It is 50 years since the greatest misquotation of the cold war. At a Kremlin reception for western ambassadors in 1956, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced: "We will bury you." Those four words were seized on by American hawks as proof of aggressive Soviet intent. Doves who pointed out that the full quotation gave a less threatening message were drowned out. Khrushchev had actually said: "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you." It was a harmless boast about socialism's eventual victory in the ideological competition with capitalism. He was not talking about war. Now we face a similar propaganda distortion of remarks by Iran's president. Ask anyone in Washington, London or Tel Aviv if they can cite any phrase uttered by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the chances are high they will say he wants Israel "wiped off the map". Again it is four short words, though the distortion is worse than in the Khrushchev case. The remarks are not out of context. They are wrong, pure and simple. Ahmadinejad never said them. Farsi speakers have pointed out that he was mistranslated. The Iranian president was quoting an ancient statement by Iran's first Islamist leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, that "this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" just as the Shah's regime in Iran had vanished. He was not making a military threat. He was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future. The "page of time" phrase suggests he did not expect it to happen soon. There was no implication that either Khomeini, when he first made the statement, or Ahmadinejad, in repeating it, felt it was imminent, or that Iran would be involved in bringing it about. But the propaganda damage was done, and western hawks bracket the Iranian president with Hitler as though he wants to exterminate Jews. At the recent annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful lobby group, huge screens switched between pictures of Ahmadinejad making the false "wiping off the map" statement and a ranting Hitler. Continued here.....
they'll do anything to legalize their actions. the media not controlled by the nation, the the nation controlled by the media.
Such as? If you are going to say that, common sense says to post the quotes. Olmert and his cronies have also said many things towards Iran.
This is no surprise to anyone conversant with history. Time and time again, governments have used this tactic to distract their populace as they try to secure more power and support for themselves. It's incredibly formulaic...create artificial fear by misrepresentation; demonize those now deemed "enemies" (which also gives those in power the moral authority of being "right"); promise to provide safety from said enemy; get support from the people! This has been common for centuries. Since it still works, politicians see no reason to change a winning formula. Terrorists (and in America, that currently means Muslims, because most of America can't separate the two) are just the current boogey men.
Yeah, the Jews used to be the boogey men in the early 1900's, then it was the communists and now it's Muslims. Will probally be Asians next.
Maybe...although the Japanese were included with the Nazi's during WWII. But Japan isn't really *Asian*, and the actions of China & North Korea make Asia the next likely target.