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American Faces/ Iranian Audiences

Today, Liberty & Power and Wonkette pick up a report from the Daily Mail. It says that Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, took a hard line with a visiting delegation of British MPs. "She is very forceful and some of my colleagues were intimidated by her muscular style," one of them recalled. "In any case, I hate all Iranians," she's reported having said. Gossipy Wonkette features the photograph of Cagan that accompanies the Daily Mail article. As a face of American diplomacy, it makes Ahmedinejad look like the soul of reason.

Cagan's photograph and words, however, reminded me that Iranian television recently featured St. Xavier's Peter N. Kirstein telling an Iranian audience exactly what the Iranian regime wants it to hear. Behold the reasonable face and articulate voice of American academe: