Ahmadinejad's Message to the American People

[MrCoffee]

A reporter at the UN asked him what he'd like to tell the American people, and this is my rough transcript of his statement. All errors are mine.

"We believe that all nations have the right to live in a dignified manner, and that America is a great nation. We don’t have any problems with the American people, but with the American government’s approach to us.

We stand up when there is tyranny and oppression, when other people try to force their will on us. We stand up to tyranny and violence, and we want the American people to know that."

[dionysus]

1. put on your flame suit dude!

[MrCoffee]

4. I report. You decide.

Seriously, not trying to get flamed, just transcribing what the man said.

I'll look for the official transcript and update when/if i find it.

[Subdivisions]

2. He is almost...likeable. I say this because every answer he

gives is rational. I don't necessarily consider him as radical, only that he is simply seeing things from his point of view and his culture.

People are simply sick and tired of hegemonic US policy.

[shadowknows69]

3. At least if he's lying

he lies more articulately and "honestly" than our guy. You have to have some twisted respect for that. Their dictator is smarter than our dictator. I need a drink.

[malaise]

7. Was he lying about Zionism? n/t

[shadowknows69]

10. Personally no.

I agree that US/Israel policy over many decades has helped bring us the enemmies we have today.

[rhiannon55]

15. When it comes to Israel and Palestine

even many progressives have been fooled by the pro-Israel propaganda. Yes, the holocaust happened, but no, people should not have been given the "right of return" if what they were "returning" to was land that had been in other people's families for generations.

[lonestarnot]

6. Soooooooooooo true!

"People are simply sick and tired of hegemonic US policy."

[HannibalBarca]

5. Well thats fantastic only....

...does he apply that same ideology to his own people. Does he secretly fund and train a proxy army that has taken up residence in southern lebanon and that has initiated a disastrous conflict. Does he funnel armaments and cash to shia militia and death squads in Iraq. Does he really only want to develop nuclear technology for exclusively peaceful means and as a colloraly does he intend any hostile actions towards Israel.
Bush says he's a compassionate conservative, I'll think most would agree he's neither. He also says the US doesnt torture but then that is also debatable.

[shadowknows69]

9. I don't think the fact the US tortures is debatable at all at this point

only your definition of torture. Everything I saw in the Abu Ghraib pics fit my definition of it. Is the Pres of Iran as much of a lunatic as ours? Probably. Does he tell them the whole or is he telling us the whole truth. Probably not. So what we have is two lunatics with the potential to turn this world into one giant fucking mess. I have to defer to the lunatic from Iran at this point who is at least trying to talk. Our lunatic has already left the sandbox and won't play and looks like he wants to bomb the shit out of the sandbox. I've seen even less proof and more rhetoric about Iran's dealings with the world than there was about Iraq. Personally I think they're all moot points because I think the big game is definitely going to take place and the fallout land where it may.

[Armstead]

11. And are our criticisms of Iran a double standard?

I hesitate to defend Iran, because I disagree and disapprove of much that they do.

But I also think it's important to look at them, and their president, without the blinders of our own Nationalism and Cultural Imperialism.

I am against Iran arming and supporting Hezbollah. However, it is also quite possible that Iran sees that as a defensive move. You can't blame them for wanting to protect their butts, considering the history of exploitation of them by the West -- and the more recent history of invasion of their neighbors.

Likewise the regime of the Mullahs is repressive. I am against that. However, Iran is a big diverse country and there is division of opinion about that in the same way the our own country has deep divisions. Some Iranians support him -- Others feel about him and the Mullahs the same way many Americans disapprove of our own current leaders.

And who set up the US and Western Powers as the only peopel with the right to use nuclear energy -- or even the right to have nuclear weapons?

Of course, the woirld would be much better off if all things nuclear were put back in the bottle. BUT if the US is intent on maintaining -- and expanding -- our own nuclear capacity, who the hell are we to say that Iran has no "right" to do the same?

If we really wasnted to reduce the threat of nuclear power, we ought to walk our own talk.

[shadowknows69]

14. I would never defend an oppressive regime either

What is being lost on people I think is that if a country is going to move to a western style democracy it has to do it at its own pace. Iran is an islamic regine but it has a progressive movement that will eventually retire the theocracy one way or another. Bombing them into "democracy" is going to strengthen the relgious zealotry tenfold as it has in Iraq.

[bigtree]

8. sounds just like Bush's 'freedom agenda'

meglomaniacs


As If Bush Owned The World

[Coexist]

12. Why that quote, when earlier you said he sounded like a lunatic?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2186849&mesg_id=2186992

[MrCoffee]

13. Because it's what he said.

I didn't editorialize this one.

Edited to add that the rant about the Zionist protesters on identical buses was, in fact, paranoid and he did sound like a lunatic.