Iran, the Mid-East Elephant

Iran, the Mid-East Elephant

In many respects, perceptions of Iran parallel the ancient parable of how 6 blind men describe an elephant based solely on touching one part of the animal.

The man who felt the broad side of the elephant thought it must be a wall, the guy who felt the trunk thought they had confronted a snake, the tusks must be spears, the knee must be a tree, the ear must be a fan, the tail must be a rope.

They’re all reasonable and honest mistakes for the unsighted although I would think that if nothing else the elephant’s elephanty odor should at least have convinced their olfactory senses it was one smelly wall, snake, etc., but that’s just an opinion.

There’s a lot to be said for that metaphor as it applies to how world leaders perceive the West’s and particularly the United States’ attitudes toward Iran, the threats posed by that nation, and how to deal with the ancient land of Persia in the twenty-first century.

It’s no great revelation that the man re-elected president of Iran last June, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an election that would have made Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro proud, is a raving lunatic with as much popular support as Pol Pot had back in his Cambodian heyday. . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1448)