So there is finally a cessation of fire in Southern Lebanon, though Israel and the Hezbollah militia were anxious to use up as many of their expensive missiles and bombs as possible before the final whistle. I'm sure the international arms dealers are giggling with glee. They know all it takes is for one young Lebanese, angry at having lost his whole family or village, to join the Hezbollah ranks and do something to provoke the Israelis into starting it all again, and then the invoices will start rolling in again. War is a profitable business; those bombs probably cost more than it takes to rebuild. In the meantime, because some bloody stupid nutters know how to make bombs far more cheaply out of unnamed liquids, the flying habits of the Western World have been changed yet again. Airports are packed, flights are cancelled, and people have to fly thousands of miles with not so much as a book to read, let alone a bottle of water or can of Pepsi Max. Passengers crossing the Pond have to sit through hours of mindless entertainment and crap wallywood movies, or simply looking at the Map; still, at least we foiled the terrorists, eh. Now the levels have been downgraded, and I'm sure that the carry-on baggage thing will not last very long, as governments are put under pressure from the millions of dollars and pounds and euros lost in sales of duty-free and possibly airline tickets. And then last night, the Iranian President Ahmadinejad was on American TV, being interviewed on CBS' flagship 60 Minutes. The interviewer, who looked a lot like Jacques Chirac, held nothing back, demanding why he has called for Israel to be wiped off the map (no reply, he just grinned), why his army has a unit that has been trained to serve as suicide bombers in the case of an American/British attack (roundabout reply, grin, retorts that he should be allowed to fight back), and so on. In fact, it is a surprise he answered at all, given the interviewer's attitude toward him. "Don't you have the courage to answer? Why don't you answer!" Now I know that we Brits are used to Mr Paxman treating everybody like that, but over here they are not, and I am absolutely certain that he would not have been allowed to talk to King George like that. In fact I'm sure King George would not have sat down for an interview like Ahmadinejad. Now while I definitely agree that these questions need to be answered if anybody is to take Ahmadinejad seriously, it did seem as though the interviewer wanted only to make a fool of him, to belittle him before the American public. Yet despite the undoubtedly scarier side of his rhetoric - and I do not for a moment trust the guy - I have to say that Ahmadinejad was fairly spot on on one point: that the current US government wants the world to do things their way, or else. The interviewer aggressively demanded why his country does not pursue relations with the US (moments after talking about the 18 page letter he sent King George back in the Spring, for which he hasn't received a reply; he probably still hasn't finished reading it), to which he replied that it was the US who cut off ties, and that this current government does not want dialogue. That before the Revolution the US was happy to assist Iran in obtaining nuclear power. Interesting point, though unlikely to convince the UN. And now President Scruffy (who also claimed that being well dressed was important, even though he looked as though he shopped in Mr Byrite) has joined the blogosphere (that's a link to the BBC report; I'm guessing that the FBI are probably keeping a close eye on who reads the actual blog). And so to a new week. This world is never boring, I'll give it that. But isn't there an old Chinese curse, "May you live in Interesting Times"? Give me boring times any day: peace, boring old peace, boring old love.
thus spake ahmedinejad, the blogger
14.8.06 21:16
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amillionpieces / Website (15.8.06 00:05) Yes, three cheers for boring old peace! Seriously tho, isn't it so awful when our rational minds have to admit that such crazy folks make decent points sometimes. Why must the whole world answer to King George! And the letter was a masterstroke as it gave them grounds to say they tried. That said, he still scares mores shades of poop out of me than is entirely acceptable. |
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petescully / Website (15.8.06 00:19) Yeah, I mean he says the US doesn't like it when countries don't do what they want, but then wants Israel off the map; hmm. Nonetheless, he's scary because his views are shared (lapped up?) by a large amount of people - that's why he is President of Iran. He was voted into office. |
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amillionpieces / Website (15.8.06 12:37) yes, I always point to this when I am told radical muslims are a very small number. clearly they aren't. |
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petescully / Website (15.8.06 16:24) The thing is, this does not mean that a majority of Iranians are what we call 'radical' at all. I certainly don't want to make that assertion, any more than saying all those people who voted for the conservatives being far-right bigots, or all the people who didn't being far-left militants (though the Sun painted them as such). |
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colbor / Website (23.8.06 22:43) Yeah.... but we cannot really say whether that nasty politician was fairly elected nor indeed do we know how democratic Iranian society really is??! |
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my / Website (23.8.06 23:09) Can anybody find an original transcript and translation of same where Ahmadinejad actually said that "Israel should be wiped off the map"? |
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petescully (24.8.06 00:00) I'm not at all sure we can, we are just told he says this; interpretation is a lovely thing, though, isn't it. Maybe he means in the same way Middlesex was wiped off the map, or Rutland... Or Palestine... Well, Iran does have a supreme leader who has higher authority than the Blogger, no I don't mean Allah, I mean the Ayatollah Khameini. People had forgotten about him until he piped in about nuclear power this week. As for elections being fair, well, Ohio and Florida, enough said about democracy. |
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