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Filed in Uncategorized by on May 1, 2008

I hate correcting my own kind, but when I read delaware’s not hottest blogger pose this question

How is this different from Iran saying that they want to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth?.

I couldn’t help myself anymore. It is one thing for some commonsense moron to say this, but my own student is not acceptable.  LG, If you are going to be a hot blogger, you need to be informed, blogger jan. 

I had learned while reading “The Secular Conscience” that Ahmadinejad did not actually say this at all. That he didn’t mean he wanted to launch a nuclear attack on Israel. I learned more importantly that our government was mistranslating his words and using them as a propaganda tool that construes Ahmadinejad as a nut. Gee, why would the Bush Administration need to construct an enemy and a nut case for us to be afraid of now that Saddam’s head is rolling down the highway in Baghdad.  

When Middle East experts like Juan Cole shed light on what was really said and the entire context of Ahmadinejad’s speech you begin to sort of say to yourself, “Oh and here I was again believing something coming out of this administration’s mouth I am a fucking idiot”

So say it with me LG, I’m a fucking idiot for parroting this propaganda crap.  It’s ok, it is part of being a hot blogger.  Trust me……

So howsabout we educate you guys and gals a little today?

Here we have some insight from Juan Cole, sure he is a nobody that doesn’t know jack about the middle east…I mean with a name like Juan, what the hell would he know about Farsi, Iran or the Middle East!??

Don’t bother reading his perspective on what Ahmadinejad really said and meant about Iran:  Here is a snippet in case you (Bundy, Feroce, FSP et al) decide to actually educate yourself about the Middle East

But the actual quote, which comes from an old speech of Khomeini, does not imply military action, or killing anyone at all. The second reason is that it is just an inexact translation. The phrase is almost metaphysical. He quoted Khomeini that “the occupation regime over Jerusalem should vanish from the page of time.” It is in fact probably a reference to some phrase in a medieval Persian poem. It is not about tanks.

The above was part 1 of your required reading for the day.  This is part 2…. here is a snippet:

Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian,” remarked Juan Cole, a Middle East specialist at the University of Michigan and critic of American policy who has argued that the Iranian president was misquoted. “He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse.” Since Iran has not “attacked another country aggressively for over a century,” he said in an e-mail exchange, “I smell the whiff of war propaganda.”

This you should read as well, “Turning Ahmadinejad into public enemy No. 1”

Feel free to read this today as well, about what was really said. I know she is only a professor and an author so she can’t know more than Sean Hannity or Brian Williams…

I told my daughter when she was 13 that trust is the hardest thing to rebuild once you have broken it.  The government has broken it’s trust with it’s people and now everything they say will never be trusted especially when it comes to going to War. 

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  1. anon says:

    That reminds me of when the Pope called Mohammed’s works “evil” and got out of it by saying he was only quoting a Byzantine emperer.

    I don’t buy the mistranslation crap. Yes I am sure Cole is literally correct, but what he doesn’t say is what “vanish from the page of time” really connotes.

    I have no doubt that in its proper context, that quote is equivalent if not identical to “wipe off the map.”

    Ahmadinnerjacket was certainly recommending that Israel be wiped off the map but he used rhetoric to remove the agent and the method from his suggestion.

  2. liberalgeek says:

    Please note, ye of small intellect and even smaller…well never mind… I did not say that he said such a thing. I was using a comparison of phrases. The neocons are fond of using that particular quote (true or not) to justify why we must hate Iran. I was simply saying that the two statements are equivalent.

    The fact that one of them is a mistranslation is immaterial to my comparison.

  3. R Smitty says:

    Hot blogger fight! Hot blogger fight!

  4. Steel town Girl says:

    There is but one Hot Blogger and Donviti is his name….D-o-n-v-i-t-i , Donviti is his name.

  5. don’t argue with the teacher please

  6. anon,

    you go believing the Administration, I’ll go on believing experts. Meet me for a drink when you wake up

  7. Duffy says:

    “One may wonder: where did this false interpretation originate? Who is responsible for the translation that has sparked such worldwide controversy? The answer is surprising.

    The inflammatory “wiped off the map” quote was first disseminated not by Iran’s enemies, but by Iran itself. The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran’s official propaganda arm, used this phrasing in the English version of some of their news releases covering the World Without Zionism conference. International media including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Time magazine and countless others picked up the IRNA quote and made headlines out of it without verifying its accuracy, and rarely referring to the source. Iran’s Foreign Minister soon attempted to clarify the statement, but the quote had a life of its own. Though the IRNA wording was inaccurate and misleading, the media assumed it was true, and besides, it made great copy.”

    http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com/news/rumor-of-the-century/

    All of that aside, to deny that Amendinnerjacket or his friends want to destroy Israel and every Jew in the process is ignore reality. There’s a reason that “Death to Israel” is heard at sermon after sermon in state sponsored mosques around the Arab world.

