Bush and Ahmadinejad

In this age of fundamentalisms, George W. Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seem to be custom-made for each other. Rarely in history have such two ideolically driven leaders taken the whole world on a game of brinkmanship. This type of high wire act hasn't been seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The US is overstretched in Iraq while Iran has some support from Russia and China thereby bolstering the irresponsible rhetoric from Ahmadinejad. The US is acting like an insecure and diminished superpower due to the fact that it is overstretched.

In the global equation, the US has less support for militarily intervening in Iran than it did in Iraq. Iran also has a much more developed intention to develop nuclear power. The US has also squandered much global goodwill by intervening in Iraq.

Without a unilateralist President like Bush, someone like Ahmadinejad would not be able to get the kind of popular support he has within Iran. Iranians themselves have also lost much of their global support by endorsing the direction of Ahmadinejad. The Americans, in re-electing Bush, have also lost much international support in what was the most watched election in a generation. In a way, these two unique accidents of history, Bush and Ahmadinejad, are made for each other.

This disturbing polarization in world affairs does not bode well for the future. After all, a war on terror only begets more terror.