Two weeks after Iran's ballot-box putsch, mysteries still envelop it. Why have a pre-election freedom-fest, bring hundreds of journalists to Tehran to witness it, then put on a horror show, throwing them into jail or out of the country?
This time I'm going to help Roger with the answers: Because the Iranian theocracy pulses in a parallel universe, separated by light years from Roger's alternative reality. Because you cannot transplant Western logic into a Middle East body without expecting the body to reject it. Because given Cohen's glowing past reports concerning all things Persian, which almost entirely ignored such minor matters as horrific persecution against the Baha'is, Tehran's masters had every reason to believe that he would continue to sweep these unpleasantries under his Persian carpet.
I'm sorry they spoiled your party, Roger.
With a flourish of his flowery pen, Cohen concludes his most recent op-ed:
The price of Obama's engagement may just have become Ahmadinejad's departure. I think it has. His defenestration is not impossible; it would be forced from within where disaffected clerics and moderates abound; and it would restore an Islamic Republic, recognized by Obama, where both words of the self-description mean something, a land of God and people.
Cohen "thinks" Ahmadinejad is going somewhere? Think again. Obama has adopted a form of isolationism as his new foreign policy, in accordance with his own hard-wired behavioral preference not to take sides, i.e. to vote "present".
A "land of God and people"? Which people? Does Cohen include Iran's Baha'is, homosexuals, Jews, Christians, and Sunni Muslims among those people? Even if Roger's preferred candidate, Moussavi, a monster in his own right, had swept into office, Iran would have remained a godless morass.
Diagnosis: After sniffing the smelling salts of reality administered by Iran's recent "election", Cohen remains delusional.
NYTimes is what it is. It's all clear about R.Cohen. But I do not agree with you on one point.
ReplyDeleteYou write:
"Obama has adopted a form of isolationism as his new foreign policy".
Obama has chosen policy of confrontation with Israel and appeasement of Muslims. It is clear from his Cairo speech, his stress on settlement freeze, and his eagerness to "engage" with Iran, no matter what.
Hi Marina,
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct: Israel is the one country in the world that is being browbeaten by the Obama administration. No matter where one stands vis-a-vis Israel's settlements, linkage by Obama between the settlements and Iranian aggressiveness was patently absurd. It is little wonder that Obama's approval rating in Israel sank from 31% to 6% within one month.
I voted for Obama: he lied about his attitude toward Israel. Now, I am anxious to see, when his rating will drop in the USA.
ReplyDeleteI'm applauding at my screen after your comment on this column at NYT. Just wanted to let you know.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Abbi.
ReplyDelete