I wonder what makes you claim that Putin, Karzai or Vajpayee come under your ignorant labels of “dictators, puppets and thugs” as these people wouldnt fit those labels to the sane and lucid mind. Obviously, your grasp on the geopolitical politics is as dismal as your ability to discern right from wrong.
Karzai, Putin and Vajpayee are all democratically elected representatives. Vajpayee in particular is an elected representative of the people of India under the strictest and fairest election in any part of the world and represents the choice of close to 1 billion people. Unlike your disgustingly ignorant slander.

Please get a clue before your lamblast Bollinger or other world leaders about who Ahmedinajad is the kind of despotic regeime that he is in charge of before hurling wild accusations at Bollinger or Columbia University.

Dave, why dont you like Ahmadinejad? What do you really know of him? Look at how americans view Chavez….the media spends its pages demonising, which provides americans with their opinions on personalities..
I ses little wrong with Ahmadinejad. He is far mor intelligent than Bush, has launched no wars of aggression (much as Neal would wish he did), has sided with Chavez.
Demonisation has become the order of the day, and people seem unable to tell they are being duped.

I would also like to say Azi that I apologize if my tone sounded insulting. I’m sure yuor comment came from sincere place, it just seemed a little misguided.

As you probably know there is a certain group of people here in the U.S. who want to bomb your country. I think we can agree that this would lead to a disasterous result and people like Bollinger only give these people more ammunition.

I understand Ahmadinejad is not very popular right now inside Iran and had Bollinger shut and acted with some decency and politness Ahmadinejad would have continued to lside into the realm of irrelvance. Instead he gave him a shot in the arm for his next relection campaign.

If your really against Ahmadinejad you’d denounce worthless twits like Bollinger who give him credibility he doesn’t deserve.

First off, Khomeini is dead, so who gives a rats ass what he said.

Second, Ahmadinejad has almost no power inside Iran. He doesn’t control the armed forces and has limited legislative powers inside Iran itself. He’s the Iranian equivalent of the Queen of England. The man with real power in Iran is the supreme leader Ali Khameni, and as far as I know he hasn’t said anything about wanting to take over europe or whatever nonsense neal said.

It should be mentioned that Irans former president Mohammad Khatami tried to visit an american university last year and was called an extremist by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Daniel Pipes. The man who denounced Osama Bin Laden and tried impement democratic reforms inside Iran was called an extremist. These are the same people who call Tariq Ramadan an extremist. As far as the neocons are concerned there is no such thing as an islamic moderate. Unless they completly renounce there beliefs like Irshad Manji or Ayaan Hirsi Ali your unaccepatable.

In case your wondering Neal why Tony is angry with you, it’s because of your completly condescending tone. He shows you s quote of what someone actually said and you use the dodge of “Oh it was taken out of context” and then call him a Jew hater.

By the way, Rumsfeld and Cheney may have implented it, but it’s no secret that the main planners were Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith and the aformentioned Mr. Abrams. Why is Tony a Jew Hater for pointing this out.

In any case Louis is absolutely right that Bollingers comments count as a classic case of sucking up to power. Imay not like Ahmadinejad any more than you do, but that doesn’t mean I have to support pompous hypocrits.

I have quoted people writing what they think. Are my quotes wrong or out of context? No. In fact, I have quoted in context. And, what I quote supports exactly what I stated. In any event, the mindset of Iran’s leading political party is warlike and imperial, as a matter of religious principle.

The theocratic Iranian regime was founded by a man with a 7th Century view of the world. Do not take my word for it because that is his view as well. And, now Mr. Ahmadinejad appears to hold similar views. That has to do with them, not with Israel and not with me.

If and when you have something intelligent to say, I shall respond. If not, I can only say that your assertions are absurdly stupid.