Mahmoud and Russ

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and U.S. presidential wannabe Russ Feingold both had messages for President Bush yesterday.

Ahmadinejad communicated with Bush via a lengthy, rambling letter.

Feingold spoke to the President by way of an address to National Press Club.

The similarities between the messages of these liberals are striking.

Both men bashed the President, followed the talking points of the Dems, and appealed to the radical Left.

I suspect that Ahmadinejad watches MSNBC. Much of what he wrote in his letter to Bush can be heard there.

Reuters has excerpts from Ahmadinejad's letter, "an unofficial translation from the original written in Farsi."

Mr. George Bush,

For some time now, I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictions that exist in the international arena ... Many questions remain unanswered. These have prompted me to discuss some of the contradictions and questions, in the hopes that it might bring about an opportunity to redress them.

Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Him), the great Messenger of God,

Feel obliged to respect human rights,

Present liberalism and a civilization model,

Announce one's opposition to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and WMDs,

Make "War on Terror" his slogan,

And finally, work towards the establishment of an unified international community - a community which Christ and the virtuous of the Earth will one day govern,

But at the same time,

Have countries attacked. The lives, reputations and possessions of people destroyed and on the slight chance of the presence of a few criminals in a village, city, or convoy for example, the entire village, city or convoy set ablaze?

Or because of the possibility of the existence of WMDs in one country, it is occupied, around 100,000 people killed, its water sources, agriculture and industry destroyed, close to 180,000 foreign troops put on the ground, sanctity of private homes of citizens broken, and the country pushed back perhaps 50 years.

Of course, Saddam was a murderous dictator. But the war was not waged to topple him; the anointed goal of the war was to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction.

These words could have been uttered by an American Leftist.

If you didn't know that Ahmadinejad was behind them, you might they were the property of Russ Feingold, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, or Al Gore -- minus the references to Jesus, of course.

Mr. President,

You might know that I am a teacher. My students ask me, how can these actions be reconciled with the values outlined at the beginning of this letter and duty to the traditions of Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Him), the Messenger of peace and forgiveness.

There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal representation, their families cannot see them and are obviously in a strange land outside their own country. There is no international monitoring of their conditions and fate. No one knows whether they are prisoners, POWs, accused or criminals.

Ahmadinejad is spewing out the same stuff that Leftist human rights groups like Amnesty International, and liberals like Dick Durbin spew -- minus the references to Jesus, of course.

Mr President,

I am sure you know how -- and at what cost -- Israel was established:

Many thousands were killed in the process.

Millions of indigenous people were made refugees...

A regime has been established which does not show mercy even to kids, destroys houses while the occupants are still in them, announces beforehand its list and plans to assassinate Palestinian figures, and keeps thousands of Palestinians in prison.

Sounds just like Cindy Sheehan or Louis Farrakhan or others in the anti-Semitic wing of the American Left.

Another big question asked by the people is why is this regime being supported.

Is support for this regime in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Him) or Moses (Peace Be Upon Him) or liberal values?

To be fair, not all American liberals object to U.S. support of Israel.

Even though he shamelessly panders to the fringe Left, Feingold hasn't abandoned Israel.

Why is it that any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime? Is not scientific R&D one of the basic rights of nations?

Here is Ahmadinejad's only reference in the letter to the controversy over Iran's nuclear program, and he doesn't specifically mention it.

The Iranian president uses a technique perfected by liberals. Change the subject. Deflect from the real issues and babble about injustices.

Lies were told in the Iraqi matter. What was the result? I have no doubt that telling lies is reprehensible in any culture and you do not like to be lied to.

Ahmadinejad sounds like Jimmy Carter.

Maybe "Speaker" Nancy Pelosi can use this quote from the Iranian president in one of her promised probes of the Bush Administration.

Conyers and the thirty plus other members of the House could cite world leaders like Ahmadinejad in their impeachment efforts.

Name a Dem who hasn't said that Bush lied in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Name one. I can't.

Any Dem, like Joe Lieberman, who dares to stray from the notion that Bush lied pays a high price, and eventually is pressured to tow the party line.

Feingold and Kerry are basing their bids for the presidency on the "Bush lied" claim. Hillary, too. All the potential Dem candidates are.

Mr. President,

September 11 was a horrendous incident ... Our government immediately declared its disgust with the perpetrators and offered its condolences to the bereaved and expressed its sympathies ... September 11 was not a simple operation. Could it be planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security services -- or their extensive infiltration? Of course, this is just an educated guess. Why have the various aspects of the attack been kept secret? Why are we not told who botched their responsibilities? And why aren't those responsible identified and put on trial.?

