Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
Debate issues related to the politics of the UK, such as the actions of any MP, any current or potential law, or any other factor affecting the British political system.
The Iranian President Makes More Sense Than Bush, McCain or Obama
Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
The full text of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to the UN General Assembly last week was printed in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz (9-25-08).
Although our Founding Fathers would have comprehended and endorsed Ahmadinejad’s speech to the United Nations, present-day Americans would find it strange should they happen to hear about it.
Unlike their forbears, Americans today live a material life, not a spiritual one. Americans are far too likely to dismiss Ahmadinejad’s words about obeisance to God and justice as the mumbo-jumbo of an “Islamist extremist.”
[b]The hubris of Americans and their belief in U.S. “exceptionalism” would cause them to reject Ahmadinejad’s holding the US, its NATO puppets, and Israel accountable before the UN General Assembly. So successfully has Ahmadinejad been demonized by the propagandistic US media that his speech would be dismissed out of hand by the arrogance of those who regard themselves as the salt of the earth.
Ahmadinejad echos the statements of other world leaders when he says that US power is rapidly waning. The US “superpower” is dependent on foreigners for its financing. The US cannot exist without Chinese financing, just as Europe cannot exist without Russian energy. America’s European puppet regimes are rethinking the consequences of serving US hegemony.
A “superpower” that cannot subdue Iraq and Afghanistan cannot subdue Russia and China. Do Americans and their neocon leaders believe that China and Russia will lend the US the money to finance a war against themselves? Do they believe that Russia will keep America’s NATO puppets supplied with energy if American aggression against Russia intensifies?
Warnings about America’s financial dependency on foreigners have been ignored.
The bailout of the US financial system is entirely dependent on the willingness of the Chinese, Saudis, and other foreigners to use their trade surpluses with the US to purchase the US Treasury instruments that must be sold in order to raise the money for Bush’s bailout of the financial institutions.
The bailout of the US government’s budget has been going on for years, and it takes place every time the US Treasury holds an auction of new American debt. But now the bailout by foreigners of the US government is starting to turn into much larger sums that carry much higher risks.
Last week the Financial Times reported that Peer Steinbruck, the Finance Minister of Germany, said that the American financial crisis was “a fundamental rupture” and that “the US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system.”
Steinbruck is being charitable. The US lost that status when it became dependent on foreigners to finance American consumption of foreign goods and US goods and services produced offshore in addition to the war-swollen budget deficits of the US government. Indeed, foreigners finance Americans’ home mortgages. The Chinese alone hold about $400 billion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds.
Is Ahmadinejad correct in his view that, with the waning of American hegemonic power, the world is on the verge of a better, more humane, and more just world? I wonder. Many Americans think of themselves as hard-nosed realists. They believe that it is a dog-eat-dog world: We have to get “them” before they get us. This paranoid view is the basis of US foreign and military policy. It holds that America must not only have the military power to overwhelm any combination of possible enemies, but also America must prevent the rise of any country or countries that could challenge American power. This is a “diplomacy” without any concept of peaceful coexistence or good will among men. Yet, Americans think of themselves as a Christian nation.
Neocons and macho Republicans think we don’t win our wars because we lack the balls to use enough force. They believe that the US should nuke every country that doesn’t follow our orders. Indeed, many American “conservatives” are lusting for the US to nuke a country in order “to teach the world a lesson.”
To accommodate this blood-lust, the Bush Pentagon revised US war doctrine to permit preemptive nuclear attack even upon non-nuclear-armed countries. During the long cold war, preemptive nuclear attack was not a US option.
Which vision of the future will win out? Ahmadinejad’s policy of peaceful co-existence or neoconservative desires for American world dominance? The chance is too high for comfort that the hubris and arrogance of the United States will lead to a nuclear confrontation that will destroy the world.
People of good will hope that Ahmadinejad and Steinbruck’s views will prevail and that the rest of the world will wake up and ask if they want to continue financing America’s hegemonic ventures that threaten life on earth. The day the foreign bankers turn off the credit spigot to the US Treasury, American arrogance will be tamed.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
Iranian President Ahmadinejad's speech to the United Nations General Assembly
In the last three years, I have talked to you about great hopes in the bright future of human society, and some solutions for achieving sustainable peace and expanding love, compassion, and cooperation.
