(Ahmadinejad speech disrupted by students)
But when Ahmadinejad talks about foreign affairs or goes off to give a speech in another country he is getting free of all that practical day to day domestic stuff that everyone screams at him over. His only refuge is in foreign affairs in which he has consistently shown up the United States time and time again to the applause not only of Iranians but to Muslims in general, even Sunnis.
Mind you, Ahmadinejad knows he has no hope of influencing American public opinion as Iran is demonized completely in the minds of your average American and can do nothing right and can never be right about anything (as are Muslims in general so considered in the United States as well.)
Ahmadinejad performs for the rest of world. That is the opinion he is going after when he does things like announce his intentions to lay a wreath at “Ground Zero”.
He knew what the reaction would be. He knew it would be an ignorant hate filled reaction that lumps all Muslims together as being responsible for 9/11 and expose the anti Muslim mindset to the world of not just American dopes in general but of the American government. He knew that the Neocons couldn’t resist. He knew they would demagogue 9/11 and cast a wide net over all and any Muslim.
Iran had nothing to do with 9/11. Nothing. In fact, Tehran was filled with mourners and midnight vigils by the thousands after the attack. The Iranian government – which at that time had been fighting their fierce enemy in Afghanistan, The Taliban, even offered to help the US in its war against that regime and Iran offered to sit down and hash out ALL outstanding issues with the US- even to the point of recognizing Israel’s so called “Right to Exist”. The offers were rejected.
(Iranians hold candlelight vigil for victims of 9/11 the day after)
He knew this administration would even tie the fraud “nuclear crisis” to this. In short, he knew the Neocons are shameless liars who would politicize 9/11 by generalizing beyond the pale.
And it isn’t only other Muslims that Ahmadinejad is playing to- but the entire world that doesn’t share the self image that Americans have of themselves- of selfless do gooders battling evil who can do no wrong.
In this CBS interview with Ahmadinejad we get yet another example of just how slavish the US media is to the government. This question Amhadinejad bats out of the park and makes the CBS “reporter” look like a fool and government toady mouthpiece:
"Sir, what were you thinking? The World Trade Center site is the most sensitive place in the American heart, and you must have known that visiting there would be insulting to many, many Americans," Pelley says.
"Why should it be insulting?" Ahmadinejad asks.
"Well, sir, you're the head of government of an Islamist state that the United States government says is a major exporter of terrorism around the world," Pelley replies.
Ahmadinejad says: "Well, I wouldn't say that what American government says is a-- is the prerequisite here. Something happened there which led to other events. Many innocent people were killed there. Some of those people were American citizens obviously. We obviously are very much against any terrorist action and any killing. And also we are very much against any plots to sow the seeds of discord among nations. Usually you go to these sites to pay your respects. And-- also to perhaps to air your views about the root causes of such incidents. I think that when I do that, I will be paying, as I said earlier, my respect to the American nation."
"But the American people, sir, believe that your country is a terrorist nation, exporting terrorism in the world," Pelley says. "You must have known that visiting the World Trade Center site would infuriate many Americans."
"Well, I'm amazed. How can you speak for the whole of the American nation?" Ahmadinejad says. "You are representing a media and you're a reporter. The American nation is made up of 300 million people. There are different points of view over there."
Now, to most of the rest of the world Ahmadinejad just body slammed CBS’s Pelley. To ignorant self absorbed Americans this doesn’t register.
And could Pelley be less professional here where he equates the grotesque propaganda lies of the Neowhores with the “beliefs” of the “American People?”
Also, to the Muslim world in general the American labeling of Hamas or Hizbollah as a “Terrorist” organization is absurd. Ahmadinejad shows how the US labels every independent Muslim group, movement, or group of fighters as “Terrorists”. Is there one group of Muslims that opposes the US that isn’t “Terrorist”?
You have to hand it to Ahmadinejad. The US government foists a group of quislings on Iraq and calls it the “elected government”- Ahmadinejad breaks bread with them and gets them to contradict the US government’s claims every day.
