Ahmadinejad in New York

During Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to New York the Iranians asked that he be allowed to visit Ground Zero and lay a wreath there. The city of New York turned this request down, citing security concerns. I suspect that the actual reason is that the very idea of President Ahmadinejad visiting the site is pretty grotesque, but I suppose you can’t say that diplomatically.

Before the city of New York had turned down the Iranian request I was listening to the Fox radio network broadcast over the Internet. There was a talk show on and one of the topics was the Iranian request except that President Ahmadinejad was being referred to as “that thing” and there were an unusual amount of questions as to why is the UN in New York in the first place. The talk show host was discussing the security costs of President Ahmadinejad’s visit and wondering why the New York taxpayers should have to pay if the President decided to go anywhere in New York. Oddly enough, I was actually agreeing with him. Why should US taxpayers, in New York or wherever, have to pay when there is a UN diplomatic visit (President Ahmadinejad was in town to speak at the UN)? I figured that these costs should be covered by either the visiting dignitaries government or by the UN itself. The Fox talk-show guy had a different take on it however. I’m paraphrasing, but basically he said, “If that thing wants to travel around New York, instead of New York taxpayers picking up the tab, he should be guarded by Iranian security people.”

I never thought I would see the day when a US right-winger would say he wanted to see armed Iranians running around the streets of New York city.

Anyway… Humouroceros