Being forced to debate this with you has broken my mental block, and I can now actually spell "Ahmadinejad". Damn. That was wrenching.

Was that "I said Middle East, and you know very well" just a reflex snarky nitpick? I expected you to recognize the name "al Jazeera" and know that it broadcasts in Arabic to the Middle East.

In any case, I don't know what I can add. The propaganda is there no matter what we do, and the lies will still spread at the speed of light. The only defense is a good offense, and that means taking the initiative and getting in the faces of people like Ahmadinejad. If we don't tell our own story, somebody else will tell it for us.

I agree with your observations about Iran, or at least I hope that they're in the ballpark. I don't think that Ahmadinejad is as much in control of Iran as he thinks, and that what we're interpreting as audacious lying may in fact be "sincere" self-delusion. Take his assertion that there are no homosexuals in Iran: The knowledge that they continue to find and execute homosexuals may be kept in a separate compartment in his brain so as to not threaten his pure vision of Iranian society. And he's surely not nearly in control of the minds of Iranians as he wants to believe. Samizdat is made of bits these days, and it creeps in on a trillion little cat's feet.