"It smells of sulfur on this very blog..."

the handsome provocateur scores! well, i've been waiting for weeks for Ahmadinejad's UN visit and the guy didn't disappoint. see today's NYT article on his "debate" with the Council on Foreign Relations, where he went toe-to-toe against 19 members of the panel with his trademark rhetorical trickery. his politics aside, i'm a huge fan of the guy and his ability to utterly flabbergast our administration. and yet, his techniques in dealing with the press and his critics in the U.S. will ultimately fail. there's only so long that his circumlocution, predilection for answering questions with questions and using frustratingly flimsy, yet incontrovertible, logic will endure international pressure.

but despite the confused script of this whole situation, the facts themselves will dictate the international response to the Iranian administration's hardline stance. as is commonly noted, the U.S. is simply stretched too thin to effectively attack Tehran. even bombing the nuclear infrastructure is likely to be ineffective, as it's been noted that Iran buried a large portion of their facilities underground years ago. what's more, many people suspect that Iran, if attacked, would immediately attack Israel and that act would undoubtedly lead to a full scale, multi-national war.

however, in backing away from this apocalyptic hypothesis for a moment, Ahmadinejad -- and Hugo Chavez, for that matter -- are right to challenge the current administration's international policies. very rarely, in fact, are they flat-out wrong about anything they accuse the U.S. gov't of. anybody that tells you that the administration's policy throughout the world is not imperialistic in nature is fooling themselves. there are other ways, though, of combatting U.S. aggression, and acting a fool in front of hundreds of diplomats and leaders, as Chavez did yesterday, is not one of them. eliciting snickers from the gallery does little for one's credibility. Ahmadinejad, while perhaps more eloquent and self-assured than Chavez, goes blah blah blah about dialogue yet refuses to answer a single question anyone poses to him.

but still, i'm not offended by either one of them. most recently, Chavez took a tour through Harlem, referred to Bush as an "alcoholic," likened him to John Wayne and offered to expand his program of offering cheap oil to poor families in NYC.

2006 will be the year that bravado was redefined.