Americans were famously held hostage for months at our embassy in Teheran some years ago, but it is the Europeans who have been held hostage by the Mullahcracy for decades via their dependency on Iranian oil. Now it seems the Mullahs are over-playing their hands, their new loose cannon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad having pushed over the line with his public racism and Holocaust denial. Germany has summoned the Iranian ambassador in Berlin.
The German Foreign Ministry said on Friday it had summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest against suggestions by Iran’s president that the Holocaust might not have happened and that Israel should be moved to Europe.
Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said at a government news conference the decision to deliver a formal protest to Iran’s envoy in Berlin was meant to show that Berlin was taking the president’s comments very seriously.
What is the explanation for this Iranian diplomatic idiocy? Perhaps the Mullahs are now so confident of their bomb, they are preparing to circle their wagons and go completely adversarial with the West. Or maybe it’s just mass religious hysteria at work. Who can tell?
MEANWHILE: The Mullahs still have greedy friends in Russia. Ynetnews sees Israel and Iran in a new arms race.
UPDATe: Even the Saudis are complaining about Iran’s “New Stalin.” The UN also issued a condemnation.
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26 Comments
1. Ron Wrght:Roger,
See this post I just sent re LGF’s comment. Don’t we ever learn anything from history or don’t they teach that anymore?
*****
Iran’s Manhattan Project
HT Little Green Footballs
This troubling news just in from LGF. Why do I see similar personality traits with this guy and Hitler!
[...]
Read More
Here
Dec 9, 2005 - 8:23 am 2. David Thomson:ìPerhaps the Mullahs are now so confident of their bomb, they are preparing to circle their wagons and go completely adversarial with the West.î
I suspect that the Iranian mullahs are not true believers of the sort described by Eric Hoffer. These guys seem to enjoy the good life and have little interest in engaging in nihilistic violence. It is one thing to mau-mau with the flak catchers—and another to really put oneself in harmís way. They must know that their deaths are certain if the crap ever hits the fan.
Dec 9, 2005 - 9:23 am 3. byrd:So that’s what it takes to get europe’s attention–suggest Jews move there.
Dec 9, 2005 - 9:46 am 4. Cosmo:David Thompson has a point here. A lot of the guys at the top of these sorts of regimes and messianic movements often don’t drink the koolaide they insist their followers or countrymen swallow. Mao comes to mind.
The trick is being able to see through the charlatans and gangsters posing as statesmen, like Arafat, and spot the real madmen before they spin out of control.
Same goes for taking at face value the platitudes and admonishments we get from cynical diplomats and UN commissioners — like ‘principled opposition’ to the war from oil-for-food-bribed ‘allies’ who feared losing the organized crime concession they were operating in Iraq before the invasion.
Dec 9, 2005 - 10:02 am 5. Macker:Personally, someone better check Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scalp for a certain number….
That said, is it possible the Germans’ actions have something to do with Frau Merkel now being in charge?
Dec 9, 2005 - 10:25 am 6. dougf:The German Foreign Ministry said on Friday it had summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest…
Yada,yada,yada—
“Ohhh the Germans are mad at me I’m so scared oh the Germans! Uhoh the Germans are coming to get me, Oh don’t let the Germans come after me, they’re so big and strong.”
The only ones laughing harder than Homer are the loons in Tehran. They will NEVER back down and NO they are not really all that ‘rational’ in the sense that we might understand that term.
To pretend that they are merely more ‘corrupt’ than ‘fanatic’,and will ’see reason’, is self-delusional. The National Socialists were famously corrupt and hypocritical, and quite fond of the ‘good life’. Didn’t slow them down any, as I recall.
This is a JOKE in very poor taste. Annoying the Germans —- Please. Give me a break.
Dec 9, 2005 - 11:13 am 7. heather:Just speculation here, but I think the mullahs are in a real jam: they are old, rich and soft; this new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – is young, lean and hungry. I would not be at all surprised to read that Rafsanjani and Khatami and all the other guys whose names I cannot spell, have passed on to the Great Brothel in the Sky.
Someone else (perhaps Gerecht or Ledeen??) has noted that the Iranian revolution has produced its Stalin.
The one hope for the rest of us is that the mullahs are not as weak as I think they are, and they take out Mahmoud before Mahmoud takes out the rest of the Middle East.
