Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > September > 24 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThe ‘root causes’ of terrorism
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust and believes Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth. So why should anybody believe his denial Sunday night that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons?
Asked on CBS’s “60 Minutes” whether his country is pursuing a nuclear bomb, Ahmadinejad said no. “Our plan and program is very transparent,” Ahmadinejad said. “You have to appreciate we don’t need a nuclear bomb. We don’t need that. What need do we have for a bomb?” He continued:
“In political relations right now, the nuclear bomb is of no use. If it was useful it would have prevented the downfall of the Soviet Union. If it was useful, it would have resolved the problem the Americans have in Iraq. The time of the bomb is passed.”
The program was recorded Thursday in Tehran in advance of his speech today at Columbia University and an address Tuesday at the United Nations.
He also said that: “It’s wrong to think that Iran and the U.S. are walking toward war. Who says so? Why should we go to war? There is no war in the offing.”
Ahmadinejad asked to visit Ground Zero while in New York. The request was denied, as it should have been. The prospect a Ahmadinejad paying his “respects” to victims of 9/11 while his nation continues to provide the weapons used to kill American soldiers in Iraq pushes tolerance past its limits. He said on CBS that “usually you go to these sites to pay your respects. And also to perhaps air your views about the root causes of such incidents.”
Ahmadinejad’s public-relations aim here appears to be to cut out the middle man and to explain his views directly to Americans. That’ll start today when he speaks at Columbia University. he can use the Columbia speech to air his views about the “root causes” of the attack on America.
The question of the day is whether Ahmadinejad can say anything that will change any minds? If the CBS interview is a taste of what’s to come, the answer’s no.
Comments
By TW
September 24, 2007 12:34 PM | Link to this
No brainer, Jim. The word you are looking for is ‘poverty’. That solved – still looking for the number of Iraqi civilians killed during the initial US invasion? Not the total up until now, but the number killed between the time we dropped the first bomb and when the statue of Saddam fell. Also, does anybody know if these killed civilians are classified as collateral damage even though there turned out to be no link to 9/11 and there were no WMD?
By Anonymous
September 24, 2007 12:36 PM | Link to this
American “president” George W. Bush denies all scientific evidence that differs from his preset beliefs, and believes that God personally ordered him to launch an illegal invasion of another country. So why should anybody believe him on… well, anything?
By Aquagirl
September 24, 2007 12:45 PM | Link to this
Now if Ahmadinejad said, “I’m a uniter, not a divider”, he’d look like a real wacko denalist/liar. But that would be plagiarizing, yes?
By Redneck Convert
September 24, 2007 12:51 PM | Link to this
Well, this Iran guy with the funny name needs to be throwed in the clink the minute he gets to the U. S. of A. He might as well stand on his head and wiggle his ears, the way he makes fun of all of us. The Death Penalty would be too good for him. I read where he’s been sending missiles and bombs into Iraq to kill our troops. Well, long as he’s here why don’t the police slap some cuffs on him and put him on trial. Or maybe bury him in that hole in the ground he made of the World Trade Center. It would be good payback for what Iran done to our people back in the 70s.
And the people that run that Yankee colledge that let him speak need to be arrested as terrists too. It’s OK for them to let Rush or Sean or Neal talk to the students, but they shouldn’t let a guy that’s our enema poison students mind with librul junk. You can take this freedom of speech stuff too far. Like this General Betrayus ad from the MoveOn people. I’m all for freedom of speech, long as the speech goes along with what I beleive.
One thing for sure, the students of @@ are getting a decent education and being taught to Think Right. I bet those little kids already sneer the minute the word librul comes up. We need more god fearing conservatives teaching in the schools.
And while we’re at it let’s put the AJC web people on trial. They couldn’t even provide a link to today’s Wooten column till noon or so. I reckon its a bunch of Those People so the AJC don’t expect much of them but we do. Maybe they don’t get to work till noon. Way to go, Wooten. You will be in that warehouse job before you even know it.
By jbmlaw
September 24, 2007 1:09 PM | Link to this
Good afternoon all. Hail Columbia, bastion of American free speech, so long as you do not advocate an ROTC program or control of the borders or anything else that may be construed as pro-American. I hope to hear Ahmadinejad mention Israel’s air strike on Iran’s client-state, Syria, earlier this month, now that North Korea has protested. If Ahmadinejad discloses the reasons Israel attacked, and what North Korea’s interest was in what was destroyed, and why Syria has not raised a stink, I think it may well change a lot of minds about a lot of things.
