They Just Don’t Get It

As Scott noted earlier today, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed Ahmad Vahidi as defense minister. Vahidi is wanted by Interpol in connection with the 1994 bombing of a synagogue in Argentina that killed 85 people. You might think that’s a scandal; Ahmadinejad thinks it’s a qualification for high office. The New York Times considers the nomination unfortunate:

The man nominated to serve as Iran’s defense minister is wanted by Interpol in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, confronting Iran with yet another challenge to its international reputation….

That Iran’s rulers are utterly unconcerned with that nation’s “international reputation” may occur to the Times’s reporters and editors (and, for that matter, to the Obama administration) someday. We could start a pool on whether that realization dawns before or after Iran uses the nuclear weapons it is now developing.
PAUL adds: Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard writes:

On some level this shouldn’t surprise anyone: the terrorist president of Iran has appointed a terrorist defense minister. But it is the final nail in the coffin of Obama’s appeal for fist unclenching. The Ahmadinejad government begins with the absence of domestic legitimacy. Now it is flouting the authority of interpol, the international police agency. Is there anyone who thinks the Iranians will keep their commitments on a nuclear proliferation treaty?

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses