What is deeply disturbing about the Ahmadinejad controversy is how the white noise surrounding it is contributing to the spurious idea that Iran, an undeniable sponsor of terrorism, is, as such, in some way linked to the 9/11 attacks. Nothing could be further from the truth and from reality.
Iranian officialdom may — depending on the official in question — either distrust or hate the US. But the vast majority of Iranians, especially the young, have positive feelings toward this nation. Iran was the only country in the Muslim world to express sympathy for and solidarity with the US in the days after 9/11, as its mass candle-light vigils attested.
In harder, politico-military terms, the Iranian government and its people see Al Qaeda as enemies. To suggest that the odious Iranian government is in someway in league with the equally odious forces of Bin Laden is the sort of big lie at which the Bush administration excels in producing.
In fact, it is the latest lie that President Bush is trying to disseminate. Concern is growing in Washington that Bush is maneuvering to launch an air war against Iran, using the same sort of groundless fears he used to mobilize public opinion in favor of our disastrous Iraq misadventure.
Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons may some day require military action, but that moment is not now. And the politically compromised and morally bankrupt duo of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney are not the leaders whom we can trust to pull the trigger if and when that day should come. Iran and Ahmadinejad are very real threats. But, at this juncture, the White House presents the clearest and most present danger.
