Thoughts on Ahmadinejad???

[RichF]

What are your thoughts on Ahmadinejad's statements? I can see this going south so let's try to keep personal views of the current US administration outside of the discussion. Personally, I don't trust the guy and he scares the crap out of me!

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14911603/

 

“The U.S. government thinks that it’s still the period after World War II,” Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” a mindset that led Bush to believe that he “can rule, therefore, over the rest of the world.”

 

But “the world has changed,” he said. “Nations are awakened now. They want their rights — equal rights, and fair ones. The time for world empires has ended.”

 

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“Why is the U.S. government so against our people?” Ahmadinejad, speaking through a translator, asked in the interview with NBC News. “They speak of war so easily, as if it’s on their daily agenda. We never speak of war.”

 

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“We are against the atomic bomb,” he said. “We believe bombs are used only to kill people. And we are against killing people.”

 

And he accused Bush of hiding behind the nuclear issue to mask the U.S. government’s grudge for the overthrow of the shah in 1979.

 

“We all know that Iran’s nuclear issue is an excuse,” he said. “It’s been 27 years now that we've faced the hostility of the U.S. administration in various forms.”

 

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“Just look at the 20th century, for example, and the wars waged in that century,” he said. “Over 100 million people were killed. Hundreds of millions more were displaced. Who created those wars?

 

“Those who were killed exceed the number [of] the individuals who were killed in previous centuries combined. Where do the first and second world wars occur? Who started it?” he asked.

 

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At the same time, Ahmadinejad accepted a statement of regret from Pope Benedict XVI, whom many Islamic leaders accused of fomenting religious hatred when he quoted a medieval text that characterized Islam as a religion “spread by the sword.”

 

“I think that the people who give political advice to the pope were not well informed,” Ahmadinejad said. “... I think that he actually takes back his statement, and there is no problem. He should be careful that those who want war do not take advantage of his statements and use it for their own causes.”

 

[ecoli]

I don't trust him because of his doublespeak. He'll say perfectly innocent things like he wants peace for everyone and freedom for all, etc. But he also says things that are completely hypocritical of that, like that he would be willing to sacrifice half the population of Iran to kill every Israeli.

 

This doesn't sound like a man interested in peace for all.

[Sisyphus]

Sure, he wants peace among all humanity. Probably true, except that he doesn't consider Jews human.

[john5746]

I think we need to play good cop bad cop with this guy. In 2012, we tell him that if they don't stop their nuclear program, Bush will be elected again and he will wipe them off the map if he thinks they have WMD - and we know what that means!

[ecoli]

Sure, he wants peace among all humanity. Probably true, except that he doesn't consider Jews human.

 

I try, but I simply cannot wrap my head around this philosophy. I can even imagine what insane thoughts run through this man's head.

 

It's so unbelievable I almost hope he's saying controversal things just to attract media attention to himself. Why did we let such a person speak at the UN?

[Pangloss]

Because he promised to say really bad things about George Bush, of course.

[RichF]

What scares me is that he may really believe what he says. Personally I don't have a problem with him speaking at the UN; maybe it'll help to open peoples' eyes as to how radical he appears to be.

[ecoli]

What scares me is that he may really believe what he says. Personally I don't have a problem with him speaking at the UN; maybe it'll help to open peoples' eyes as to how radical he appears to be.

 

People won't see that based on his UN speech. In fact, this particular speech was somewhat milder then some liberal's I've heard speak.

[ParanoiA]

Yeah he scares the crap out of me too. Because he's just smooth enough to fool idiots and naive peace lovers. I just see death and hatred in his eyes.

[Sisyphus]

It's true, I have no idea what he's actually thinking, either. I suspect that might be part of the strategy. Taken individually, most of the things he says are perfectly reasonable. The problems are a) the things that aren't reasonable, are really unreasonable, and b) he's so unpredictable, and so full of weird contradictions, that we have no idea how much of what he says is what he thinks, or what he's doing.

