Must... not... hyperventilate...

[yesthattom]

http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2004_05_02.html#001520
This confirms my worst fear: that we're working on plans to attack Iran.

Comments

[polydad.livejournal.com]

I really doubt that's your *worst* fear. My own is that they're attacking us right here. Which, come to think of it, they are.

[misteropinion.livejournal.com]

I don't think that I was previously afraid that Wolfowitz was a putz, I already knew that. It's not that big of a stretch to believe that to a lot of the people in charge it's all just "over there".

[keyne.livejournal.com]

You know, it's hard to reconcile posts using phrases like "must not hyperventilate" and "worst fear" with the "happy" icon you use on almost every post. :}

[jss]

He's got "happy" as his default emotion setting and never remembers to change it. I've stopped commenting about it since he ignores me when I do, even privately. Rotsa ruck.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Nope. I'm happy now that I'm back to living within a 15 minutes of my SO.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

It shows that at some level, Wolfowitz doesn't give a fuck about the difference between one A-RAB country and another, never mind the fact that the Iranians pretend not to be Arabs.

[cos]

Why "pretend"? *puzzled*

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Because the Zionist propoganda these folks grew up with made no distinction there. The Iranians were Moslems and theoretically hostile to Israel (though not actually so under the Shah) so they were Arabs. That was the very definition of "Arab".

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

My understanding from the literature is that an "Arab" is someone whose first language is Arabic, which is a Semitic language related to Hebrew, Aramaic, etc. Iran's national language is Parsee, which is an Indo-European language related to Sanskrit, Hindi, & most of the European languages--completely different language group.

Like the Arab countries, Iran is predominantly Muslim. But the divide between Arabs & Iranians (known to the ancient world as "Persians") goes back for centuries, predating the existence of Islam.

And, yes, most Muslim countries have lousy relations with Israel; too, but that's an even more modern issue.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

No! You completely got it wrong. Arabs are the bad people. It's that easy. If someone is bad, they're Arab. If they're Arab, they're bad. In fact, they're going to change the word to Arabad 'cause they're the same thing. They might as well smush them together.

If you disagree, the nice people from the Bush Re-Education center will be visiting soon.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Your understanding of which literature? Of the propoganda posters of the 1970s, showing a hostile bright-yellow- or red-colered huge 'country' stretching from Morocco through Iran with a tiny patch of Israel in its midst?

Of course your understanding comports with reality, but not with the gut-level assumption that I believe Wolfie let slip.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

For the record: my response to "propaganda posters" line would be that the "literature" I had in mind was pretty much any standard history of Iran (particularly the medieval history, the Arab invasions, etc) or any linguistics text dealing with the Indo-Aryan & Semitic language families.

Not that a really serioius Zionist would care, mind you ...

[cos]

Nevertheless, Iranians aren't Arabs. They're not pretending anything.

Or did you mean to be writing in mock-Wolfowitz voice, rather than as yourself, in that part of the sentence?

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I'm sure Wolfowoitz could tell you that they're not really Arabs, too. But when he's half-awake at 4:30 AM, I bet he thinks they are.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Actually, I doubt that the Administration could invade Iran if they wanted to, at this point: the U.S. is badly bogged down in Iraq, Afhganistan remains unstable, forces are "stretched thin."

Moreover, Iran is much larger than either Iraq or Afghanistan, & would probably require more troops than we're already using in those countries. So I suspect that Wolfowitz' slip has more to do with his own ideological fantasies than any currently viable plan.

On the other hand, if you look at the map, you can see what Wolfowitz may have hoped for, a year ago: had U.S. forces successfully "pacified" Iraq & Afghanistan, they could be positioned to threaten neighboring Iran from 2 sides.

[cos]

Perhaps what he missed was that the Taliban and Saddam Hussein's regime were Iran's two major regional enemies. By knocking both of them out, while befriending Iran's main regional ally (Russia), and then failing to reconstruct either one in Wolfie's image, we've accomplished several of Iran's main military & foreign policy goals for them, handed them regions of influence on their borders, and generally strengthened them.

Of course I was saying back in 2001 that Iran was our real natural ally in the region. Too bad shrub decided to piss them off instead of wooing them.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

No doubt: Iranians' anticlerical & pro-U.S. demonstrations after 9/11 represent one of this Administration's most obvious missed opportunities.