Juan Cole in Informed Comment has an insightful analysis of the news conference yesterday (see my post today on the same subject) of Bush and Karzai. Cole examines Bush's statements on Iran and indicates what muddled policy lies behind the Bush "policy" toward Iran.
Writes Cole:
"First of all, true to form, he [Bush] begins with an outright misstatement (more accurately, a lie). The statement, “after all, this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon,” is an obvious untruth that like so many other untruths will probably not be challenged by the mainstream media, but through which George Bush hopes to etch in the American mind (or his own mind?!) the proven or “proclaimed” aspirations of the Iranian leadership for acquiring the bomb."
Yes, the media in attendance at the news conference let George Bush lie with immunity in saying that the government of Iran has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon. Of course, Bush cites no chapter or verse. Iran for Bush is the bogeyman, the very incarnation of evil.
Cole, however, is optimistic that the Bush dream-like dark constructions of Iran as the monster will fall to the realities on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Writes Cole:
"Realities on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, however, are slowly revealing the incoherence (or impracticality) of Bush’s policies. Karzai talks about Iran’s helpful role in Afghanistan and acts accordingly while al-Maliki’s government in Iraq pleas for the continuation of US-Iran security talks before al-Maliki himself (along with his foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari) takes off for Iran in a few days for the government of Iraq’s own security talks with Iran."
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