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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Sunday, January 15, 2006

A little from a speech by Ahmadinejad

I don't know why, I just found this interesting. Perhaps the veiled threat to impact the oil supplies, perhaps the vague threat in the second paragraph.
Addressing a rare press conference in Tehran, he appeared to issue thinly veiled threats against Western countries, implying that they could face serious consequences unless they backed down. 'You need us more than we need you. All of you today need the Iranian nation,' Ahmadinejad said. 'Why are you putting on airs? You don't have that might.'

Reminding the West that it had supported the monarchical regime of the former Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi - overthrown in the 1979 Islamic revolution - he went on: 'Those same powers have done their utmost to oppress us, but this nation, because of its dignity, has forgiven them to a large extent. But if they persist with their present stance, maybe the day will come when the Iranian nation will reconsider.' He added: 'If they want to deny us our rights, we have ways to secure those rights.'


By the way, it appears that, at least temporarily, the Bush administration succeeded. People are talking about Alito and Iran, not Abramoff and Iraq. And NSA spying, that's so 2005. But it looks like Abramoff will be back in the spring as the staffers are all indicted, and unfortunately, Iraq will flare up again very shortly.

And, on the NSA spying, Specter whose judiciary committee will be holding the hearings early Feb,(oh, boy, more Biden and Hatch,) spoke of impeachment today if Bush broke the law. Not too likely, but that should sufficiently fracture the Republicans before the hearings with Al Gonzales.

So, at the same time the topic was changed, the Bush poll numbers staggered back down below 40%.

3 Comments:

  • Poor George. Nobody likes him anymore. The South American countries are falling like dominos. Democracy seems to be working, but not the way George wants it to. Boy, that Iraq better turn out to be a real good democracy. Hey, maybe it can partner up with Iran!

    By Blogger Neil Shakespeare, at 2:26 AM  

  • Ya Neil, Weird how every other democracy is not quite a democracy unless it is like ours. Talk about "threat of a good example"

    By Blogger Graeme, at 3:20 AM  

  • I have found the intentional lumping together of "neoliberal" freemarket economics and "democracy," very interesting.

    Because, democracy is only a political system, but in the US international foreign policy, "economic freedoms," are often treated as guaranteed rights and as a measure of the freedom of a democracy.

    Thus, a country like Venezuela or Bolivia which democratically votes for a more socialist economic system is deemed to have strayed away from the ideals of democracy.

    No, I'm not naive enough to think that this isn't intentional, I just find that it undermines US credibility to define "freedom" as the ability of US companies to operate unfettered.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:42 AM  

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