“Funnier, Please!” — A Ledeen Takedown

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow Michael Ledeen has been unhinged for years now. Decades, really. He facilitated the introductions between Israelis and an Iranian arms dealer that made the Iran-Contra deal possible by creating a conduit for arms; only six weeks after the invasion of Iraq, he called for war on Iran; and he continues to beat the war drums on his appropriately named Pajamas Media blog: “Faster, Please!” The next war never comes quick enough for Ledeen.

Incredibly, he’s become even more strident in his calls since he was purged by Danielle Pletka from the American Enterprise Institute along with a handful of other hard liners (who then reacted badly). Imagine having your scholarship questioned by the likes of Pletka!

And so how refreshing it is to have a funny take down of a recent Ledeen post (it was covered in our Daily Talking Points) from the Poor Man Institute, a blog that I was heretofore unfamiliar with, but intend to check back on quite often. Even the title of the post was pitch perfect: “Funnier, Please!” — a send up of Ledeen’s Pajamas blog.

I’m going to quote a section of the piece at length, but I first want to highlight this important link — a blog post by Eric Martin — discovered therein: a catalogue of Michael Ledeen’s unfailingly belligerent comments about Iran. In short, these are actual calls for war, conta Ledeen’s common statements that “of course, he’s not calling for war on Iran.”‘ Don’t be fooled.

From the Poor Man post:

In a recent offering, Ledeen again hams it up for the crowd by feigning ignorance as to how Secretary Gates could possibly claim that the Iranian people might rally around the flag in the face of a series of massive US or Israeli airstrikes targeting all manner of Iranian military and nuclear facilities (many of which are embedded in civilian areas and would, thus, lead to many dead civilians – although even their scientists and soldiers are Iranians and might be missed).

Imagine that.  How crazy.  And does Gates have any actual evidence for this conspiracy theory (history be damned)?

In order to perpetrate this thinly veiled ruse, Ledeen pretends that every regime opponent either has a family member locked in prison, or has multiple deceased family members courtesy of the regime (considering that he pegs the opposition in the tens of millions, one wonders at the size of the Iranian prison population – and size of the mass graves).

In reality, of course, the opposition is probably smaller, and there is a large spectrum of viewpoints represented in that opposition, with many opponents of the current ruling clique not urging on revolution as much as supporting their own candidates within the system (or for more human rights protections regardless).

But nevermind reality, we’re discussing a Ledeen column.

Ali Gharib

Ali Gharib is a New York-based journalist on U.S. foreign policy with a focus on the Middle East and Central Asia. His work has appeared at Inter Press Service, where he was the Deputy Washington Bureau Chief; the Buffalo Beast; Huffington Post; Mondoweiss; Right Web; and Alternet. He holds a Master's degree in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. A proud Iranian-American and fluent Farsi speaker, Ali was born in California and raised in D.C.

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