Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Foreign Policy & News Ahmadinejad gets blistering welcome from Columbia

...
if it did, California would invade the entire south of the US over many issues.

[selected enclaves excepted, of course]

The thing that really gets me is that even in front of a western audience, he still had the audacity to state the following:

What Ahmadinajad said at Columbia

I listened to it all.

His remarks were "bracketed" for me by those of Bollinger (the Columbia president) who sought to distance himself from any possible accusation of hospitality and Nora O'Donnell (MSNBC anchor) who sought to distance herself from any possible accusation of neutrality.

Ahmadinajad said:

- Scholars should seek the truth.

- That he does not dispute the facts of the Holocaust, but that he thinks that scholarship should continue on the details and on the effect on his part of the world. He particularly stressed the innocence of the Palestinian people in the matter of the Holocaust. Since scholarship continues on the matter of this subject (the Holocaust) under the sponsorship of the US Holocaust Museum, this was an interesting point.

- He said that the nature of Palestine/Israel should be determined by referendum among "Jewish Palestinians, Muslim Palestinians and Christian Palestinians." This is a variation on the long standing Arab desire for either a bi-national state or a state that is not specifically a Jewish state. He did not specify whether his referendum would include Palestinians of the diaspora. That, of course, would make a difference in the outcome.

- He said that the Iranian nuclear enrichment program was forced on them by foreign defaults on agreements for nuclear electric assistance. He said that the Iranian sites are all under IAEA inspection and will remain that way. He also said that the concentration level of their enrichment did not meet the requirement for weapons production.

Continued

He made a lame joke out of Iranian capital punishments for homosexual behavior. The esoteric gist was, "we don't care what you think about it."

He said that all parties should stop this kind of activity. There may have been an implied offer in that. THe Persians are subtle people. Perhaps they are too subtle for his audience

Mal, you might be interested in W. Patrick Lang's take on what Ahmadinajad remarks regarding homosexuality meant:

I wouldn't want to see our country attack any other nation simply based upon how that nation treats its citizens either, but I don't think we should go overboard in trying to rationalize or justify offensive remarks by a foreign leader, especially when those remarks are often addressed at both us and our closest friend in the region. I think engaging in legitimate criticism is far different than beating the drums of war.