Bizarre, International, Military, Politics, Society

Yes, Indeed Mr. Prime Minister, This is a Bomb

One of the things that we teach law students is how to address a jury in understandable terms without talking down to them. It is sometimes a delicate balance in dealing with complex questions or fact patterns. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed how not to strike that balance when he took the entire United Nation’s General Assembly through a “this is a bomb, this is a fuse” demonstration that instantly became a mockery around the world. That was a real missed opportunity when following Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who never fails to offer a clownish, absurd performance. It is one of those debates that you win by showing up and just stating your case . . . until you pull out cutout from the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.

What is odd is that Netanyahu has a strong case about the danger of Iran having a bomb but proceeded in dumbing down the presentation to the point of insulting everyone above the level of a pre-schooler. Did anyone actually watch this presentation in advance? Presumably so given the fact that it was prepared for the event. That leads me to think that people around Netanyahu are either so clueless or enabling that no one bothered to tell Netanyahu that it looked ridiculous. In fairness, one of the aides may have said “Prime Minister, this is a bomb” and Netanyahu might have thought he was suggesting an actual line for the presentation.

The funny thing is that he had me at hello in describing the danger of a sponsor of terrorism with the bomb (though I am against a war as the way of addressing proliferation concerns with Iran). Then he pulled out the cartoonish diagram of a bomb and I actually thought he was making some type of joke. He then continued to explain the bomb with Romper Room delivery to the General Assembly. The only thing that he didn’t do was say “this is Billy the Bomb.”

In my view, it is a great example of losing an audience with you delivery. What do you think?

In the end, I do not know why he didn’t show the actual footage of Ahmadinejad heading out to get the bomb:

66 thoughts on “Yes, Indeed Mr. Prime Minister, This is a Bomb”

  1. Iran has not started a war in 100’s of years, but must not be allowed to protect its citizens against Israel’s large nuclear arsenal, history of having already bombed Iran and threats to do so again.

    Neither Imperial Washington nor the Kingdom of false flag operations should be allowed to do what they would deny other countries to do — develop a military defense to protect its citizens.

    Some of the NPR crowd here should be ashamed of their hypocrisy.

  2. NAL

    Also a: thank you from me for the link; it’s good to read that there are still some concerned and informed people ready to speak up for the truth and facts.

  3. Blouise,

    I read it and it is a well thought out, reasoned and presented piece consistent with what I’ve read about all involved. However, there is only one problem with it. It discounts a very real third threat present with any monied ME state today: not the nukes they can build but the nukes they can buy compounded by the law of unintended consequences (especially of talking excessive amounts of smack like Bibi is doing). The irritation from agitation may be and often is tangential.

    P.S. Interesting blog find there David. I bookmarked it for future perusal.

  4. Nal,

    Thanks for the link … it cut through a great deal of the muck.

    Gene,

    I highly recommend it if you haven’t already looked at it.

  5. “Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a thermonuclear war out of my hat . . . ”

    It is obvious punchline for setup u-sink moose and squi-Rrel.

  6. Thought the Bullmoose was so dated: two villains, a little fat man with a mustache and a long skinny woman. Does that say anything. Sorry, OT again.

    So why is Israel so excited (and Bibi of course)??
    Two things.
    —-Israel can have as many bombs as it wants but only two good ones would wipe them out.
    —-Israel needs something to take the heat off of their realizing their zealous claims to territory 2000 years after vacating the site.

    I say a one-state solution and let the best woman-beater child-producer win.

  7. Berliner,

    You are so right. The bomb does not go off until Netanyahu lights the fuse. And he is standing there with the match to ignite ca 100 nukes of Israeli (?) making. Made in Israel. Ever seen that on your groceries.

  8. You base this blog on the picture of a bomb. When the critical point of the speech was what happens when Iran has the bomb and one of the religious nuts decide it’s time for armageddon and causes ww3.

  10. It’s an entitlement thing. Israel is entitled to many nuclear bombs but Iran isn’t entitled to one.

  11. Whew, lucky Professor said “Billy Bomb” rather than “Mohammed Bomb” or we would have lost another ambassador! Guys, please, BE CAREFUL!

  12. Very amateurish, almost to the point of undermining the seriousness of the issue. But perhaps Bibi has become so frustrated with the apparent lack of appreciation of the threat that a nuclear armed Iran, also with the potential then to export the capability to a non-state actor whose actions are far less predictable/manageable, presents to the world.
    The frustration may be warranted given the fact that there are intelligent and highly educated people who think that this issue can be solved with anything less than force (although we have yet to try a friendly sit-down with a charismatic criminal defense attorney).

  15. What I found most irritating was the inconsistency of his metaphors.

    A round “anarchist’s bomb” with a burning fuse as a metaphor regarding the acquisition of nuclear weapons is confusing to begin with. But if he had stayed in that metaphor and had drawn (maybe not literally with a red pen on the cardboard *rolleyes*) red lines _on_the_fuse_ it wouldn’t have been that bad.

    A burning fuse is a relatively common metaphor for a “we have to do something (= disable the fuse) in a given time (= before the flames reach the bomb), or something terrible (= the bomb exploding) will happen.”

    But immediately after — explicitly — referring to the fuse, he switched metaphors to “filling this bomb with explosives to several levels.” Which (at least for me) completely broke the metaphor.
    And in addition to that the message of “we can not afford inaction” was weakened, because a bomb doesn’t automatically go off after it has been completely filled.

  16. A nuclear bomb with a gunpowder fuse? The impractical physics aside, that had better be a very, very long fuse.

  18. that was funny, he is mocking the UN. He has nothing but contempt for the UN and well he should.

  20. I laughed when I saw that last night. He should have labelled it Acme Bomb and had Wiley Coyote dropping it on the Roadrunner.

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