The Pakistani Spectator

Guest Post By Jessica Martin

I expected Ahmadinejad to be controversial; what I didn’t expect (or like) were the actions of the President of Columbia. It’s like he said “Sure, you can come here and give a speech, but first I’m going to insult you, your way of life, and your country, and you can’t do anything about it.” It really wasn’t a good reflection of open debate, which is what we’re supposed to be about in this country. If we are, in some ephemeral way, supposed to be ‘better than them’, this wasn’t really a good way to show we’re any different.

Frankly, I think the whole situation is laughable, and is nothing more than playground politics, and rudeness.

The President of Colombia University, I hope, will be feeling pretty special right now. What was his train of thought? :

“I know, lets invite Ahmadinejad to talk to our students. I will allow America to show that it’s actually opposed to freedom of speech, but appear to be a martyr to the cause, by letting Mr Ahmadinejad speak.”

“Then, I will ridicule him by calling him rude names in front of the whole world.”

What a stupid idea. If that’s the best one of the worlds “most learned men” can do in a situation where improved channels of communication are necessary, then I think we need to be a lot more worried than we already are.

We need to look at the fundamentals. If you were to invite your rival companies boss to speak at an event, do you think he’d be going home thinking good things if you were then to slate him and his products and claim he was doing his job terribly?”

What he is implying is that most American’s rational construct of the world is very inaccurate, because it is mentally based and not based on an empathic understanding of other peoples. A reactive populace is easy to control. It behooves any country on the world stage today to appear as a nuclear power. It is an elite club and gives you a certain power that would otherwise be unobtainable. A nuclear power will never face a real invasion, the odds are too high.

I think the president of Iran came out great. He can go home and claim an attempt to make a friendly overture, and that the US was rude to him in response. Seriously, inviting a head of state to speak at a university, and then opening the speech by insulting him? Either the president of Columbia is an idiot, or he really got into watching Schindler’s List.

If the Iranians really are developing a nuclear weapon with the intent of using it on Israel, and there was some way to confirm that other than suspicious translations of speeches, then attacking Iran makes perfect sense, and I would support it completely. My problem is that I keep seeing patterns:

1. Iraq is helping Al-Qaeda
2. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction
3. Al-Qaeda is operationally non-functional
4. The surge is working
5. Iran is helping Iraqi insurgents kill Americans

I believe there’s a good chance Iran is helping Iraqi insurgents kill Americans, simply because it might be in their perceived best interest to do that. But I’d be an idiot to believe it simply because the government told the media it was true and the media told me. You can only fool me five or six dozen times before I start getting suspicious.

I think Iran would be foolish to let matters in Iraq unfold without trying to influence it. It’s in their best interest to meddle. That doesn’t mean I support it. I prefer they didn’t. But it’s not a realistic option. I presume the dark forces on our side are making sure any Iranian offenses are being met with consequences, and I’m all for that.

Here’s your hypothetical question of the day for the readers of TPS and rest of the world: If it ever happened that America attacked Iran because of alleged nukes, and later confirmed it had no nuclear weapons program, and we discovered that the administration knew it all along, would it be in the best interest of the citizens of the United States to overthrow their government?

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• Interview with Blogger Tim Weaver - January 5th, 2009
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• Interview with Blogger Anwaar of Truth Spring - January 4th, 2009
• Interview with Blogger / Venture Capitalist Joichi Ito - January 3rd, 2009
• Interview with Blogger Fatima J - December 30th, 2008