September 25, 2007
How do you say "long-winded" in Farsi?
Answer: mah-moud ah-ma-di-ne-jad
Yes, I know: this week is shaping up to be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Week here at EdwardTrimnell.com. But the esteemed President of Iran is a very timely subject. After yesterday announcing in a speech at Columbia University that the Islamic Republic of Iran has inoculated itself against homosexuality, Mahmoud wound up his trip into the belly of the Great Satan today with a speech at the United Nations.
I don’t know exactly how long Ahmadinejad spoke. But I saw at least two yawns in the U.N. General Assembly audience (I’m not making that up!). And as for me: I have calluses on my ears. In most of the Muslim Middle East, anything that would pass for real entertainment has been either banned, burned, or bombed out of existence. (Sometimes all three.) The citizens of these countries spend most of their time either praying, or listening to bearded men give rambling speeches. Therefore, Middle East audiences have a bit more tolerance for verbosity than we do in the West.
Ahmadinejad’s speech was repetitive, but it contained a few themes worth highlighting here. There were no real olive branches ---though there were multiple references to Quranic justice. Below are the high points:
The "greatness of Iran": Iran’s leaders have been telling the outside world that their country is great ever since the days of Reza Shah, the father of the last Shah of Iran--- who was deposed by Khomeini in 1979. The Shah dreamed of making Iran the regional hegemon of the Middle East, and Ahmadinejad has inherited this dream through the legacy of Ayatollah Khomeini. (Iran’s nuclear program is ultimately about more than just scaring the bejesus out of Israel.)
Characteristic Persian xenophobia: Iran has been squeezed by outsiders since the nineteenth century, when czarist Russia and Great Britain competed for control of Persia in a contest known as “the Great Game.” In the early nineteenth century, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) reaped most of the country’s oil revenues. Then in 1953, a populist, xenophobic leader, Mohammed Mossadeq, was deposed by a joint British-American coup. (Mossadeq threatened to ally Iran with the Soviet Bloc---not a good move during the Eisenhower years.)
This history is not lost on the current leadership of Iran. During his speech today, Ahmadinejad repeatedly referred to “arrogant powers” that “control others”. He was short on specifics; but he knows that this line plays well to his home audience.
Lots of references to Islam, Allah, and the Quran: In America, the Religious Right sometimes influences the government. In Iran, the religious right is the government. Ahmadinejad’s speech contained a liberal commingling of religion and politics, because this is what is expected in Iran.
No compromise on Iran’s nuclear program: Ahmadinejad declared Iran’s nuclear program to be a “closed matter.”
North Korea’s Kim Jong il ultimately wanted a payoff for his nukes. Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, wants to develop nuclear weapons for Allah and country. I look for him to push the matter right up to the brink of war, and possibly over it.
That’s all I have for now. I may pour over the transcript of the speech at a later date to extract a few more nuggets. I must admit that I am rather anxious for Ahmadinejad to head home. On one hand, he presents so many opportunities for satire that it is almost unsporting to make fun of him. On the other hand, though, this yayhoo is running a country of 65 million people; and he may soon have the bomb. Kind of unsettling when you think about it.
