Time To Stop Insulting Iran

[Purveyor]

IF I was Muslim, I would take great exception to the ill-mannered reception that greeted Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in New York earlier this week. Introduced by his host, Columbia University's president, Lee Bollinger, as "a petty and cruel dictator" with a "fanatical mindset", Bollinger took it upon himself to speak for "the modern civilised world" (the implication being that Iran is wholly backward and barbaric), and "express revulsion at what you stand for".

This echoes George Bush's stereotyping of Iran - one of the oldest and most influential civilisations in the world - as a renegade statelet run by a lunatic.

Ahmadinejad's request to visit Ground Zero was also refused, which will further confuse the millions of Americans who still earnestly believe that Saddam Hussein had something to do with the Twin Towers attack. They will now assume that Iran, by dint of being Muslim, a neighbour of Iraq and not predisposed to bend the knee to US foreign policy, must also be implicated as a 9/11 conspirator.

advertisementIn fact, the Iranian response to this tragedy was characterised only by sympathy. Nevertheless, the New York Post said Ahmadinejad should "go to hell" if he went anywhere near Ground Zero.

Ahmadinejad is a smooth operator. He was in New York to show that if there is warmongering going on, it is not on his side. Bush is warming up the bath water for a military strike on Iran, by alleging that Iran is building a nuclear weapon. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency can find no evidence to back up this claim. For his part, Ahmadinejad has insisted that Iran's nuclear programme is for peaceful (energy) purposes only, and pointed out that his country has not broken any international agreements by developing this capacity.

---EOE---

http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.1724216.0.time_to_stop_insulting_iran.php

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Well, the Bush Administration had this all planned out before it got into power....

.... and the media is delighted with the Bush Administration. I'm not fond of Iran's president, and I dislike Islam for the monstrous way it treats women and its perverse polygamous beliefs, but I think all people deserve to be treated with a certain degree of diplomacy when they visit another country. Even the murderous Bush Administration should be treated with some diplomacy.

[Karenina]

9. Even though they are RUDE and embarrassing

EVERY TIME THEY REPRESENT YOU!!!

[Robson]

2. Bush & Ahmadinejad - Go get drunk together

Perhaps then they could start dealing with each other as human beings instead of insulting each other with names like 6 year olds.

Iran has problems, but we've created many of them. Some have said that our attack on Iraq only created the recent increase in nationalism in Iran that resulted in the election of the more radical Ahmadinejad. Prior to that the Iranians were becoming very sympathetic to the USA, and had candle services in respect for the victims of 9-11 and were not dancing in the streets as were some others.

There is no question that the false rationale for the Iraq War was fanned by the neocons in DOD and PNAC perhaps to get the outcome in Iran that would push the USA and Iran into an armed conflict.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcaEkGI3L_w&watch_response

[liberalmuse]

3. That was a disgrace.

Bush truly does represent collective America in almost every way. Look at Bush and you have just seen the average American.

[whistle]

4. That was the neocon stage show slave responding to the slavemaster

[RedXIII]

5. ,,

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Homophobe and his country kills my GLBT brothers and sisters.

Because i believe Dr. Martin Luther King said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

[RedXIII]

7. ,,,

How come no one is talking about the homophobic comment by Ahmadinejad???


Is it because our lives are worth less than other people.

[provis99]

8. Haven't read the threads the past couple of weeks have you?

From what I remember, it was nonstop bashing of Iran and Ahmedinejad for his homophobia (as well as Holocaust denial). I took part in the bashing of Ahmedinejad for his right wing idiocy, myself.

[trusty elf]

6. I agree, it's outrageous

and what this idiot said was absolutely inexcusable.

[MasonJar]

10. According to several news articles, Iran is the closest to establishing

a more democratic government. Many youth want the country to change. The more we, the USA, taunts and insults them and most especially if we attack them, the country will unify against us and our unfair dictums. If we, the aggressor, are an alleged democracy, why would they wish to be one?

[Xenotime]

11. Very good point.