Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at it again. Just hours ago, diplomats from more than thirty countries walked out of the UN General Assembly chamber as Ahmadinejad was delivering a speech, deriding the United States and other western countries for what he referred to as perpetuating wars, causing the current global economic crisis and infringing on “the rights and sovereignty of nations.” The walk-out was led (of course!) by the two U.S. diplomats in attendance, and was joined by the 27 members from the EU, along with other nations.
It seems as though every time the president of Iran steps behind the podium at the UN, everything that issues from this man’s mouth is composed of equal parts venom, revisionist history and willful ignorance. In today’s speech, he combined his slanted, vitriolic view of history with questions of global cooperation: (The following is an excerpt from an Associated Press article on this story.)
“It is as lucid as daylight that the same slave masters and colonial powers that once instigated the two world wars have caused widespread misery and disorder with far-reaching effects across the globe since then,” Ahmadinejad said. “Do these arrogant powers really have the competence and ability to run or govern the world?”
Ahmadinejad also singled out the U.S. during the speech for its use of atomic weapons against Japan at the end of World War II. As most people who lived through that time would inform, it was the decision of the Truman administration to use these weapons to bring about a decisive and rapid end to the war with Japan, instead of engaging in a costly ground invasion of the mainland.
The Bradley Bunch?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad forgets that it was Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Japanese emperor Hirohito that instigated WWII. It was Adolf Hitler that oversaw the extermination of over six-million in his concentration camps as part of what Nazi Germany referred to as the “Final Solution”. Ahmadinejad has completely discounted the fact that it was imperial Japan that attacked US without warning on December 7th, 1941. Of course, this is the same Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that has repeatedly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”
As a kind-of-related closing thought, I’ve often heard it said that “Islam is a religion of hate.” I honestly don’t think that this generalization is true. I rather think that it comes down to the group or individual. I would assert that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s flavor of Islam is hateful, in much the same way as Pat Robertson’s or Fred Phelps’ version of Christianity is hateful. As for the Iranian president’s comments earlier today, res ipsa loquitur.
The Cybersattva 