Don't Get Fooled Again

Iran's 'President' Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again questioned whether the Holocaust ever occurred, and took a militant stance on Israel. He's been at this for the past week. He earlier claimed that if the Holocaust occurred, it should be the Europeans who should set up a new Jewish state in Europe and excise Israel from the Middle East.

Nice guy.

And why is the media giving this guy the honorific of president? He's just the lead guy in a totalitarian dictatorship, whose intentions are clear for anyone who actually bothers to read what they say. They call for the genocide of the Jewish people - eliminating the state of Israel, have every intention of getting nuclear weapons to do just that, and to impose their will on the Middle East at the earliest possible opportunity.

Ahmadinejad has been unapologetic about taking Iran on a more openly defiant course, insisting on Iran’s right to develop its nuclear program and often using rhetoric reminiscent of the 1980s heyday of the Islamic Revolution.

But he has alienated even some conservative allies in Iran, who fear he is hurting the country’s image. Moderate Iranians have called on the ruling Islamic establishment to rein in the president.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate say on all matters, has backed Ahmadinejad’s calls for Israel’s elimination.

The controversy comes at a sensitive time for Iran, which is under heavy international pressure over its nuclear program. The United States is pressing the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

The IAEA hasn't taken up the issue, despite its receipt of a Nobel Prize for curbing nuclear proliferation. That's curious in and of itself. You would think that an organization dedicated to stopping nuclear proliferation would do everything possible to stop a member nation from obtaining nuclear weapons, yet it steadfastly refuses to act on Iran. Curious.

And hurting Iran's image? Was it all that good to begin with? Give me a break. The conservative mullahs are simply concerned that Ahmadinejad's comments will actually be believed by the West and steps will be taken to curtail Iran's nuclear program well before they could obtain the nuclear weapons that they covet. I don't trust the Iranians, and we should verify what they say.

UPDATE:
Israel believes that Iran is as close as 2 years from getting the bomb to as many as 10 years. That's quite a range. Intel agencies can't quite narrow that range down, which speaks volumes to how much we really know about rogue regimes and their intentions. Considering that Iran has publicly declared that they would like to see the Middle East without Israel in its midst, do you want to trust the Iranians with that kind of spread on their capabilities? In fact, there have been some reports that the Iranians are as little as a year away from having the ability to build a nuclear weapon, which were quickly followed by supposed leaks from Israeli military officials that were preparing plans to strike against Iranian nuclear facilities much as an earlier generation of Israelis destroyed the Osirak reactor in Iraq before it could go online in 1981.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said Tuesday that Iran was approaching the point where it would have the technological know-how to build nuclear weapons.

According to Halutz, it is possible that Iran would be able to complete building a bomb as early as 2008 or as far as 2015.

And with all the criticism that the Iranians have gotten for their comments, has any tangible action been taken to rein in the Iranian threat by the IAEA, the EU, or the UN? Nope. Just lots of talk and platitudes - along with apparently a silent prayer and hope that the Iranians don't get the bomb on their watch.

UPDATE:
Pamela at Atlas Shrugged thinks that the Iranians are trying to goad the Israelis into attacking because they want a conflict. In fact, she thinks that the Iranians already have a bomb and are awaiting an attack to unleash it. I'm not convinced of that, but considering that the Iranians were assisted by the AH Khan nuclear network, anything is possible.