Avram, I did read what you wrote, and followed the link. I realize
that there have been multiple translations. But it's still quite
significant that this didn't come from AIPAC, or Fox News, or some
other questionable source. This came from Iran, any agency that
presumably can translate accurately. They've aided and abetted any
misunderstanding.
Fungi and Avram, I don't deny that there's a wide range of views in
Iran, as other links on this page indicate. I'm talking about
Ahmadinejad's views. Denials by various functionaries don't have
any bearing.
If Bush spouts some idiocy, no matter how his staffers (or even the
Democratic opposition) tries to explain it away, we're still stuck
with idiocies attributed to our president. Same goes for Iran.
Finally. Fungi, I wasn't aware of that Time quote. It
sounded...close anyway. But when I went back to check what was
behind the ellipses, I found this first response to the question:
"People in the world are free to think the way they wish." It was a
non-denial, with the sentence you quoted coming at the end of a
paragraph of subject-changing. That's probably why the page Avram
linked in the article didn't bother with it.
Is this a slam dunk either way? No. That's kinda my point.
Characterizing it as the "Misquote of the Century" and drawing
parallels to a misunderstood idiom which Khrushchev explicitly
denied* is, as I said, quite a stretch.
*("I once said, 'We will bury you,' and I got into trouble with it.
Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working
class will bury you.")
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