Ahmadinejad Seeks To Debate McCain and Obama
By Glenn Church | Related entries in Iran, NewsHello! I am Glenn Church and I blog on Foolocracy.com. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased when Justin recently asked if I would cross-post some of our stories.
At Foolocracy, we select a “Fool of the Day”-someone in politics who has done something absolutely absurd. Then, just to re-emphasize the fool, we place a jester cap on his head and show him or her to the world.
Foolocracy attempts to be non-partisan. Fools come in all political persuasions, after all. While U.S. politics are the main thrust, there is considerable international coverage. Sometimes the posts have sizeable editorial comment, sometimes just a line or two and sometimes there are no words to describe the foolish deed. Â
My own background? I am a native Californian with a long history in political campaigns, international human rights and environmental issues.
Introducing today’s fool…
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling for fundamental change in the next American government. To achieve his goals, Ahmadinejad wants to debate John McCain and Barack Obama.
“I announce my readiness to meet with all the (US presidential) candidates of the United States in front of the media,” he said.
Ahmadinejad also sought to debate President George Bush at the United Nations a couple of years ago.
The Iranian President stated that Iran would not back down from its nuclear program. He also called the United States the “greatest threat” in the world.
“The (U.S.) military bases in the whole world should be eradicated and removed,” Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad has previously stated Iranian women enjoy high levels of freedom, the holocaust did not occur and gays do not exist in Iran.
Congratulations to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Foolocracy’s Fool of the Day!
(For more foolish stories visit Foolocracy.com)
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 and is filed under Iran, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
So bizarre … his statements hail from some separate dimension, it seems.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I’m used to a little bit more analysis on donklephant. Can you explain why it’s foolish for Ahmadinejad to want to debate McCain and Obama? I mean, it’s unusual, and will clearly never happen, but why is it a bad idea? What’s the point of saying “Ahmadinejad wants a debate! everybody look and laugh!”?
July 10th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Didn’t you get the memo, Glenn? Iran is the victim here. They are only responding to Israeli and American warmongerring. We are provoking them. Having an illegal nuclear weapons program for 20 years, continuing to violate international agreements by enriching Uranium, supporting terrorists who kill Americans in Iraq, and launching a war against Israel via Hezbollah in 2006 does not count.
They are the victims because they are a poor, developing country of exotic people who are in conflict with rich, capitalist Americans and Jews.
All we need is an educated aristocrat like Barack Obama to directly talk to Ahmadinajad, and through his eloquent pedagogery, he will naturally cause these “noble savages” to see the folly of their ways and Ahmadinajad will instantly dispose of his apocalyptic religious rhetoric, or”opiate of the masses,” and magically abandon all of his geopolitical ambitions.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Jimmy, what precisely does this have to do with Barack Obama?
MDG is right. We don’t look especially good if the best we can do is say “everyone look and laugh.” Obviously the guy is a fool for some of his past statements, but what’s foolish about asking for a debate? It’s actually pretty savvy, because if we are so sure he’s wrong about everything, why isn;t a debate an opportunity?
The answer of course is that a debate is really just a political theater game, and this guy has very good skills. In a widely telvised debate, this guy would score points by getting lots of folks to say ” yeah, home come…. .”
The problems for US in this region are multiple. We can’t really explain our rationale for why we get to have nukes but no one else is allowed to join the club. Unless we claim singular virtue. That’s a tough sell, and folks tend to take offense at it.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:25 am
There appears to be some confusion between debate and negotiation.
Negotiation is the backbone of every successful foreign policy.
Nobody gets killed when two sides talk. However, it is rare to find a problem successfully negotiated publicly. Can you imagine Krushchev and Kennedy debating the Cuban Missile Crisis? Yes, both sides publicly played it out on the world stage, but the solutions were negotiated in secret. One of the first rules in trying to get an adversary to change a position is not to back him or her into an embarassing situation. Debates are all about that.
No one can seriously think that putting John McCain, Barack Obama and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a town hall meeting or before a George Stephanopolus moderated debate is going to solve anything. This would be a circus. It would not solve the problems any better than the Bush administrations refusal to talk to Iranian leaders.
A debate would play to the audience with grandstanding and theatrics. It is better to get serious and try to solve the real problems.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Should The chairman of NASA hold a televised debate with Alex Jones about whether the 1969 moon landing was staged? Would the surgeon General have a debate with Gary Null on whether drinking urine cures cancer? Would you debate a gorilla on the value of eating your own shit?
Why would you even think it worthy to legitimize Ahmadinajad’s position on the global stage for the president to have a debate with him? The debate is over, the jury is out. The Iranian regime is illegitimate, tyrannical and run by terrorists. Their goals in the region are unacceptable and they have to stop what they are doing.
A highly touted presidential summit where Obama and Ahmadinajad shake hands amidst the crackling of press core flash bulbs achieves about as much anyway. I wonder if Obama would adorn a Kufi as Ahmadinajad gives him a tour of that Shrine in Qom where the 12th Imam is believed to be hiding for 1000 years, all while they sip tea and the paparazzi follow them. This type of thing is quite common during presidential summits, no?
Tell that to the Czechs of the Sudetenland, or the Tutsis of Rawanda, or the ethnic Albanians of Serbia, or the Kurds, or the Darfurians. But I digress, those comparisons aren’t necessarily applicable here. Unless of course, that all this legitimizing and talking and debating merely buys time whereby the Iranians can produce enough Uranium to develop a bomb which is smuggled via Syria to Hezbollah. Then a lot of people get killed.
July 13th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Overall: 55% Conservative, 45% Liberal
August 18th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Have you seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX2yNZ3-Rzo