Ahmadinejad Rattles His Saber

(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Today at the D8 Summit for Developing Nations, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that an attack by the United States on Iran would be "political suicide" for President Bush.

Ahmadinejad said the US was no longer in a position to make an assault on Iran.

"In the US, his wise scholars will not allow Mr. Bush to commit political suicide and of course the economic, political and military situation will not allow Mr. Bush to do that," he said.

"(Bush) is not in a situation to change circumstances in his favour."

The geopolitical nuances escape me. And, since President Bush isn't running for anything right now, I also don't get the "political suicide" crack.

However, the overall tone of Ahmadinejad's remarks seems to be a simple dare and not substantively different from Saddam Hussein's blathering before Desert Storm. It would be suicide to engage Iraq's elite Republican Guard in the "Mother of All Battles," Saddam asserted. But, after only four days of the mother battle, those same elite soldiers were eager to surrender to pilotless reconnaissance drones.

To conclude, it seems that Ahmadinejad is following the same playbook Saddam used. He just expects a different outcome.