At the United Nations today, Holocaust denying Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke to a lot of empty seats as some nations boycotted his speech, while other walked out. According to the Brisbane Times of Australia (I know that’s a weird source, but Hot Air had a link to Down Under):
France on Wednesday led a walkout of a dozen delegations, including the United States, to protest a fiery speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the UN General Assembly.
“It is disappointing that Mr Ahmadinejad has once again chosen to espouse hateful, offensive and anti-Semitic rhetoric,” Mark Kornblau, spokesman to the US mission to the United Nations, said in a statement.
Delegations from Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, France Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and the United States left the room as Ahmadinejad began to rail against Israel, a European source said.
Israel had already called for a boycott of the speech, and was not present when the Iranian leader began his address. Canada had already said it would heed the boycott call.
I want to thank President Obama for ordering the U.S. delegation to take this action (they wouldn’t have done so on such an occasion without presidential direction). It was the right thing to do, and regardless of what you might think of American policy toward Iran, it was the only treatment that a lunatic such as Ahmadinejad deserved.
I also have to offer you the line of the day on the bizarre performance by Muammar Qadhafi at the U.N., from Hot Air’s Allahpundit:
As loathsome as he is, I couldn’t help feeling a tiny — tiny — bit of sympathy at watching someone who quite clearly lacks the mental capacity to realize he’s making a spectacle of himself. Ever seen a homeless guy ranting at no one in particular, and quite convinced that he’s winning the “argument”? Dude.
As Marty Feldman said in Young Frankenstein, “on the nosey!”
September 24, 2009 at 1:19 am
Thank you for this David, I didn’t know about the walk out. That is great. Things are really getting crazy. I don’t know if you saw this, “They’re torturing me, Zelaya claims Honduras’ fallen leader told The Miami Herald he is being subjected to mind-altering gas and radiation — and that `Israeli mercenaries’ are planning to assassinate him.” you can find it at http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/1248828.html
I think we have a strong alliance between socalist and radical Islam.
September 24, 2009 at 7:27 am
I’m kind of curious as to what your definition of socialist is. It seems to have become a catch all phrase in the States to refer to everything from communist dictatorship to someone who things that a strong central government and a good social safety net are good things.
September 24, 2009 at 8:09 am
I don’t know what Viola’s definition of socialist is, but Zelaya is an ally of Hugo Chavez, for whom it is not a term of opprobrium but a self-description based on his affinity for Cuba. I think calling Zelaya a socialist, therefore, is probably justified. Calling him crazy sounds like it would be, as well.
September 24, 2009 at 9:06 am
I think crazy pretty much covers it.
September 24, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I didn’t mean to leave you hanging. I was rather careless with my terminology. In this case I am referring to a radical left and/or right leaning socialism with Hugo Chavez and Cuba in the definition. I don’t want to quite say Marxism because that kind of socialism in South America is changing. If you can remember that fascism was also Socialism only of the nationalistic kind you might be surprised to find a great deal of fascism in South American Socialism but minus the nationalism. These are interesting times and a lot of boundaries are unclear. So have I left you even more confused?
And I agree with the word crazy too!
September 25, 2009 at 9:13 am
[...] MINI-HITLER: “At the United Nations today, Holocaust denying Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke [...]
September 25, 2009 at 10:21 am
I just find the use of the word interesting. I’m not a socialist by that definition, but I don’t consider the word an insult, either – because it can also refer, as I said, to someone who thinks that strong central government and taxpayer funded medical care are a good thing. By that definiton, I happily wear the label socialist.
September 25, 2009 at 10:55 am
Dismissing the president of Iran as a lunatic is not particularly helpful in understanding what is going on.
Ahmadinejad is wrong, ungodly,and evil but the reasons for his denials of the holocaust are unrelated to his mental health. They are rooted in political, cultural, and spiritual factors.
For instance, the walk-outs by Western delegations during his UN speech don’t mean that he lost an argument. His acutal audience are the Iranians and the rest of the Muslim world with whom he is struggling. Comparing him to a homeless schizophrenic who is raving when no one is present is to miss the point.
It’s a bit like those who say “Hitler was insane” without ever taking the trouble to understand all the cultural, philosophical, and political factors that went into making National Socialism and the holocaust happen.
Hitler wasn’t insane. Given his philosophical views of collectivism, socialism, and national identity – his policies made a perfect twisted sense. And lots and lots of the very “respectable” scientists, cultural leaders, and intellegentsia of his time shared them.
We’ll never defeat our spiritual and intellectual enemies by dismissing them as crazy. It’s far better to understand and refute their arguments.
September 26, 2009 at 12:54 am
Elliot the crazy was meant for Zelaya, who claimed Jewish mercenaries were after him, sending some kind of rays toward him. I agree about Ahmadinejad, he knows exactly what he is doing and what is going on.
September 26, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Viola, I was referring to the original post.
September 29, 2009 at 6:49 am
I have no problem calling Hitler, Chavez, Qadhafi and Ahmadinejad crazy and paranoid. Yes, they know/knew what they were doing in their own twisted minds, but that doesn’t make them sane. Insanity is the denial of reality.