Iran leader denied WTC wreath request

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Shrapnel12


I tend to agree, but when it comes to countries like these, exactly which democratic, freedom loving rebel group with unstained hands did you expect us to deal with?

How about not ****ing around in other country's internal politics for a change?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Shrapnel12
I tend to agree, but when it comes to countries like these, exactly which democratic, freedom loving rebel group with unstained hands did you expect us to deal with?

None . As MtG indicated, perhaps we should just realize that everyone is backing some pretty crappy people and the way to really gain the moral high ground when criticizing others is to stop doing it ourselves first.

[Wiglaf]

MtG, I suggest you study the Cold War and Kennan's arguments for containment. You seem to have only a superficial understanding of the reasons for the US's actions during the period.

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


None . As MtG indicated, perhaps we should just realize that everyone is backing some pretty crappy people and the way to really gain the moral high ground when criticizing others is to stop doing it ourselves first.

Damned if you do (communism doesn't spread, people die) and more damned if you don't (communism spreads, people die).

[SlowwHand]

Ain't that the truth? Why I say, limited isolationism.

[GePap]

Originally posted by snoopy369


At least the right shows respect for their opponents, and does not descend quite so quickly to ad hominem attacks.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
They installed dictators sympathetic to the US as opposed to democratically elected communists, sure.

Can you see how that is different from indiscriminately killing thousands of civilians?

In fact many of the undemocratic dictators installed by the United States went on to kill, both with discernment and indiscriminately, thousands of civilians.

Still, as long as the profits kept going back to United Fruit or American oil companies or kept the price of instant coffee down, who cares if a few thousand people die in places that Nixon or Reagan had difficulty pronouncing, let alone locating on a map ?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Patroklos
Who is he laying a wreath for again?

George Bush's credibility.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Pekka
I also don't see how CIA or other intelligence service action is left/right issue.

Teh right is teh war mongers.

[dannubis]

Originally posted by Shrapnel12
I feel sorry for Aggie. You have to be a very sad and lonely person to hate your own people worse then an advocate for genocide. Pathetic.

Take a good look in the mirror sonny. Most of the people killed by the US in the past 50 years didn't have it comming.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
Damned if you do (communism doesn't spread, people die) and more damned if you don't (communism spreads, people die).

Actually I believe the Pinochet regime killed FAR more people than the Allende democratic socialist government in Chile. Hell, for plenty of the places in Latin America we were trying to overthrow, they weren't in league with the Soviets or Chinese.

Oh, in addition to the Agathon hating his "own people"... I believe that he isn't an American, so he's not hating his own .

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Actually I believe the Pinochet regime killed FAR more people than the Allende democratic socialist government in Chile. Hell, for plenty of the places in Latin America we were trying to overthrow, they weren't in league with the Soviets or Chinese.

That is no matter of believe, that's a fact. Not even Pinochet supporters deny that. Allende has no mass execution on his record, partisan violence during his government accounts for several dozens of dead maybe (there was some chaos, but who's to blame is difficult to tell), while Pinochet's dictatorship cost thousands their lives and even more years in prison and under torture. Castro is a philanthropic to the opposition in comparison.
And Pinochet was actually a tame puppy compared to the Argentinian military junta of the late 70s, early 80s, backed by Henry Kissmyassinger...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Sorry, I was being purposely coy there by saying "I believe".

[SlowwHand]

He can stick it straight up his ass.

Iran President Ahmadinejad rips U.S.

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - A day before flying to New York to speak directly to the American people, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck a confrontational tone Saturday with a parade of fighter jets and missiles and tough warnings for the United States to stay out of the Mideast. ADVERTISEMENT



Three new domestically manufactured warplanes streaked over the capital during the parade marking the 27th anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Iran, which sparked a 1980-88 war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. The parade also featured the Ghadr missile, which has a range of 1,120 miles, capable of reaching Israel.

Some of the missile trucks were painted with the slogans "Down with the U.S." and "Down with Israel." The parade also featured unmanned aerial surveillance drones, torpedoes, and tanks.

Tensions are high between Washington and Tehran over U.S. accusations that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and helping Shiite militias in Iraq that target U.S. troops. Iran denies the claims.

Washington has said it is addressing the Iran situation diplomatically, rather than militarily, but U.S. officials also say that all options are open.

"Those (countries) who assume that decaying methods such as psychological war, political propaganda and the so-called economic sanctions would work and prevent Iran's fast drive toward progress are mistaken," Ahmadinejad.

Iran launched an arms development program during its war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own jets, torpedoes, radar-avoiding missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.

"Those who prevented Iran, at the height of the war from getting even barbed wire must see now that all the equipment on display today has been built by the mighty hands and brains of experts at Iran's armed forces," Ahmadinejad said.

He is expected to address the American people directly in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" airing Sunday, and through appearances at the U.N., Columbia University and several other events.

His request to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site was denied and condemned by Sept. 11 family members and politicians. Protests against his Columbia appearance are planned at the university and the United Nations by demonstrators angry at his questioning of the Holocaust and declarations that Israel will cease to exist.

Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic ties since militants took over the U.S. Embassy following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since then, the cleric-led regime has vilified the United States as the "Great Satan."

Despite Ahmadinejad's frequent anti-U.S. rhetoric, he has tried to appeal to the American people before. Recently, he told a live satellite television show that his country wanted peace and friendship with the U.S. Since coming to power in 2005, Ahmadinejad has also sent letters to the American people in which he criticized Bush's Mideast policy.

He is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Tuesday — his third time attending the New York meeting in three years. Last year, Ahmadinejad was harshly critical of U.S. policies in Iraq and Lebanon and insisted that his nation's nuclear activities were "transparent."

At the parade, Ahmadinejad repeated his demand for foreign forces to leave the region and urged the United States to acknowledge it has failed in Iraq. Outside the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, there are 40,000 troops on U.S. bases in Persian Gulf countries and another 20,000 in Mideast waters.

"Nations throughout the region do not need the presence of the foreigners to manage their own needs. Foreign presence is the root cause of all instability, differences and threats," he said.

On the sidelines of the parade, the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said the event highlighted the "might of Iran's armed forces to its enemies," adding that Iran is ready to retaliate if attacked.

"Iran has drawn up plans to confront enemies in the face of any possible attack," the official IRNA news agency quoted Jafari as saying.

The Bush administration is expected to soon blacklist a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, subjecting part of the vast military operation to financial penalties. The step would be in response to Iran's involvement in Iraq and elsewhere.

The U.S. is also leading a push in the U.N. Security Council for a third round of economic sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes including generating electricity. The Security Council is not expected to take up the issue before October.

"Learn lessons from your past mistakes. Don't repeat your mistakes," he said in a warning to the United States over its push to impose more sanctions.

The guy is a dork. Warning over sanctions?
Yeah, **** you.

[Dr Strangelove]

Why not let him place the wreath, but arrange for him to be surrounded by dozens of young children of the victims of 9/11, all crying? Then follow up with survivors of the Holocaust and their descendents, and throw in some surviving allied soldiers who witnessed the death camps for good measure. Let's see how he handles the little tykes clinging to him, screaming for their dead mommies and daddies and the elderly Jews lamenting their dead families in his face.

Keep a cardiac certified ambulance on stand-by. Then again, he is fairly young.