The George W. Bush of the Middle East

In response to international condemnation of Iran’s crackdown on pro-democracy protestors, Iranian crackpot Ahmadinejad has thrown something of a “Hail Mary”, comparing President Obama to ‘Dubya, and claiming that supporters of Mousavi have been manipulated by the Evil Western Empires.

To his credit, Obama appears to have done a fairly good job in resisting the calls of hawkish members of congress to become more involved in the Iranian protests, recognizing the negative impact American intervention has had in Iranian politics. Overt support of one side may do more harm than good. The best analogy I’ve heard so far would be if Hubert Humphrey had won the 1968 Presidential election – only to have it later revealed that the Soviets had sponsored his campaign.

The irony in Ahmadinejad’s invocation of the name of Bush is that if there is anyone who resembles the former US President in action, it’s himself. Both have sought to label opposition as unpatriotic, and both have invoked a foreign boogieman (terrorism in Bush’s case, the US/UK in Ahmadinejad’s) to keep their people in line.


Side note to Hugo Chavez: "The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend" is a rather poor way to determine foreign policy.