by and let her citizens be murdered. The border situation alone could escalate into something very dangerous.

Finally: with an open border with Egypt, I am sure that large numbers of al-Qaeda & Hizbollah (which is controlled by Iran) operatives are now finding it relatively easy to move into Gaza. While most of the established major terrorist groups there have, at least for the time being, significantly decreased their attacks on Israel, al-Qaeda's & Hizbollah's presence on a large scale in Gaza creates a very dangerous situation indeed-- and not just for Israel (a perceptive comment by Dry Bones: http://drybonesblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/egyptian.html).

Al-jihadman is one lunatic amongst the many lunatics that live in the area, but of course the difference between him & the others is that he will soon have nukes. This is certainly not a good time for the world to endulge in analyzing the "nuances" of the situation. . . .

Always On Watch said...

WHAT TO OFFER HIM?????? Has Europe learned nothing from the horrors of Hitler? Hitler was appeased time and again, and what was the result?

Papa Ray said...

Islam is the most evil cult.

Cults need to be destroyed.

Completely.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

Oscar in Kansas said...

Bioqubit - Good catch. That'll teach me to rely on spellcheck. I revised the post with your correction. Thanks.