i’d like to teach the world to sing~
By American Girl in Italy on March 21, 2009 at 3:57 PM in Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, Barack Obama, Iran
President Obama released a special video message for all those celebrating Nowruz. Translated “New Day,” Nowruz marks the arrival of spring and the beginning of the New Year for millions in Iran and other communities around the world. This year, the President wanted to send a special message to the people and government of Iran on Nowruz, acknowledging the strain in our relations over the last few decades. “But at this holiday we are reminded of the common humanity that binds us together,” he says.
Partial transcript:
“I would like to speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nowruz is just one part of your great and celebrated culture. Over many centuries your art, your music, literature and innovation have made the world a better and more beautiful place.
Here in the United States our own communities have been enhanced by the contributions of Iranian Americans. We know that you are a great civilization, and your accomplishments have earned the respect of the United States and the world.
For nearly three decades relations between our nations have been strained. But at this holiday we are reminded of the common humanity that binds us together. Indeed, you will be celebrating your New Year in much the same way that we Americans mark our holidays — by gathering with friends and family, exchanging gifts and stories, and looking to the future with a renewed sense of hope.
Within these celebrations lies the promise of a new day, the promise of opportunity for our children, security for our families, progress for our communities, and peace between nations. Those are shared hopes, those are common dreams.
So in this season of new beginnings I would like to speak clearly to Iran’s leaders….
With the coming of a new season, we’re reminded of this precious humanity that we all share. And we can once again call upon this spirit as we seek the promise of a new beginning.”
How did Iran respond?
“We welcome the wish of the president of the United States to put away past differences,” Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Mr Ahmadinejad’s press advisor was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
“But the way to do that is not by Iran forgetting the previous hostile and aggressive attitude of the United States. The American administration has to recognise its past mistakes and repair them as a way to put away the differences.”
He said Iran would not forget the role the US played when Mohammad Mossadeq, the former prime minister, was overthrown in a coup in 1953. Nor would it forget the 1988 shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane by a US warship in which all 290 people aboard were killed.
He added that Tehran would also remember America’s support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the sanctions it levied against Iran and its support for Iran’s main militant opposition group, the People’s Mujahideen of Iran.
“But this attitude of the United States did not weaken us and now the Islamic Republic of Iran is very strong in the world,” he said. “The only source of instability in the region is the American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
And:
In an almost simultaneous announcement, from Iran’s energy minister, Parviz Fattah, said that the country would “finish and operate” its controversial Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant by the end of the year.
“Iran has chosen a direction for achieving peaceful nuclear energy. We have mainly reached this aim,” he said at the World Water Forum in Istanbul.
“Exactly 20 days from now we will have another celebration for celebrating the achievements we have gained for peaceful nuclear energy. You will hear about the news,” he said.
“Iran will finish and operate the Bushehr nuclear plant by the end of this year.”
Iran’s supreme leader rebuffed President Barack Obama’s latest outreach on Saturday, saying Tehran was still waiting to see concrete changes in U.S. policy.
In his most direct assessment of Obama and prospects for better ties, Khamenei said there will be no change between the two countries unless the American president puts an end to U.S. hostility toward Iran and brings ”real changes” in foreign policy.
”They chant the slogan of change but no change is seen in practice. We haven’t seen any change,” Khamenei said in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad.
Khamenei asked how Obama could congratulate Iranians on the new year and accuse the country of supporting terrorism and seeking nuclear weapons in the same message.
Khamenei said there has been no change even in Obama’s language compared to that of his predecessor.
”He (Obama) insulted the Islamic Republic of Iran from the first day. If you are right that change has come, where is that change? What is the sign of that change? Make it clear for us what has changed.”
Maybe they’re Pepsi drinkers?
You can view the real video message here. I was just having a little fun.
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Now there’s a smack-down for our naive president. It couldn’t have been too difficult for Obama to educate himself on the Iranians’ opinions of US past actions. After writing Russia, will he next pen one to Castro?
Obama must believe that everyone in the world will succumb to his charm and “change” mantra.
Maybe Obama can get down on his knees the next time and sing Kumbyah. I’m sure that will work.
Btw, I remember the Iranian hostage crisis. Funny how Iran’s press advisor left that one out.
Pathetic!
I don’t know about Pepsi, but they sure don’t drink Kool-Aid.
LOL!
Hell, all That One really has to do is just talk our enemies into a damn coma. He bores me silly every time he opens his gaping maw. He could send them the Best of That One, the 2-DVD extravaganza. He’d have them narcoleptic in no time.
Oops… his unicorn-infested, hopey-changey dialogue would just piss them off. Never mind; he should just shut up and let HRC do the talking.
“If you are right that change has come, where is that change?” Khamenei said it all.
Ditto, Khamenei, you hit the nail on the head. There is no change, unless you count acceleration of the same old same old. Marching us right to the poor house faster than ever before.
What with Ben Bernanke’s announcement of the Federal Reserve’s plan to buy oodles of Treasury Bonds (#1+ Trillion? Is that the correct amount,or did I read it wrong?)
This is a vicious cycle. A question, Larry or LD. When you are able to print money at will with nothing of value to back it up, is the product you bought with that manufactured money worth anything or is it just considered manufactured, like the money, out of thin air? (Treasury Bonds?)
Anybody out there have the answer? This is really troubling me. It seems that these days their answer to any problem is just print up some more money, then when you put it in circulation, the poor boobs like me, who don’t get million dollar bonuses, if we still have a job and can buy the necessities of life, we pay a higher price for it, and interest will go up, and the banks will charge higher fees – pretty soon they will have a fee just for walking in their doors – and Mr. Bernanke and the Federal Reserve will sit there raking in all that money that they made by printing fake money.
