29 February 2008

Muddled over Ahmadinejad

The big news out here is that Ahmadinejad is coming to Iraq on March 2nd (Iranian media is calling it historic). Once again, the complexities of this war have presented me with a bit of a conundrum. Our stated mission is to assist with security and economic development, and good Iraqi-Iranian relations are helpful in achieving this. Believe it or not Iran has done some constructive things for Iraq such as planning to build a 320-MW power station for the city of Najaf. There are also numerous Iranian pilgrims taking part in the pilgrimage to Karbala (certainly I don't have anything against the people of Iran). But the reality of malign Iranian-backed militias wreaking havoc throughout Iraq is indisputable (EFPs, assassinations, etc.) That and the fact that Ahmadinejad is holocaust-denying nut. I'm guessing the Iraqi leadership will try and get Iran to halt it's nefarious violence, while encouraging its political and economic assistance. That or Ahmadinejad is going to turn the whole visit into a bitch session about "The Great Satan Occupation" of which I am part of. This goes to show how sometimes it is best to sit back and watch what happens. Your guess is as good as mine at this point. Maybe I should take a bunch of pep pills ala Saved by the Bell to study up on Iranian-Iraqi relations over the past three millenium so I can better understand this.



Not Quite as excited as Jesse Spano when she took those pep pills

3 comments:

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Lindsay Gray said...

Linking to that Saved By the Bell clip?

AWESOME!

Nixon said...

Lindsay,

You can't go wrong with Saved by the Bell. It definitely taught me a lot about...life!