IRANIAN PRESIDENT Ahmadinejad has written a letter to President Bush, the first high-level communication between Iran and America for almost three decades. The 18-page document has not yet been made public, but, according to leaks which have reached the media, Ahmadinejad wrote about the invasion of Iraq, an alleged US cover-up over the 9/11 attacks, Israel’s right to exist and the role of religion.
The BBC informs us that Ahmadinejad’s letter is “important” because it reinforces the point that he is willing to negotiate with anyone, including President Bush, to avoid conflict over the nuclear issue. The BBC also tells us that Ahmadinejad’s letter is “a bold step” in the light of the present crisis.
Perhaps the BBC should be more careful in its use of language. The organisation should remember that rambling 18-page letters by Middle Eastern leaders are the equivalent of interminable speeches by members of the former Politburo. They are just statements of official policy, not a serious attempt at reconciliation. They are propaganda exercises, intended for internal consumption, an attempt to occupy the moral high ground and portray the American administration as intransigent.
Given the contents of his letter, President Ahmadinejad himself would almost certainly collapse with shock if George Bush phoned him and invited him to Washington for a face-to-face summit. He would be equally surprised that the BBC praises his initiative as “a bold step”. But Mr Ahmadinejad (as the BBC respectfully refers to him) probably does not realise how far the BBC has descended towards the fascism of political correctness.
Ahmadinejad criticises America, democracy
and Israel
In the letter, Ahmadinejad says that people around the world have lost faith in international institutions. He also attacks liberalism and Western-style democracy. “Today, these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems,” he writes. Curiously enough, Mr Ahmadinejad, if any ideologies did triumph in the last century, they were liberalism and democracy. Ahmadinejad is no doubt disappointed to know that the other ‘isms’ – notably Fascism, Communism, Nazism and Socialism – were either defeated, collapsed due to their own internal deficiencies, or are in terminal decline.
Ahmadinejad also suggests that there is increasing hatred towards the United States, and that history shows how “repressive and cruel governments do not survive”. Yes, there is a growing hatred of the West – and America in particular – but that is because Iranian and Middle Eastern leaders poison their people’s minds with anti-Americanism. And, yes, it would indeed be great if “repressive and cruel governments” (particularly Ahmadinejad’s) did not survive.
Predictably enough, Ahmadinejad also tears into Israel. “How can this phenomenon be rationalised or explained?” he wrote. My best answer is that Israel should exist because it is a safe haven for Jews fleeing from the likes of Ahmadinejad. And here I offer a quote: “Most Iranians still believe all influential world institutions are secretly run by a small group of Zionist Jews (the Iranian regime doesn’t usually make a distinction between Judaism and Zionism), who basically run the world. This includes CNN, The New York Times, Hollywood, the World Bank, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations”. The author of that testament was an Iranian Internet activist, Hossein Derakhshan, who now resides in Canada. The comments in brackets are his, not mine.
Here’s one last snippet from Ahmadinejad’s letter. “How much longer will the blood of the innocent men, women and children be spilled on the streets, and people’s houses destroyed over their heads?” My answer is this: I genuinely don’t know – that depends on when the Iranian people realise they elected a despot.
Following Ahmadinejad’s letter, American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough. She told The Associated Press: “This letter is not it.” No, Condi, it certainly isn’t – but it certainly made a comedic breakthrough with me.
by Gabriel Hershman
