You cut off my paragraph at a crucial point. My post continues:
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.
For some reason there is no discussion of Otum's point. It continues to be avoided. Its relevance to criticising Ahmadinejad as a clown is that not only is he criticised as a clown but demonised made a pariah and subject to sanctions but King Abdullah etc. who no doubt has comparable clownish beliefs and provides much less freedom to women is nevertheless not a pariah at all.
The point is not about criticising Ahmadinejad as being a clown but that he is opposed to US policies. Rafsanjani may be a rich clown and Mousavi a clown as well but they would nevertheless be supported by the US and attempts made to help them get into power because they are more accomodating to US interests and would be friendlier to US capital etc.
This is my interpretation of the wacky anti-imperialist line that you dont understand. Do you get it now. Did Otum drift off in disgust or what?
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, 11:12 AM
>
> On Jun 22, 2009, at 10:01 AM, ken hanly wrote:
>
> > 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
>
> I really don't get this line of argument at all - and it's
> not just you, Dennis Perrin & Michael Smith are making
> similar points. I'm often deeply embarrassed by the
> leadership and prevailing ideology in the USA, not to
> mention actual material practices. But somehow there seems
> to be a wacky anti-imperialist line that holds that you
> can't criticize clowns abroad because we're afflicted with
> clowns at home. Well, yeah. But we're trying to understand
> what's going on in Iran now, and a large part of what's
> going on is that many Iranians are sick of the mullahs and
> humiliated that their rich culture is now represented by an
> ignoramus. Many Americans were embarrassed that their
> previous president was an ignorant religious fundamentalist
> too. Too bad we didn't go into the streets in large numbers
> after he stole an election in 2000 like Iranians are now.
>
> Doug
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>