Juan Cole Gives Iran the Benefit of the Doubt
Intellectually grappling with a man of University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole‘s knowledge base is an intimidating task, but an appearance he made on MSNBC on September 19 cannot go unchallenged. Cole, in remarkable fashion, downplayed the threat from Iran’s nuclear program and gave the regime a benefit of the doubt that he never gave the Bush administration and the dreaded neoconservatives.
“I think American intelligence has a very good idea of what’s going on [in Iran],” he said. “It seems clear that they are not pursuing a nuclear weapon, but they are pursuing the capability to close the fuel cycle, which means that in the future, if they change their mind, they could start up a weapons program.”
Note his word usage — “if they change their mind.” Cole apparently believes that Iran’s current intent is not to enable a later production of weapons, which he admits their activity would facilitate, but to genuinely develop nuclear energy for civilian purposes. This is a sentiment he voiced in an interview in March where he said that the Iranians are consuming increasingly large amounts of petroleum and, therefore, they have a need to become more energy efficient and a civilian nuclear program could be an answer to that problem.
Cole then undercut his own argument by saying that it would be wiser for the Iranians to end their enrichment of uranium in order to get sanctions lifted, permitting foreign companies to help them tap their natural gas reserves. Surely the Iranians would have considered this option if their main objective was economic survival, but instead we see them investing mightily in this nuclear program that is causing them all sorts of international grief that exasperates their problems.
It’s also interesting how in the printed March interview he refers to how Iran is “allegedly” supporting Hamas, as if the regime’s support to the terrorist group isn’t a foregone conclusion. Somehow, in Cole’s mind, U.S. intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program is reliable, but not so much when it comes to supporting terrorism.
Let’s contrast how comfortable he is in trusting the Iranians with his attitude towards the Bush administration.
“The same techniques used to get up the Iraq war are now being applied by the political right in the United States, including President Bush, to Iran. These include innuendo, guilt by association, vague fears, and hyped capabilities. If Bush gets a second term, it seems very likely that his administration will make war on Iran.” — July 21, 2004.
“We know that Cheney, the neocons, and other factions in the Bush administration desperately wanted to get up a war against Iran so as to overthrow its government.” — February 14, 2006.
He even theorizes that these neocons deliberately hampered the CIA’s efforts to stop proliferation to Iran because “that very success would make it harder to justify a war on Iran.”
Reputed Middle-East expert? Juan Cole?
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2006/04/fitzgerald-a-tribute-to-juan-cole.html
Why are dolts like this even listened too?
Fanatical Islam is the new home of the world’s Useful Idiots. Welcome, Perfesser Cole.
Idiots abound.
Well, actually, Iran’s support of Hamas is NOT a foregone conclusion. The main financial backers of Hamas are the fellow-Sunni Saudis, not the Iranians. This is widely known.
That reminds me of the Democratic congressmen who visited Iraq in 2002 and informed us that they trusted Saddam, but not Dubya.
Cole IS a respected scholar in the field–but neither of intelligence, nor of WMD programs, but rather of of Iranian Shi`ism in the last several centuries. I don’t quite know how that qualifies him to opine on issues that are frankly outside his purview. My Ph.D. is in Islamic history and eschatology yet when folks ask me about Iranian WMDs I tell them “I have no bloody idea.” Perhaps my hubris level is lower than Cole’s.
Yeah, so respected that both Yale and Princeton decided not to take him on. Real scholars are expected to research, publish and teach, and in the process advance the state of knowledge. Cole is a propagandist. The fact that Michigan keeps him on and – worse – brings self-hating Israeli “scholar” Neve Gordon as a visiting professor is the reason I no longer give to my alma mater.
I wonder if anyone asked Cole why, if Iran’s intentions are so innocuous, they’re moving so aggressively on missiles like the enhanced Shahab 3 and the surprisingly advanced solid-fueled Sejil. Exactly what does he think they’ll be carrying?
To get a flavor of the intellect of Juan Cole, he’s on record stating that the Iranian electoral process is far more democratic and fair than the US electoral process! This was stated by him in the aftermath of the first Iraqi election which he criticized mercilessly. Even with all of our flaws, this is an insane position to embrace. The slaughter after the last Iranian “election” didn’t seem to dampen his ardour for Islamic fascism one iota. It is especially chilling to know that this anti-Americanac “academic” moron is considered an “expert” on Islam, and is consulted by entities ranging from business, academia, media, and worst of all, our government (!!!???). It’s no wonder that since 9/11 we continue to be fed a steady diet of pure bull shit and lies by our leadership and media about the nazi Religion of Peace. No wonder we were caught with our pants down on 9/11 as the Islamic Jihad gained momentum. Seditious traitors like Juan Cole have been working hard to subvert our society and elevate our enemies all along, and this type of scum still has the ears of our media and government.
Raymond: as an OSU grad school grad, I didn’t want to bring the UM connection into this, but….Cole’s presence there tells you something about the level of PCness in Ann Arbor, doesn’t it?
I can vouch for Raymond’s assertions. Mr. Cole is an academic lightweight and self-promoting arabist. His lack of serious scholarship in Islamic studies is quite embarassing considering that he claims rank of “herr” professor (see: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/cv.htm). The reason that he enjoys such relative immunity is that his hatred of Israel is embraced by the cesspool community of anti-Semitism that he swims in.
Actually it isn’t hard to make Juan Cole look like an idiot as he does a good job of it without help.
“The Founding Fathers of the United States deeply feared that a foreign government [like Israel] might gain this level of control over a branch of the United States government, and their fears have been vindicated.” – Juan Cole
He is a raving anti-Semitic who fits right in with the rest of leftist academics. These are not well educated people, they are ideologues that use their so called knowledge to be PC bigots.
What an educated idiot !! It’s not Israel we should fear, but liberal thinking nuts.