According to the New York Times's Christine Hauser, an English translation of Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush has been released by UN officials. The NYT article includes this link to an English language text on the Le Monde website, purporting to be this English translation.
I have read the letter. I urge anyone interested or concerned in these matters to avail themselves of the potential for information access that the internet provides us. If I can find the time in the next day, I would like to add commentary on this.
The problem is that Ahmadinejad is no saint, surely, but the issues he raises are not entirely without value. The letter is one with many problems, but it is not the work of a madman. They are reasoned arguments and questions, if at times flawed and skewed by his own Weltanschaung. It is not however a worldview any more skewed than that of our current administration.
Regardless of our attitudes toward Iran and it's government, we must deal with them appropriately, lawfully, justly, for the sake of our world.
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2 comments:
The problem is that the arguments he makes that have merit, such as they do, are fundamentally irrelevant to the main issue at hand.
With regard to the rationality and reasonableness (different things, of course) in comparison with the Bush Administration, I'd just point out that both Bush and Ahmadinejad are anomolies in their respective systems....
I have no intention to be a defender of Ahmadinejad. But neither do I intend to defend the hypocritical warlords who lead our government. It's a very scary world to live in when religious zealots (both of them) who veil their own worldviews in the shawl of some god they claim to understand, wield (or potentially wield real weapons of mass destruction.
The point is, when I wish my four year old to do something, or not do something, the least effective means to accomplish that objective is for me to insist, over and over. The question is not who is right, but how do we achieve true peace and security in the world (and I think that is the proper order of things).
I don't claim to know the answer offhand, but I sure as hell don't trust Bush, and Cheney, and Bolton, and Rumsfeld to know it. Why the hell are they in charge of my country?
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