Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Ahmadinejad refers to the Holocaust as a myth

I really want to go to bed, 'cause it's after 3 A.M., but I made the mistake of listening to the headlines on the BBC World news. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today called the Nazi Holocaust a myth created by the West. He specifically suggested that Israel be moved to Austria, Germany, America, or Canada. (Did you hear that? He forgot Poland!) This is the man who previously suggested that Israel should be wiped off the map.

Oh, but why should we care about a lunatic running a nation?

Let's see, maybe because they're trying to get nuclear weapons. Yes, that would be a good reason to care.

So let me guess — invading Iraq, which had no WMD's, and very little connection to global terrorism, was to demonstrate that the United States will support a war against and occupation of a country that the people believe is trying to make nukes. In other words, taking out Saddam Hussein was really just a warning shot across Iran's bow, right? I mean, if that's what the real mission is, then when Bush proclaimed "Mission Accomplished!" he wasn't completely out of touch with reality, he was just lying to us about what the mission was.

The problem is, Ahmadinejad is too difficult for most Americans to pronounce. It's not like Sad-dam-hoo-sane. I therefore propose that we change Ahmadinejad to the easier Ahmed-in-the-Jihad. I mean, if the guy's trying to start a nuclear war against Pisralestine, then he really shouldn't complain about my little mondegreen at his expense.

The link I gave you for the news about Ahmadinejad's latest outburst is on the English-language al Jazeera web site. This incident is a challenge to all news sources to cover fairly, but al Jazeera seems to be rising to the challenge. I'm not saying that I will blindly trust al Jazeera to tell us the unvarnished truth, but I am saying that I am hoping that al Jazeera, rather than Ahmadinejad or Hizb'allah, will be the honest voice of the Middle East.

I'll have more to say about Ahmadinejad later, plus the latest Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria, but now I have to go to sleep.