Submitted by Michael Murphy, Sep 21, 2007 11:34

It's one thing to express the obvious. That this guy is a lunatic, that his views on subjects like the Holocaust endorse the ridiculous view that it is a "myth", that he doesn't deserve the time of day. But this editorial creates the kind of background noise that incites rather than illuminates.

Ahmadinejad's position as President of Iran is loud, but it carries far less weight than the ruling Islamic council. Unfortunately our country has taken to swatting flies instead of facing down giants. The Islamic world is large, yet contrary to the popular view it is diverse and far from being monolithic.

We dealt with the Barbary pirates in Monroe's time with wooden ships and brave men. Surely we can summon the material and diplomatic guts to deal with this little man on our own terms. As for his involvement in the hostage crisis, he participated but CIA reports indicate that his role was minimal and that initally he actually opposed taking the embassy.

From Iran's point of view, the US has a an unsavory history of sedition and human rights abuses. We installed Shah Pahlavi and winked as his CIA trained internal security agents tortured and murdered democratic dissidents. We had a large part in setting up the conditions that created Khomeini and the Islamic hardliners in Iran. Now we have to deal with our own Frankenstein.

Capturing this guy would serve no purpose other than to satisfy the shrotsighted motives of our own radical minority.

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