Friday, December 09, 2005

A Tale of Two Presidents

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Part two (see "Poor Judgmint") of my brief and balanced exploration into the minds and values of world leaders :^)

The president of Iran suggested yesterday that Israel be moved to Europe (!???). This is the same guy who said a few months ago that Israel should be "wiped off the map," so I guess that means he's warming up to the Jews.

Ahmadinejad is becoming more surreal than Baghdad Bob, the hilarious Iraqi "information minister" who kept announcing the glorious Iraqi victory over American troops even as they rolled into Baghdad.

What is it about goofy religious beliefs and way too much power and money that sometimes produces such self-delusional nonsense from national political leaders?

The biggest difference between our current home grown delusional nonsense and the Iranian variety is that our leaders are still legitimate objects of satire.

It's only when things get so silly they're beyond satire that you're dealing with something really scary. Welcome to Tehran.

Hey, I can get behind a US president who isn't beyond satire. You just have to compare him to the right people.

A lot of us think Dubya tends toward self-delusion and ideological thinking, but at least he's not completely divorced from reality. You've got to hand it to him that he's never suggested solving the strategic challenges of the Middle East by simply moving Iraq to Canada. That kind of common-sensical restraint demonstrates some flicker of an instinct for clear-eyed observation and practical problem solving in my book.

If I think of it that way, all I can say is, "Three more years!"

See, if you just have the right point of view, even those of you who can't stomach our present national leadership can find something good to say about 43 :^)

2 Comments:

Blogger ruth said...

I think Michael Moore once suggested that Israel ought to have been established in Bavaria instead of Palestine. I guess that's slightly different from moving it there once it had already existed in Palestine for 50-some years.

I think it's truly frightening to inquire into the mind of a world leader. I don't want to know...

3:30 PM  
Blogger Wordcat said...

Inquiring into the mind of Michael Moore may be just as frightening :^)

I'm not sure establishing a Jewish state in the heart of Oktoberfest and the Nazi Party would have been the most practical idea. Drunk and conquered Nazis might have created some difficulties for a new Jewish state. Maybe even more problems than sober and conquered Palestinians.

Enforcing virtue at the point of a gun never works very well.

8:54 PM  

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