George and Mahmoud: Folie à Deux

Chris Floyd, whose Empire Burlesque features some of the edgiest writing on current events, makes a persuasive argument that the stock of the two key players in the Middle East – U.S. President Bush and Iranian President Ahmadinejad – is way down:

"Both men are increasingly unpopular leaders who have recently been stingingly rejected by voters in off-year elections. Both are supported by a ‘base’ of religious fanatics and militarists. Both belong to apocalyptic sects that believe the world will end with the coming of a savior who will obliterate all enemies of the sect and establish it as the sole determinant of a transformed reality, forever.

"And both are wretched incompetents at governing, ruling by bluster and PR ploys while their bungled policies – based on blind ideological zeal -- wreak havoc in the lives of ordinary citizens and degrade their nation's standing in the world.

“Both are utterly dependent on external threats – real or manufactured– to sustain their power; they cannot obtain it from the ‘consent of the governed,’ having lost the support and confidence of their people. All they can do now is to wave the bloody shirt and hope to rally their nations behind them."

More here.