Is the Iranian President completely insane?

[Postman]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B882E879-1F7C-4CC0-B94E-2EF6310AAD9A.htm

Does he know what he is courting with such hostile rhetoric?

Maybe their rhetoric is the result of the example set by the Bush Administration? Hey, tough talk worked for Bush, right?

The Bush Administrations careless foreign policy has radicalized the Islamic world.

Maybe that was the goal?

This country is f**cked up. And quite possibly - f**cked.

[tk2kewl]

1. I was shocked

He is clearly taking up the same fascist approach to rallying support that bush did. it will probably play well in iran, but he is courting disaster

[endarkenment]

2. No he is not insane.

This was a deliberate policy shift from the Iranian leaders. The only question is why.

[Postman]

8. Let me posit why....

the US is playing "chicken" along the Iranian border (as per Seymour Hersch) ..taunting the Iranians to do something.

Remember Iranians are NOT Arabs they are Persians but they share the same religion as the Arabs, obviously. US support for Israel in the occupation of Palestine is an issue.

US history with Iran does not begin with the 1979 take over of the US embassy in Tehran and the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The US helped overthrow an elected democracy in Iran in 1953 at the behest of the UK for economic reasons and installed the Shah to power, who ruled Iran with an iron fist.

Radical Islam became a way for Iranians to resist despotism. Now with the US playing "war" on their borders I think they might become a little more radicalized.

If you want to embrace a more moderate, sedate version of Islam, why does US foreign policy push them toward radicalism?

[Clark2008]

19. Good point, with one minor clarification.

Not all Arabs or Persians are Muslim.

There are some Christian Arabs and Persians, too.

[bluedawg12]

24. yup. play into perpetual choas and war

there was a time when we looked towards an internal Iranian social revolution of young people and then we invaded Iraq.

Perhaps that led to the election of this hawk Iranian.

Perhaps that's why we invaded non threatening Iraq before a sensitive election in Iran.

Mutually assured destruction.

We are all being led by crazy men.

Now all we need is nukes all over the region.

This is the fruit of our neoconservative foreign policy.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Good point

Extremism works for the USA, so why not for Iran?

Torture Laws? Geneva Convention? Treaties? PfaH! We spit on them all.

[mr_hat]

4. Chris Hitchens has written that Iranian youth

and even moderate Shiites (one of Khomeini's sons among them?!) are awaiting "liberation" from the mullahs, FWIW.

His dubious judgement notwithstanding, it has seemed conventional wisdom that Iranians are open to inclusion. Wonder how long they can resist facism now that it looms over them in distinctly political as well religious guises?

[endarkenment]

10. That might have been true before we wrecked Iraq.

Any sensible person in Syria or Iran is now not interested at all in the sort of 'liberation' that The Cabal will bring them.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. I haven't read the article that you linked to so I may be

wrong in the assumptions I making, but if the Iranians are talking trash to the US then it is probably because the history of this admin is to start making accusations as a prelude to an attack or invasion.

Maybe the Iranians figure that the * admin will attack them eventually regardless of their posturing rhetoric, so the Iranians have decided to stop being polite to them.

[tx_dem41]

9. You need to read the article.

I don't call saying that "Israel should be wiped off the map", talking trash to the US.

[TheDebbieDee]

11. If that's what was said, then they're talking trash......

to the US, indirectly. Everybody in the world knows that we are Isreal's biggest ally.

By threatening Isreal, they're threatening this country. The Iranians may not be able to get to us but they can get to Isreal!

[geek tragedy]

12. And if Iran tries anything, Tehran and everyone in it gets turned

to radioactive dust.

[endarkenment]

16. Right - so it is not a real threat.

And everybody knows that.

[CatBoreal]

6. Notice anyone missing from this list??

"France, Spain, Britain, Canada and Australia condemned the Iranian leader's remarks."

What has the US, Israel's greatest friend and ally to say about all this?

[Bridget Burke]

7. Defending Iran from US Imperialism....

Might make him a "Popular Wartime President." Instead of a Fundamentalist Fogie that young Iranians would like to replace someday.

[geek tragedy]

13. Threatening to wipe Israel off the earth is not anti-imperialism.

Young Iranians aren't idiots.

[endarkenment]

15. Sort of a non sequitor.

However this was a deliberate re-iteration of the hardline position on Israel indended for both domestic and world consumption. Clearly it was intentional and is part of the game that Iran is playing with respect to its position in the Middle East (on the rise mainly thanks to our Iraqi blunder) its nuclear weapons progam, its relationship with the UN and its relationship with Washington. Not an act of insanity at all.

Young Iranians aren't idiots but that also means that they most certainly do not want a dose of neocon freemon'n'moxy Bushworld style.

[geek tragedy]

17. I imagine they welcome the prospect of an atom bomb

exploding in Tehran even less.

They don't want war. They don't want death and conflict.

The Iranian president is an extremist fundie wingnut--moreso than creeps like Richard Perle and Pat Robertson.

[Bridget Burke]

21. We've already proven we're imperialists.

So, if we invade Iran--for whatever reason--the President will rally his people.

It's not the first time that a lie was used to start a war.

[geek tragedy]

23. Did you miss the fact that he's talking about

wiping Israel off the map, not resisting US imperialism?

Wiping other countries off the map is the very essence of imperialism.

[CJCRANE]

14. Probably not.

Saddam tried to comply with the UN inspectors and be reasonable and look what happened to him.

North Korea and Iran are potential basket-cases but they can get away with it for now because the * administration is a little bit preocuppied with other problems...

[stop the bleeding]

18. He's just staying the course for Iran. No big deal, we do it all of the

time when it comes to killing people. Its nothing:sarcasm:

[hatrack]

20. He's a Fundie, and Fundies do stupid shit like that

Y'know, calling for the extirpation of nations - or the assassination of foreign leaders. :evilgrin:

[European Socialist]

22. Right-two sets of bad guys-our wing nuts and their wing nuts.

[bluedawg12]

25. Perpetual war- sound familiar?

Do you think we invaded Iraq when we did in order to assure a conservative win in Iran and the youth revolution failed under the weight of Iranian nationalism and hate for our occupation?

Sometimes I feel that we the general population are being played like pawns in the mid-20th century world of totalitarianism.

[jmowreader]

26. No, he's just an Iranian fundamentalist

Y'know, just about every Muslim country in the Middle East has "destruction of Israel" in its constitution.

No nation over there is crazy enough to actually try it--not with Bush in office. That fucker's just itching to be the second president to nuke someone--and everyone in the Middle East knows it.

I don't see this as THAT big a deal--not so long as Israel is both armed to the teeth and backed up by the United States.