I am sure that by now the subject has almost exhausted itself. After all, how can the two or three readers of this blog* be interested by the jolly Roger of NYT after a series of posts on same?
But what can I do? Really, the man defies any and all rules and/or limits put on obsessive behavior in polite society. So, after reading the new opus that again calls for rapprochement and, to be sure, “engagement” with Iran, titled (believe it or not) Iran Without Nukes, I have decided to have another go. Not that I hope for a change…
If you remember the Roger Cohen’s “mea culpa” of two years ago, after a series of idiotic articles on “flawed but vibrant” democracy of Iranian Ayatollahs, crowned by the confession:
I erred in underestimating the brutality and cynicism of a regime that understands the uses of ruthlessness.
Yes, Roger has erred – again, I have to add. Of course, he didn’t just up and left, not without a defiant:
I’ve argued for engagement with Iran and I still believe in it, although, in the name of the millions defrauded, President Obama’s outreach must now await a decent interval.
Obviously, the “decent interval” is over now, after two years, which is really a long time for Roger to hold his gushing waters of admiration for the “flawed but vibrant democracy”. I confess I’ve expected a two or three months wait, but then the Arab spring happened, causing our Roger to be gushingly and tremblingly distracted, issuing another stream of admiring and, as usual, wrong predictions.
So what does Roger Cohen, the impervious and unstoppable torch bearer for Ayatollahs, say this time?
Iran is weak now, its ideology as tired as Osama Bin Laden’s, as marginal to peoples questing to reconcile their Muslim faith and modernity in new ways.
And a quote from Seymour Hersch, a New Yorker loony:
There’s just no serious evidence inside that Iran is actually doing anything to make a nuclear weapon.
And, similar to another Iran apologist, Juan Cole, reference to Mossad retired chief, Meir Dagan, on stupidity of a military move against Iran. But chiefly:
The nuclear bogeyman obsession has been a distraction from the need to try to tease out a relationship with Tehran, see Iran as it is.
See Iran as it is… this is the crux of the matter: this rare ability to see Iran as it is, awarded to selected few, like Sy Hersch, Juan Cole and, of course, our jolly Roger. The only problem is that many people see it differently, like in this, to take one of hundreds examples:
Iran has accelerated efforts to develop a long-range ballistic missile, despite tough international sanctions imposed a year ago, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported, citing an unpublished report by U.N. experts.
And:
These accounts coincide with a third U.N. report, by the International Atomic Energy Agency, dated May 24 that indicated the Iranians may be close to producing a nuclear warhead that could be carried by their intermediate-range ballistic weapons.
And:
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in the nine-page report his information was Iran has tested and manufactured the shaped explosives used with enriched uranium to create the critical mass that generates a nuclear explosion. He also cited information that Iran had redesigned the nose cone of the Shehab-3 so it could carry a nuclear warhead rather than one containing conventional high explosives.
But all this is, of course, just more war drums from the Zionist warmongers and their Pentagon ZOG puppets… ehehe. And, of course, the Zionist-friendly stooges in UN.
Well, what can I say about our jolly Roger. Another image – that of a habitual barroom brawler that picks himself up from the floor, wipes (with his sleeve, of course) the blood and snot from his damaged face and, with an appropriate war cry, stumbles back into the fray – comes to mind. No matter that the aftermath will be new “mea culpa” and broken bones – after a recovery, he will be back again, in the same old barroom…
So, a repeat requires another repeat, and I don’t see any need to apologize. Here it is, to be repeated each time Mr Cohen repeats his BS:
Roger Cohen is just another link in the long chain of the fellow travelers (or useful idiots, take your pick), one of whom produced that masterpiece in 1924 for NYT:
Sad.
(*) It is not this blog, it is that one.
Judeopundit’s view of same story.
Cross-posted on SimplyJews
