Video of the Week: Forced Perspective

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and "Middle East Affairs Expert and experienced journalist" Aasif Mandvi.

[Excerpt at 0:32]

Bush (video clip): This is a moment of intense conflict in the Middle East. Yet our aim is to turn it into a moment of opportunity.

Rice (video clip): What we're seeing here in a sense is the, the growing, the birth pangs of a new Middle East...

[Excerpt at 2:00]

Stewart: Really, because when Isee the news Aasif, when I see the news people are really, they seem angry, they're... people are screaming angrily.

Aasif: Well, what did you expect? I mean, as Secretary Rice said, we're going through some "birth pangs" here. And you know how people tend to scream and say things they don't mean when they're in labor. Nonsense like, "how could you do this to me" or "death to America". Then, once the baby arrives, all is forgiven. What we're going through is exactly like that. I mean, we all understand it in exactly those terms.

Stewart: Aasif I'm not, forgive me for asking this but, but... (bomb explodes in the background) Are, are you okay?

Aasif: Oh yeah, I'm fine. That was just an "Improvised Explosive Opportunity". I believe it was filled with what sounded like the "Flying Shards of a Better Tomorrow". I can't wait to see what will rise from the ashes. I hope it's a parliament!

Stewart: There's no resentment there, that these changes that are being brought were perhaps foisted upon this region?

Aasif: No, not at all. Over the years, we've grown accustomed to thinking of ourselves as you think of us: tiny abstract drops in an oil field of possibility. Whether redrawing our borders without regard for ethnicity or religion or experimenting with unfamiliar forms of governance, we always welcome a chance to test the latest theories of your political scientists.

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