Ahmadinejad in NY: The New Gulf of Tonkin

So everyone in New York is all faklempt about Iran's little president coming to town and making a big stink on the first stop of his US tour. People are up in arms because the Iranian president spoke at Columbia University and, of course, in classy fashion blasted Israel and continued to deny the existence of the Jewish Holocaust as well as Iranian gays.

Every American news syndicate is ablaze with stories about the visit. Even Jon Stewart took the bait and went off on Ahmadinejad last night. I'm not sure I understand what all the fuss is about.

It's not like we didn't know that the petty, cruel Iranian dictatorship held these beliefs. Does anyone remember this guy?



He doesn't exactly look like someone I will be going to Halloween in the Castro and renting "Hello Dolly" with anytime soon.

And all this stuff about Israel -- is this really news? When was the last time you saw an "Iranian Dictators for Zion" sticker on any of their embassy cars with the little green and red and white flags on them?

And yet, everyone has their knickers in a twist over this diminutive rat-like man's absurd delusional reality being thrust on them in New York, Rudy Giuliani's fiefdom we should start calling Ninelevenstan (yes, that was Giuliani who actually had the gall to hold a fundraiser that costed - yes barf now - nine dollars and eleven cents to get into).

So instead of parroting everybody (in the media's) moral outrage -- come on middle-aged mainstream America: you hate gays too, and if you didn't there would have been gay marriage a while ago and it wouldnt have been a big deal, like in other countries where there is actual civilization -- so I am just going to point out, like any good detective might, who benefits from Ahmadinejad's clumsy public relations fiasco tour:

Bush's war machine. US Military contractors gouging the hard-working American tax-base. Western oil companies wanting to build a pipline from Kazakhstan to Israel without going thru Russia. The permanent police state being set up in Iraq that serves US interests in the region. Everyone wanting to go to war with Iran (see list above).

When all the crazy boat action was taking place in the Gulf region with Iran a few months ago, some of the savvier political critics out there cried "Gulf of Tonkin!", pointing out that western nations, the US in particular, might be purposefully provoking the insecure chihuahua that is the Iranian dictatorship into nipping our heels a little too hard in order to create a reason to go to war with Iran. They stridently and astutely pointed out how the similarities between the provocation shaping up in the Gulf and the trumped up reason for going to war in Vietnam were chillingly similar.

And Ahmadinejad is playing his role like a pro; he's an agitator for sure, he says he wants the Bomb and a nuclear Iran, and he isnt saying "prettyplease" and kissing ass at the United Nations to get it. And of course the guy is controversial and probably a little "off". But the point is that if we weren't hopelessly addicted to oil he'd be more in Kim Jong Il territory: crazy, but irrelevant.

It just seems a little fishy to me that just as the Masters of War started to beat the drum against Iran, they get shot down, and next thing you know Ahmadinejad shows up with his anti-semitic dog and pony show to the Jewiest town on the planet and next thing you know everyone is up in arms. I'm just sayin'.