By jm
September 24, 2007 1:12 PM | Link to this
say you follow the rules of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Agreement (Flawed Document that it is) to develop Nuclear Power Generation (light water reactor, good for power not so good for bomb grade material).
say you are a regime, while legitimate, are not particularly well liked in the world.
say one of your neighbors does not want you having nuclear power and decides to destroy your reactor.
say that neighbor has nuclear power and (if press reports are to be believed) has nuclear weapons but did not sign the nuclear non-proliferation agreement.
say that as a result of that action, even if a country had a legitimate desire to start a nuclear energy program, the only way they could do it would be by hiding it, even if they were following the guidelines of the non proliferation agreement.
By Van
September 24, 2007 1:48 PM | Link to this
Hmm, this is the Iranian leader that during the Carter administration, seized the US Embassy in Tehran, invaded US territory under international law, and we allow him into this country?
This is the pipsqueak that says a fellow UN member should be erased from the face of the earth, and the UN does nothing?
This (insert favorite orifice) head of state should be arrested as soon as he leaves the UN building area and tries to go to Columbia.
BTW, what is the statute of limitations for invading the US and kidnapping embassy employees, military personnel and others?
But then again, his cheerleader Carter would protest such actions.
I wonder if Roosevelt would have arrested Hitler in ‘39 or ‘40 if he came to New York to speak before a large crowd of the German American Bund?
By Right to know
September 24, 2007 1:52 PM | Link to this
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
By jm
September 24, 2007 2:00 PM | Link to this
van@1;48 - what is the statute of limitations for overthrowing a democratically elected government.
By Father Confessor
September 24, 2007 2:03 PM | Link to this
Ehud Olmert told me in confession last week (I didn’t say I was a good priest) that they were going after nuclear weapons components at a research facility. Also the little Iranian dictator has condemned the attack.
By Van
September 24, 2007 2:13 PM | Link to this
jm,
France? Austria? Poland? Which ones? Iraq was not a democracy, nor Afghanistan.
How about Lebanon’s overthrow by Syria?
Now, invading an Embassy, is a grave violation of International law.
By Needles
September 24, 2007 2:21 PM | Link to this
If the terrorists suspect that Israel hit a pro-jihad nuclear facility, then they will want to hit a pro-israel nuclear facility in response. I’m declaring a red alert for all known nuclear facilities in the free world where a sleeper cell might be. When you take out a nuclear facility, you are declaring that this is a defacto nuclear war. As ye reap, so shall ye sow.
Now we almost HAVE to nuke Iran B4 they nuke us. Ditto Korea. We simply cant possibly intercept everyone of their nuke sales. And by trying to save ourselves, well, that’s how we’ll destroy ourselves. No question about it. Be afwaid. Be berry afwaid.
McCarthur wanted to nuke China in the 1950’s for this very same reason. Imagine if we had? Think that one out and see our destiny if we keep escalating the Iraq War.
If the Jihad is suicidal jihad, then when they get nukes, they’ll simply set them off in the midst of themselves and us wherever we be. If al queda had a nuke in baghdad, does anyone doubt they would simply set it off to get our army, no matter how many al queda operatives were sacrificed to do it???
That’s why we cant win the Iraq War either conventionally or with nukes. That’s what I’manutjob meant on sixty minutes when he said that nukes were useless. They are only useful for terrorists. We almost cant win this because of that fact.
Every member of congress admits that the terrorists will sooner or later get a nuke. So what do we do? It’s the old philosophical question: If you could travel back in time to assassinate hitler as a child, would you?
By jm
September 24, 2007 2:27 PM | Link to this
Van@2;13 - a little history for you. In 1953, the US along with Britain, overthrew the Prime Minister (democratically elected) of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddeq.
It is one thing to point out the sins of others when your hands are clean but it is something else when your hands are not.
By Needles
September 24, 2007 2:36 PM | Link to this
If Moveon was writing for Iran’s dissidents:
Emir beschmear us.
Mullah maul us.
Caliph, clobber us.
Shiek short-sheet us.
By getalife
September 24, 2007 2:58 PM | Link to this
He does not deny the Holocaust but does deny there are homosexuals in Iran.
He is a wingnut preacher professor preaching peace.
“Ahmadinejad responds by asking what do Americans like about Bush. Pelley’s answer? Bush is a religious man.
“As an American citizen tell me what trait do you admire?” the president asked Pelley.
“Well Mr. Bush is without question a very religious man for example, as you are,” Pelley replied.
