© 2007, UrbisMedia
The times have rarely seemed so “biblical” since the times were, well, biblical. Those great, dualistic themes—good and evil, the godly and the diabolical, believers and infidels, heaven and earth, the beginning and end of times—seem so proximate, so much a part of our consciousness and discourse. It is both part of, and transcendent to, the “clash of civilizations” [1] hypothesis that seems to be looming from those ancient lands, where, from Gilgamesh to the Six Day War, such momentous antipathies were settled with the sword.
There seems little hope for convergence, for some accommodation, for tolerance in the biblical atmosphere of the present. “You are either with us, or with the terrorists,” our great leader in Washington, and man respected by his followers for his setting and staying a course. The adversary is not much better, the West must convert or die, is the most recent theme of Osama bin Laden. It is a battle that would amuse the most jaded Olympian gods. God, Allah and Yaweh, must have their Bud Lights, nachos, and their side bets ready for the big Clash of the Civs Bowl.
In such vast and significant circumstances it is also astounding that the major chess pieces are such stupid and pathetic beings. But, then, perhaps it takes stupid and pathetic beings to get us to this point. I’m talking about stupid and pathetic beings like Bush and Ahmadinejad. They portray themselves as opposites, but in fact they are really only opponents, opponents of their own choosing, although they would see it that they are in the current of Biblical/Koranic historical revelation and prophecy, and they are “chosen” to lead their righteous peoples to supremacy. “It is written.”
Ironically, they are very much the same man, brothers in zealotry and intolerance, the “twin towers” of deadly ignorance and intransigence.
Both stare into their horrific futures through pinches, beady eyes; they each have that silly, deranged giggle and smirk, the deflective rhetoric that always returns to the dualities.
They each came to power under clouded circumstances, Bush stealing one, maybe two elections with the assistance of political and corporate allies; Ahmadinejad under elections in which opponents had declined to be involved because of disqualified candidates.
Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier; Bush denies that his lies about weapons of mass destruction and implications that Iraqis were involved in 911 are lies.
Ahmadinejad is answerable to Ayatollah Al Khamenei, and Bush answers to Ayatollah Ali Cheney.
They are both religious zealots.
They are both un-popular in their own countries as well as abroad. Bush is a lame duck; Ahmadinejad is not likely to be re-elected in 2009. So they are both in lame-duck/Armagheddon mode.
They have both damaged their reputation of their countries and insulted their own people.
Both men are theopathic tyrants.
Admittedly, there are some differences. Ahmadinejad is more intelligent, but more deranged, Bush is stupid and deficient. Ahmadinejad is bolder and more courageous; Bush we know is calculating and a certifiable coward. Which is probably one of the reasons that Bush continues to respond, or even to meet with Ahmadinejad, despite the latter’s entreaties for them to sit down and have out their differences in person. Bush hides behind the claim that he does not wish to “recognize” the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad, whom he considers a terrorist, by meeting with him.
Ahmadinejad almost seems to relish personal confrontation, or, as some see it, he needs to be in the political limelight in order to retain his power. In this regard he is far more entertaining than Bush, even though we must listen to him in translation. He is entertaining somewhat in the manner of Charles Manson, who he somewhat resembles. He absorbs insults with smiles and, as his interview with Scott Pelley, on 60 Minutes (9.23.2007) demonstrated, he knows how to trash talk. He bested Pelley several times, especially when he just grinned when Pelley accused him of being a political leader who has destroyed the reputation of his country. Given the number of polls that have shown how destructive rthe Bush administration has been to the reputation, ad respect for America, Pelley’s accusation was one of the dumbest journalistic gaffs I have witness of late.
Ahmadinejad was willing to come to New York and put his butt in front of hostiles at Columbia University, with a student body that has more Jews than he has ever seen in his life. Bush would never go there to speak because Columbia University is not an American military base.
In some respects Ahmadinejad has damaged the rep of Iran. But closer observation shows that he does not really speak for the majority of people in Iran, or even the attitudes of the religious authority that runs the country, but somewhere in between. He recognizes that by poking at Bush, by getting the US to respond by rattling sabers, by threatening Israel, and by attempting to build a nuclear weapon, he has a chance of by consolidating the right-wing opposition to the West in his own country. He is not a stupid man. But he is an engineer, and few things are more stupid than an engineer who thinks human behavior works just like a toaster. [2]
Because Bush is such a coward, it is not likely that we will get our wish to have these two creeps strip down and go at it, mano a mano in some patch of sand under Ultimate Fighting rules—winner takes Iraq, what’s left of it. I’ll give you five to one that Bush won’t even show. Look for him in some bar in Alabama; that’s where he went the last time he was asked to fight.
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©2007, James A. Clapp (UrbisMedia Ltd. Pub. 9.27.2007)
[1] By the way, what is this stuff about “civilizations”? I’m still waiting for civilization, because, in my terms, (and Martin Buber’s, who said that civilization begins when we “take on the ‘other’”) we haven’t got close to civilization. There are plenty of peoples who have claimed to achieve civilization, but nary a one of them has passed the essential first test—that all people must be treated equally. Not a single one. And we are still not even close.
[2] It works like a bicycle, everybody knows that.