PMA Addendum

(photo from heraldextra.com)

Well, I lampooned the University of Columbia crowd before but the Iranian President really went over the top. It goes without saying that he is today’s winner of an “Are You Thinking?” award. However, let us look at things objectively.

When IPMA made his commentary to the United Nations, there was applause regarding some of his statements regarding Europe and especially the USA. Why is that?

To answer it we need to be intellectually honest with ourselves and be willing to look at the USA from the viewpoint of those in other cultures and countries. Also, it does not matter if a person is a Democrat or a Republican as there is plenty of fault to spread around.

Quite simply in the last ¼ of USA history, most administrations got involved in changing events in other countries. These actions were often done without much foresight or regard to the religious or cultural interpretations those of the local and greater communities of the regions we tampered with. As was well noted, we installed Saddam Hussein into Iraq to counter Iran.

Time went by until another administration had to confront him in the Gulf War. Later, we went back in again and have the current situation in Iraq. Most of this is due to our interference. The popularity of Osama Bin Laden is courtesy of the Clinton administration’s attempt at killing him with missiles which was not a well thought out answer. The list goes on and on throughout the world.

So it is true the USA is responsible for interfering into the affairs of other countries and more so in current times as a result of the prior interference. To be fair, the USA isn’t the only country that tried that avenue but is the primary one remaining. But, we have intervened enough to have irritated many cultures and people across the world. Think of yourself and how much you care for your neighbor’s butting into your daily lives. It is very irritating. What more if they attempted to try and control your lives? Many would become more than irritated and the words arrogant, cocky, and ignorant come up.

As much as we think the IPMA is arrogant in trying to press his values onto the rest of the world, we must be cautious to not be guilty of doing the same.

I also understand IPMA is pandering to the opinions of the Middle East people and his own countrymen with an attempt to gain influence. Additionally, I’ve noticed few websites have looked at his comments regarding homosexuals in the light of a Muslim or Shiite Muslim culture. I’ve got a strong suspicion “coming out of the closet” is not much of an option.

I’ll also grant IPMA his opinion of the UN. I personally know some who have worked in the UN and it is highly questionable if the UN is worth being around or just a waste of resources.

But to throw down the gauntlet he threw down at the UN has to be the hallmark position statement in a long chain of unwise claims. For those comments, he gets the “Are You Thinking?” award as I shake my head and wait for the escalation to grow.