(Ahmadinejad and Maliki)
Dick Cheney flies into Abu Dhabi to meet with the local satraps under cover of darkness amid a media blackout all out of concern for his safety? Ahmadinejad, the Shia Persian, flies there the day after to red carpet public treatment and holds a large public rally in a full soccer stadium in which he is cheered wildly by the overwhelmingly Sunni Arab audience.
(Sunni Arabs in Dubai cheer Ahmadinejad at mass rally)
And now he gets the US government to reveal its stunning contempt for truth or nuance, and its deep seeded hatred of Muslims in general. And the sick part is that I think the Neocons know this as well and don’t care. They want generalized war with “Islam” anyway.
1 comments:
Remember How Iran Responded to the 9/11 Attacks?
With all the ruckus over the request of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request to visit “Ground Zero” during his visit to New York to lay a wreath [1], it is somewhat worth remembering how Iran responded to the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Knowing how short American memories are and knowing how many Americans share President Bush’s habit of conflating all U.S. opponents and enemies into some sort of utterly fictional “united front,” like the now famous “Axis of Evil” (none of whom had anything whatsoever to do with the 9/11 attacks); I began preparing in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. It was fully predictable that there would be an Islamaphobic backlash in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and that people with a vested interest in promoting anti-Muslim hatred would later try to equate the entire Islamic world with the attacks in New York and Washington DC. So, beginning on September 12, 2001, I began compiling the actual responses to the attacks by all the countries of the world with a Muslim majority regardless of their political standing or relationship with the United States. Visiting and saving snippets from official government outlets for these states (embassy websites, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, &c.) as well as searching the media for relevant articles discussing the reactions of these states, I saved all this data for the fifty-two states in question and put it online in the “International Islamic Response” website. After several moves to different hosts, I kept all this data and it can now be found online at: http://iir.internetactivist.org/
So what was Iran’s reaction to the 9/11 attacks?
"On behalf of the Iranian government and the nation, I condemn the hijacking attempts and terrorist attacks on public centers in American cities which have killed a large number of innocent people," President Khatami said in reaction to the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. ... "My deep sympathy goes out to the American nation, particularly those who have suffered from the attacks and also the families of the victims," he said, noting, "terrorism is doomed and the international community should stem it and take effective measures in a bid to eradicate it." Khatami added that the Islamic Republic of Iran is treading a road to uproot terrorism and to this end, he noted, it will spare no efforts.
And related news stories included:
“Iranians Honor U.S. with Moment of Silence” (NY Post)
“Khatami Condemns ‘Terrorist’ Attacks on U.S. Targets (People’s Daily, Iran)
“US calls Iran’s response ‘positive’” (Economic Times)
“Terror attacks transform U.S. image in Iran’s media” (Gulf News)
“Powell sees hope in Iran, Syria response to attack” (Reuters)
“'Iran News’ deplores attacks on major US landmarks” (Iran News)
“Iran expresses rare sympathy for U.S. over attacks” (Reuters)
“Iran ayatollah says he is heart-broke over U.S. attack” (Gulf News)
“Iran seals Afghanistan border” (AP)
All of this was saved in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 at http://iir.internetactivist.org/020.html though of course many of the links are no longer valid, being six years old.
The point was – and remains – to show that contrary to whatever the Islamaphobic hate-mongers might say today, the vast majority of the Islamic world, even including states that the US has had difficult relations with, were sympathetic and supportive in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The whole supposition that there should be any problem with President Ahmadinejad laying a wreath at “Ground Zero” is just a statement of American ignorance, bigotry, and hated completely unjustified by anything Iran has done.
Anyway, to learn more about the response of the world’s majority Muslim countries in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, visit the International Islamic Response website at: http://iir.internetactivist.org/ Just click on any of the countries listed on the left to see how they responded. Just to save you some time, the ONLY majority Muslim states that were not sympathetic was Iraq (at the time under Saddam Hussein and suffering from US imposed sanctions that resulted in the death of over a million Iraqis [2]) and Afghanistan (then under the Taliban).
John S.
Notes:
[1] Pat Milton, "New York bans 'photo op' visit to Ground Zero by Iran's president," The Scotsman, 21 September 2007, http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1509712007
[2] Peace Action, “End Sanctions on Iraq,” Peace Action Education Fund, undated, http://www.peace-action.org/camp/justice/iraqfs.pdf
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