Farhad Kashani

The recent revelations from Bush about his beliefs in evolution are interesting. Because of popular culture beliefs, and because of all the leftist propaganda mumbo jumbo of the last few years, one would not expect Bush to say things like those. However, the truth is coming out. What he recently said will be the start of a series of events that will lead to the realization on how leftist media brainwashed many of us to accept a picture of Bush that is not true of him.

If we analyze the effects of the “Bush mischaracterization” culture in the U.S, we will see that since this is a democracy that can absorb these types of misleadings, the consequences were not that bad to the democracy of this country, but the case is not the same among us Iranians and when it comes to the situation in Iran. The mischaracterization of Bush has had disastrous consequences for the cause of freedom in Iran.

All of this off course does not change the fact that Bush is one of the most incompetent presidents in American history, domestically speaking. Personally, I did not vote for him either times and am not even a Republican; that’s not to say that whoever voted for him or Republicans are any less “intelligent” than the rest of us.

But at the end of day, he was a democratically elected president, and he was the leader of the free world, and most importantly, he reversed the trend in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism which is led and inspired by the IRI, by launching a political, cultural and ideological offense against forces of Islamic radicalism (although he made horrible strategic mistakes doing it, including the Iraq war) where as in the last 30 years since the Islamic revolution in Iran, it was them who launched an ideological and guerilla war battle worldwide to destroy civilization and human rights values as we know it, and the last point is where we got it wrong.

Popular culture and leftist media painted Bush as a “religious nutjob and a cowboy”. They didn’t talk about his incompetency, or the bureaucratic hurdle in the government, or his incompetent cabinet, or the Republicans in Congress not checking his powers.  Many of us actually thought that his policies were based on those two factors! It is important to mention here that there is a point here to be made which is that there were two types of Iranians who bought into this: 1- Genuinely had concerned about where the country was going and didn’t know better. 2- The IRI supporting leftist individuals who used and abused the anti Bush rhetoric in favor of the Islamic regime in Iran and against the interest of America as a country. The second group is the one who we need to be aware of and watch for. Those anti Iran, anti U.S, undemocratic, uncivilized, obsessed with Israel individuals who have been engaged in destroying Iran for 30 years now.

The reason that blind anti Bush-ism caused damage to the freedom cause in Iran is simple. After 9/11, the world, not just Bush, realized the horror of Islamic fundamentalism represented in IRI and its mini-alike groups like Al Qaeda and others. Up until the Iraq war, the world was united against Islamic fundamentalism, however, after that event, the leftist forces saw an opportunity. They painted the Iraq as a part of Bush’s “crusade” and intentionally tied it to the Afghanistan war (which was supported by the world) as being part of that “crusade” . After that, any mention of Islamic fundamentalism, and any mention of the atrocities committed by the IRI and its Islamic fundamentalist “clones”, were confronted with the misguided argument that “Islamic fundamentalism is a response to Christian fundamentalism represented in Bush”, “We should defend IRI because Bush is a cowboy and loves war”, “Bush hates Islam that’s why he attacked Afghanistan and Iraq”, and things of that nature. As result, IRI got stronger and its propaganda machine got gutsier and its policies got more brutal, and at the end of the day, Iranians who saw a hope after 9/11 that the world is finally beginning to realize the horror of Islamic fundamentalism, saw themselves stuck under the savage rule of IRI with no lights at the end of tunnel. Off course we hope with the election of Obama that would change, and support for Iranian people’s struggle grow, but we lost valuable time in the last 8 years blindly listening and following propaganda by people who have proven over and over again, that they couldn’t care less about Iran and what happens to it, and that applies to people both in the Iranian left and the American left. Calling Bush a hypocrite or an incompetent is one thing, calling him a “crusader” is another. Let’s not have the un-Iranian Islamic Socialist propaganda machine fool us again.