FDR, Hitler … Natural Allies!
Got to hand it to the Iranians. They know their audience. The charm offensive continues with unnamed senior Iranian official kissyface with Christiane Amanpour. It’s got a coy kind of 1940s spy thriller noire thing going on:
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — As I sat down recently with a senior Iranian government official, he urgently waved a column by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times in my face, one about how the United States and Iran need to engage each other.
“Natural allies,” this official said.
It was a surprising choice of words considering the barbs Washington and Tehran have been trading of late.
“We are not after conflict. We are not after crisis. We are not after war,” said this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we don’t know whether the same is true in the U.S. or not. If the same is true on the U.S. side, the first step must be to end this vicious cycle that can lead to dangerous action — war.”
Christiane Amanpour has reached a stage in her career, an eminence, where she does not simply report news … she conveys important messages between nations on the brink of war. For this message, I’ll need my decoder ring. Let’s see. (click … click … double click … back click) Uh huh. OK. I’ve got it: “End the vicious cycle, dangerous warmongering chimp-like Bushperson!”
Amanpour has the air of a classic 20th century newsfemme fatale about her. Very Casablanca. Very Martha Gellhorn. You could just see her in 1940, ‘41…
“Natural allies,” this official said.
It was a surprising choice of words considering the barbs Washington and Berlin have been trading of late.
“We are not after conflict. We are not after crisis. We are not after war,” said this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we don’t know whether the same is true in the U.S. or not. If the same is true on the U.S. side, the first step must be to end this vicious cycle that can lead to dangerous action — war.”
A few short years after that …
“Natural allies,” this official said.
It was a surprising choice of words considering the barbs Washington and Moscow have been trading of late.
“We are not after conflict. We are not after crisis. We are not after war,” said this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we don’t know whether the same is true in the U.S. or not. If the same is true on the U.S. side, the first step must be to end this vicious cycle that can lead to dangerous action — war.”
Repeatedly, throughout the 1990s …
“Natural allies,” this official said.
It was a surprising choice of words considering the barbs Washington and Baghdad have been trading of late.
“We are not after conflict. We are not after crisis. We are not after war,” said this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we don’t know whether the same is true in the U.S. or not. If the same is true on the U.S. side, the first step must be to end this vicious cycle that can lead to dangerous action — war.”
Early fall, 2001 …
“Natural allies,” this official said.
It was a surprising choice of words considering the barbs Washington and Kabul have been trading of late.
“We are not after conflict. We are not after crisis. We are not after war,” said this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we don’t know whether the same is true in the U.S. or not. If the same is true on the U.S. side, the first step must be to end this vicious cycle that can lead to dangerous action — war.”
These mullahs are like pop literary geniuses. This week, its “The Iranian Who Came In From The Cold.” Last week, it was Ahmadinejad as Bob Dylan singing “The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind.”
Amanpour’s breathless report implies that only the belligerence of the President Bush, who unaccountably included Iran in the “Axis of Evil,” frustrates a full alliance between these nations, both of whom, she says, are bitterly opposed to al Qaeda.
Many others, of course, believe that top al Qaeda leaders are now inside Iran. And it is not hard to argue that from 1979 to the present, the foreign power that has most consistently been at war with the U.S. is Iran.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:49 am on Thursday, February 22, 2007
20 Responses to “FDR, Hitler … Natural Allies!”
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February 22nd, 2007 at 2:03 am
“The question now is which country will take the first step and show they’re not being weak by putting diplomacy back on track.”
Christiane sweets. Surely Jamie has told you of our Tridents (submarines, just in case) off the coast of Persia, just one, ONE, could send Persia, back to being on the Silk Trade route and making rugs.
We are not weak, by the definition you imply, let us hope it doesn’t come to that, mainly because the Persians have some fine looking women.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:08 am
Oh Jules, Aplogize for the peanut shucks we left on the floor, tonight. Should you want us to clean them up, I’ll check my Blackberry for wronwrights cleaning and roofing organiztion.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:16 am
I haven’t had good luck with WW clean and roof. The service I use is Peanut (shucks) And (beer) Cans Out!
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:38 am
The Iranian propaganda machine has certainly been busy of late. And so have the ever so accommodating media whores.
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:19 am
Nibbles — 2007.02.22
Just read ‘em. Maybe I’ll find time to do more with ‘em later. (And some things that are just too short to excerpt.) Update: Helen Thomas to lose front row seat in new White House press room FDR, Hitler …
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:20 am
Bill’s Nibbles — 2007.02.22
Some Bill’s Bites posts, some things I excerpted and linked but I’m sending you to the original post. I may rearrange the order of the items within this post as I add new things that I think belong above the
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:23 am
OK, in what way Iran and US are not natural allies, given the fact that Iraqi government that US fights to protect consists of de facto Iran’s stooges, the fact that Al-Qaeda commits terrorist acts against Iran, and the fact that US prevailed in Afghanistan largely due to Iran’s help? OK, unnatural, but still allies. Kinda like Stalin and FDR in 1941.
