Iran, Israel, and Existential Threats
Somebody bothered to ask the president of Iran what the hell he meant by that Israel "wiped off the map" comment a few years back. His answer is in the excerpt below.
It is also worth noting that when Saddam Hussein attacked Iran with chemical weapons, Iran did not respond in kind, and their religious leaders have said nuclear weapons are a sin. They also haven't invaded any countries for over a hundred years, and have a military budget that's a fraction of ours.
The truly ironic thing the author of this article pointed out is that while Obama was telling the Muslim world that we don't kill people over offensive words and images, our government and Israel are contemplating killing a lot of Iranians over that "wiped off the map" comment and the possibility that they MIGHT get nuclear weapons and MIGHT use them on Israel or the United States, and action that would be self-inflicted genocide since Israel has hundreds of nukes and we have thousands, more than enough to wipe Iran off the map and have plenty left over for every other possible enemy.
I don't like many aspects of their religious government, but is not justification to kill thousands or start a war that could escalate to a World War since China and Russia might not look too kindly on our military occupation of the top three oil reserve countries in the world.
There is a lot of scare-mongering here on DU about Iran and I think most people are too smart to fall for it. We need to convince our friends and neighbors too, so politicians might at least think twice before doing this.
The Wall Street Journal follows that paragraph with this: "Note that word -- 'eliminated.' When Iranians talk about Israel, this intention of a final solution keeps coming up. In October 2005, Mr. Ahmadinejad, quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini, said Israel 'must be wiped off the map.' Lest anyone miss the point, the Iranian President said in June 2008 that Israel 'has reached the end of its function and will soon disappear off the geographical domain.'"
But in fact, when pressed on this, what Ahmadinejad has said is: "Our proposal is for everyone to allow people to freely hold elections and choose their governors. It's been 6 ½ to 7 decades during which the people of Palestine have been dislodged from their homes. And their territories are under occupation, and an occupying regime has been bullying them and forcing them into the current conditions. If such a fate would have come into the lives of ordinary Americans, what proposal would you have had for them? I am sure you would propose for their elimination of international bullying and occupation. Imagine in your mind that the occupation of Palestine has come to an end. What would there remain? So this is the essence of what we are saying."
In other words, were Palestine freed of apartheid and occupation, were all of its people permitted to freely determine their future, that future would not include a government that gives superior status to Jews. Such a future could be horrible, or it could be more democratic and respectful of individual rights than Israel is, or than Iran is, or than the United States is.
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Talking about the nuclear question, Ahmadinejad told us, has grown tiresome and repetitive. Iran is in compliance with the law and has put the IAEA in charge of inspections. The root cause of U.S. aggression toward Iran, he said, has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. Why did the United States back Saddam Hussein in a war against Iran? Because the Iranian people had overthrown a U.S.-backed dictatorship. Why has the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran in the past, he asked, when nuclear enrichment was not an issue? In the past year, he noted, the United States has sold over $70 billion in weapons to nations in the Persian Gulf, while Iran spends less one-fifth that amount. How, he asked, is Iran the aggressor?
http://warisacrime.org/content/iran-israel-and-existential-threats
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