Announcing the 2012 summit of the nonaligned and vaguely unhinged

In an event that will undoubtedly be as interesting to
mental health professionals as it is to foreign policy wonks, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has flown directly from his Tehran cuckoo's nest to the padded cell
of his partner in derangement, Hugo Chavez, for the 2012 Summit of the
Nonaligned and Vaguely Unhinged. Despite Chavez' increasing irrelevance this
was an act of considerable courage on Mahmoud's part both because you never
know what's going to happen when you're dealing with El Loco but also because
whenever a despot leaves a country as screwed up as Iran is at the moment, he
can't be sure he's going to have a job when he gets back.

At the moment, given the parlous state of the Iranian economy,
the likelihood of its further decline later this year, the upcoming
parliamentary elections in March that could be another trigger for restiveness
in that country, the increasing global pressure of every type regarding Iran's
rogue nuclear program, and Ahmadinejad's profusion of enemies among Tehran's
empowered classes, he can't be too comfortable, even when he is at home. The
statement over the weekend by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that America
simply will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons and our tough response to
Iran's saber rattling in the Gulf of Hormuz can't make things any easier.

So, what's a would-be world leader -- who is increasingly
isolated -- to do? Well, turn to someone who understands his problems. Other
than Kim Jong-un and Ron Paul, there are few people on the world stage who
understand better than Chavez the plight of being seen as a member of the
lunatic fringe of the global elite. (Sorry, Ron, you're a member of the global
elite whether your tin-foil hat wearing contingent of conspiracy theorist
supporters are willing to accept it or not.) Indeed, like Chavez and Kim,
Ahmadinejad's claim on world attention is based as much or more on his
potential for irrationality as it is on any particular resource or capability of
the country he represents. Oh sure, Iran and Venezuela have oil, and North
Korea and perhaps soon Iran may have nukes. But the point is these are
otherwise marginal countries with the capability of being little more than
regional trouble makers, who have tried like recalcitrant sixth graders to get more
attention than they deserve through acting up.

The only difference between Ahmadinejad -- whose Venezuela
stop is the first on a trip through Latin America in search of Sofia Vergara,
er, that famous Latin warmth and hospitality -- and Chavez and Kim is that if
anything, his grip on power is more tenuous. Which is saying something, given
that Chavez is battling cancer and faces what may be his first real electoral
challenge in years, and Kim is an untested newcomer, the neophyte Pillsbury
doughboy of rogue nations. Come to think of it, the one thing that all three of
these guys have in common is that all three must worry that the day may soon
come when their grip on power is actually weaker than their grasp of reality.

For the rest of us, we can only hope that day comes soon.