Lock & Load

Ahmadinejad beats around the Bush

Well, this is most interesting. The full text of President Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush has been posted on Indymedia. It makes for some interesting reading. Mr Ahmadinejad says he is prompted to “discuss some of the contradictions and questions” he has with Bush’s policy. Of course, there are many, many, but something tells me Ahmadinejad isn’t exactly the person to be pointing them out.

On Iraq, he says: “[B]ecause of the possibility of the existence of WMDs in one country, it is occupied, around one hundred thousand people killed, its water sources, agriculture and industry destroyed, close to 180,000 foreign troops put on the ground, sanctity of private homes of citizens broken, and the country pushed back perhaps fifty years.”

Excuse me? Remind me, which country fought one of the bloodiest wars on the 20th century against Iraq, lasting almost a decade? Were the casualities not over 1 Million? Ah yes, it was Iran!

Sure Iraq started it, but they withdrew and the war continued with enthusiasm on both sides, including the enthusiastic use of chemical weapons.

“At what price? Hundreds of billions of dollars spent from the treasury of one country and certain other countries and tens of thousands of young men and women - as occupation troops - put in harms way, taken away from family and love ones, their hands stained with the blood of others,” lectures Ahmadinejad.

Well, tell that to the 650 000+ who died on both sides of the Iran-Iraq conflict after an estimated 1.2 TRILLION was spent on the war.

I suppose at least he concedes that Saddam Hussein was a murderous dictator.

The next part of his lecture focusses on human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay. Of course, people being held without trial and the suspension of habeas corpus, together with other lallegations of ill-treatment is a scandal for which the United States should be ashamed, but look whose giving the lecture!

“There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal representation, their families cannot see them and are obviously kept in a strange land outside their own country,” he says.

This from a man whose country executes teenage girls for flirting!

“I could not correlate the abduction of a person, and him or her being kept in secret prisons, with the provisions of any judicial system,” he coos. What!? What!? What!?

Then, of course, we’re in for a bit of the stock-standard Holocaust Denial. (Okay, let’s be generous, ‘Holocaust Scepticism”), for he says: “After the war, they claimed that six million Jews had been killed. Six million people that were surely related to at least two million families,” but then adds for rhetorical effect: “Again let us assume that these events are true.”

And then to top it off, he askes: “The question here is ‘what has the hundreds of billions of dollars, spent every year to pay for the Iraqi campaign, produced for the citizens?’ As your Excellency is aware, in some states of your country, people are living in poverty.”

1.2 TRILLION in 8 years, people! He’s one to talk, what with scenes like this.

He then poses a list of further questions:

“Did we manage to bring peace, security and prosperity for the people or insecurity and unemployment? Did we intend to establish justice, or just supported especial interest groups, and by forcing many people to live in poverty and hardship, made a few people rich and powerful - thus trading the approval of the people and the Almighty with theirs'? Did we defend the rights of the underprivileged or ignore them? Did we defend the rights of all people around the world or imposed wars on them, interfered illegally in their affairs, established hellish prisons and incarcerated some of them? Did we bring the world peace and security or raised the specter of intimidation and threats? Did we tell the truth to our nation and others around the world or presented an inverted version of it? Were we on the side of people or the occupiers and oppressors? Did our administration set out to promote rational behaviour, logic, ethics, peace, fulfilling obligations, justice, service to the people, prosperity, progress and respect for human dignity or the force of guns.”

Answers on a post card, please.

The letter ends with: “Whether we like it or not, the world is gravitating towards faith in the Almighty and justice and the will of God will prevail over all things.”

Yes, god help us all!

DISCLAIMER 1: Of course, the letter was published on IndyMedia… so whether it is authentic is up to you. Me, I have my doubts. Surely this man cannot be this delusional?

DISCLAIMER 2: Yes, just as I oppsed the invasion of Iraq, I oppose a war with Iran. But that does not mean I have to be blinkered to the lunacy of Ahmadinejad and the brutality of his regime either. Support the Iranian democtratic opposition in its efforts. Do not allow knee-jerk anti-Americanism to set this nutter up as some sort of anti-Imperialist hero. Too many doors are closing in the faces of Iranian democrats because some believe that oppsing Ahmadinejad is supporting Bush. It isn’t.

NOTE TO AMERICAN READERS:
Don’t give hypocrites like Ahmadinejad another stick to beat your country with. Sign the ACLU petition against torture. It reads: “As an American, I will not stand for torture. The universal prohibition against torture must be upheld, and enforced, today.”

UPDATE:
The Guardian have given Ahmadinejad his own blog! What next? The Postumous Pol Pot Podcast?

posted by Brett Lock @ 2:31 pm