Creepy interview with Ahmadinejad

National Review has an article by Michael Ledeen called "The Iranian Challenge", which looks at an interview Iranian President Ahmadinejad recently did for the German Magazine Der Spiegel. Reading Ahmadinejad's commentary is often disturbing, creepy really, because he talks like a cultist, and he has an air of confidence that maintains he really doesn't have to answer to anyone. Not elected, but chosen by the Mullahs whose hands he kisses. Some excerpts from Ledeen's article:

...He’s not at all interested in what we call “the pursuit of the truth,” so there is no real interview or dialogue (the crowd calling for negotiations with this regime ought to study this text, because if they do it seriously they will realize that you cannot negotiate with these people). He constantly projects Iranian political culture onto the rest of the world, which is what you would expect from an uncultured ideologue. And it’s astonishing to watch the Spiegel interviewer fall into one rhetorical trap after another. In many ways, the interview is noteworthy for its exposure of the fecklessness of a German interviewer facing an Iranian bully.

When Ahmadinejad says “I don’t know what all the excitement is about” concerning the possibility he would attend the World Cup in Germany this summer, he’s told that it’s because of his remarks about the Holocaust. “So you were surprised...?” the interviewer says. Uninterested in what he said a sentence before, Ahmadinejad tosses out a new version: “No, not at all, because the network of Zionism is very active...”

And that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the interview. It’s always “heads I win, tails you lose.” Or rather, the Jews lose. Early on, he says “if (the Holocaust) did not occur, then the Jews have to go back to where they came from.” And a bit later he says “If there really had been a Holocaust, Israel ought to be located in Europe...” So he wants to ship the Jews to Europe, period. Talk about the Holocaust is neither here nor there.

When the Spiegel interviewer tries to suggest that there is abundant evidence for the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad first tosses off one of his great gag lines (“Normally, governments promote and support the work of researchers on historical events and do not put them in prison”), as if his regime had not arrested, tortured, and murdered thousands of Iranians who tried to tell the truth about the actions of the regime. Then he assaults the poor German: Why do you have to support the Zionists? Why do you Germans still feel guilty about the Holocaust? “Why must the German people be humiliated today because a group of people committed crimes in the name of the Germans during the course of history?” The Spiegel journalist doesn’t have the wit to ask Ahmadinejad why jihadis like him base their actions on events that took place centuries ago, and then have the chutzpah to condemn the Germans for feeling guilt about the actions of their parents.

The use of “humiliation” tells us a lot about the way the mullahs think about the world; they look at international events as a matter of domination or humiliation, and he hammers away at this theme: “Saying that we should accept the world as it is would mean that...the German people would be humiliated for another 1.000 years. Do you think that is the correct logic?”

You can be quite certain that the mullahs are not going to accept anything less than the humiliation of the West, and Ahmadinejad’s hatred for the Europeans oozes from every verbal exchange. When the Spiegel interviewer asks him whether he wants nuclear weapons, Ahmadinejad treats him with total contempt...

(bold emphasis mine) You can read the whole thing HERE.



Ahmadinejad has got this cult attitude; he knows how to blow smoke, how to say things that sound good, even though they aren't true. He is using a measuring stick, Fundamentalist Islam, which is his reference for everything; trying to talk to him in terms of Western thinking and viewpoints won't get you far. He won't entertain thoughts outside of the box of Islamic interpretation. It's a cult defense mechanism; as long as the ideology isn't threatened, he can continue entertaining whatever spooky thoughts he has in his head, believing he has a superior knowlege that outsiders don't understand, and justifies his actions and beliefs.

It is what people in cults do, to avoid dealing with inconvenient things like rationality and logic, that challenge the cherished beliefs. If they tell you their "truth", you either understand it or you don't; there is nothing to discuss. If you don't understand it, then you are the enemy... even if he doesn't say it. He can make all the politically correct statements he wants about wanting "peace", but he can't be trusted. People in cults think it's fine to lie to non-believers. Look at the promises that were made to the Iranian people, and what actually happened after the revolution took place.

That's what I sense from this guy, and I find it really creepy. Can you imagine him with nuclear weapons? How "reasonable" to you think he can or would be, once he has that kind of power?

You can read the whole creepy interview with Der Spiegel HERE. It also has a european flavor that I really don't care for at all.