Qadaffi Is Not Ahmadinajad

In the parochial universe defined by Fox/Murdoch mass media, Muslims have replaced communists as America's generic enemies and brown-skinned foreigners who invoke Allah instead of God and look sort of Middle Eastern-Arabic are regarded as ideological twins.

Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi (who actually is African, not Middle Eastern) and Iranian President Ahmadinajad (who is actually Persian, not Arabic) are lumped together and ridiculed with an ignorance about their policies and positions that is not just stupid but destructive to American national interests.

But Ahmadinajad is not Qadaffi and Qadaffi is not Ahmadinajad. Just a few of the differences:

Ahmadinajad is the President of a country seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction;
Qadaffi is the leader of a country that has voluntarily given up its weapons of mass destruction.

Ahmadinajad has refused to abjure terrorism or criticize Al Qaeda; Qadaffi has condemned al Qaeda, arrested its representatives, and assailed the Wahhabist fundamentalism that animates and pays for al Qaeda terrorism.

Ahmadinajad presides over a theocratic Shia state whose supreme rulers are Ayatollahs;
Qadaffi presides over a secular state that is Muslim but pluralistic and opposed to fundamentalism.

Ahmadinajad continues to incite terrorist acts; Qadaffi had taken responsibility for Libyan citizens who engaged in terror, and reached a 1.3 billion dollar settlement with the victims of Lockerbie.

Ahmadinajad's intelligence services work to undermine American interests around the world; Qadaffi's intelligence services cooperate with the United States to pursue anti-terrorist policies around the world.

Ahmadinajad has closed itself off from Western and American business and finance investment; Qadaffi has welcomed Western and American business and banking investment.

Ahmadinajad denies the holocaust and threatens Israel with destruction; Qadaffi criticizes Israel but seeks peaceful solutions and neither denies the holocaust nor embraces anti-Semitism.

Ahmadinajad doesn't like tents; Qadaffi doesn't like elevators.

The Lesson? Not every friend of the United States wears a suit and tie, and sleeping in a tent doesn't make you an enemy of American values (just ask the boy scouts).

 

 

Follow Benjamin R. Barber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BenjaminRBarber

Comments

[fbr79]

I like how you pick and choose a geographic aspect then an ethnic aspect to make your point. "African, not middle-eastern" when Gaddafi is indeed an Arab and a strong supporter of Nasser's pan-arabism. Plus, I'm sure that there is no one left in America who can read who still thinks that Iranians are Arabs, Ahmadinejad's endless media parade did educate most people on that. Finally, both are Muslims...yes one is Shia and the other is Sunni, but that just means that they will ally in front of Westerners when convenient and butcher each other if one gets in the way of the other one's enormous ego.

[devadasi]

You give Americans too much credit FBR79.......if 40% of repubs believe Obama is a muslim, how in the world would they know the diference between a Persian and an Arab? They don't.

Khadaffi is clearly eccentric, but I like him. He made some valid points at the UN; and he continues to reach out to the U.S. To compare him with the Iranian madman is unfair.

[Rog49Thomas]

The Colonel is certifiable in a clinical sense.

The USA may find Ahmadinejad obejctionable but he is not mad.

The problem Libyans face is that their leader is subject to whims. Since he's the guy in charge, he then gets the entire nation marching off to some goal only to change his mind later and march them another way.

The other problem is that not infrequently he vanishes from the capital into the desert. Since he's the boss nothing gets done while he's off "meditating".

[Rog49Thomas]

Some interesting blogs .

(1) Libyan Opposition Group Publishes Documents It Claims Detail Western Public Relations Campaign for LIbya

http://libya-nclo.com/DocinEnglish/tabid/598/language/en-US/Default.aspx

(2) A Political Blog - Pro Arab But Not Pro Libyan

http://arabist.net/archives/2009/09/05/losing-libya/
Look closely you might see a certain HuffPo columnist's name mentioned - second paragraph right below the smiling lady in the pants suit and the chap in the Armani suit.

[MosheDayanHero]

No one said Qadaffi is Ahmadinejad. They're both unhinged in their own way.
Ahamdienjad is undoubtedly a messianic fanatic with pretensions of grandeur. Whose symptoms are mde worse by his lack of political power within his state.
Qadaffi is an absolute ruler who is wildly out of touch with reality-- In "absolute power corrupts absolutely" mode. To wit-read his hallucinatory speech at U.N.

[TheJerseyGuy]

Um, Ahmadi-neiad didn't cause a plane full of innocent people to crash. Qaddafi is no friend of the U.S.

[conuschiro]

Um, the US shot down an Iranian airliner full of innocent people.

[Mortifyd]

People always seem to forget that part.