Mahmoud Ahmajinedad? Really?

As Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu planned their attack on Iran, and after the attack began, the son of the late Shah of Iran swanned around southern California and other places where Iranian expats or others who might influence things to show that a Darcy Rodriguez was available for Trump’s truncated idea of regime change in Iran. Little did he know who had already been chosen.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a scrappy president of Iran from 2005 to 2013, with an often hostile relationship with the United States. He has most recently been under house arrest by the Iranian regime, having accused them of corruption. (gift link)

To say that Mr. Ahmadinejad was an unusual choice would be a vast understatement. While he had increasingly clashed with the regime’s leaders and had been placed under close watch by the Iranian authorities, he was known during his term as president, from 2005 to 2013, for his calls to “wipe Israel off the map.” He was a strong supporter of Iran’s nuclear program, a fierce critic of the United States and known for violently cracking down on internal dissent.

An airstrike on Ahmadinejad’s house killed his guards. He has not been seen since.

There are many unanswered questions about how Israel and the United States planned to put Mr. Ahmadinejad in power, and the circumstances surrounding the airstrike that injured him. American officials said that the strike — carried out by the Israeli Air Force — was meant to kill the guards watching over Mr. Ahmadinejad as part of a plan to release him from house arrest.

The first question would be why they chose him, although I can sorta see if you didn’t know much about the history and saw him as a critic of the regime, well maybe. A further question would be how they recruited him. Or if they recruited him?

…an associate of Mr. Ahmadinejad confirmed to The New York Times that Mr. Ahmadinejad saw the strike as an attempt to free him. The associate said the Americans viewed Mr. Ahmadinejad as someone who could lead Iran, and had the capability to manage “Iran’s political, social and military situation.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad would have been able to “play a very important role” in Iran in the near future, the associate said, suggesting that the United States saw him as similar to Delcy Rodriguez, who took power in Venezuela after American forces seized Mr. Maduro and has since worked closely with the Trump administration, the person said.

During his presidency, Mr. Ahmadinejad was known both for his hard-line policies and his often outlandish fundamentalist pronouncements, such as his declaration that there was not a single gay person in Iran and his denial of the Holocaust. He spoke at a conference in Tehran called “A World Without Zionism.”

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