Afraid of Democracy
Writing in the NY Times (9.18.09), Nazila Fathi summarizes American perception of current Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

"Mr. Ahmadinejad has long been seen as a threat to Israel, especially since he angered the West and Jews worldwide in 2005 when he repeated a slogan from the early days of the revolution, saying, 'Israel should be wiped off the map.' " [source]

The problem with Fathi's commentary is Ahmadinejad did not say "Israel should be wiped off the map." This is a lie and it is repeated frequently by U.S. media. For an excellent review of the Iranian issue, see InfoImagination, Understanding Iran.

Richard Boudreaux, LA Times staff writer, in his commentary (9.23.08) summarizes the difficulties between our two countries:

"The standoff between the United States and Iran has centered on concerns over nuclear proliferation and threats against Israel, which Ahmadinejad has said should be 'wiped off the map.' " [source]

The claim that Ahmadinejad said, "Israel should be wiped off the map," is flawed for a number of reasons. First, Ahmadinejad rarely speaks in English. The quote suggests he did. Instead, he generally speaks in Farsi. In actuality, Iranian's president said, "Een rezhim-e eshghalgar-i Quds bayad az safhih-i ruzgar mahv shavad."

I ask you ... what did Ahmadinejad say? Do you speak or read Farsi?

Is our ignorance to blame? Iran is one of the world's oldest cultures. How come we have so little knowledge of this country and its people?

Juan Cole, a historian and expert on Middle Eastern culture, says the original slogan, expressed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was that Israel would "vanish from the arena of time." Cole explains that Khomeini meant the Zionist regime would collapse on its own, just as the Soviet empire did. Khomeini didn't threaten to wipe anything off anything. [source]

Iran and Ahmadinejad have been consistent and clear about their intentions. They want the Palestinian people to participate (vote) in a free and fair referendum to to choose their own government. This is the principle of "self determination" and shouldn't we, as Americans, support this democratic solution?

When Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes, interviewed Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president called for Democracy, Free and Fair Elections, and a Durable Peace. His comments were deleted from the public version. [source]

CSPAN carried the entire interview and we have posted screen shots of what was left on the cutting room floor (at right).

MR. WALLACE: You still have not answered the question. Israel must be wiped off the map. Why?

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: I think that the Israeli government is a fabricated government ...

[CUT BY CBS 60 MINUTES] ... and I have talked about the solution. The solution is democracy. We have said allow Palestinian people to participate in a free and fair referendum to express their views. What we are saying only serves the cause of durable peace. We want durable peace in that part of the world. A durable peace will only come about with once the views of the people are met.

Boudreaux's LA Times article included an explanation of Ahmadinejad's remarks, noting:

"Iran, promotes a shift in power in the Holy Land by means of elections in which Palestinian residents and returning refugees would vastly outnumber Jews and vote into power a single government over what is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip."

Boudreaux gets to the core of this debate. If the people living in the region of Palestine could vote for their own government, the majority would vote against Israel. Therefore, both the U.S. and Israel oppose a national referendum.

Since we claim it is our destiny to "make the world safe for democracy" and our opposition to a democratic referendum would appear hypocritical, we simpy lie about Iran and their leaders.

In a global world, with an independent media, one would think it would be difficult to further a conspiracy of lies ... apparently we do not have an independent media!

The world press is more courageous. IranMania.com, based on London, points out the distortion of truth:

"It is not the first time President Ahmadinejad's words are misrepresented or distorted by western media. The statement attributed to him that 'Israel should be wiped off the map' is a distortion of the truth and has been determined by a number of Persian linguists, amongst them, Professor Juan Cole, to be a mistranslation." [source]

Jonathan Steele, writing in the Guardian, adds:

"My recent comment piece explaining how Iran's president was badly misquoted when he allegedly called for Israel to be 'wiped off the map' has caused a welcome little storm. The phrase has been seized on by western and Israeli hawks to re-double suspicions of the Iranian government's intentions, so it is important to get the truth of what he really said." [source]

Steele's comments get us to the most important point. Are we a nation of senseless war mongers? We all know today that we rushed into Iraq due to our false beliefs that Saddam Hussein had, or was developing, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.

This tragic error has cost countless Iraqi deaths -- maybe a million people by some estimates, including innocent children, woman and men, murdered by flawed American foreign policy.

What about the cost to American families? We have suffered over 30,000 American troop casualties to date. And, at what price to the American taxpayer -- millions of future taxpayers not yet born? The Iraq war is projected to cost over $3 trillion.

We have a media complicit in a conspiracy of violence, death and destruction or they are simply lazy and ignorant. Either way, this is a tragic failure of the media's institutional responsibility to provide truth to the American public.

Are you weak minded and a coward? Or, are you going to demand higher standards from our leaders?