Iran's new statement on Israel...

[BeautifulBurnout]

Originally Posted by Sean

Hm. I think talking about trusting politicians comparatively is sort of a moot point when you get right down to it. What it comes down to for me was that I was just a little surprised to see the responses here to these new statements from Ahmadinejad. Simply put, for me, they change nothing about my feelings towards the man. But it seems that they may have changed the views of some people here, yes?

Well, you know me. I have never been of the "bomb the bastards" frame of mine, no matter who the "bastards" in question happen to be. Middle way and all that, eh?

But I must also confess to having thought he didn't have all his dogs on one lead, and wasn't to be trusted until I started digging a little deeper. Firstly the fiasco that was the British Navy/Straits of Hormuz affair, with the blurring of truth as to where the Navy boat was when it was captured; I know my govt are capable of weasel words, but I didn't realise the extent to which they would actually tell huge great big porkie pies and expect us to swallow them whole.

And secondly, the realisation that the "wipe Israel from the map" statement was in fact never said by him at all. It takes the worst possible bad faith to translate what he actually said as being a threat of genocide. If I were to say "The Archbishop said this occupying regime in Iraq must vanish from the pages of time" is that me threatening to wipe the US and the UK off the map? Nuh-uh.

And! I really must stop starting sentences with conjunctions because it is bad grammar.

Edit: And! ... further grist to the mill here, from Richard Silverstein in the Grauniad (yes I know I am quoting liberal lefty media here for the most part, before anyone whacks me for it.)