I remember when that offer was bandied about in the media briefly before the Iraq invasion of 03/03. The response from the right as well as a good portion of the public was, "Oh, yeah, right -- like he'll do that. PFFT!" It was seen as another propaganda ploy from that dastardly ol' Saddam. Saddam was basically damned if he did, damned if he didn't by that point.
Likewise, right now in the "damned if they do, damned if they don't" rut is Ahmedinijad:
He wanted to talk at a US University and visit Ground Zero, actually reasonable requests for a visiting head of state. Both were also seen as "propaganda ploys." This in spite of the fact that the US often says, when it comes to China, for ex., that a "policy of engagement" is the best answer for confronting foes. You know, bring them into the tent, invite'em over, dialogue. That seems to happen awfully selectively, though! Ahmedinijad's wanting to visit the WTC site seemed innocuous to me; if he never wanted to visit it, ever in his life, that'd also be played up in the US media as a horrible act on his part. SNUBBING THE MEMORIAL -- THAT BASTARD! HAS HE NO HEART? --- And, yet, no Iranians were involved in 9/11. Saudi Arabians and Egyptians were, though, and I bet if Saudi and/or Egyptian leaders wanted to visit the WTC ruins, that'd be welcomed.
Ron Paul, the "libertarian" GOP candidate for Pres. -- though I think he's a complete motherfucker on a lot of issues (like abortion and this "NAFTA Sperhighway" farce -- we have all this crumbling infrastructure, bridges, etc., and when a plan comes to *maybe* address that, it gets shot down as a conspiracy by the John Birch Society and others who think the CFR is a hotbed of leftism) -- was on Bill O'Reilly and asked why there was so much focus on Iran when a lot of the people going into Iraq to fight "coalition" troops were Saudis crossing the border. O'Reilly got upset and blabbed over him, and preferred to focus on how evil Iran was.
-B.
Michael Pollak wrote:
"[From Juan Cole's _Informed Comment_ blog. Links to primary sources in original. Text in square brackets inserted by me to connect snippets.] http://www.juancole.com/2007/09/transcript-reveals-impeachable-offenses.html"