The outburst by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling for Israel to be "wiped from the map" during a rally in Tehran last week, could not have come at a better time - for George W. Bush - and at a worse time for Iran.
The American president is going through what must be one of the worst weeks of his presidency, having suffered a number of severe political punches. The left, right, uppercut jabs would have hurt far more had Ahmadinejad not stolen some of the spotlight, drawing the world's attention after his outrageous declaration.
For Bush, the first blow was the rejection - from his own party, no less - of Harriet Meirs' nomination to the Supreme Court. Democrats and Republicans alike threw up a barrage of objections, outlining why President Bush's one-time personal attorney was the wrong person for the job.
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer minced no words in an October 7 article. "If Harriet Miers were not a crony of the president of the United States, her nomination to the Supreme Court would be a joke, as it would have occurred to no one else to nominate her," he wrote.
And George F. Will wrote, "The President's 'argument' for her amounts to: Trust me. There is no reason to, for several reasons." One of the reasons for not trusting the president, Will says, is "... because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court's tasks."
Bush hardly had time to recollect himself from the effect of having Meirs turned away by the Senate when the big blow came.
The third punch was the announcement that a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, for his alleged involvement in leaking to the press the identify of Valerie Plame, a clandestine agent working for the CIA.
Plame is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador whom the CIA asked to investigate the possibility that Iraq's former President Saddam Hussein might have purchased "yellow cake" uranium from Niger in order to produce nuclear weapons. Wilson's investigation showed there was no connection between the Iraqi dictator and the "yellow cake road." Indeed, Wilson's report concluded that the White House had fabricated the entire episode in order to justify its decision in making the case for war in Iraq.
And as if that were not enough trouble for the president, the number of US military deaths in Iraq last week passed the symbolic count of 2,000.
Three major news stories in a single week, all reflecting negatively on the president, and then along comes Ahmadinejad. If the Iranian president's buffoonery were timely for Bush, his statement regarding wiping Israel off the map could not have come at a worst time for Iran, as the Islamic republic continues to engage in sensitive negotiation over its nuclear ambitions.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's quasi-declaration of war on the Jewish state accentuated the West's - and Israel's - fears that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose "a clear and present danger," in the words of Israel's foreign minister Silvan Shalom, not only to the security of Israel, but of Europe and that of the United States.
The White House wasted no time reiterating Washington's growing concerns over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, giving renewed hope to opponents of Tehran's ruling theocracy that regime change would now find a prominent place on the White House's agenda.
Lobby groups supporting regime change in Iran see the Islamic republic as posing six major threats to American interests and ideals. They make reference to the following:
- Iran's drive to acquire nuclear weapons.
- Iran's continuing support for and involvement with terrorist networks.
- The Islamic republic's publicly stated opposition to the Arab-Israel peace process.
- Iran's disruptive role in Iraq.
- Iran's expansionist radical ideology.
- And, the mullah's denial of basic human rights to its own population.
You can now add "Iran's explicit desire to eradicate Israel."
While Ahmadinejad stuck by his comments, by Saturday the foreign ministry in Tehran said "Iran had no intention of launching an assault on the Jewish state and would back whatever course the Palestinians chose to resolve the Middle East conflict."
Shalom meanwhile said, "Iran is trying to buy time ... so it can develop a nuclear bomb."
Iran's efforts at political back peddling were seen as an indication of growing political polarization between the reformist camp and the conservatives.
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor of Britain's Observer magazine writes that "many have privately begun to wonder whether Ahmadinejad has the intelligence or skills to lead Iran at such a crucial juncture; others accuse him of living in the past."
Such statements from a sitting president does not give confidence in Ahmadinejad's political maturity, nor his stability. Imagine Ahmadinejad, returning from the "Jerusalem Day" meeting, all hyped up after a few hours of chanting "Death to America," "Death to Israel," and he now has the nuclear capability of making those chants come true - at least one of them for the time being.
Memo from Dubya to self; 'must remember to thank Iranian prez.'
Claude Salhani is international editor at United Press International
Viewpoint: Bush owes Ahmadinejad
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