President Bush and Iran's Ahmadinejad, Two Peas in a Pod?

While a potential showdown over Irans ambitious nuclear showdown looms, I was struck by the similarities between the two leaders most at odds with each other.

On the surface it seems crazy, but bear with me here:

Earlier this month, the government announced that 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats, including supporters of better ties with the West, would be fired. Also let go were pragmatists who handled Iran's nuclear negotiations with Europe under Ahmadinejad's reformist predecessor, Mohammad Khatami.
Your Fired

How is this any different that the secondterm, wholesale removal of a huge chunk of his cabinet? Granted at the AG postion, Gonzales is less conservative than Ashcroft, but not by much. Also gone are the centrists and anti-neocons such as Powell et al.

In the works, but still not made public, is a deeper shake-up of the establishment in which Ahmadinejad is replacing hundreds of governors and senior officials at various ministries with young, inexperienced Islamic hard-liners who oppose good relations with the West. The changes include putting fundamentalists in key posts at security agencies.
Same Article

From the same article quoted above. Again does this seem any different? Rumsfield and Wolfowitz until his departure rand the DOD with what appears to me to be a similar fashion. Those two are fundamentalists by any stretch of the imagination

"Yes, the president consults (only) his trusted friends," Kalhor said. "Ahmadinejad has a revolutionary management policy. He makes decisions within 24 hours that previous governments used to take within five years."
Same Article

and

Iranian moderates say the president has harmed his country by isolating it internationally, and now Ahmadinejad's friends are lining up against him. He suffered a humiliating defeat last week when his choice for oil minister was rejected for a third time, an unprecedented failure for an Iranian president.
Same Article

Again as we saw with the Meirs debacle. The coincidinks are pretty striking. A president who has used up all his capital, nominated questionable people and suffered political defeats even though both's parties have controll over the government at this time.

The more things change the more they stay the same. It just goes to show that fundementalism is the same game the world over, only the players names are different

Excellent post FredT. Each leadership, IMO, considers themselves the vanguard of an ideology- freedom and democracy on one side, with a healthy dose of Christian values, and Islamic fundamentalism on the other.

Both countries replaced their experienced, "realpolitik" statesmen with crusaders who were short on experience but heavy on vision. While I prefer the "freedom and democracy" over Islamic fundamentalism, I also can't shake the thought that wars of ideology have been amongst the most destructive in our history.

Ultimately the neoconservative vision has the same roots as Islamic fundamentalism- they see American society weakening in moral strength and increasing in decadence- exactly the same as Islamic fundamentalists. They just differ in their response (neocons need to replace the USSR as a focal point for American moral strength, and Islamic fundamentalists want to strenghten their own people and take advantage of the perceived weakness of the West). Sadly each one's response requires direct confrontation with the other to validate their theories. They both need an enemy, or neither ideology can provide a solution for the people they are trying to convert.

It makes one wonder just how differently the two ideologies will be portrayed in history books hundreds of years in the future.

[edit on 27-11-2005 by koji_K]

FredT:
Remember when Bush mentioned God in relation to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terrorism?

Check this out concerning President Ahmadinejad:

A leading website in Iran has published a transcript and video recording of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad claiming to have felt “a light” while addressing world leaders at the United Nations in New York in September. Baztab.com – a website linked to Mohsen Rezaei, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards – said the recording was made in a meeting between the president and Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, one of Iran’s leading Shia Muslim clerics.

According to the transcript, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad said someone present at the UN, possibly from his entourage, subsequently told him: “When you began with the words ‘In the name of God’… I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end [of the speech].” Mr Ahmadi-Nejad said he sensed a similar presence.

Iran president had ‘religious vision’ during UN speech

Two peas in a pod, you think?







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