Ayatollah Khamenei is talking through his turban about the Wuhan virus

The Federalist reports that Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei is advancing the Chinese whopper  I mentioned the other day: that the Wuhan virus (while I won't insist on it, I continue to think that's the best name for it since it avoids stigmatizing a nationality while keeping responsibility for it clearly with the Chinese oligarchy that mishandled the outbreak) originated in the United States!

"You're accused of having created Coronavirus," he tweeted. "I don't know how true it is. But where there is such an allegation, can a wise man trust you? You could be giving medicines that spread the virus or cause it to remain. Experience shows you can't be trusted & (sic) you do such things."

Leaving aside the obvious applicability of the proverb about pots, kettles, and coloration, the Iranian despot is using a cowardly rhetorical technique all too common these days even In American political discourse. To profess agnosticism about the truth of a claim, but then to implicitly credit it by saying that it "could be" and then making wild and unsubstantiated charges about how past behavior gives the claim credibility is a way of bearing false witness that is cowardly but effective.

He accuses the United States of lying about wanting to help other countries stricken by the virus. After all, he points out, we don't have enough testing kits ourselves! And then, he changes his tune, as cowards who begin by only insinuating sooner or later always do. Before, you will recall, he said that he wasn't sure whether the claims that the virus originated in the United State are true or not. But suddenly, he decides that not only did it originate in the U.S., but that the U.S. created it purposely- to target Iran! The virus, he insists, was "specifically built for Iran using the genetic data of Iranians which they have obtained through different means... You might send people as doctors and therapists, maybe they would want to come here and see the effect of the poison they have produced in person!"

And we thought President Trump was self-absorbed! And the Ayatollah's rhetoric resembles that of Donald Fredovich in three other ways:  it's ridiculous on its face, it can't even be bothered to keep its own narrative straight, and there are plenty of gullible fools and malicious knaves more than willing to believe it, or at least to pretend that they do.

Many on the Left, quite reasonably concerned that President Trump's regrettable insistence on calling this specifically "the Chinese virus," is inviting bigoted idiots to scapegoat people of Chinese (and by extension, probably any oriental descent), miss the point that while ethnic Chinese, in general, are not to blame for the current pandemic, the government in Bejing is to blame- and is actively not only trying to evade its responsibility but absurdly to pin it on us. And there are not only plenty of authoritarian regimes all too eager to pretend to believe that lie and to spread it but plenty of gullible "useful idiots," to use Lenin's phrase, who are willing to believe it, probably including quite a few in the United States!

By all means, innocent people of Chinese descent need to be protected from scapegoating by bigoted fools. But as vital as it is to protect them from that. But it's also important that those who are actually responsible for unleashing a worldwide pandemic by being more concerned in the critical opening weeks of the outbreak with downplaying its dimensions and seriousness than with controlling it be held accountable. And while Mr.Trump consistently misses this point where authoritarian regimes are concerned, neither America's interests nor the values for which we have traditionally stood in the world are advanced by helping evil regimes to undermine them by letting them get away with rhetorical- or, in this case, all too literal- murder.

This is not an "either/or" think. Innocent people can be protected from idiots who try to scapegoat them for the crimes of the Chinese regime without letting the Chinese regime off the hook or letting America's enemies and the enemies of the very tolerance those who bristle at any reference to the virus or the disease not officially sanctioned by the WHO escape accountability and get away with actually trying to pin it on us.

Of course, the narrative China and Iran are pushing is ridiculous on its face. But as our own domestic politics these days illustrate all too well, there are an awful lot of people with agendas of their own who are more than happy to be fooled.

Picture Credit: The Ayatollah's website, used under a Creative Commons 4.0 license requiring an explanation of its origin in English.