> Well, how many "educated" Americans know or care that their government essentially denies (or "overlooks") the well-established Armenian genocide -- not based on some crackpot belief, but for geopolitical purposes? Which is more "embarrassing": having a theocratic clown deny genocide, or having "educated" technocrats doing the same?
> Dennis
Besides which it should be noted that the US state, and the West European powers, have no difficulty having more than cordial relationships with either anti-semites, in the Saudi Royal family, and Holocaust deniers, in Abu Mazen (the Western supported head of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority see http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2006/05/hamas-fools-and-fath-crooks-i-have.html ), neither of which is a "pariah" or too "embarrassing" to obtain the lavish support of official opinion makers.
More to the point than his Holocaust denial is that if Ahmadinejad tomorrow miraculously aquiesced to Western objectives in the Lebanon (ie stopped supporting Hezbollah), and opened Iran to Western capital, then Iran would overnight cease to be a "paraiah," and Ahmadinejad would overnight become either a reformer or a strongman, and no more of an "embarrassment" than is a King Abdullah, a Mubarak or an Abu Mazen. And Iranian elections would become no more of an issue than Egyptian, Palestinian or Saudi elections are today.
Lajany Otum