The Mouth That Roared

If you were concerned that our president might be the only leader in the world worthy of shame and derision, take heart. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Holocaust revisionists and raised questions about who carried out the September 11 attacks in a speech he gave today at Columbia University. Care for a sample? How about: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country ... I don't know who's told you that we have this." This was in response to a question about the alleged execution of homosexuals in Iran. In the past, Ahmadinejad has called for Israel's elimination. But his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," but others say that would be better translated as "vanish from the pages of time". Maybe if they ignore them long enough, the Israelis will just go away.
Speaking of going away, President Ahmadinejad would probably be just as happy if the questions about his feelings on the Holocaust would disappear. "In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as the fabricated legend," Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, told Ahmadinejad as part of his opening remarks. "One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers." To this, the president replied, "Granted this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people?" It is precisely that lack of world view that no doubt makes him such a force. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this is the same mouth that uttered these words: “Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury.”
So much fury, and so very little time.