    You are willing to make the logical leap that because the “neocons” are so concerned with Iran it must mean that we should blow them up but when a loon like Amenwhateverhisnameis gives a speech entitled “A World Without Zionism” you assume he means that he only wants sunshine and rainbows and everyone holds hands and sings Kumbaya together.

  8. liberalgeek says:

    There’s a reason that “Death to Israel” is heard at sermon after sermon in state sponsored mosques around the Arab world.

    It is interesting that at churches throughout the United States the mantra of “Israel at all costs” is preached. It is likely the reason that we are in the dire straights that we are in now with regards to the Middle East.

  9. A. Bundy says:

    “The Islamic Republic News Agency reported Saturday Ahmadinejad saying, “As everybody knows, the Zionist regime was created to establish dominion of arrogant states over the region and to enable the enemy to penetrate the heart Muslim land.”

    Saying the Israeli regime was inherently a “threat,” and was “on the verge of disappearing”

    “There is no doubt the Palestinian nation and Muslims as a whole will emerge victorious,” the Iranian president told Haniyeh.

    “The continued commission of crimes by the Zionist regime will speed up the collapse of this fictitious regime,” said Ahmadinejad.”

    DonVD said: “I learned more importantly that our government was mistranslating his words and using them as a propaganda tool that construes Ahmadinejad as a nut.”

    Yea, DonVD, it’s our gov’t mistranslating this poor, misunderstood man. Give me a break! Your BDS is out of control!

    OK, let’s say he was mistranslated. I mean, you did link to a liberal professor and all…so that’s gotta be true and the many contrary opinions must all be wrong. Fine.

    What about the hanging of homosexuals in his country? His response when questioned about it: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country.”

    I’m guessing a guy like you that calls people “queens” in a disparaging manner probably has no problem with this. However, most rational people do.

    Or, what about the fact that he called the Holocaust a “myth?”…or, the fact that his country, per capita, executes more people than any other?

    This crackpot needs no help!

  10. Von Cracker says:

    Can’t say Juan Cole is a liberal professor, but in your world, AB, it appears a professor (or anyone for that matter) who is anti-bushco is, by definition, liberal….

    ….and I believe dv’s talking about one phrase Ahmadinejad said, and how it’s being played over here, not every other thing that came out of his mouth.

    Again, it’s not what Ahmadinejad said, but how the current administration disseminates its version of what those words mean, with the sole purpose of furthering its agenda.

    Get with it.

  11. the other lovely thing to note is thdinnerjacket is a puppet for the ruling religious

  12. Duffy says:

    DHB: Indeed he is. The Mullahs run Iran, Imadinnerjacket is just the frontman with a limited amount of power.

  13. anon says:

    It is interesting that at churches throughout the United States the mantra of “Israel at all costs” is preached.

    Sorry, can’t say I’ve heard that one. But the “Death to Israel” thing is a familiar tune.

    Imadinnerjacket is just the frontman with a limited amount of power.

    Don’t they all start that way.

  14. Von Cracker says:

    “They” also say that 89% of all statistics are made up.

    h/t – Hooters wet-nap

  15. kavips says:

    I found this a very interesting discussion.

    For 1): As a purist I would like to change Imadinnerjacket to Imadinnerwad.. and leave that image up to everyone’s imagination.

    Second 2): Duffy’s bold statement that is then carried through several subsequent comments, has me a little off center after looking at it based on D’s original assertion, that we are being fed erroneous information.
    There’s a reason that “Death to Israel” is heard at sermon after sermon in state sponsored mosques around the Arab world.

    I haven’t thought of this much before, but how do we know that?

    How do we know what goes on in Mosques “around the Arab world” especially where there is no TV crew setting up the scene? We certainly could not make similar assertions that “all Christians” possess the same political beliefs…..Nor all Jews…..

    How do we know that statement to be true, and why do we automatically accept it as fact? Especially when there is not proof other than that “we are told so”……or I saw it once on TV?

    As I said, I’m now surprised that I, myself, had always accepted it at face value and had never thought about it much before.

    Thanks, guys.

  16. ahhhhh kavips learning are you

  17. Duffy says:

    Kavips: You’re inserting the word “all” which I did not use. In no way would I paint with such a broad brush. Indeed there are a great many and that they are state sponsored mosques issuing such messages indicates (to me anyway) that they have at least tacit approval by their government(s). Memri has been doing the yeoman’s work for years on that front. My point is this: Whether or not the specific statement Amenwhatever said called for the destruction of Israel is missing the forest for the trees. The hatred for and desire to “undo” Israel is very very popular in the Arab/Muslim world. To deny that is to deny reality.