Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Today, bombast still hogs the headlines, skewing understanding between
the mainstream of each country. For example, Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has a kind of Hugo Chavez notoriety around the West for his
wild and provocative statements and actions: calling for Israel to be “wiped
of the map,” denying the existence of the Holocaust, insisting on Iran's right
to nuclear arms, and persecuting gay people in Iran. Ahmadinejad is an
ideologue, and Americans who i nd him outrageous are fully justii ed.
But, much as we might viscerally disagree with Ahmadinejad, it's dan-
gerous to simply dismiss him as a madman. To him, and to his followers,
his logic does make sense: If Germany killed the Jews, why are Palestinians
(rather than Germans) being displaced to house the survivors? Everyone in
Iran understands—better, perhaps, than we foreigners—that Ahmadinejad
is more extreme than the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And,
crucially, the Supreme Leader is more powerful than the president. Many
locals I talked with discounted Ahmadinejad's most outrageous claims as
overstatements intended to shore up his political base. While that doesn't
justify the hateful images and slogans I couldn't avoid as I explored his coun-
try, it might help explain them.
Meanwhile, Iranians get just as i red up about the
rhetoric of American politicians. During our visit (in
the summer of 2008), Iranians were still buzzing
about the potential presidencies of John McCain
(who jokingly rewrote the lyrics of the Beach Boys
classic song, “Barbara Ann,” to become “bomb
bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”) or Hillary
Clinton (who said she would “obliterate”
Iran if it attacked Israel). For Iranians, hearing
high-proi le representatives of the world's lone
superpower talk this way was terrifying. Unfortu-
nately, that fear enables people like Ahmadinejad to
demonize America in order to stay in power.
Like our children start each school day pledg-
ing “allegiance to one nation, under God,” Iranian
kids are taught their nation's values. Rather than
Iranian government propaganda depicts the US and Israel
as sinister partners in a quest for global domination.
