The Painful Truth......

Sometimes the things that hurt the most are true. When this is the case in matters relating to foreign policy, the weight of those words take on take on added import. Nations acting within the international system sometimes operate on justifiably empirical foundations, and at othertimes, on fundamentally unjustifiable grounds. Such policy 'incoherence' can have dramatic and dangerous consequences and are therefore difficult for unbalanced, vulnerable political systems to deal with.

Case in point, yesterday's vitriolic speech by the recently "elected" "President" of Iran's Islamic Republic. Simply put, he demonstrated what an ass he really is. Pardon my bluntness. Moreover, once again the clerical establishment has acted contrary to the interests of the nation they purport to represent. International relations aside, Ahmadinejad's diatribe had the added effect of revealing a morally indefensible, fundamentally unjustifiable position vis-a-vis Israel.

Finally, let me state that he is not my "President." I dare say, the vast majority of the people in Iran would agree with that statement. And although I am not speaking in any official capacity, on behalf of what I know, through personal knowledge, to be true, I condemn in the name of the ordinary people of Iran, Ahmadinejad's callousness - without reservation.

One last thing, at a later date I will post an article that addresses Iranian-Israeli enmity and proposals for ending this unnatural estrangement.

Too Late To Cry Over Spilt Milk....

For some time now various voices from both inside and outside the Middle East have been heard lamenting the fact that Tehran's influence in post-Saddam Iraq is making a mockery of the whole undertaking. Let us not deceive ourselves.

Come on people - it's a little too late to be upset now with what was only an inevitable consequence of removing the Sunni power elite form their primary positions of power. The Shia are going to be close with Tehran. The so-called Neocons saw what they wanted to see, made more tolerable, perhaps because in their eyes, whatever advantage gained by the clerical establishment of Qom, would be, at best shortlived - lest we forget, the mantra of those heedy days of April 2003, "real men go to Tehran."

Alas, Ladies and Gentlemen, the die is cast and unless we are prepared to confront Iran, further jeopardizing the shelf life of our Pax Americana, we are going to have to learn to live with the emergence of a new balance of power in Persian Gulf.