Demonizing Ahmadinejad

In a manner reminiscent of the hate-filled demonizing of Saddam Hussein that set the stage for our invasion of Iraq, there has been a persistent effort at demonizing Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by the warmongers in the Bush administration and again the media culture plays along uncritically. The administration gave us a translation of a speech claiming Ahmadinejad said he wanted to “wipe Israel off the map”. Then the media uncritically accepts this translation and repeats it thousands of times so people naturally assume it must be true. A number of Farsi experts have disagreed with the administration’s interpretation; they claim a more accurate translation would be something like “the regime in Jerusalem will fade from the pages of history” noting how Ahmadinejad alluded to the same historical process that eliminated South African apartheid. Notice how the administration’s interpretation is emotionally charged with an active war threat while the others refer to a much more benign historical process. Notice also how the media culture plays along and reinforces the propaganda with commentators using plays on Ahmadinejad’s name like “I’m a hand job” or “I’m a nut job”.
The propaganda effort at demonizing Iran has been so effective in this country that in order to be politically correct, even a liberal college president (someone who is supposed to be a paragon of freedom of expression) feels required to hurl invectives at the Iranian president. And even then, Columbia University was threatened with a cut off of funds for even allowing Ahmadinejad to speak at a forum where he was attacked and insulted. What does the reaction to his visit say about the state of free speech in America?
All this is not to say that Iran and Ahmadinejad are virtuous players on the world stage; Ahmadinejad said Iran doesn’t have homosexuals like in the U.S. and you could say he is technically correct since they execute homosexuals in Iran and they have a    n intolerant right wing theocracy that denies evolution and other science that disagrees with their theology. Wouldn’t we be better served to have a frank, honest and open discussion where factual information is used to confront prejudice and ignorance? Instead, the recent visit by the Iranian president was turned into a shameful display of our own prejudice and ignorance.