Thursday, January 19, 2006

Lipstadt Disagrees with Orac: The President of Iran is crazy.... like a fox

While I agree with the essence of Orac's comments in the previous post, I must strongly dissent from one aspect. I would not describe Ahmadinegad as a loon or a zombie [see Orac's full essay].

The man may say things that sound "off the wall" but, I think, he is crazy like a fox. He knows that this builds him up at home and in the broader Muslim world and gets the rest of the world to pay him attention.

Just imagine what we would think of someone who described Hitler in 1924 or 1935, for that matter, as a loon. Today we would say that they seriously missed the boat.

BTW, I do NOT mean to analogize between Hitler and Ahmadinegad. Based on current behaviors, there is a world of difference between them. However, I do mean to analogize to the world's reaction.

1 comment:

Orac said...

Actually, there's no reason the President of Iran can't be both a loon and also very clever and ruthless at achieving his aims at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive. History has shown us this time and time again.