MEARSHEIMER MAKES EXCUSES FOR IRAN KILLING AMERICAN SOLDIERS. That is just in his opening comments during an interview at Yearly Kos 2007. How many other absurd comments can you find?

So, according to Mearsheimer:

• Iran is killing American soldiers, but it is "a very small percentage"--this view (that Iran is killing American soldiers?) is a result of "disingenuous arguments" by the Bush administration.

First, it is good to see Mearsheimer admit that Iran is lying about its role in attacking US soldiers in Iraq. Investors Business Daily reports:

"American intelligence officials have presented evidence that the weapons come from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, although Tehran has repeatedly denied providing lethal assistance to Iraqi groups."

At the same time, how small a percentage of American casualties does Mearsheimer find excusable as "a very small percentage"? The same IBD report indicates that there were more American deaths as a result of Iranian weapons than in any previous month. Moreover:

Last month, the roadside bombs from Iran, called "explosively formed penetrators," were used in 99 attacks, the New York Times reports. A third of the U.S.-led soldiers who were killed in July were victims of these weapons.

A less recent but no less troubling concern is Iran's escalating patronage for militias in Iraq that are hostile to the U.S. and its allies. [emphasis added]

Mearsheimer is wrong about Iran and should own up to it instead of minimizing the importance of American lives.

Other comments by Mearsheimer in the video are equally desperate:

• Poor US-Iranian relations are because of Israeli pressure on US to stop Iranian development of their nuclear program.

Since the "Israel Lobby" has provided Mearsheimer his one claim to fame, it is not surprising to see him return to it. After all, why else would DailyKos--known for its anti-Semitic posts--invite him to Yearly Kos 2007?

• While Iran had a clandestine nuclear program in the during 1990's and early 2000's, Israel had one in the 1950's and 1960's.

Yes, and we all know about the threats tiny Israel has made in the region. This desperate rejoinder by Mearsheimer is pathetic.

• Ahmadinejad did not threaten to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. He was just saying that with the passage of time Israel would disappear from the map--that Israel would follow in the steps of the former Soviet Union.

On that last point, it is worth noting that according to The New York Times in June 2006, while there were those who claimed that Ahmadinejad was mistranslated and was not threatening Israel directly:

translators in Tehran who work for the president's office and the foreign ministry disagree with them. All official translations of Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement, including a description of it on his Web site (www.president.ir/eng/), refer to wiping Israel away. Sohrab Mahdavi, one of Iran's most prominent translators, and Siamak Namazi, managing director of a Tehran consulting firm, who is bilingual, both say "wipe off" or "wipe away" is more accurate than "vanish" because the Persian verb is active and transitive. [emphasis added]

The following month Ahmadinejad was even more clear that he was talking about an active, not a passive, event:

"All the conditions for the removal of the Zionist regime are at hand," Ahmadinejad told an Arab Conference of Iraqi Neighbors meeting on Saturday. For the first time, he employed the Arabic word ezaleh, which is used to describe the irreversible removal of body hairs.

But that's OK--no doubt the current wave of imprisonment and executions in Iran are the fault of the US and Israel as well.

Technorati Tag: Mearsheimer and Ahmadinejad and Iran.