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• Beyond good and evil to dirty politics September 18, 2006 9:11 am

  

  And so “good” is as relative as “evil” and the converse rationales are valid and good Americans are governed by the lesser “good”?
  Or are Americans being unwittingly governed more or less by evil?

• Mark Levine September 17, 2006 9:38 am

  

  I think Khatami, like Gorbachev, could have been a force in reforming Iran. And no, I don’t think Gorbachev was a great guy either, but he was a “moderate” compared to Stalin.
  Sometimes the only way to dismantle evil is step by step.
  I think the wikipedia does a pretty good job in describing Khatami, what he wanted to achieve in Iran, and how he failed.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Khatami

• Mark Levine September 17, 2006 9:31 am

  

  I hadn’t read this article, but unfortunately, yes, Iran is so off the deep the end that this is “moderate” for Iran. Abbas is a terrorist but he is “moderate” for the Palestinians who elected Hamas. The Nazis who hated Jews but also tried to kill Hitler were “moderate” for the Nazis. The current Iraqi Government that supports the terrorist group Hezbollah is “moderate” compared to the insurgents like al Sadr and (now dead) Zarqawi. (Ironically, Saddam Hussein was also “moderate” compared to them. He also supported Hezbollah.) In our ally Saudi Arabia and in Egypt (where we give 2 billion a year), gay people are persecuted and often executed.
  “Moderate” is a relative term. And sometimes when you’re looking at the lesser of two evils, the lesser one is still fairly evil.