Ahmadinejad Plays Khrushchev

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. (AFP/Timothy A. Clary)


Addressing the United Nations General Assembly isn't as glamorous as doing a sit-down on 60 Minutes, but it's still a world stage. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seized his moment. (Does the guy own a tie?)

The little man from Iran decided to bash the Unites States, guns blazing.

He didn't take off his shoe and bang it on the desk. He didn't yell, "We will bury you." It wasn't as dramatic as Nikita Khrushchev's UN performance, but Ahmadinejad did go on offense.

I'm sure he savored that -- attacking the U.S. on U.S. soil.

I'm sure the Middle Eastern delegations loved it.

I'm sure the fringe Leftist Americans, the MoveOn-types, were thrilled by it, too.

UNITED NATIONS -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took aim at U.S. policies in Iraq and Lebanon Tuesday in an address to world leaders, and accused Washington of unfairly attacking Tehran's nuclear program, which he insisted was peaceful.

Taking the stage at the U.N. General Assembly hours after President Bush, he also accused the United States of having double standards by criticizing his country's nuclear program while maintaining its own nuclear weapons arsenal.

Ahmadinejad insisted Iran's nuclear activities are "transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eye" of United Nations inspectors and reiterated his nation's commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as it faces accusations that it is seeking to develop atomic weapons.

He's a liar.

Enough said.

...Ahmadinejad accused some permanent members of the Security Council who wield veto power — an obvious reference to the United States — of using the decision-making body as a tool of "threat and coercion."

"The question needs to be asked: if the governments of the United States or the United Kingdom, who are permanent members of the Security Council, commit aggression, occupation and violation of international law, which of the U.N. organs can take them into account?," he asked.

"If they have differences with a nation or state, they drag it to the Security Council," and take the roles of "prosecutor, judge and executioner," he said. "Is this a just order?"

I think it's odd that Ahmadinejad is whining about the U.S. controlling the UN.

In fact, many in the U.S. government (Dems) want to subjugate the U.S. to the whims of the UN. We can't make a move without getting the UN's approval. As John Kerry put it back in 2004, everything we do must pass that "global test" to be legitimate.

Moreover, what about the other permanent members of the Security Council?

Which of the "UN organs" holds France accountable, or China, or Russia?

He pointed to Lebanese suffering during the recent Israel-Hezbollah war as an example.

"We witnessed the Security Council ... was practically incapacitated by certain powers to even call for a cease-fire," he said, referring to the fact that the conflict lasted 34 days despite calls for an immediate truce.

It's a two-way street, Mahmoud.

The Israelis suffered during its clash with Hezbollah. They are routinely threatened with annihilation, being wiped off the map.

Also, it's completely unfair to accuse the U.S. and Britain with holding the UN hostage.

France, China, and Russia regularly "incapacitate" the Security Council when they cater to radical regimes.

The Iranian leader also had harsh words about U.S. efforts in Iraq, saying "the occupiers are incapable of establishing security in Iraq" and every day hundreds of people get killed "in cold blood."

Where have I heard that before?

I remember! John Murtha!

He said, "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent [Iraqi] civilians in cold blood."

John Kerry also talks that way, saying that American soldiers go into the "homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."

Except for Joe Lieberman, virtually every Dem U.S. Senator echoes Ahmadinejad's words on Iraq.

Libs are on the same page as the Iranian president. That's nothing a good thing.


Protesters cheer at a demonstration against US President George W. Bush and the Iraq War at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near United Nations Headquarters in New York. Around 400 anti-Iraq war demonstrators marched through New York at a protest timed to coincide with President George W. Bush's address to the United Nations.(AFP/Nicholas Roberts)

Ahmadinejad claimed that numerous terrorists apprehended by the Iraqi government were "let loose under various pretexts by the occupiers."

"It seems that intensification of hostilities and terrorism serves as a pretext for the continued presence of foreign forces in Iraq," he said.

What a nutjob!

(I suspect UW-Madison lecturer Kevin Barrett will embrace Ahmadinejad's conspiracy theory and discuss it in his class on Islam.)

Why would the Bush administration try to keep the cycle of violence going in Iraq?

We don't want to be there. We want out as soon as possible, as soon as it makes sense.


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad acknowledges applause during the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. (AFP/Timothy A. Clary)

Bush spoke directly to the people of Iran saying America respects Islam, the Iranian nation's rich history and culture and that he looks to a day when the two peoples "can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace."

That's very different from 2002 when Bush said Iran was part of an "axis of evil."

That's an extremely misleading thing to say.

BUSH HAS ALWAYS DISTINGUISHED BETWEEN A COUNTRY'S LEADERSHIP AND THE COUNTRY'S PEOPLE.

The people of Iran, as a whole, are not our enemies. Bush never said that they were evil.

When we went into Afghanistan, we didn't go in to wage war against the people. We fought the Taliban. Similarly, the people in "axis of evil" nations are not our enemies. They are oppressed, victimized by their leaders.

It's false for the Associated Press to claim that there has been some sort of fundamental change in how the Bush administration views Iran's people.

The problem is Ahmadinejad and the militant Muslim clerics of Iran, not Iran's people.

Clearly, Ahmadinejad showed that the "axis of evil" is as evil as ever.