Dec 9, 2005 - 11:48 am 8. monkyboy:Greedy friends indeedy:
http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=146979
Dec 9, 2005 - 12:06 pm 9. dougf:Greedy friends indeedy–monkyboy
You are becoming ever more tedious and predictable.
What a pathetic segment of the population the ‘progressive’ group has become.
Begone,sir !!
You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
Dec 9, 2005 - 12:18 pm 10. Kevin Peters:Roger:
The reason the Iranians feel confident in saying and doing whatever they want is because they know the only thing that will happen is that the op-ed sections of some western papers will call them bad boys and that,OH MY GOD, some countries will pull their ambassadors for a while. They know that after a while the Germans will come back, that no one will do anything to them.
They held America hostage and nothing happened. They have jerked the International Atomic Commission around and nothing happened. They let the E.U. coalition think that they were sincere about negotiating a deal to get rid of their nukes, it comes out that thet never had any intention of stopping, and NOTHING HAPPENED. Do you sense a pattern. The Mullahs do. They can break any agreement, they can kidnap anyone, they can openly call for the destruction of Israel, they can fund terrorist groups, and the west won’t lift a finger. All the new head of Iran is saying is what he honestly feels. Why not call for the destruction of Israel. He knows that if Israel reacts to this defacto declaration of war the west will go after Israel, not Iran. I detest this man but if I held the same sick worldview that he does it would make perfect sense.
Dec 9, 2005 - 12:23 pm 11. monkyboy:Sorry to waste your time dougf.
You guys are your own worst enemies…the constant flow of bad news about Iran is the real waste of time.
Unless Bush cleans house and comes clean about Iraq, America will never support going into Iran.
Do you think we can be fooled twice into going to war?
Dec 9, 2005 - 12:51 pm 12. Ron Wrght:Rift Now Opening within Iran’s Ruling Megalomaniacs
Very good everyone. Your comments are excellent. Now lets force our governmental leaders to “fight the fight” instead of postering for the 08 Election. This only endangers our troops on the ground. The stakes are just too high!
Yes, there is a rift brewing between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ultra fascist wing and the clerics they used to come to power.
The clerics are beginning to realize that their days are numbered. Ahmadinejhad has been purging the political and governmental ranks of the more moderate thinkers. At some point those opposed will resist. This was seen recently in the rejection of Ahadinejhad’s choice for oil minister.
We need to exploit this rift so this house of cards will tumble in on itself and save the world from Armageddon (HT LGF).
Iran has been pursuing the old game of Mao, “talk talk tan tan [fight].” It’s been working well for them with our EU allies. Why stop now with a change in their strategic nuclear policy? Could it be they know something we don’t? Perhaps Ahadinejad’s wing is on the verge of having small tactical nukes? The strategic consequences of this are unimaginable.
BTW stop by Dr. Zin’s site Regime Change Iran and drop a few bucks in his jar. This is a cheap way to win this war of information.
http://regimechangeiran.com/
The GWOT AKA Islamofascism is really a war of information re clashing ideologies/cultures. It will be won by the ideology that has more validity/credibility in the distribution of goods and svs that meets the needs and wants of its people.
I vote for ours that recognizes the universal truth of the free will of men and women that our founding fathers had the foresight to include in our Constitution.
Related – see this post from The American Thinker on the war of information.
*****
HT The American Thinker
Gee I’m cheap just throw me a few $10k. Or just read some of my stuff [War of Information] from two years ago!
Ron
**
Information war gearing up.
It is heartening that we are finally beginning to formulate information warfare strategies in the Global War on Terror, as recommended in numerous articles and comments by Douglas Hanson here, and most recently by John B. Dwyer this week. Now, the Washington Times reports:
[...]
Here
Dec 9, 2005 - 12:52 pm 13. Bostonian:Dougf,
Personally I think it’s a DU spambot, no brain attached.
Dec 9, 2005 - 1:33 pm 14. submandave:Kevin Peters: “They [believe they] can break any agreement, they can kidnap anyone, they can openly call for the destruction of Israel, they can fund terrorist groups, and the west won’t lift a finger.”
There’s a great truth to this, generally, but I believe GWB adds a new twist to the old calculus, since he was the only President to ever do what he said re. Afghanistan and Iraq. I think a large part of the extravegances of Iran are posturing for that day when GWB might say “abandon your nuclear program or we will end it.” If that time comes, and it is far more likely to come with GWB than almost any other President, this affords them the leeway to recast such an ultimatum as angry retaliation for their “free speech.”
