Writing about Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s call to wipe Israel off the map, Mark Steyn pointed his readers to comments posted on the BBC website. Here are some of the ones he highlighted in his broader piece, along with others we found that represent a world view we just don’t understand:

If G-Bush and T-Blair can talk about attacking , Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran openly to the Global media, I don’t understand as to why Ahmadinejad cannot speak about Israel’s existence locally to a group of students.

Lets just face it. We’re all as bad as each other.

Like Iraq, this is none of our business as long as Iran is not planning to develop a nuclear weapons delivery capability that can target the UK.

As usual, its one rule for israel and its western allies, and another rule for everyone else. … how many millions has america killed in its very bloodthirsty history?

Most of the comments are quite laughable, it is the US and Israel who invade other countries, it is US and Israel who posses nuclear weapons, it is the US that oppresses people.

It is also somewhat in poor taste for us Brits to condemn Ahmadinejad’s fiery wording when our government has stood by an American President who is even more guilty of such charges.

Is this story true? The current American regime is expert at creating faked excuses for military and political action.

Condemning Ahmadinejad, or expulsion of Iran from the UN, or even war against them – are not solutions. They show continued lack of vision for long term peace on this Earth.

OK, his remarks were a bit strong, and personally I do find them offensive. But I’m not sure it’s any worse than what Bush said about Iraq, and at least Ahmedinejad is using only words, not bombs.

… we need to understand this in context …

Lots of similar comments by American officials against Islam, its prophet and the whole 1.2 billion Muslim nation did not attract equivalent attention.

Iran’s Prime minister said “Israel should be wiped off the map”. How do we know that he wasn’t refering to a peaceful arragement for Isreal to give land back to palistine rather than a violent threat?

These folks may want to brush up on the words of Ahmadinejad’s principal foreign policy advisor, Hassan Abbasi: “We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization.” That means you, too, BBC fans.

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For more on Abbassi, see a roughly translated speech here, in which he espouses contempt for liberal (in the classic sense) institutions, declares his support for terrorism, and claims that American forces are ordered to impregnate local women when overseas. Also that the CIA “(put) out a work order to replace Imam Hussein with Arnold Schwarzenegger .” And less humorously, “as a strategic design we should start the groundwork for a strategic war.”

Technorati Tags: Mark Steyn, Iran, Israel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 29th, 2005 at 2:23 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.