The Ahmadinejad game

[Jefferson23]

Monday, Sep 20, 2010 17:21 ET

By Glenn Greenwald (updated below - Update II )

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in the U.S. this week to address the U.N. and, as usual, extremists in both the U.S. and Iran are exploiting the drama for their own purposes. At his Townhall meeting today, President Obama said that a military attack on Iran "would not be the ideal solution" to the "serious problem" of Iran's nuclear program, but that he is not taking that option off the table. I was on Dylan Ratigan's MSNBC show this afternoon, along with National Review's Cliff May, discussing various issues relating to Iran, and, particularly as the discussion became more contentious, it was, I thought, quite illuminating. Whatever one thinks of Ratigan, there's no question that he has become increasingly radicalized by the pilfering and plundering from the financial crisis, and now offers views that are rarely, if ever, voiced by other television news hosts (the video can be watched below or here): (at permalink below)

Several other notes:

(1) There are two relatively new features in the right-hand column of this page. One is a window that contains my most recent postings on Twitter, and the other is a "Donate" button, which I posted in response to numerous reader requests, to allow ongoing support for my work here (explained here).

(2) I'll be on Democracy Now tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m EST (live video feed here). Over the next couple days, I'll also be on Rachel Maddow's show (tomorrow night) and Morning Joe (on Wednesday morning), as well as a couple of other shows. I'll post exact times on Twitter when I know them (that will be posted in that Twitter window, or you can follow the feed here).

(3) On Wednesday, at 6:00 p.m., I'll be at this event at Brooklyn Law School to discuss the flotilla incident. The event is free to the public and includes a dinner with it, and I expect it will be a great event given the panel composition and the substantial Q-and-A session afterward, so anyone in the NYC area is encouraged to attend.


remainder in full: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/20/iran/index.html