Party Like It’s Fall, 2002!

by tristero

I wonder: Did anyone at the Times realize that the facts in these paragraphs contradict the Bush-dictated propaganda spin in their “reporting”?

When President Bush and his advisers decided to allow President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran into the country to address the United Nations, their strategy was simple: containment.

There would be no visits to other cities where he could denounce Washington or question Israel’s legitimacy. There would be no opportunities, beyond his speech to the General Assembly, to turn questions about his nuclear intentions into repeated diatribes about America’s nuclear arsenal.

It turned out that Mr. Ahmadinejad had a Plan B.

The scope of his determination to dominate not only the airwaves but the debate became evident yesterday evening, when he entered a hotel conference room on the East Side with a jaunty smile, a wave and an air of supreme confidence.

Sounds to me like the only person trying “to dominate not only the airwaves but the debate” was George W. Bush who did everything he could to, in the Times’s own words practice “containment” of Ahmadinejad.

The issue of whether it was a good or bad thing to provide Ahmadinejad an opportunity to yak it up in public is a separate one from the issue of whether the Times is once again kowtowing to Bush propaganda directives. It is perfectly consistent to be revolted by Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial and be horrified by the notion that the American media has once again capitulated to pressure from the Bush administration. I may address the former in a day or so [I do so below in the second update], but the notion that the newspaper of record would report, with a straight face, that Bush tried and succeeded in totally suppressing Ahmadinejad’s access to American media, but characterize the Iranian president, and not Bush, as the one trying to dominate the debate, is simply bizarre. And freaky. And very scary.

The prospect of living through a repeat of 2002/2003, when it was simply impossible to determine the truth from any American media source of influence – my God, please, not again.

[Update: I want to add that I know the people at the Times are not stupid and probably did see the contradiction, yet chose to print Bush propaganda spin anyway. Why? I suspect word has come down from above that discussion is over (not that there ever was any in the way Americans understand it), the die is cast, it’s happening. Bush is not planning to go to war, but is going to war with Iran, and with that in mind the Times doesn’t wish to appear to be coddling this season’s black hat.

Don’t bother praying that the Bush/Iran war will be short. It won’t be. As to what to do, I haven’t the foggiest idea. But I think I can detect the outline of what Bush is up to. Unlike 2002, there won’t be some 7 months of what Rice laughingly called “diplomacy.” It was, from Bush’s standpoint, a pointless, useless, exercise and a waste of time. Who says Bush doesn’t learn from his mistakes? This time the official New New Product launch seems, in a word, imminent.

And man, there is nothing that would please me more than, two months from now, for all of you to write me and accuse me of being entirely wrong, irresponsible, and alarmist.]

[Update: After some serious thought on the issue, informed as always by the commenters here, I think I’ve sorted out what I think about providing Ahmanidejad with a platform in the American press. It is a difficult call and I may change my mind as I think about it some more and learn more.

Ahmanidejad’s Holocaust denial is odious and inflammatory, but that is all it is. It is not fact-based, of course, and therefore, it is not news and not interesting and should be noted, en passant, unless directly relevant to other issues. Please note the “directly.” I am not saying to “hide” his views; I’m saying that there is no newsworthy reason to harp on them (by the way, several commenters urged me to consider that Ahmanidejad’s been poorly translated. I’m sure he has, and I’ve read some of Juan Cole’s posts on the subject and while it’s important to understand exactly what he’s saying, the gist is perfectly clear. Whether Ahmanidejad’s a properly understood anti-Semite or a misunderstood one really is not the point: it is difficult either way to make a case that he likes Jews (let alone Israel) or even that he’s merely indifferent to Jews (and yes, I suspect you will let me have it in comments, but you will have to show me stronger evidence than a misconstrued remark to convince me Ahmanidejad is not anti-semitic as well as anti-Zionist). What is germane is whether his anti-semitism directly informs his remarks and actions on issues critical to Iran’s self-interest, and the world’s, including Israel.)

While his Holocaust denial has neither truth nor value as news, Ahmanidejad’s view of the present world situation, and Iran’s place in it, is an extremely important view for Americans to have unexpurgated access to. Therefore, Americans need to hear quite a bit from Ahmanidejad and other Iranians. Journalists, however, would be derelict if they reported only his most inflammatorily stupid remarks, and neglected to report also what he says about crucial issues to US/Iranian/Middle East relations.

While this clearly makes sense to me, there are others who feel quite strongly that permitting Ahmanidejad a platform to say anything to the American people tacitly condones his anti-semitism. It’s not an entirely bogus argument – it’s quite true that providing proponents of “intelligent design” creationism a microphone imbues them with a false credibility they don’t deserve. A similar argument could be made with Ahmanidejad.

However, it’s not Ahmanidejad we must hear from. It is the president of Iran who happens, right now, to be Ahmanidejad. The benefits of hearing from the president of Iran trumps any concerns about elevating his presumed status through exposure on CNN and the networks. When and if Ahmanidejad is again an anonymous nobody with no power or influence, then it is no longer necessary to listen to anything he has to say. Before then, we simply have an obligation to listen.

“Would you say the same if this was 1934 and his name was Hitler?” Of course I would. Listening to Hitler wasn’t the problem. It was refusing to understand that Hitler was Hitler that led to catastrophe. Hitler both lied and was simultaneously quite candid about his intentions, but the only way to separate one from the other was to study Hitler and that took, among other things, listening to and reading him. If Ahmanidejad has even the slightest chance of harming the world as badly as Hitler did, it behooves us to learn as much as we can about him. And by us, I don’t mean “the Government,” I mean you and me. It is our duty to be informed and vote for informed representatives who will take our informed opinions into account. The fact that this is true only in principle -and non-existent under Bush – doesn’t relieve us of our duties as citizens, however.

Here’s another argument that could be made in support of keeping Ahmanidejad from conducting interviews with the press and others. While many folks seem to have forgotten this, many former hostages believe Ahmanidejad was directly involved with the Iranian hostage crisis. When the story broke, I took one look at the pictures and felt that it was a virtual certainty he was one of the captors.

While I fully understand, and partially share, the revulsion of those who were held hostage in Iran by Ahmanidejad and his buddies, I’m afraid that, like it or not, his position as a powerful Iranian makes it imperative to hear from him.

But again, not everything he says is interesting. His opinions on the Holocaust are as batty as Crazy Mel’s and don’t deserve news-space. His call to debate Bush is hilarious. But there are hundreds of questions that could be asked, hundreds of things he could be told about the situation in the US, all of which might be helpful in lessening tensions.

He must be heard from and he must be engaged.]