Thoughts on Ahmedinejad

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2011/10/2011101810101934363.html#disqus_thread


Ahmedinejad is kind of like the Sarah Palin of Iran....in that he makes similar blanket phrases such as "the Iranian people are great people and have made history" and that "terrorism is bad and Iran doesn't believe in terrorism or people killing each other" etc. etc.  He also uses long-winded, round about explanations to completely evade answering questions directly.  Sarah Palin much?  That being said, I think he makes good points on US foreign policy being too invasive and pro-Israel.  I definitely agree with him on some of that. Overall I feel like he tries to come off as being some sort of Zen New Age Ghandi with his talk of "freedom, justice and respect...for all" (Iran's official core values, of course) and all I could keep thinking about was the Iranian gov't and the Basij shooting live rounds into the peaceful protests after the 2009 Election....

I also just love his 1 minute intro/response to Tony Harris' first question about the US accusation that the Iranian gov't helped plot to kill the  US ambassador to Saudi Arabia....his response starts out like this:

"In the name of god, the most benevolent and the most merciful, oh lord, hasten the reappearance of the Mahdi and grant him victory and good health and make us amongts those his followers.  First I would like to say Greetings to all the viewers, and I would like to say Goodnight to the places where it is night and Good Afternoon to the people in the other parts of the world, and I would like to grant happiness to everyone, in the world". 

Is this just the typical type of greeting?  I've never heard him say this type of greeting before....has he gone further off the deep end?  Or has he just reached a certain level of enlightenment and inner peace....??