Big Foot, Loch Ness and the Holocaust

In a speech yesterday, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (nice name) made oodles of new friends when he called the Holocaust a “myth”. That follows his statement in October that Israel should be “wiped off the map”. I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing Mahmoud (mind if I call you Mahmoud?) won’t celebrate Hanukah later this month.

In the same breath, this guy asked please, pretty please, won’t the United Nations let us build weapons-grade nuclear material? We won’t use it for actual weapons. We just want to power atomic reactors to make electricity so we can watch Dick Clark drop the bomb, er, ball on Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

Actually, considering this guy also said about the West “we hate your hollow civilization” I’m thinking he’s probably gonna skip Rockin’ New Year’s Eve this year (unless, of course, they have Kelly Clarkson on the show. That girl has spunk!)

In one of the few instances of the Dubya administration saying something I agree with, the White House issued a statement saying that Iran developing nuclear weapons is probably a bad idea. Germany, one of three EU countries which have been leading U.S.-backed nuclear talks to reign in Iran’s proposed nuclear program, called Mahmoud’s statements "shocking and unacceptable."

While some Iranians have expressed the view that Mahmoud might want to take it easy on the “myth” rhetoric and “wiping countries off the map” business given what just happened to their neighbors in Iraq, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, stood by his homeboy Mahmoud and called for Palestinian militants to step up their fight to drive Israelis out of Jerusalem. Anyone for a nice peaceful game of dreidel? Anyone?

Just when there was hope that things might settle down in the Middle East, this knucklehead starts mouthing off. I can’t help but feel that when you’ve got a president of a country intentionally making outrageous and inflammatory comments, it’s not going to resolve itself with egg nog and caroling at the Ayatollah’s house on Christmas Eve.

Before you know it, “weapons of mass destruction” will become the most searched term on Google again and Dubya will use it as a way to get his brother into the White House in 2008.

Nothing good will come of this. I know the Holocaust is no myth, but maybe peace and stability in the Middle East is.