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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Question

Is the White House "winning" by shifting the conversation to the "threat" of Iran? Are they succesfully shifting the topic off Iraq?

Later: Maybe what I'm trying to ask is would the White House prefer to talk about this, because they seem to be intentionally seeding the Iran discussion.

posted by mikevotes at 6:03 AM

6 Comments:

  • Short answer - no.

    A year ago, I had a guy at work who thinks he's smart and politically in tune but is really kinda stupid and easily manipulated come up to me and say "Hey, we gotta do something about Iran, they're developing nuclear weapons, blah, blah, blah..."

    The guy was simply repeating the drivel he had heard from the Bushies and their apologists on the TV about the "dangers of Iran."

    This time around, the same guy says "And now the administration wants to take on Iran when they can't even finish the mission in Iraq!!!"

    I bet there are a lot of Americans (other than the core 25%-32% of wingnuttia who think Bush is the second coming of Mr. Jesus and would support him even if he opened up concentration camps and started sticking people in ovens) who feel the same way as the guy I described above.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 7:30 AM  

  • That's a good point, I've heard the same thing from a Bush supporter I know, BUT,

    It does seem to have sucked the air out of the conversation about past mistakes, and it has somewhat diminished the discussion of what the problems in Iraq really are.

    Yes, the Iran line is a losing line, but is it still a better line than a real discussion about the policy, it's likelihood of success and the real intractible situation in Iraq?

    I don't know, but I got to thinking that the White House does seem to be fuelling the Iran discussion.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:09 AM  

  • I'm hearing from the right a growing tendancy to blame the problems in Iraq on Iran. The true faithful are happy to see Bush taking a strong stance on Iran because they believe that Iran is the main problem.

    This belief lets them escape any rational analysis on the other factors that have got us to this point, including the incompetance of Bremer, Rumsfeld et. al.

    By pointing to an external factor, they can ignore the more complicated internal factors that I would argue are more intractable.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 12:23 PM  

  • You nailed it.

    Blaming Iran takes away the incompetence charge and removes the focus on the current situation.

    It's definitely an argument for "the base," those predisposed to believe Bush, but if he can corral them, his domestic political situation looks alot stronger.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 3:22 PM  

  • Afghanistan is harbouring terr-ists. Attack!.
    Iraq is developing nukes. Attack!
    Iran is developing nukes. Attack!

    I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:49 PM  

  • The trick is to keep the new threats coming so that no one notices that you haven't actually done the earlier ones right.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:45 PM  

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