As much as the left would love to distance themselves from the war on terror, they aren’t able to do so. They are Americans and even though some of them hate that term, they are viewed that way by our enemy. As Oliver Stone just found out, he’s still considered an enemy even though he’s opposed to the Bush administration:

Looks like Oliver Stone won’t get his chance to profile Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after all.

Ahmadinejad has rejected Stone’s offer to make a documentary about him, calling the helmer part of the “Great Satan” cultural establishment.

“It is right that this person is considered part of the opposition in the U.S., but opposition in the U.S. is a part of the Great Satan,” Mehdi Kalhor, media adviser to the president told the Fars news agency.

(via)
The spokesman also said this:

Mahdi Kalhor told Iran’s Fars news agency he understands, however, why Stone would want to do the movie, because Ahmadinejad ” who has threatened to destroy Israel ” “is an appealing figure in the world and the Americans always look for what can return their investment.”
“We believe that the American cinema system is devoid of all culture and art and is only used as a device,” Kalhor said. “In the last two years, the global arrogance (the U.S. and Britain) has made a lot of effort to portray their own image of Ahmadinejad, not the one which exists in reality. Hollywood and other Zionist media react to phenomena they don’t like through different processes.”
[…]
Stone’s request might be reconsidered, said Ahmadinejad adviser Javan Shamghadri, if Iranian filmmakers would be given the right to make a documentary, unimpeded, about President Bush and the CIA.

Do you think the left will get it now? The only way the US can be viewed favorably by the Iranians is to remove ourselves completely from the region and accept Sharia law, then we will no longer be the “Great Satan” because we will no longer be viewed as a “Christian” nation.
But I don’t expect the left to get it and Stone’s response confirms that suspicion:

“I have been called a lot of things, but never a great Satan. I wish the Iranian people well and only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours.”

Yeah, we certainly are all in the same boat aren’t we? Pretty callous words to the Iranians when you think about who is being tortured and killed just because they would like the same freedoms that Stone experiences under his “inept, rigid ideologue president.” They would love to trade places with Stone, too bad they don’t have the opportunity to do so.