I have also talked about unjust systems governing the world; pressures exerted by some powers seeking to trample the rights of other nations, oppression imposed on the majority of the global community, especially on the people of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Africa, Latin America, and Asia; about challenges we are faced with, such as efforts to shatter the sanctity of families, destroy cultures, humiliate lofty values, neglect commitments, expand the shadow of threats, as well as about the arms race and the unfairness and inability of the systems governing world affairs in reforming the status quo.
P.M. - It's the peoples of Europe who suffer most from the oppression of the (non-European) majority. We are the ones being invaded, and it is our cultures that are most under attack
Obeisance to God means abandoning selfishness and animal instincts, power-seeking and aggression, surrendering to righteousness, justice, love, and perfection.
And in this way, humans can achieve their true freedom and flourish, they can grow and manifest divine attributes, have affection for others, stand up for justice, and fear no power or threat, and defend the oppressed. In such an environment, one's freedom will not impinge on any others.
Justice is the foundation of the creation of humankind and the whole universe. Justice is tantamount to placing every phenomenon in its own place, and providing humans with opportunities to actualize all their divine capabilities. Without it, the order of the universe will collapse and the opportunity for perfection will fade away. Without justice, it would be impossible for human society to taste real peace, beauty, joy and happiness. Justice is the main pillar of social life and without it, social life cannot continue or grow.
- as long as the aggressors, because of their financial, political and propaganda powers, not only escape punishment but even claim righteousness, - and as long wars are started and nations are enslaved in order to win votes in elections, not only will the problems of the global community remain unsolved, but they will be increasingly exacerbated.
Iraq was attacked under the false pretext of uncovering weapons of mass destruction and overthrowing a dictator. The dictator is toppled and WMDs are not uncovered. A democratic government is established by the votes of the people but, after 6 years, the occupiers are still there. They insist on imposing colonial agreements on the people of Iraq by keeping them under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. Millions of people have been killed or displaced, and the occupiers, without a sense of shame, are still seeking to solidify their position in the political geography of the region and to dominate oil resources.
In Palestine, 60 years of carnage and invasion is still ongoing at the hands of some criminal and occupying Zionists. They have forged a regime through collecting people from various parts of the world and bringing them to other people?s land by displacing, detaining, and killing the true owners of that land.
With advance notice, they invade, assassinate, and maintain food and medicine blockades, while some hegemonic and bullying powers support them. The Security Council cannot do anything and sometimes, under pressure from a few bullying powers, even paves the way for supporting these Zionist murderers. It is natural that some UN resolutions that have addressed the plight of the Palestinian people have been relegated to the archives unnoticed.
The lives, properties and rights of the people of Georgia and Ossetia and Abkhazia are victims of the tendencies and provocations of NATO and certain western powers, and the underhanded actions of the Zionists.
With regard to Iran's peaceful nuclear program, despite the inalienable right of all nations including the Iranian nation, in producing nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes, and despite such facts as the transparency of all Iranian activities and our country's full cooperation with the inspectors of the IAEA and the Agency's repeated confirmation of the fact that Iran's activities are peaceful, a few bullying powers have sought to put hurdles in the way of the peaceful nuclear activities of the Iranian nation by exerting political and economic pressures against Iran, and also through threatening and pressuring the IAEA.
These are the same powers that produce new generations of lethal nuclear arms and possess stockpiles of nuclear weapons that no international organization is monitoring; and, the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were perpetrated by one of them.
Indeed, they are not against weapons, but they oppose other nations? progress, and tend to monopolize technologies and to use those monopolies in order to impose their will on other nations.
The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support.
This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will.
Today, the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters.
P.M. - Cesspool, no - that's the nature of the Beast, but I don't see it collapsing anytime soon, and pray it never will.
American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders. Today, the thought of hegemony quickly becomes a demerit.
P.M. - I doubt the injured animal will quietly crawl away. Expect some bloody thrashing around.
He's a bit of a loose-cannon, and probably not the best spokesman either for the Iranians or the causes he espouses, but I can't help liking the little monkey.
