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Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia undermines the case for war with Iran. I hope that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia University yesterday will energize the antiwar movement in the United States to vigorously and effectively oppose war with Iraq and to understand that the question of Palestinian self-determination is inextricably linked to all the conflicts the U.S. is involved in the Middle East.What follows is my reaction to some of the issues raised in Ahmadinejad’s speech and in the question and answer session that followed:

Iran’s Nuclear Technology: The International Atomic Energy Agency has consistently certified that Iran is complying with international guidelines for the peaceful use of atomic energy. Iran’s uranium enrichment process is limited to 5% enrichment - well below the level needed for developing weapons. Iran fully complies with requests for international inspections and has maintained transparency about its program.

Ahmadinejad recognizes that Iran’s oil is a nonrenewable resource and Iran’s oil based economy is not sustainable in the long run unless Iran uses its oil revenues to make the transition to economic and industrial self sufficiency. Iran is developing nuclear power because Iran’s supply of oil will inevitably become depleted.

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I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
~ Stephen Roberts

If you can conceive of morality without god, why can you not conceive of society without government?
~ Peter Saint-André

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
~ Albert Einstein

Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.
~ Michel de Montaigne

Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.
~ Howard Zinn

Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
~ Denis Diderot

We, on our side, are praying to Him to give us victory, because we believe we are right; but those on the other side pray to Him, too, for victory, believing they are right. What must He think of us?
~ Abraham Lincoln

Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of awesome mystical power. We know this because they manage to be invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can’t see them.
~ Steve Eley

All great truths begin as blasphemies.
~ George Bernard Shaw

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From the Tao Te Ching, 57 and 58:

Applies to both the current state of capitalistic republic in the US and the religious republic in Iran:

“If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.

If a country is governed with tolerance,
the people are comfortable and honest.
If a country is governed with repression,
the people are depressed and crafty.

When the will to power is in charge,
the higher the ideals, the lower the results.
Try to make people happy,
and you lay the groundwork for misery.
Try to make people moral,
and you lay the groundwork for vice.

Thus the Master is content
to serve as an example
and not to impose her will.
She is pointed, but doesn’t pierce.
Straightforward, but supple.
Radiant, but easy on the eyes.”

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