So what significance is it that many Iranians are embarassed by Ahmadinejad that many on LBO think he is a clown and even call him fancy phallic names. Many Canadians were embarassed by Mackenzie King who consulted mediums and talked to his dead mom but they voted him in as prime minister. He was no worse than most and better than many. More to the point is what Otum said:
More to the point than his Holocaust denial is that if Ahmadinejad tomorrow miraculously aquiesced to Western objectives in the Lebanon (ie stopped supporting Hezbollah), and opened Iran to Western capital, then Iran would overnight cease to be a "paraiah," and Ahmadinejad would overnight become either a reformer or a strongman, and no more of an "embarrassment" than is a King Abdullah, a Mubarak or an Abu Mazen. And Iranian elections would become no more of an issue than Egyptian, Palestinian or Saudi elections are today.
To mirror what Sawaicki said about fascists getting recruits among the working class, US imperialism gets recruits among the well off corrupt and powerful among the theocratic elite such as Rafsanjani. In spite of his corruption and links to the mullahs he would be no embarassment at all, just as it was no embarassment to link with the jihadists when they were attacking the evil empire in Afghanistan or as in the examples that Otum gives.
It is also characteristic of US liberal supporters of US imperialism to use the term fascism in a loose way as a boo word.
Of course the discussion veers off into other channels and ignores what Otum had to say.
cheers, k hanly
Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
--- On Mon, 6/22/09, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Hamid Dabashi on Iran
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Monday, June 22, 2009, 7:38 AM
>
> On Jun 22, 2009, at 12:40 AM, Chris Doss wrote:
>
> > Isn't holocaust denial taught in Saudi schools, along
> with the Protocols?
>
> Maybe so, but so what? Iran is to some degree a democracy
> and Saudia Arabia is a repressive hellhole. What does this
> have to do with the fact that many many Iranians are
> embarrassed by their clown of a president?
>
> Doug
>
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>