More Love From Ahmadinejad
I do not know why Ahmadinejad tries to hide it, it is quite clear that he loves Israel. Or not:
“The arrogant superpowers and the Zionist regime invested all their efforts during the 33-day war, but after 60 years, their pride has been trampled and the countdown to the destruction of this regime has been started by Hizbullah fighters,” the president was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Mehr.
Ahmadinejad added that “with the help of all the Lebanese and Palestinian fighters, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future… Anyone who works for God and believes in the power of the people will prevail.”
Israel is not the only nation about to collapse, according to the Iranian president. The other “corrupt” nations will also give in to the Islamic republic’s strength and suffer the same fate.
“We are already witnessing the repercussions of the surrender. The people of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan and all over the world are joining this river that will soon be linked to the ocean of truth and justice,” he said.
He also said: “The Palestinian people have begun their movement out of oppression and the world’s nations and the Zionist regime will be forced to bow down to the Palestinians and officially acknowledge this people.”
One problem: the Palestinians are quite busy killing each other right now. They do not have a lot of time to force “the Zionists” to do anything.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, meanwhile, encouraged Hamas and Islamic Jihad “to carry on with their armed struggle against Israel.”
Funny enough, he said the following about the civil war: “It is forbidden for any group to resort to violence in order to end the political deadlock.”
As Andy McCarthy points out, “The imminent destruction of Israel, of course, would require weapons of mass destruction.”
I have to admit, I am getting used to Ahmadinejad’s Hitleresque speeches. Once you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all I guess. Yesterday, I watched an Iranian documentary at Memri about the Second World War / the Holocaust. Of course, the Holocaust was one big lie, kept alive by the Jews who own Hollywood. I was watching it and suddenly realized that I was laughing: the claims were so outrageous that I found it to be completely ridiculous. Then I realized that I might consider the documentary to be ridiculous, but others, who do not know better, might fall for it and their views might be influenced by it. I instantly stopped laughing and asked myself what the result would be of hundreds of millions of people believing the documentary to be completely true…
Something else: the new design looks great! I am confident that this will help TMV continue to grow. Well done Tyrone et al.
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11 Responses to “More Love From Ahmadinejad”
A- When this guy talks about the “destruction of the Zionists” and such he is not speaking to the rest of the world, but to the Iranians, most especially to his “base”. Just like when an American politician will say that “the US is the greatest country on Earth and everyone else longs to be like us” and foreigners are awed by the arrogance, you have to keep in mind the audience. Iran is a theocracy yes, but even theocracies prefer to have the population on their side. So it’s in their interests to have the populace hate us more than they hate their leaders.
B- After much thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that this man is not, in fact, insane. Nor do I believe that his dislike of jews or the west is half as strong as his will to stay in power. He isn’t a stupid man, I hope. He knows that he has to make the right noises to the rabid crowds that love to see grandstanding in front of Israel and the US. However, I think he must be aware that actually carrying out the thinly veiled threats of nuking Israel is not in his best interest. I don’t think he’s a true believer, willing to throw it all away in order to eliminate the Jews. He’d much rather use the threat, to keep his populace distracted and the world too afraid to be harsh.
The rest of that sentence should be “we hope”. We have to deal with at least the possibility that he means it.
I tend to agree with your assessment of Ahmedinejad’s rationality and his use of foreign policy as a domestic politics tool. But responsible policymaking requires hedging against the possibility that we are wrong, especially given the potential for a nuclear dimension in the intermediate future.
lynx,
One of the great failings of Lyndon Johnson is that he never understood true believe. Since President Johnson did not believe in anything but raw political party, he never understood what people in Vietnam would do to establish a communist country.
I believe that too many American take our culture and apply it to other cultures. We should take them at their word until they demonstrate that they do not believe it. The Iranian support of terrorist in Lebanon seesm to be indicates that the rhetoric is for more than local consumption.
superdestroyer,
If we keep up the saber rattling towards Iran rather than talking and coming to some sort of understanding, then of course they will trend towards acting on their rhetoric. If they didn’t it would only show them as weak and it would undermine their position, so they have no choice but to push back.
Since you bring up Vietnam, if you know their history then you will know that Ho Chi Minh came to us first before he went to communist Russia. Even then, he fell out of favor, and the force he created in Vietnam was predominantly nationalist rather than communist. It wasn’t until after WWII, when we betrayed them again in our and our allies interests that the movement became purely communist.
Now, what I’m trying to achieve by that example is to show that Iran, just as Vietnam, was an enemy of our own creation. If we actually, you know, talk with these people and try to work with them rather than consistently threatening them or undermining them for our own benefit and because they have different views on the world, then there is the possibility of ratcheting down the rhetoric and the aggressive actions.
This is a matter of debate, not objective fact. A recent series of books on the Vietnam conflict call into question much of the conventional wisdoms about that war.
It seems to me he is ratcheting up the rhetoric, and he sounds more confident with every speech. This is not a good sign.
When GWB says that “all options are on the table” is he also just talking to his “base?” Sorry, but I’m smelling a double-standard here.
No one is forcing Iran into such extremist rhetoric, therefore it seems pretty disingenuous to blame US “saber rattling” for forcing them into a position where they might act on that rhetoric. Iran is the one “saber rattling” here.
I have to agree with Jason on the approach we must take to Ahmadinejad’s rantings. It would be the height of irresponsibility for us to simply assume that is all he means. He is not a politician like any other in a Western country or a simple power-mad tyrant. He sincerely believes in the radical Islamist philosophy that he supports in Iran. Given that this belief system is one that believes that Israel must be destroyed I just don’t see how we can act like it’s just words.
I’d just like to say that the fact that I don’t really think Ahmadinejad is a true believer doesn’t mean I think that we shouldn’t take him seriously. I also don’t think we “force” Iran into it’s aggressive stance. I DO think that the cowboy attitude towards foreign policy displayed by Bush&Co is actually good, not bad, for Ahmadinejad’s hold on Iran itself. Again, the population will hate the foreigner first, and corrupt or otherwise evil native rulers next.
We must plan for all contingencies, and yes, that includes the posibilty of war. A war that would make Iraq seem like a walk in the park, by the way. A war that would be easier to plan for if we didn’t already have our military up shits creek. Iran is looking for the Bomb. I think they’re going to get it even with sanctions. We either actually go to war with them now, before they have the bomb, or we work very hard at stabilization and promotion of democratic ideals, hopefully making the environment in Iran less wholesome for theocratic crazies, so when they have the bomb, they’ll be less inclined to actually USE it.
Certainly, saber rattling by Bush didn’t ‘force’ Iran into its position. But it did play into his hands. It gave him an excuse to claim that he must defend against US attacks.
If the US had used less inflamatory rhetoric, Ahmedijane would have been exposed in his zealotry without the defense excuse. When two people argue, it’s better if the more rational and adult of the two is easily identifiable.
I’m surprised nobody has attacked and put down MEMRI yet.
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Ahmedinnerjacket needs to be taken seriously. Iran is the #1 routine state sponsor of terrorism, and even has its proxies, such as Hizballah (and one day, something similar in Iraq). Even if Israel inflicts many more casualties, if after a nuclear exchange Israel is destroyed while there is at least one survivor in Iran, it is an Iranian victory and the arithmetic is acceptable to many in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.