See no evil

They said it was for our country, for vaccine . . . But I think they use it for something else.

Barack Obama has often professed his willingness and even apparent eagerness to sit down with Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, affectionately known across the blogosphere as Monkey Man, to ruminate expressively on the common ground. Of course, anyone in possession of a worldview even millimeters short of psychotic realizes that the only such commonality with Monkey Man and his minions can be solely on the battleground. If you can’t see that the sawed-off little tough guy is feverishly preparing for war you just aren’t paying much attention.

Whether vociferously threatening to erase Israel from the map or lyrically prophesying a wondrous world without Israel or the US; whether enriching uranium or testing long-range ballistic missiles; whether magnanimously promising to dig three hundred twenty thousand fresh graves for American troops or boldly addressing the UN on US soil in alarmingly apocalyptic terminology, Ahmadinejad rattles his saber and sharpens his rhetoric admittedly more for Iranian internal consumption rather than for us. His message is cryptic to Obama but is simple and clear to his Persian countrymen, who are urged to prepare the way for the return of the Imam Mahdi, Islam’s eschatological savior, who is expected to appear during a time of unprecedented strife, warfare, and persecution by the infidels or unbelievers—that is, us.

And so Ahmadinejad, the ayatollahs, the mullahs, and the Revolutionary Guard prepare for war while Utopian socialists muse about dialog and the common ground. That the Iranian mullahcracy may welcome war, may expect war, may want war—indeed, may pray for war—has not even occurred to Obama and the far left, despite the myriad clues to the big picture that Iran sprinkles like Hansel’s breadcrumbs. One such crumb almost went unnoticed last week, amid the media frenzy over the missile tests, when it was revealed that Iran is likely performing biological experiments on endangered primates, and if you thought they were endangered before, just imagine how the monkeys must feel now that Monkey Man has his hands on them!

It seems the Vervet monkeys, or simply Vervets, that the Iranians have been purchasing on the black market are a bit small for the ostensible purpose of vaccine testing, and not surprisingly Iranian opposition groups have identified the testing facility as a biological weapons lab. I’d tell you to cover your ears for protection from the deafening roar by the animal rights folks, one of the larger and more vocal constituencies of the liberal left, except they haven’t even heard about this story from the American media. Of course they won’t hear about it, and they couldn’t care less if they heard. After all, we need to respect other cultures, and above all we must make peace with them.

Good luck with that. Obama can talk turkey with the Iranian leadership till Kingdom Come and it won’t dissuade them or slow them down one bit. In the Shia worldview, war against the seemingly indomitable big boys is just this side of Islam’s eternal salvation. Ahmadinejad and the Shia clerics want war badly and, under the coming Mahdi, they intend to become over-achievers at it. This is what a top Shia cleric meant just the other day when he warned about the consequences of Israeli or American aggression against Iran:

The enemy must realize that we have excelled in the fields of science, industry, technology, and military.

He forgot to add “theocracy,” but he got most of it right as it pertains to the high-horsepower war machine Iran is constructing with a little uranium, some rocket fuel, and a few score Vervet monkeys. Each day that the West covers its eyes to avoid gazing on naked evil, Iran grows more powerful. Engaging the Iranians in talks only gives them time and opportunity to grease the wheels while we aren’t looking.

And what exactly would Presidents Obama and Ahmadinejad talk about anyway? Almost every official statement emanating from Iran has a characteristically Baghdad Bob ring to it. Talking with the Iranians would resemble nailing Jell-O to the wall. The same cleric quoted above had the swollen stones to claim with a straight face that Iran “has neither invaded any country nor threatened any state.” You might want to ask the Israelis what they think of that claim. This sort of dissimulating, self-righteous posturing doesn’t hold out much hope for meaningful dialog. Quite brazenly and mendaciously, His Ayatollahness actually alleged that “in the past three decades, the Islamic Republic has proven its high regard for international regulations . . .”

I don’t suppose he was thinking of, say, for example, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Tagged as: Barack Obama, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, nuclear, photo