Two Speeches

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel to be “wiped off the map” was part of a speech directed at a much larger goal and a much bigger target. 

MEMRI has translated the speech, and the invaluable K-Lo has noted that its central theme is — in Ahmadinejad’s words — “a world without America and Zionism.” 

Here is an excerpt from MEMRI’s translation: 

We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [i.e. the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years.

In this historical war, the situation at the fronts has changed many times. During some periods, the Muslims were the victors and were very active, and looked forward, and the World of Arrogance was in retreat.

Unfortunately, in the past 300 years, the Islamic world has been in retreat vis-à-vis the World of Arrogance. . .  During the period of the last 100 years, the [walls of the] world of Islam were destroyed and the World of Arrogance turned the regime occupying Jerusalem into a bridge for its dominance over the Islamic world. . .

This occupying country [i.e. Israel] is in fact a front of the World of Arrogance in the heart of the Islamic world. They have in fact built a bastion [Israel] from which they can expand their rule to the entire Islamic world. . . This means that the current war in Palestine is the front line of the Islamic world against the World of Arrogance . . .

Thanks to God, since the Palestinian people adopted the Islamic war and the Islamic goals, and since their struggle has become Islamic in its attitude and orientation, we have been witnessing the progress and success of the Palestinian people. . . . .

[Many people ask]: “Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?” But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved. . .

When the dear Imam [Khomeini] said that [the Shah’s] regime must go . . . many people who claimed to have political and other knowledge [asked], “Is it possible [that the Shah’s regime can be toppled]?” . . . .

Nobody believed that we would one day witness the collapse of the Eastern Imperialism [i.e. the U.S.S.R], and said it was an iron regime. But in our short lifetime we have witnessed how this regime collapsed in such a way that we must look for it in libraries . . .

George W. Bush spoke today in Norfolk, Virgina, emphasizing the themes he has been repeating over the last week in several locations.  It is a speech worth reading in its entirety.  Here is an excerpt:

In the four years since September the 11th, the evil that reached our shores has reappeared on other days, in other places — in Mombasa and Casablanca and Riyadh and Jakarta and Istanbul and Madrid, in Beslan and Taba and Netanya and Baghdad, and elsewhere. In the past few months, we have seen a new terror offensive with attacks on London, and Sharm el-Sheikh, and a deadly bombing in Bali once again. . . .

Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; and still others, Islamo-fascism. Whatever it’s called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam.  This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent and political vision: the establishment . . . of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom. These extremists distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and Hindus and Jews — and also against Muslims who do not share their radical vision, whom they regard as heretics. . . .

We know the vision of the radicals because they have openly stated it — in videos, in audiotapes and letters and declarations and websites. . . . [T]heir stated agenda [is] to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation.

Some might be tempted to dismiss these goals as fanatical or extreme. They are fanatical and extreme, but they should not be dismissed. . . . [T]he civilized world knows very well that other fanatics in history, from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot, consumed whole nations in war and genocide before leaving the stage of history. Evil men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken very seriously . . . .

The militants are aided as well by elements of the Arab news media that incite hatred and anti-Semitism, that feed conspiracy theories, and speak of a so-called American "war on Islam" — with seldom a word about American action to protect Muslims in Afghanistan, and Bosnia, and Somalia, and Kosovo, and Kuwait, and Iraq, and with seldom a word about our generous assistance to Muslims recovering from natural disasters in places like Indonesia and Pakistan. . . .

Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence — the Israeli presence on the West Bank, or the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia, or the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago.

In fact, we’re not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. . . .  Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never give in, and never accept anything less than complete victory. (Applause.)