Reply #8: Lost in translation? [View All]

[RufusTFirefly]

OK, so I'm definitely prepared to believe that Ahmadinejad is as bellicose as Bush. Also, as others have pointed out, given what's going on next door to him, he has reason to be even more edgy than usual.

That said, I do wonder about two things: the translation and the timing.

Who is translating Ahmadinejad's words into the English? His country's own news service or some "helpful" translator on the payroll of the U.S. or British government?

Regarding the timing: Given the mounting scandals, the growing quagmire, and his plummeting poll numbers, Bush desperately needs some sort of major distraction at the moment. I find it curious that Ahmadinejad is so willing to come to his aid.

Back when the Contra death squads (aka "Freedom fighters" or "The moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers") were battling the Sandinistas, I always found it remarkable how Daniel Ortega, who presumably is a smart man, would do something especially stupid, aggressive and threatening (like unloading a new shipment of Soviet fighter jets) just as Congress was about to vote whether to continue Contra funding. "You eeee-diot!" I used to think, "You're playing right into Ronnie Raygun's hands!"

Well, as it turns out, most of the reports of the Sandinistas' curiously timed stepped-up aggression proved to be the Gulf of Tonkin of the Reagan Era: Phony stories designed to browbeat Congress into providing more military aid.

Granted, Ahmadinejad is no Ortega. He would appear to have some loose cannon tendencies. But I can't help wondering whether he really is as reckless and stupid as the stories make him seem.