NYTimes editorial: Cheney and Ahmadinejad: twins separated at birth? (Kristof

[Hamlette]

Both men are hawks who defy the international community, scorn the U.N. and are unpopular at home because of incompetence and recklessness — and each finds justification in the extremism of the other.

“Iranians refer to their new political radicals as ‘neoconservatives,’ with multiple layers of deliberate irony,” notes Gary Sick, an Iran specialist at Columbia University, adding: “The hotheads around President Ahmadinejad’s office and the U.S. foreign policy radicals who cluster around Vice President Cheney’s office, listen to each other, cite each others’ statements and goad each other to new excesses on either side.”

snip

A recent opinion poll in Iran found that 70 percent of Iranians want to normalize relations with the U.S., and 61 percent oppose the current Iranian system of government. Any visitor to Iran knows that it is — at a people-to-people level — the most pro-American Muslim country in the region, and the regime is as out of touch and moribund as the shah’s was in the late 1970s.

The ayatollahs’ only hope is that we will rescue them with a military strike, which would cement them in place for many years to come. But look out, because that’s what may happen if bilateral relations are driven by those jingoistic twins, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Ahmadinejad.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/opinion/19kristof.html?hp (behind the firewall)

Seems to me that not too long ago saying that Cheney and Ahmadinejad were twins separated at birth would bring screams from the administration and its enablers in the press. Bet this passes without notice. Can't really argue with the reasoning.

But, it does show, its safe to dis Chency now.

[seemslikeadream]

1. 70 percent of Iranians want to normalize relations with the U.S.,

and Joe wants to bomb them off the face of the earth

[Swamp Rat]

2. except Ahmadinejad has a PhD and Cheney is a flunky.

[Emit]

3. Michael Ledeen has alluded to a conspiracy theory about Ahmadinejad on more than one occasion

December 19, 2005, 8:33 a.m.
The Truth About Tenet
James Jesus Angleton explains it all.

"Oh, come on! You expect me to believe that?"

I was recently back at the ouija board with my old friend, the late James Jesus Angleton, once upon a time the head of CIA Counterintelligence. ... he was all worked up over Iran, and he had a wild theory about what was going on.

JJA: "Be logical for once, don't always assume that the CIA is totally incompetent. You only hear about the bad things, the screw-ups, the accidents. No one's going to tell you about the brilliant operations."

ML: "All right, everybody knows that. But to suggest that somehow the CIA maneuvered the Iranian elections, and got Ahmadi Nezhad into the presidency, that's just wacky."

JJA: "Has anyone ever doubted CIA's ability to manipulate the Iranian populace? How did the shah get to power in the first place?"

ML: "Yeah, but only the craziest Iranians think that CIA has accomplished anything there since the 1950s."

JJA: "Good news. But some day this generation's Archie Roosevelt will tell the inside story of how the CIA managed to recruit this guy from central casting, the perfect person to get the West to take the Iranian threat seriously, the perfect person to terrify undecided Iranians and get them ready to take desperate measures, into office."

ML: "Is there any evidence at all?"

JJA: "You bet there is. There's Tenet."

ML: "Tenet's gone, fired."

JJA: "The hell you say. He left surrounded by glory and adulation. He got the damn medal, didn't he? You think the president didn't know what he was doing?"

~snip~

ML: "You're turning into a conspiracy-theory nutcase."

JJA: "What do you mean, turning into? What do you think counterintelligence is, anyway?"

I couldn't stand it anymore. You're of course free to believe whatever you want, I think it's ridiculous. Even if it does somehow explain everything.

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200512190833.asp

Edited to add, it just hurts my head to think about this. Imagine if it were true. Ouch.