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Current mood: stoic
Category: News and Politics
Iran President Says Democracy Has Failed
By NICK WADHAMS and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers1 hour, 20 minutes ago
Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."
Rice's comments were the most detailed response from the United States to the letter, the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president since the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made only an oblique reference to Iran's nuclear intentions, asking why "any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime."
Otherwise, it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.
"Would not your administration's political and economic standing have been stronger?" the letter said. "And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever- increasing global hatred of the American government?"
Ahmadinejad on Tuesday called his letter "words and opinions of the Iranian nation" aimed at finding a "way out of problems" facing humanity, according to the official Iranian news agency. He spoke briefly before boarding a plane for Indonesia, where he was to attend a summit of developing nations.
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Now that America sets the agenda and makes the rules for other sovereign nations, it is hardly surprising that Ms. Rice accuses Ahmadinejad of "failing to address the issues" - namely, the US government's opposition to Iran's nuclear development program.
The fact is, these are America's issues, not Iran's.
I have issues with my neighbors' noxious barbeques, but I do not demand that they stop spraying lighter fluid on their hibachis and grilling dead animals. The nauseating smell wafts over the fence and into my yard. I go indoors and shut my windows.
We are the world's bully. If we continue to be, we only increase the likelihood that someone - and not necessarily Iran - will bomb the living shit out of us, and I'm betting it's soon.
Current mood: stoic
Category: News and Politics
Iran President Says Democracy Has Failed
By NICK WADHAMS and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers1 hour, 20 minutes ago
Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."
Rice's comments were the most detailed response from the United States to the letter, the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president since the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made only an oblique reference to Iran's nuclear intentions, asking why "any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime."
Otherwise, it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.
"Would not your administration's political and economic standing have been stronger?" the letter said. "And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever- increasing global hatred of the American government?"
Ahmadinejad on Tuesday called his letter "words and opinions of the Iranian nation" aimed at finding a "way out of problems" facing humanity, according to the official Iranian news agency. He spoke briefly before boarding a plane for Indonesia, where he was to attend a summit of developing nations.
_______________________________________________________________
Now that America sets the agenda and makes the rules for other sovereign nations, it is hardly surprising that Ms. Rice accuses Ahmadinejad of "failing to address the issues" - namely, the US government's opposition to Iran's nuclear development program.
The fact is, these are America's issues, not Iran's.
I have issues with my neighbors' noxious barbeques, but I do not demand that they stop spraying lighter fluid on their hibachis and grilling dead animals. The nauseating smell wafts over the fence and into my yard. I go indoors and shut my windows.
We are the world's bully. If we continue to be, we only increase the likelihood that someone - and not necessarily Iran - will bomb the living shit out of us, and I'm betting it's soon.
posted by Deeplip at 9:36 AM
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