Annan ignores US objections with visit to Iran next week

[sabra]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2326110,00.html

Annan ignores US objections with visit to Iran next week

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, is to make his first trip to Iran since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” UN sources told The Times today.

The UN chief is planning the controversial stop in Teheran next week over strenuous American objections, even though the Iranian leader has urged the destruction of another UN member state.

...

Mr Annan was forced to cancel a scheduled trip to Iran last November after the newly elected Iranian President first called for the elimination of Israel.

His decision was heavily influenced by a personal appeal from US Congressman Tom Lantos, a personal friend who was saved from the Nazi Holocaust by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, the uncle of Mr Annan’s wife.

[rodeodance]

1. even after the Hez/Israel war, the WH has does not realize that bombs

are NOT the answer!

[PointAndLaugh]

2. Hezbollah winning the war in Lebanon has had quite an effect

on world politics.

[bowens43]

3. Good for him!

[plasticsundance]

4. Why do they keep misquoting Ahmadinejad?

He spoke at the World Without Zionism conference and was quoting Khomeini:

"Imam said: 'This regime that is occupying Qods must be eliminated from the pages of history.' This sentence is very wise. The issue of Palestine is not an issue on which we can compromise."

You can read it in context to the rest of the speech at the following:

http://www.govinfo.bnet-newmedia.co.uk/facts_Articles.php?IDVal=24

[Kagemusha]

5. Because they have a vested interest in misquoting him.

That's all it is.

[Igel]

8. Fine.

"Israel must be utterly wiped out as a nation" is too idiomatic for you. "Eliminated from the pages of history" has just the right foreign, non-idiomatic flair. Nida would be aghast (he was a translation theorist, strongly for 'nativizing' a text in order to help understanding).

The objection is a trivial: it's a clash of civilizations in which the Jewish state must be destroyed and Muslim sovereignty re-asserted. One can call that 'wiped off the map', 'utterly wiped out', 'utterly destroyed', or 'eliminated from the pages of history'.

Rather like arguing that the Don didn't "order a hit on the snitch", instead he "put out a contract on the informer". Clearly, they're completely different. "Put out" sounds nothing like "order": "I ordered curry" versus "I put out curry", for instance.

Just one problem: The result is the same. Ahmedinejad wants the clash of civilizations to conclude favorably for Islam, and Israel to be a thing of the past--preferably so destroyed that it need never be remembered, and probably unable to be remembered. Like most of the other histories where Islam has tread. They, like all non-Muslims, are arrogant in non-submitting, and especially in challenging the righteous.

Fundamentalist preachers and their acolytes. Blech.

[plasticsundance]

12. Just discuss what is in the text I provided

All you did in your response was to further characterize the statement without details. You only prove my point with your posting.

[mom cat]

9. Thanks for the actual text.

[Vidar]

6. Uppity UN chief behaving like a real dilomat--of course the US is angry.

[wellst0nev0ter]

10. Eh, He's A Lame Duck Anyways

What's Bush gonna do, veto his re-appointment? Bwahahahahahaaa!

[mom cat]

7. The "wiped off the map" comment was a very bad translation of what

was actually said.

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. "ignores US objections" - get used to it USA - more & more will ignore you

.
.
.

people don't like bullies

even the poor and the weak will only put up with so much

And the USA has gone past the tolerance level of the world

The Iraq war will be known in History as the one war that halted the advance of the USA's empirical dream

It will probably take decades and millions of lives lost,

But the USA is "done" as a "superpower"

Sure, they will kill a lot of people and destroy many countries before they fade away like the Vikings, Romans, and so on

But they will fade away

Sorry I probly won't live long enough to see it

(sigh)