With enemies like these who needs friends?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’ s jaw-dropping stupid comments at Columbia University about gays and the holocaust are further reminders of President Bush’s great good luck and the world’s misfortune that the U.S.’s most vociferous foreign critics reduce themselves to figures of ridiculousness in their evident desire to get applause from their audiences back home when they appear before cameras in New York (“Iranian president gets hostile reception”, 9/26.)

Last year Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s idiotic comments about Bush being the Devil overshadowed his U.N. address which should instead be remembered for his highlighting efforts to create an alternative economic model for the Americas, one that is intended to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources.

Similarly, Ahmadinejad’ s pointed observation this week that the Palestinian people have been made to suffer for the sins of the Germans (Nazis) was completely lost in the din of condemnations surrounding his many preposterous claims.

It could be argued that with enemies like these Bush hardly needs friends; but if another world is possible we need to hear from leaders with vision and integrity who strike chords that resonate among all peace loving peoples of the world, and soon.

---