

John McCain calls Iranian president a “monkey” on Twitter - shawndumas
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/john-mccain-calls-iranian-president-a-monkey-on-twitter/

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richardjordan
aaaand that's why you weren't qualified to be President.

I am not a partisan political person, but since gaining the right to vote in
the US I find it depressing the lack of professionalism and seriousness by so
many who want our vote to seek high office.

Because I only became a citizen last year, I don't have decades of vested
interest in one party or the other like many on here, but as someone who came
to the country in 1999 and has watched politics since then it certainly seems
that one party is far worse than the other in this regard, but they both
suffer from this stuff way, way too much. Congressmen/women and Senators
thinking that they have the freedom to act like children, and not giving a
shit about how bush-league it makes us seem to the rest of the world. It's a
disgrace. (Yes, I know lots of Americans don't care about the rest of the
world, but it doesn't take a lot of homework to understand that how we're
perceived matters and has real impact on every day lives.)

~~~
pekk
It's really no big deal at all.

McCain knows perfectly well he's too old to ever run for President and
probably doesn't have that many years left - though in light of his stated
policy toward e.g. Russia, you have a point about how much his platform valued
diplomacy. This was not really different, however, from Bush's similar
disregard for diplomacy, which actually played quite well domestically (tough
on perceived enemies, etc.)

This gaffe in itself is the absolute tiniest blip compared to McCain's "bomb
bomb bomb Iran", Bush's "axis of evil" or, for that matter, the nonsense
churned out by Iranian politicians and state press on a daily basis. And it's
not as sinister as half the nonsense that Vahidi says openly to the
international press.

In Iran, the US is already guilty of pretty much everything. Even if you just
stick with relatively credible accusations the Iranian public might well
compare this to the deaths of nuclear scientists, Stuxnet and other fiascos
for which the US is allegedly responsible, and come away with even more
indifference than usual about this latest. They weren't born yesterday.

At least since 1979 we have known that the US cannot really get less popular
in Iran short of war. For years now Iran itself has routinely incarcerated
ethnic Iranians visiting from the west, accused them of espionage, sentenced
them to death, and dumped them in Evin prison to use as diplomatic bargaining
chips and targets for the two minutes hate.

Meanwhile the usual reason for having a space program (as with the US, Russia,
and now North Korea, etc.) is to develop and demonstrate worldwide reach with
ballistic missiles.

This is an inherently nasty relationship only somewhat short of war and has
been one for decades. Outside of specific shelters, the world is an inherently
nasty place. If our relationship with Iran were characterized solely by stupid
animal jokes, it would be a dramatic improvement.

~~~
richardjordan
I get what you're saying and I find it hard to disagree with any of it.

I do think though that there are real world consequences - even if they're
secondary effects and tangential - of showing the world that the senior
figures in our political system are buffoons, and that the folks who get
millions of votes from ordinary Americans think of the world this way. I think
the effects are cumulative and not just in Iran but in our friendly countries,
where it becomes increasingly an embarrassment and politically awkward to
support America even when America is in the right.

In Europe anti-Americanism is so detached from reality and often requires one
to ally oneself with truly awful people just in order to oppose anything
America says, and those who hold these positions are treated with far more
respect than they should be, largely because of how tired people are at the
noise they here coming from the US. It's wrong, and it's foolish, because
whatever criticisms one levels at the US Europe has far more in common with
the US than its enemies.

I suppose my point is gut-feeling and frustration, rather than well argued,
but it rings true to me.

