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Arabs for Bush

9 comments on Arabs for Bush

Arabs for Bush

: The Guardian says Bush has support in odd ports:

President Bush’s election campaign received support from an unusual quarter last week when Hasan Rowhani, head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, said that four more years of George W would be good for Iran. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, was asked about the Bush-Kerry contest at a meeting with journalists a couple of weeks ago (before he was taken ill) and replied: “It makes no difference.”

In London, the consensus among Arab ambassadors – though they don’t say so publicly – is that keeping Bush in the White House would be preferable to starting afresh with Kerry….

Disliking Bush is one thing, but working up enthusiasm for Kerry is another – and there’s little sign of that in the Middle East.

9 responses to “Arabs for Bush”

  1. Lee Avatar
    Lee

    Iranians are not (predominantly) Arabs, Jeff.

  2. Karl Avatar
    Karl

    TEHRAN, Oct 19 (AFP) – It makes no real difference to Iran whether US President George W. Bush or Democrat contender John Kerry wins the presidential elections, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday.
    “It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections,” Iran’s top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television.
    Jeff, nice to see you recycling bogus stories from The Guardian. Even the French got this one right.

  3. Karl Avatar
    Karl

    Looks like the story above didn’t link. You should be able to click on my name for this post to get the AFP story via the Turkish press, but if not, you can cut and paste:
    http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=31107

  4. Yehudit Avatar
    Yehudit

    Arafat came out for Kerry several times in the past few months.

  5. Jon Lester Avatar
    Jon Lester

    Iranians aren’t Arabs, you know, but the thrust of the story is not wrong. Sure, some Iranians in power want to dominate the region and nuke Israel but there have been those others who say the US defeated Saddam and the Taliban for them, their two other great enemies.
    Did you see the story about the Iranian bootleggers? It can only help subvert theocratic oppression.
    http://tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBGZUT4W0E.html

  6. atm Avatar
    atm

    There is the possibility the less bigoted, less paranoid, and more sensible Iranians will lighten up and move toward greater democratic reforms now that they don’t have to worry about security threats from their more totalitarian neighbors.

  7. freddie Avatar
    freddie

    It is clear to this deep thinker that invading Iraq made Iran the super power in the region. Previous to that invasion, we had two states contending and thus nieither in a positon of great strength. Now: Iran to get Nuke and nnothing we can or will do about it.

  8. Harry in Atlanta Avatar
    Harry in Atlanta

    Now the Iranians are using a reverse psychology in the hopes of seeing Kerry elected. They understand the US and its machinations far better than bin Laden. They figure if Bush is re-elected they can us him as a galvanizing figure for the nutjobs in their country for the reckoning that must surely be coming and hoping for the saving hail mary from Europe just as Saddam did. And Saddam did get a great deal of help from Europe it just wasn’t enough to make any difference.
    However the Iranians probably would like to see Kerry as President because they know he is the most European presidential candidate ever, and they figure he will probably be more talk than action and this will give them the valuable time they need to complete “the bomb,” and that’s what they are really interested in.
    I’ll go out on a limb here and make a prediction, if John Kerry is elected President of the United States then Israel will take unilateral action and bomb the bejesus out of Iran’s nuclear sites before Kerry can take office. If I were the Israelis I know that’s what I would do.

  9. Reid Avatar
    Reid

    Harry – there’s almost no chance of that, IMHO. Iran has its program too widely dispersed and threatens Israel from Hezbollah in the North. Nope, we can’t depend on little Israel to shoulder the burden of keeping nukes out of the hands of despots this time.
    Iran is going to get nukes. There is nothing that will stop them. They want them very badly and, not just the Mullahs. A significant majority of Iranians are in favor of getting them. The trauma of the Iran-Iraq war affected them deeply. They are bound and determined never to have to relive an experience like it. The way to deal with Iran’s nukes is to help depose the Mullahs. A free and democratic Iran would not be a worry, nukes or no.
    freddie – Some deep thought there, sister. You think having a threat next door makes a nation less likely to pursue ultimate weapons? Oh, no, no, no, child.