Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The big lie(s) on Iran, again
In an interview with NBC's Richard Engel, George Bush had this to say:
"And when, you know, a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously."Readers know that such words never spoken, and alert readers will even remember that Ahmadinejad actually "clarified" the oft-misquoted (or mistranslated) remarks when he said:
"Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out."A quote which makes obvious that Ahmadinejad is saying that Israel will collapse under its own weight, not that it will be "wiped out" by an attack from Iran.
So, since the misquoting/mistranslation of Ahmadinejad's remarks has become widely acknowledged, did Engel respond to Bush's misstatement by pointing out the error? Is the Pope Jewish? No, of course not, instead in his next question he threw in a big lie of his own:
"Repeatedly you've talked about Iran and that you don't want to see Iran develop a nuclear weapon. How far away do you think Iran is from developing a nuclear capability?"I won't repeat the whole story here; here's the latest post which demonstrates that the idea that Iran is "developing a nuclear capability" is utterly without foundation, putting Engel's question into the "when will you stop beating your wife" category of big lies.
