Ervand Abrahamian, Iran expert at CUNY, made a few interesting comments to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now in regard to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia. Abrahamian was baffled by Ahmadinejad’s lack of response to the increasing “tempo” of the neocon plan to shock and awe Iran, kill countless grandmothers and toddlers, and usher in “democracy” by way of cruise missile and bunker buster. 

“I was surprised because he didn’t really use the opportunity to try to lower the tempo, the serious problem we have now, which is we’re at the abyss of war, basically. And there are people pushing for war in the next few months. And this would have been a very good opportunity to try to smooth things over, try to calm the tempo down,” Abrahamian told Goodman.

Of course, there will be no smoothing things over, as the neocons, firmly in control of the horizontal and vertical of U.S. foreign policy, are determined to engage in mass murder. In fact, Ahmadinejad’s speech was custom-made for the neocons, as it dealt with superficialities. As Abrahamian notes, “most of the questions from the audience missed the opportunity. They dealt basically with important identity questions, but they didn’t really deal with the issue that we are really on the abyss of war. And this is a far more serious issue than, you know, either ethnic or gender issues.” Obviously, “ethnic or gender issues” will be meaningless if Iran is destroyed, its social fabric rended, if the very institutions presumably tasked with addressing such issues are reduced to smoldering ruins.

No telling exactly why Ahmadinejad did not speak about the impending destruction of his country, although a few seem to believe he is part of the neocon-neolib conspiracy against Iran—a conspiracy with key players inside Iran itself. More than likely, Mr. Ahmadinejad is blinded by pride, as the people of Iran have a long history of nationalism—and nationalism often blinds one to current realities. In addition, Ahmadinejad seems to believe attacking Iran is so crazy the neocons will not engage in such behavior, never mind their vicious and bloody track record, horrifically on display in neighboring Iraq. Abrahamian continues:

Ahmadinejad didn’t say it … but his policy is that there is no likelihood of war, because no one in their right senses would think of invading or attacking Iran. And that’s the premise he works on, which is, I think, a completely wrong premise, because he doesn’t seem to understand American politics, the same people who gave us the war on Iraq, the same people who are running foreign policy now. But he begins from the premise that no one in their right senses would think of attacking Iran.

Indeed, the neocons have advertised long and hard, telling us repeatedly they intend to destroy Israel’s enemies—and enemies of the neoliberal doctrine or rather business plan, i.e., countries will not be allowed to opt out of IMF loan sharking operations and banker-investment fire sale schemes—and Mr. Ahmadinejad comes off as seriously clueless, thus lending credence to speculation he is part and parcel of the neocon-neolib conspiracy.

Read the full article at: Prison Planet 

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