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:02 am
Kinda like Stalin and FDR in 1941.
A alliance that lasted until the Cold War cranked up in 1948 or so. Then we had 40 years of nuclear stand off and proxy wars, until the USSR collapsed in 1989.
Yeah, sure, allies. Right. So much for cherry picking history, NN.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:09 am
Did I miss a story? What terrorist act did Al-Qaeda commit against Iran?
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:09 am
Jules
“Peanut (shucks) And (beer) Cans Out!”
Hmmmm. I could swear (and I do) that’s acronymic or something, but geez I’ll have to study it.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:54 am
AMANPOUR INTERVIEW: TOO MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED
Christiane Amanpour is one of the most respected foreign correspondents in the business. She has literally been everywhere and done everything – from wars, to famines, to natural disasters, to weighty meetings between world leaders – Amanp…
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Jules-one of the things that struck me when I read “Guns of August” was the extent to which the Kaiser went around to almost everyone (except France of course) pointing out why they should be allies. He told the Brits that they and the Germans shared cultural ties, while he was telling the Russians that the autocracies needed to stick together. This is a very old game, but Amanpour sadly is no Barbara Tuchman.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
“…Amanpour sadly is no Barbara Tuchman. “
You have that right, CavMedic. She was in Kuwait a couple times during my tour, getting some “from the troops” stories. From what I heard, none of the troops were impressed with her.
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Few can annoy me like Ms. Amanpour. I finally had to forgo watching the D-Day 60th Anniversary observance, which CNN had been kind enough to broadcast on one of its channels, because of her almost non-stop yakking over the ceremonies and her perpetual carping about how WWII was a great coalition and George Bush attacked Iraq unilaterally. The last straw was her dragging American vet after American vet on camera to parrot her views. Apparently there were no veterans in Normandy that day who supported OIF. Thankfully, that’s the last time I saw her. I’m no particular fan of Jamie Rubin’s, but what was he thinking?
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:15 pm
“Like almost every Iranian I met, he fulminated against the infamous “Axis of Evil” reference made by President Bush during the 2002 State of the Union address. Iranians — from the everyday man and woman on the street to the highest government official — simply scratch their heads at that, especially since Iran had just worked in partnership with the United States bringing down the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and bringing that country a new democratic government.”
Iran had a partnership role in OEF? Did I miss something (it certainly is possible)?
February 22nd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
This is so absurd. They attack an embassy and make our people guests of the Ayatollah for more than a year. They kill our soldiers in Beirut. They are supposed to be behind the Khobar Towers bombing as well and they have been chanting Death to America like deranged lunatics for decades. Maybe I am touchy but I take offence at that sort of thing. It could be there is some cultural thing going on here that a redneck such as myself would not understand and Death to America is in reality a term of respect…but I doubt it.
No, they are sucking up. And we have Christine and Diane doing the same kind of service for the mullahs Dan Rather did for Saddam. And look at what happened to Dan and Saddam.
February 22nd, 2007 at 5:39 pm
BTW. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi is an excellent book by an Iranian expat who lived through the Revolution and left Iran a few years ago. This book will tell you more about the people running that country than all the silly interviews with silly reporters like Christine ever will.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Ms. Amanpour has been an bonifide enemy propagandist since she’s been in possition to fulfill that role.
There’s no journalist in that person. If the industry of journalism wont clean itself up, it will eventually be cleaned up by enraged mobs with lynching ropes, torches and pots of hot tar.
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Not everyone in Iran was particularly happy about the “Islamic” revolution of the mid 1970’s. Many were actually quite happy that they lived in one of the most prosperous and progressive countries in the Middle East.
Oh yes…Hot pants and halter tops did exist on the streets of Tehran in the early 1970’s. But Alas…the Shah was not very nice to the various groups advocating the return of the Burka, but then Jimmy, being a “man of faith” pulled the rug out from under the Shah.
Dismissing out of hand that there aren’t significant portions of Iranian Society that would welcome a return to positive relations with with the US would be a mistake. Just as significant portions of Lebanese don’t particuliarly like Hezbollah, and prefer nightclubbing to prayer.
February 24th, 2007 at 3:58 am
“They attack an embassy and make our people guests of the Ayatollah for more than a year. They kill our soldiers in Beirut. They are supposed to be behind the Khobar Towers bombing as well and they have been chanting Death to America like deranged lunatics for decades.”
Not forgiven and not forgotten by some of us Americans, and I swear to you all, as God is my witness, if I ever become commander-in-chief, then I will invoke the War Powers Act, and commence military operations against the mad mullahs five minutes after I take office, whether the Congress likes it or not.
Y’all might want to remember that pledge if I decide to run for the office of POTUS.