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Is Ahmadinejad insane or politically driven? Or both?

Chaos said:
We do? Really? Then explain the politicians we have.

No, seriously. Explain "Tricky Dick" Nixon. Explain HGW "Read my lips: no new taxes" Bush. Explain Bill "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" Clinton.

While you´re at it, you could also explain Silvio Berlusconi or Franz Josef Strauß or Helmut Kohl, or any number of other European politicians.

Go on. Tell us how these democratically elected and re-elected liars prove that we treat lying as a bad thing in and of itself.
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There are countries that are essentially built and maintained on huge structures of lies. More accurately, there are power systems so existant, and some are the political structure of countries.

This is certainly not the case in the US and I think we can all name examples of where it is or has been. Now these are comments on entire societies and do not answer your question about individual political leaders.

But individual leaders don't make the society, and if it is built on a structure of lies, they could be expected to cater to that.

Hence, his comments about Israel.
 
Paranormal Inquirer said:
We've seen his latest 9/11 truth statement. After reading everything he's said for the last few years, I'm convinced that if I would have said such things, nobody would take me seriously. In fact, I'd probably be advised to see a psychiatrist.

So do you think Ahmadinejad is really insane? Or do you think he does everything for political posturing? Or both (not mutually exclusive)?
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Or neither?
 
Ziggurat said:
He really said that Israel would be "erased from the pages of history". The issue of the "misquote" was that this was translated as "wiped off the map" since the latter is a more familiar idiom in the west than the former. The literal meaning is different but the figurative meaning is the same.
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No it's not and he was talking about a regime.
 
Ziggurat said:
There's no reason to think that he's insane. Now, that doesn't mean he's examining the events of 9/11 with anything approaching rationality, but that's not enough for insanity.

One of the things I think we westerners don't usually appreciate is how accepted blatant dishonesty is in much of the world. We treat lying as something bad in and of itself, but that's simply not the case everywhere. It's particularly rampant in the middle east - not just on large issues, but even on small ones.
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I'm not sure you could have picked a more ironic link. Newsmax perhaps?
 
Ziggurat said:
That's an alternative, but it's hardly the only one. We could also be moving more aggressively to isolate Iran, for example. There are far more than two options on the table.
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Being aggressively isolated is normal for Iran.
 
Paranormal Inquirer said:
We've seen his latest 9/11 truth statement. After reading everything he's said for the last few years, I'm convinced that if I would have said such things, nobody would take me seriously. In fact, I'd probably be advised to see a psychiatrist.

So do you think Ahmadinejad is really insane? Or do you think he does everything for political posturing? Or both (not mutually exclusive)?
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Those are certainly the two leading possibilties. But there is another possibility:

Perhaps Ahmadinejad is a huge Andy Kaufman fan, and his statements are all really part of a Kaufman-esque joke he's playing on the world. :D
 
Pardalis said:
So this makes it how many raging lunatic heads of state that you support?

I lost count.
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Do you really see no other possibilities than insanity or doing everything for political posturing?
 
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Ziggurat said:
One of the things I think we westerners don't usually appreciate is how accepted blatant dishonesty is in much of the world. We treat lying as something bad in and of itself, but that's simply not the case everywhere. It's particularly rampant in the middle east - not just on large issues, but even on small ones.
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How, as a westerner who sees lying as "something bad in and of itself", do you square propagating the political Wipe-Israel-off-the-map lie?
 
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Pardalis said:
So he is insane.

If you're reading this and you think this makes any sense, then I'm very sorry for you.
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Rubbish. You don't care about me at all, but that's completely beside the point, as I'm sure you know!

Please define "insane", with reference to President Ahmadinejad's speech. Be specific, if you are able.

Thank you.
 
Ziggurat said:
One of the things I think we westerners don't usually appreciate is how accepted blatant dishonesty is in much of the world. We treat lying as something bad in and of itself, but that's simply not the case everywhere. It's particularly rampant in the middle east - not just on large issues, but even on small ones.
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You're quite right to point out how accepted blatant dishonesty is in much of the world, but that's true in the West as much as anywhere else.

The only limitation to a politician's dishonesty is how much he can get his audience to believe to further his political goals without appearing delusional.

In the West education and sources of information are generally a little better than in Iran, so Ahmadinejad can usually get away with more than a Western politician could - though the difference is a lot smaller than most people think.

Case in point is the US invasion of Iraq, shortly after the WTC-attack. That was on the public pretext to destroy Saddam's (development of) weapons of mass destruction, and insinuated a link between him and Al Qaeda.
The effect of the WTC-attacks was to blind public opinion by rage, while the political opposition was effectively silenced. Otherwise those lies would never have been accepted by enough people to gather support for an invasion.

Ahmadinejad's audience is in Iran. In large part he just says what they want to hear - that the countries hostile to Iran are evil. And lies are easiest to believe if they are what you want to hear.
 
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Paranormal Inquirer said:
In case that's not enough.
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Yeah, I already read his speech. Which psychiatric diagnosis are you postulating?

Personally I think one would have to be a bit bonkers oneself to believe an insane person could hold down the job of being the president of a large, politically complex, technologically advanced country.

He appears to be perfectly articulate and in control of his mind.

Paranormal Inquirer said:
Care to name another possibility?
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Thoughful analysis, believing what he's saying, genuine politicking, asserting power, manipulating Obama, projecting and protecting his country's interests - the possibilties to be considered are many and varied, unless one has one's head in a bucket of imagination-stifling, possibly racist or culturally imperialist dogma.
 
JihadJane said:
Personally I think one would have to be a bit bonkers oneself to believe an insane person could hold down the job of being the president of a large, politically complex, technologically advanced country.
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Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin

Just sayin'.
 
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