The list of Leftist nuts that believe the U.S. government was involved in the execution of the 9/11 attacks is too long to go through. What's important to note is that some Americans agree with Ahmadinejad's conspiracy theories.

Furthermore, most elected Dems and their kook base have blasted the Bush Administration for allowing 9/11 to happen, citing basic incompetence.

In 2002, Hillary Clinton took to the Senate floor and held up a copy of the New York Post with the headline "Bush Knew."

Remember how the libs foamed at the mouth over the August 6, 2001, PDB?

Yes, they share common ground with old Mahmoud.

The people of the world are not happy with the status quo and pay little heed to the promises and comments made by a number of world leaders ... The people are protesting the increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots and the rich and poor countries. The people are disgusted with increasing corruption. The people of many countries are angry about the attacks on their cultural foundations and the disintegration of families ... the people of the world have no faith in international organizations, because their rights are not advocated by these organizations.

This is indistinguishable from one of Howard Dean's rants or a Gore tirade or a Feingold post on a lib website.

Liberalism and western-style democracy have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity. Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems.

Although American libs haven't lost faith in their Leftist ideology, they agree with Ahmadinejad on the point that democracy under the Bush Administration is failing the people.

The Associated Press adds:

[The letter] questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.

"Would not your administration's political and economic standing have been stronger?" the letter said. "And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever- increasing global hatred of the American government?"

Again, Ahmadinejad is echoing the American Left. It's as if he lifted this from the DNC website.

This is an interesting twist:

[A] conservative lawmaker lambasted Ahmadinejad for failing to consult parliament before he sent the letter.

"This message is the outcome of a series of taboo-breaking behaviors in Iran's foreign policy. ... That the parliament is not aware of (the contents of the) letter is questionable," Hashmatollah Falahatpisheh told an open session of the parliament broadcast live on state-run radio Tuesday.

Way to go, Falahatpisheh!

A conservative voice introduces some reason.

Enough of Ahmadinejad's blather.

Now, let's look at the remarks that Senator Russ Feingold made to the National Press Club.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Russ Feingold, a potential anti-war candidate in the 2008 presidential field, urged fellow Democrats on Monday to show more backbone in challenging President Bush on Iraq.

"We must get out of our political foxholes and be willing to clearly and specifically point out what a strategic error the Iraq invasion has been," Feingold, D-Wis., told a National Press Club audience.

He said some Democrats in Congress gave in to "intimidation" by the Bush administration when they voted to authorize the war in 2002, and warned: "If we do not show both a practical and emotional readiness to lead in the fight against terrorism, we will lose in '06 and we will lose in '08, just like we did in '02 and '04."

Iraq was a mistake. Mahmoud and Russ are allies on that one.

In March, Feingold called for the censure of Bush over the administration's warrantless surveillance program.

Being soft on terror plays right into the hands of tyrants like Ahmadinejad, bent on doing us harm. That puts Americans at risk.

Feingold prefers to protect the rights of people suspected of having ties to terroists rather than preventing another 9/11.

I bet Mahmoud likes that, as well as Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

...Feingold, who also has proposed that U.S. troops leave Iraq by the end of the year, rejected criticism that such a move could lead to chaos.

"I believe the situation would probably get better" if U.S. troops left, he said. "The lesson of insurgency is when the occupying power leaves, it tends to lessen, rather than increase, the level of violence."

Like Holocaust denier Ahmadinejad, Feingold has a twisted view of history.

Didn't Feingold learn anything from Vietnam and the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia?

Has he heard of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields?

Violence did not lessen when Americans, "the occupiers," retreated. Millions were killed. Feingold is not fit to occupy the Oval Office.

...Feingold, who insists he won't think about a presidential run until after this year's congressional elections, nonetheless made a few joking references to a potential campaign.

Asked whether he and his campaign finance reform ally, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have talked about their respective presidential ambitions, Feingold deadpanned, "I think he'd beat me in Wisconsin."

Right. Feingold isn't thinking about a presidential run.

Why even say something so obviously false? In other words, why lie?

Feingold is running for president as sure as Ahmadinejad wants Israel destroyed.

As to whether McCain would beat Feingold in Wisconsin, I think it's possible.

Given how close Bush came to winning Wisconsin in 2004, McCain could take Feingold's home state away from him in the 2008 election. Of course, it's never going to happen. Feingold doesn't have a chance of winning his party's nomination. I'd love to see him at the top of the Dem ticket, but he won't be. Too bad.

Radical Feingold would never be able to get the majority of the country behind him.


In sum, Mahmoud and Russ are both extremists; and both present a danger to America, albeit in different ways.