Dec 9, 2005 - 1:39 pm 15. jerry:Macker:
Indeed it has everything to do with Frau Merkel. Scroeder would have caved in to the kidnappers and he would be sucking up the Mullahs as we speak. Anything to stick to the United States.
Dec 9, 2005 - 2:28 pm 16. photoncourier.blogspot.com:“They must know that their deaths are certain if the crap ever hits the fan”…are you sure? Considering the hysterical reaction from Democrats and the media at any form of military action by the US whatsoever..it’s easy to imaging the Iranian leadership thinking that domestic politics would prevent us from ever conducting nuclear retaliation, whatever the provocation.
Dec 9, 2005 - 2:29 pm 17. monkyboy:Yeah photo, it’s the 2.5 million barrels of oil Iran ships every day that make any threats against them empty.
Not the imagined response of the “teasonous” Demos and press.
Dec 9, 2005 - 2:37 pm 18. Alexandra von Maltzan:All Things Beautiful TrackBack Extraction Of The Stone Of Iranian Madness:
“President Bush performing an extraction of the stone of madness on The Iranian President Ahmadinejad with Pope Benedict and Michelle Malkin looking on. The original is called “The Cure of Folly” (Extraction of the Stone of Madness) by Hieronymus BOSCH, ca. 1475-80 Museo del Prado, Madrid”
Dec 9, 2005 - 3:30 pm 19. Steven Mitchell:I’m probably sounding like a broken record on Iran, but to me the question is simple. It isn’t what the U.S. will do. It isn’t what Israel might do.
Rather, what will a Free Iraq do when they get fed up with their neighbor? Their duly elected prime minister call up the U.S. Pres, says he wants to do X, and the response is, “we got your back.”
Iran can win the race, get the bomb, and change the calculus. But they don’t have unlimited time. Since both Iran and Iraq are both run by people not anywhere near as delusional as the usual U.N. flunky, Democrat foreign policy spokesperson, or even our various local memebots–you can bet that they have thought long and hard on the issue.
Dec 9, 2005 - 3:33 pm 20. PeterUK:“Not the imagined response of the “teasonous” Demos and press.”
What’s wrong with tea? Joe Wilson loves the stuff.
Dec 9, 2005 - 4:59 pm 21. joe:Well the Europeans and espically the Germans confuse word and actions. I realize there are some action verbs which are also words.
Trust me having spoken to the Iranians like this the Germans will feel they have done their part, taken strong action and view this as a strong show of force. They then will start planning their next trade exhibtion to Iran.
This link provides a more realistic view of just where the Germans really are.
http://www.trans-int.com/blog/archives/68-A-Sense-Of-Foreboding-German-Reactions-to-Ahmadinejad.html
Dec 9, 2005 - 6:15 pm 22. joe:Well the Europeans and espically the Germans confuse word and actions. I realize there are some action verbs which are also words.
Trust me having spoken to the Iranians like this the Germans will feel they have done their part, taken strong action and view this as a strong show of force. They then will start planning their next trade exhibtion to Iran.
This link provides a more realistic view of just where the Germans really are.
http://www.trans-int.com/blog/archives/68-A-Sense-Of-Foreboding-German-Reactions-to-Ahmadinejad.html
Dec 9, 2005 - 6:16 pm 23. John Lynch:This from an interview with Rumsfeld back last year:
Maybe Merkel is just following up.
Dec 9, 2005 - 8:00 pm 24. John Lynch:Oops. Not last year. Just a few months ago.
Dec 9, 2005 - 8:02 pm 25. Alexandra von Maltzan:Joe and John,
You guys are great I have just posted both of the liks within an update to my TrackBacked article above, and of course credited.
Thanks to you both, really informative.
Dec 9, 2005 - 8:42 pm 26. DougJ:This is another reason why it is imperative that we take military action in Iraq sooner rather than later. One of the chief advantages of having toppled Saddam is that the Mullahs in Iran see what awaits them if they don’t back off their Islamofascist anti-American program. As operations in Iraq wind down in late spring/early summer of 2006, I fuly expect that we begin plans for a full-scale invasion of Iran.
Dec 11, 2005 - 10:00 pm