Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Guardian: "The support that Ahmadinejad enjoys in Lebanon can be compared to 'bored gratitude'..."

... and this Guardian reporter needs her eyes checked, getting her story from a little girl who was bored because she did not understand Farsi, and who most probably finds her parents boring, half of the time:
"... The support that Ahmadinejad enjoys in Lebanon's Shia heartlands can be compared to the support that a corporate sponsor might expect from Manchester United fans: bored gratitude. The biggest cheer that Ahmadinejad's speech managed to raise out of the crowd came when he thanked Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as a "dear warrior and scholar".Nasrallah was the real star of the show.... Many Lebanese would have a lot to say about claims that Iran is a "unifying force in the region", but the speech did make clear that Nasrallah's crowd appeal is unmatched and that his power among many Shias does not need to be enforced by Iran. If anything, Hezbollah deftly staged a welcome for Ahmadinejad designed to encourage the Iranians to dig deeper and give more generously to Hezbollah's cause. While Ahmadinejad was still speaking, I whispered to the teenage girl sitting in front of me: "Who do you prefer; Ahmadinejad or Nasrallah?" "Nasrallah!" she replied rolling her eyes. "Nasrallah is one of us. And anyway, Ahmadinejad is boring."..."

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