Halpern: Not crazy, dangerous

I'm thinking

by Micah Halpern

Ahmadinejad is a cunning, calculating, very precise and gifted leader. And it would behoove us all to see him as he is and not throw up our hands or shake our heads and mutter about what a nut he is. To discount Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad and consider him to be merely a madman, a crazed lunatic, is to misunderstand his enormous power. To consider his behavior impulsive and erratic is to miscalculate his far reaching influence.

An insane person, certainly an insane leader, is a danger primarily because the actions of that person are unpredictable. A calculating tyrant is even more dangerous.

The president of Iran makes no move without first evaluating its impact and ascertaining that that move, small or large, fits in with his larger objective. In many ways there is a striking, bone chilling similarity between the leadership styles of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Adolf Hitler. Both men chose to use a calculated populist message as the vehicle through which they achieved their larger objective. For Hitler it was mass extermination of Jews, for Ahmadinejad it is attacking Jews, attacking Israel and terrorizing the world.

Ahmadinejad came to the United Nations to plead his case. He wants free, unhampered, access to nuclear energy.

His public stance, the device he uses to make his point cogent is to stand on principle and take a stand against nuclear weapons.

Attacking Israel is one of the ways in which he makes his point. The Ahmadinejad argument is two pronged. It goes like this:

Part I: Iran does not have nuclear weapons and the West is trying to prevent Iran from acquiring too much nuclear independence. And yet Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel both has nuclear weapons and has not signed the treaty. He concludes with the question: How fair is that?

Part II: Iran wants access to nuclear energy and, like every other country, they have the right to pursue that access - and who is the United States to challenge that argument.

Ahmadinejad recently hosted a conference in Tehran entitled “Nuclear Energy For All, Nuclear Weapons for None.” Sixty nations attended, ten of them sent their foreign ministers as representatives. In comparison, Obama hosted a Nuclear Conference where forty-seven nations were in attendance. The Iranian conference was a set-up for Ahmadinejad’s appearance at the United Nations, it set the stage for his claim and gave him round the world access.

The Iranian leader was not in attendance at the United Nation to appease. He was there to attack. The goal is not to convince the United States and Germany, the goal is to convince the masses, the unaligned masses.

“We should not offer ways to obtain their trust as Iran abides by the international law and acts within its framework,” Ahmadinejad said. “Iran is committed to international regulations” while the West and Israel “have stockpiled nuclear weapons, have used them and are monopolizing them, are not seeking to build trust.”

Ahmadinejad’s proposal includes two items, “disarmament and peaceful use of nuclear energy.” His stated objective is to sponsor nuclear technology around the world and to break the US stronghold.

Once again, the Iranian leader has entered the lion’s den and left unscathed. Once again, he delivered his message loud and clear and in so doing, empowered his supporters.

The West has no idea how strong the message of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad resonates throughout the world. He is by no means a madman. He is a very dangerous tyrant.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Read his latest book THUGS. He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com.