“What religion, please tell me, tells you as a follower of that religion to occupy another country and kill its people, please tell me, does Christianity tell its followers to do that?” Ahmadinejad asked.”
Those are wingnut anti- Christian who worship evil and the devil.
They chose the wrong path and took our country with them.
Repent.
By Needles
September 24, 2007 3:25 PM | Link to this
If moveon wrote for Iranian dissidents:
Shiek short-sheet us.
Caliph clobber us.
Mullah maul us.
Emir smear us.
By getalife
September 24, 2007 3:38 PM | Link to this
Who knew there are Jews in Iran but no homosexuals (got booed for that).
Learn something weird everyday.
He does not deny the Holocaust but wants to know why the Palestinian people are punished for it. He wants more research to answer that question.
Great to hear his propaganda but I do not trust him or our government.
By Needles
September 24, 2007 3:39 PM | Link to this
If getawipe wrote 4 moveon:
Shave us balls us.
By Needles
September 24, 2007 3:45 PM | Link to this
If moveon wrote for Lincoln:
General Grant depants us.
By Needles
September 24, 2007 4:03 PM | Link to this
bwa
By No Laughing Matter
September 24, 2007 4:05 PM | Link to this
Van, i don’t disagree with you. But to blame it on Carter is a little sillly. The Bush administration is the one that chooses not to arrest the man, not Carter. Might have something to do with the UN charter, also.
By deegee
September 24, 2007 4:07 PM | Link to this
The Islamic reader’s digest version of why we have islamic terrorism - the jews are in Palestine and the Americans are in Saudi Arabia. Israel became a state in the same year that Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon) and Socony-Vacuum Oil (now Mobil) joined Socal and Texaco as owners of Aramco, formerly the Arabian oil company. It was the perfect storm.
By Needles
September 24, 2007 4:15 PM | Link to this
Scenes we’d like to see:
One day at the airport outhouse in Tehran…..camera to a towelhead sitting on the crapper in a stall next to another towelhead in an adjacent stall. Aminejihad’s speech is playing over the loud speakers. When he comes to the part about no homosexual in Iran, the one towel head lights his shoe and starts tapping his lit shoe. The other towelhead removes his shirt and starts circling the grenade pins pierced to his nipples, (grenades attached), with his fingers, you know, like they do…..
By @@
September 24, 2007 4:30 PM | Link to this
What’s at the root of terrorism Jim?
Iran, propoganda, and weak minds.
Iran’s plan for Iraq
During the decade following the first Gulf War, the Pasdaran were training and arming Iraqi militias for future mission in Iraq. The Khomeinists and Hafez Assad had an Iraq plan years before the U.S. invaded in 2003: overrun the Shia areas in the center and the south and open a land bridge between Iran and Syria.[1] But 9/11 shook off the foundations of the Iranian plan. By December of that year, U.S. and Coalition forces removed the Taliban and opened the path for a democratic government in Afghanistan.
The regime change in Kabul was a first problem for the Mullahs in Tehran: democracy defeating a Jihadi regime wasn’t a good example to watch. By April 2003, a second catastrophe hit the Islamic Republic: Saddam was removed, but worse, democratic elections were succeeding each other in Iraq. But more dramatic was the fact that U.S and NATO forces were deployed to the East and to the West of Iran.
In strategic reading, the Khomeinist project was geographically contained: no more bridge to Syria and a greater menace was hovering over the nuclear program. Even more catastrophic was the proximity of two democratic experiments to the Iranian society. Students, women and workers have been challenging the theocratic regime since the late 1990s.
This little excerpt from your column…
If it was useful, it would have resolved the problem the Americans have in Iraq. The time of the bomb is passed.
Was that an invitation? or was it his feeble attempt to convince feeble minded individuals that he’s the good guy?
Would you like it to be a surprise delivery Mahmoud?
By jm
September 24, 2007 5:10 PM | Link to this
@@ - you seem to gloss over a key detail. The US encouraged the shia in the south of Iraq to rebel against Saddam after the first Gulf War, then abandoned them when the Republican Guard mowed them down. For better or worse, it was the Iranians that provided aid and support (what the US now calls arming the militias). Iran and Syria might have had grand designs on Iraq (just like the US) but without the consent of the locals, those plans are pretty worthless. Study your history, you will find that the arabs (Iraq) and the Persians (Iran) get along about as well as the shia and the sunni.