Nobody can be all bad who mocks the likes of the Jewboys' slave Cameron who says support for the Jewish ethnic state is in his party's DNA even as he calls British nationalism racist.
Re: Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
"The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support.
This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will."
Replace "Zionists" with "Jews" (not exactly a long step) and this could have come straight out of Mein Kampf. I think the rule should be that anyone who rants on about "Zionists" more than 5 times in one speech should be instantly ignored.
Re: Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
Yes, he'd be more accurate there to simply name the Jew. If it echoes passages from Mein Kampf, or a thousand other references to Jews throughout history, that hardly matters - the "anti-semitic canards" are usually true, after all.
Re: Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
Originally Posted by JonathanH
"The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support.
This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will."
Replace "Zionists" with "Jews" (not exactly a long step) and this could have come straight out of Mein Kampf. I think the rule should be that anyone who rants on about "Zionists" more than 5 times in one speech should be instantly ignored.
Meh, same could be said about some of the negative comments about Muslims and the Islamic faith. Ironically you yourself Jonathan are in no position to stand up for the defence of people who are prejudiced against because of their faith
Re: Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
Originally Posted by Meus
Meh, same could be said about some of the negative comments about Muslims and the Islamic faith. Ironically you yourself Jonathan are in no position to stand up for the defence of people who are prejudiced against because of their faith
Just as the "anti-semitic canards" are usually perfectly true (including the Ahmadinejad comment that Jonathan quoted), so are most of the claims characterised as "islamophobic".
The only difference between the two "faith groups" is that the Heebs' innate anti-humanity was made INTO their religion; while the Arabs' (presumed normal) humanity was PERVERTED by their adopting the Jewgod and "his" (the Jews') animosity toward the rest of the world.
OUR wisest path, as non-semites, is to leave the two tribes alone, in THEIR corner of the globe - and insist they leave us alone in OURS. And when a Jew/Muslim leader like Ahmadinejad says he wishes only for peace with us, our leaders ought to applaud his speech and reply in kind - but because HE'S RIGHT about the Yahoodies' grip on out power structures, they line up to attack him. They are an animal totally controlled by its parasite, and every ****** knows it.
Re: Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
He's a bit of a loose-cannon, and probably not the best spokesman either for the Iranians
I recently travelled, and the thing most Iranians had to say was, "I hope the west doesn't think we're like our leaders." So no, he is not the best spokesman for the Iranians.
Re: Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
Originally Posted by P.M.
Just as the "anti-semitic canards" are usually perfectly true (including the Ahmadinejad comment that Jonathan quoted), so are most of the claims characterised as "islamophobic".
The only difference between the two "faith groups" is that the Heebs' innate anti-humanity was made INTO their religion; while the Arabs' (presumed normal) humanity was PERVERTED by their adopting the Jewgod and "his" (the Jews') animosity toward the rest of the world.
OUR wisest path, as non-semites, is to leave the two tribes alone, in THEIR corner of the globe - and insist they leave us alone in OURS. And when a Jew/Muslim leader like Ahmadinejad says he wishes only for peace with us, our leaders ought to applaud his speech and reply in kind - but because HE'S RIGHT about the Yahoodies' grip on out power structures, they line up to attack him. They are an animal totally controlled by its parasite, and every ****** knows it.
Officially, there are no gays in the U.S. army like there are no gays in Iran.
Ironic?
It said "no homosexual acts"...they could be homosexual...it's just that they don't do the acts.
I guess you didn't read this part..."The policy requires that as long as gay or bisexual men and women in the military hide their sexual orientation, commanders are not allowed to investigate their sexuality."
By the way...homosexuality is not all about having intercourse between two males or females...it's about the love between two people of the same gender.
Re: Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
The gays in the military issue has basically been "don't ask don't tell" for as long as I can remember, even before president Clinton made it official.
That's a lot different....then denying homosexuality EXISTS in your country.
Heck, you (UGeNe) brought up the argument, then gave the link that completely voids your allegation in the first place.
But if all you meant (UGeNe) was that it is a bit of a funny ironic twist (in a distant but amusing way) , i suppose we can concede that.
Debate issues related to the politics of the UK, such as the actions of any MP, any current or potential law, or any other factor affecting the British political system.
Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
!
