Newsletter No. 244
April 21, 2006

 

TOKYO’S AGONY OVER IRAN

The bad dream just won’t go away. There is little doubt that Japanese leaders fervently wish that this Iran nuclear crisis issue would just blow off one day into Never Never Land, but each day they must wake up and fearfully scan the morning headlines to see just how bad it has become.

President Mahmud “The Mouth” Ahmadinejad of Iran announced on April 14th that, "Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation… The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

Nobel Peace Prize winner (and current number two man of the Kadima Party) Shimon Peres returned the compliment the following day on Israel Radio by asserting, "Ahmadinejad's statements remind me of those of Saddam and he will end up the same way as Husain has."

The day before his latest blast against Israel, Ahmadinejad announced, “Today, our situation has changed completely. We are a nuclear country and speak to others from the position of a nuclear country.”

A few days later, President Bush was asked if he is considering the possibility of using nuclear weapons against Iran. His response: “All options are on the table.”

Oh, what a mess!

As for Tokyo, you can almost hear the sound of uncomfortable silence.

MOFA’s Motohide Yoshikawa is off to Tehran for talks tomorrow that will continue the Japan-Iran dialogue on the nuclear crisis. He will no doubt urge Tehran to give up its uranium enrichment program and to cooperate with the “international community.” The Iranian officials will politely explain that Iran has the right to its own nuclear program, and repeat their assurances that the program is intended for peaceful purposes. A real breakthrough is unlikely.

Tokyo has two big problems here that they have no way of solving. One of them is President Ahmadinejad, and the other is President Bush.

Frankly, I’m beginning to think that these two clowns were made for each other.

Why it is that Ahmadinejad talks about Israel being eliminated by “one storm” at the same time as Iran’s diplomats are trying to insist that Iran’s nuclear program is meant only for civilian energy production, is beyond my comprehension.

President Teddy Roosevelt used to describe his own diplomatic method as “Walk softly and carry a big stick.” Ahmadinejad’s version seems to be, “Brag loudly and trip over your own stick.” Pity the poor professional Iranian diplomats who have to work with this material.

Meanwhile, the Grand Crusader across the sea, mired deep down in thirtysomething approval ratings, is actually talking about using nuclear weapons against his Iranian nemesis. What kind of madness is this? Who is this Froot Loop in the White House?

That raises another point. If Tokyo is really concerned about the principle of preventing the future use of nuclear weapons, then why are they silent on these comments out of Washington? I’ve made some tours of the Hiroshima Peace Museum, and heard a lot of solemn pledges with hands over hearts about how mankind could never afford a nuclear conflict again. Tokyo has raised this point with Tehran -- so why do they refuse to raise it with Washington? Unless Tokyo begins to apply its non-nuclear ideals in a more evenhanded manner, they will be apt to lose their “moral high ground” on this issue rather quickly.

I don’t want to speculate about where all this is heading, but rather I’ll limit my comment here to a rather basic and common sense observation: We’re all in desperate need here of a lot less tough-guy rhetoric, and a lot more careful thought and reasoning. This issue is too potentially dangerous to let it spin even further out of control.