By jihad watch
September 24, 2007 5:23 PM | Link to this
Amazing, the amount of all the brain dead liberal apologists for Iran’s president. The cheering and applause at the wingnut Columbia U is alarming for this nation as a whole. That school disses the ROTC and the border patrol posse Minutemen and licks the feet of a radical psychopath hell bent on starting a war in the ME with Israel [you’ll lose, pal].
This is truly disturbing. The problem with liberals and liberalism is that they don’t know what side they are on and what they stand for. These un-evolved youths and their lobotomized elders admire Ahmadenejad or however you spell Satan’s name solely because he slams Bush. You know the old saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Nostradamus predicted that the anti-Christ would rise out of the Middle East and appear as a man for world peace. Naturally, lobotomized peace-at-all-cost libs eat right out of his hand.
“Out of the country of Greater Arabia shall be born a strong master of Mohammed who will first appear to come in peace. He will be the terror of mankind. Never more horror.”
By Brian
September 24, 2007 5:36 PM | Link to this
“What religion, please tell me, tells you as a follower of that religion to occupy another country and kill its people, please tell me, does Christianity tell its followers to do that?” Ahmadinejad asked.”
‘Getalife’ - Those are wingnut anti- Christian who worship evil and the devil.
HAHAHAHA!!! That hairy ape j******* has the gall to reference ACCIDENTAL civilian deaths in war (and yes, a tiny minority of the hundreds of thousands of coalition people over there have committed murder) while his Islamic “brothers” have killed tens of MILLIONS around the globe, ALL in the name of ALLAH??? The HEIGHT of hypocrisy!!!
More people have died at the hands of radical Islam on this ENTIRE PLANET than Christians in the name of Christianity since the Crusades. We are not at war in the ME because of Christian beliefs or to spread Chrstianity, unlike, say, Iran’s radical ilk who believe in specifically targeting innocent women and children for their so-called Muslim cause. ‘Getalife’ is another apologist lib with no sense of purpose, no sense of direction, and certainly no sense.
By Needles
September 24, 2007 5:38 PM | Link to this
Scene’s we’d all wish we could write:
One day at the Tehran Airport Outhouse: Two towelheads are sitting in adjacent stalls, when Aminejihad’s speech about no homosexuals in Iran plays over the loudspeakers. One towelhead lights his shoe and starts tapping his lit shoe. The other towelhead takes off his shirt, and starts circling his grenade-pin pierced nipples (grenades attached) with his fingers…….
By Libotomy
September 24, 2007 5:42 PM | Link to this
Ahmadinejad today: “Our women are the most free on earth.”
Keep sucking it up, you pathetic and stupid libs.
By Libotomy
September 24, 2007 5:55 PM | Link to this
Here’s something you can suck on, libotomy: <=3
bwa
By AmVet
September 24, 2007 5:58 PM | Link to this
How funny.
Trump says Bush is a disaster and advises him to go sit in the corner rather than try to “help” any GOP candidates.
Condi? Useless. He said, “Name one thing she has ever done. Even one.”
Thompson? Another Reagan. Looks good, but the last thing the country needs is another lazy actor.
It’s obvious. The country is being “run” by a bunch of incompetent, OJT, neo-con amateurs.
Too bad they can’t all be fired.
By Explaining Wooten
September 24, 2007 5:59 PM | Link to this
Wooten writes today like a man who really wants war with Iran.
By Explaining Wooten
September 24, 2007 6:25 PM | Link to this
Bill Mahr did some general betray us variations during his show friday night, but I swear I didn’t see them till after I posted mine this afternoon. I wouldn’t have posted them if I knew Mahr had done them first.
I think he had the funniest one, but mine were almost as funny and I didn’t hack.
I hate hacks worse than I hate mimes (or hitler).
By Dusty
September 24, 2007 6:35 PM | Link to this
How in the world did Ahmadinejad get here in the first place? Did he come under some kind of diplomatic pass where you don’t have a passport or any credentials?
The State Department should have blocked this man from getting anywhere near America. Are we going to invite Obama to come over here next and speak to Congress or something? This is rediculous.
Jim Wooten says Ahmadinejad wants to talk directly to the American people. What Jim should have said is “He wants to talk to American liberals.” That is Iran’s best bet for upsetting the Iraqi surge and getting the UN to overlook Iranian atomic facilities. Get liberals to continue their litanry of “blame Bush and blame America” which is what Ahmadinejad wants to hear. He sees libs trying to trash General Petraeus so he knew who would work for him. He was right.
Liberal Columbia University stepped right up and took the bait. But we are the suckers for letting him get here in the first place.