 

For example, we (the U.S. and Europe) demand Iran stops its nuclear weapons program, but we say it's fine if they have a peaceful nuclear program. Ahmadinejad says they don't have a nuclear weapons program and don't want a nuclear weapons program. That "nuclear weapons are only for killing people, and we don't want to kill people." If they then develop nuclear weapons, wouldn't he be condemning himself? Is that enough? He says it would be good if Israel was destroyed, but never explicitly says that he wants to do it himself. There's never anything concrete that you can point to and say "he is a danger to the world," yet we're all afraid, and probably (but not definitely!) with good reason. Clearly a much subtler and more formidable character than the likes of Saddam Hussein could ever be.

[ecoli]

Is that enough? He says it would be good if Israel was destroyed, but never explicitly says that he wants to do it himself.

 

This isn't strictly true according to his own speech,

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if he ever became the supreme decision maker in his country, would "sacrifice half of Iran for the sake of eliminating Israel,"

 

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525940677&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

[Pangloss]

The most important thing to remember when listening to any national leader speak is that they are speaking first and foremost to their own constituency. It doesn't matter what the venue is, or the subject, or even the audience (because if it's a problem for his constituency then it will get back to them). You do hear differences depending on the venue, but for the most part if you keep this simple rule of thumb in mind then it can greatly improve your understanding of what it is that they're saying. In some cases this can be so extreme that you just have no idea what they're talking about.

 

In the case of Ahmadinejad I'm not sure if it makes all that much difference, but I've been assuming for a while now that at least one of the reasons for his strange behavior involves the internal politics of Iran, and aspects of that which I'm just not adequately familiar with.

[ecoli]

The most important thing to remember when listening to any national leader speak is that they are speaking first and foremost to their own constituency.

 

It seems to me, that telling you own constituency that you'd be willing to sacrifice their lives isn't the way to win their hearts and minds.

[RichF]

Iran is a theocratic republic, as such he's either trying to appease the Mullahs, fool them or both.

 

1)He's using double talk to fool the Mullahs so that he can peruse his own agenda without them interfering.

2)He's using double talk to fool the rest of the world so that he can persue his agenda without the UN interfering.

3)He's a delusional, schizophrenic, crazy son of a female dog.

4)1,2 and 3.

 

I have no idea which is correct and I find it a little unsettling. Maybe that's his plan? He wants to confuse me and make me eat an entire bag of Doritos under stress and die from heart desies! EVIL BASTID!

[Pangloss]

It seems to me, that telling you own constituency that you'd be willing to sacrifice their lives isn't the way to win their hearts and minds.

 

Yeah you would think that, right? Instead it produces legions of people ready to sign up for death squads. Go figure.

[padren]

Any high level politician in a nation that is "up against the wall" is primarily going to be concerned with the self preservation of that nation.

 

Saying they don't want to make nuclear weapons and professing peace is geared towards that concern.

 

I wouldn't doubt for a second that if they got nuclear weapons, that he'd personally turn around and say the evolving political theatre and foreign hostilities left them with no choice - they didn't want them but had to make them and that they'd only use them defensively.

 

If they did use them, they'd end up saying they had no choice or that more lives would be lost if they hadn't - not very different than our sentiments at the end of WWII.

 

 

On the topic of the Israel comment, I do think it is possible (though not likely to be true in this case) to be very peace minded and still make such horrible comments.

 

When we were facing total nuclear war with the Soviet Union, if at a given moment our leaders thought The End was immenent, they would have happily traded 1/2 of US citizens for the total elimation of the Soviet threat - from that perspective it would be a great bargain and the only reprieve from total destruction.

 

I suspect they do not seperate their view of contemporary Israeli politics (I don't even have to mention it is skewed) and the existence of Israel itself, and believe that Israel is a direct and immenent threat to their very existence.

 

In that context it is not a horrific statement, but instead reflects a horrific distortion of reality that leads to a horrific and dangerous mentality.

[Sisyphus]

"I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed..."

[abskebabs]

As much as I do not like Ahmadinejad, suspect him and perceive him as a potential danger to long term stabillity in the region and the world; this is equally tempered by the fact I do ponder about how much power he really yields. I think with a country like Iran attention has to be payed to the higher level religious leaders, especially Ayatollah Khamenei. We should really try to diagnose the intentions and directions that are being taken by these ppl, as they have ultimate authority over what is done by the country.