A Response To Rice

Iran has just made some pretty bold statements:

Iran said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive.

"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.

"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error...".

"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said... with a grin.

When asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action, the president of Iran replied, "She is free to say whatever she wants... We give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile.

There's a clue there...

Those guys place no importance on anything women say or do. To them women are just property to be used -- or abused -- as they see fit. Their women are not allowed to join into the conversation of males, are not allowed in any decision making. They do not, and cannot, speak for men, or the community, or the government. It is a deadly insult to those guys to allow a woman to speak for them. A man who gives a woman the upper hand is not a man. A man who sends a women to do his talking for him is to be ridiculed and scorned

That it may be an attitude more fitting for the "Dark Ages" makes no difference. That's how they think, and that's the reality we have to understand when conducting any sort of communication with them.

When we send a woman to speak for us, we run smack into this ingrained attitude and instantly get nowhere, generating ridicule and scorn in the process. Sending a black woman only compounds the difficulty.

So maybe we get smart for a change and send and any one of a large number of available macho-dude, Alpha-male types (equals in the eyes of those guys) to tell them the way it is, instead of publicly slapping them in the face with some of the major shortcomings in their culture.

They might even listen.

I can see no reason -- other than grievous duplicity -- to handicap our obvious ability to handle the Iranians more successfully.

Perhaps this administration is sending a woman intentionally knowing that such a act will only strain the situation further. Whatever the men is Washington are, they are not stupid. They -- beyond a doubt -- know all this stuff, so perhaps this administration is intentionally "baiting" the Iranians with Rice, knowing full well those guys will rise to the bait and do exactly what they're doing... respond with this oh-so-typical chest-beating hoo-ra that can only worsen the situation.

Which conveniently gives Bush even more ammunition in his claim that yet another invasion and occupation is necessary for America's -- and the entire world's -- safety and security.

You gotta wonder...