Ahmadinejad's Poor Choice of Analogies

Under an agreement hammered out by negotiators from France, the US, and Russia, Iran would send 1.2 tons of low-enriched uranium to Russia in a single shipment, where it would be converted to fuel exclusively for a Iranian research reactor. However, Iran's president Ahmadinejad has refused to respond to the proposal and wants in typical fashion to have more discussions on the matter.

In my opinion, Ahmadinejad has always been underwhelming. He clearly has no grasp of international politics and by his own pathetic antics in this summer's bloody suppression, has shown that his primary interest is in propping up the corrupt and exceedingly maladroit theocrats of Tehran. This past Sunday, in response to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comment that the US was "not going to wait forever" for a response to the IAEA's proposal, Ahmadinejad gave this classic bit of mindless frivolity:

"While enemies have used all their capacities ... the Iranian nation is standing powerfully and they are like a mosquito," a government Web site quoted Ahmadinejad early Sunday as saying. ... "Given the negative record of Western powers, the Iranian government ... looks at the talks with no trust. But realities dictate to them to interact with the Iranian nation.

A mosquito? I'm assuming he meant housefly or some other irritating insect, because there is no single animal that has caused more misery and death than the mosquito. Alexander the Great who conquered and dispatched the ancient Persians was fallen not by foreign swords but by the malaria parasite delivered by a mosquito. Entire armies have been wiped out by malaria and other mosquito borne illnesses throughout the course of history. During the American civil war, for example, malaria accounted for 1,316,000 episodes of illness and 10,000 deaths. The parasite furthermore fell more allied troops in the Pacific theater during World War II than did enemy combat.

If Ahmadinejad does mean to equate the West with mosquitoes, then he should prepare for an adversary that has proven both unstoppable and ultimately lethal.