The world seems shocked that Iran’s secular (and disarmingly genial) President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is turning out be less of a religious fanatic – like Ayotollah Khomeini, but more of a genocidal fascist – like Adolf Hitler
Anyone (like me) who harboured hopes that Iran’s first non-cleric leader would moderate the jihadist rhetoric of the country’s Islamic fundamentalists must be profoundly dismayed today. Because on the very day (yesterday) that another Muslim suicide bomber tried to take as many Jewish lives along with his own (he took 5), the professorial President Ahmadinejad was reported to have called for the state of Israel to “be wiped off the map.”
And, just to be clear, this was not a private remark like the joke President Reagan made about nuking the Soviet Union (at a recording of a radio address in his office) when he thought his microphone was turned off . Instead, President Ahmadinejad made his declaration at a conference called, ominously enough, “The World without Zionism”, which was attended by some 3,000 conservative students (Ahmadinejad youth?) who chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”.
Nonetheless, I suspect some critics of American foreign policy will blame President Bush for provoking Ahmadinejad’s intemperate words (i.e., by declaring Iran a member of the axis of evil and vowing to prevent it’s leaders from acquiring nuclear weapons). But, like UK officials, I am merely sickened by them; because I fully appreciate the inspiration and state sanction these words provide for every suicide bomber and Islamic terrorist around the world.
It is worth remembering, however, that Bush was not even Governor of Texas yet when Islamic jihadists began their holy war against America and western civilization in the early 1980s. But whatever their grievances against the U.S., does anyone think that Iran deserves to be respected in the community of nations when its leader is emulating Adolf Hitler in his attitude towards the Jews and seeking nuclear weapons to execute his final solution against them?
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Anonymous says
europeans to blame america and israel for everything. plo chairman arafat was saying hate words like this for years and no one said nothing. maybe because he did not have means to wipe us off the map. but this iranian nazi does. i hope people now understand why we take aggressive steps to protect ourselves from those fanatics