Where is the end to all this? It will take a wiser person than I to figure it out, but even I know that this can’t go on. TPTB behind Obama are moving so fast that I don’t see how even they can keep up.
Remember the old Brenda Lee song, “Wheel of Fortune”?
“The wheel of Fortune keeps spinning around – will it come my way? will this be the day? The wheel of fortune keeps passing me by” I could go on and on, but I think you get the point, this wheel is going to spin us right out of the universe if it keeps on.
Khamenei has Bobo pegged all right, and this is one dude who hasn’t sipped the Kool-aid so Bambi had better not try to play games with him. (Unless, without our knowledge they are already buddies.)
this is not an answer to the question you asked LD or Larry, but an interesting presentation… http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8ada2ad4-f3b9-11dd-9c4b-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
It’s only taken 2 months but Obama has managed to make the U.S. a paper tiger laughing stock.
From North Korea to Russia to Iran and Venezuala dictators around the world are relishing that the U.S. has a weak kneed coward as its President.
I am not at all surprised that amid this Obama circus going on that we have not seen Hillary or even Bill Clinton. They probably want to distance themselves from the ineptitude of this President.
those folks are not easily fooled..unlike some of us..lol..
At this rate, Obama’s first term may be over in the first 100 days and all that’ll be left is waiting out the clock buzzer.
So why is Obama doing this stupid crap? Is it because he sincerely believes his own hopey changey hype? Is it because he is such a deep narcissist he wants the world to love him? Or are the New World Order people trying to prep the rest of the planet for Obama’s ascension as World Dictator?
It’s just bizarre to me.
Right on the spot. He is being prepped, but I don’t believe going on Jay Leno was part of the scenario. His outrageous ego may work in our favor. It could bring him down. He is so in love with himself thathe is beginning to believe the false picture that was painted by the MSM. He will overstep. As Joe Biden said “mark my words”.
And Hillary or Bust, It IS bizarre – that is one reason so many people still can’t see the full picture.
I went off into *worry* mode as I do frequently now and forgot where I was; my last comment should have been placed under “Obama’s Math Morons.”
they work here, too. ;O)
AGinI, thanks for the great post. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the in the Obama/Axelrod/Emanuel planning session for his Nowruz video and the war room that anticipates the response to this propaganda as they calculate the benefit? And OMG that coke commercial has a scary fake element, hey but that was 1984, amazing, almost a quarter century ago. I was living in Paris then and didn’t see the commercial. Good sentiment though, a drink to solve the world’s problems, ha, ha. Is that Barry Manilow’s coke contribution?
Khatami dropped out of Iran’s presidential race citing too many reform candidates opposing Ahmedinejad, although he was in the freaking lead. Khatami now backs Musavi, (rather than Karrubi, the other remaining reformist candidate & one who does not seem too different from Ahmedinejad either); also Khamenei now seems also to support Musavi: he has publicly said that support of particular policies of Ahmedinejad do not indicate support for him as a candidate. Formerly Khamenei had suggested that Ahmedinejad’s term might not be his last. Thissuden turn of support for Musavi is a little peculiar since when Musavi was prime minister he and Khamenei were not exactly bff.
Khamenei’s contempt for BHO is understandable. But why is there no mention of the context? Israel just annhilated a supposed nuclear reactor project inside the borders of Syria that was purportedly being financed by Iran. Frankly, the omission of this (and I’m not disagreeing with the article or Khamenei’s assessment of BHO’s rhetoric, btw) seems a little strange.
I had the same thought when I heard about the Iran video… the old “buy the world a coke” thing… perfect harmony and all of that. I am torn between wondering whether this man really hates this country and everything “American”… or whether he is just plainly incompetent. I am now wondering as I type if it’s not maybe both. There was a Middle East expert on Fox last night talking about the video. The Fox person asked the expert if that video made us appear “weak”? The expert said in the Iranian culture that video was a “message of surrender”. She said that Obama won’t even be perceived as a “man” in their culture, and said that what Obama just did in that video would never be done by a “man” in their culture. Great. Is this just arrogance? Or, is this confirmation of narcissism? This is becoming very serious very quickly. This man may very well prove to be the greatest single mistake this nation has made.
I too thought the video made him seem weak and someone not to take seriously.
Ya’ll should have elected me President since I can select appropriate gifts for PMs and I’d never do something this stupid. I’m not narcissistic and I’m fiscally conservative.
I’ll have that song in my head for days now. Is this what Obama meant when he said during the campaign he would speak directly with Iran? I thought it was a bad idea to make such a promise then since diplomacy is always a slow and tedious process beginning with ground work by prepared and preconditions. I was a little shocked by this even though talking with hostile countries in the right setting can improve relations. I can only imagine what Cuba, Venezuela, Russia and North Korea will make out of this groveling and pandering. As Sarkosy said, he is naive and inexperienced and it seems he believes he can put everything in the world right solely by virtue of his personality. I think they are probably laughing at him.
Great post, AGII – and I knew it was yours from the second I saw the title – funny!!!!
:OD
I have the song stuck in my head… :OS haha
AGI–Here is a link, “Sarkozy views Obama stance on Iran as ‘utterly immature’”[October'08] which Obama’s recent New Year’s greeting to the Iranians probably won’t change Sarkozy’s mind:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031943.html
In the post, the author says that at its current rate [of obtaining enriched unranium], Iran will have the rest (another 60%) of what it needs for its first bomb by spring, or summer, 2009.