I can´t believe no one points out the fact that this guy is the guenuine elected president of a huge and sovereing nation. The fact that he is an enemy of the united states doesn´t make him a dictator by default.

There are many democracies in the world in wich the mayority of the poeple hate America. Also, there are many brutal dictators wich interests are iligned with ours. It just astonishes me that so many inteligent and educated americans can´t seem to grasp that fact.

Thanks asiercazalis, I logged on to point out this very fact. Iran may be a lot of bad things, but its government is elected in free elections.

Sure, you could make the point that the clerics who have immense power to veto reformist laws, issue decrees, and so forth, are not elected - thus making Iran a de facto dictatorship. But by this logic, The U.S. would also be a de facto dictatorship...

The clerics are not elected and they are the ones who decide who can run. They've overturned elections in the past.

What group in the US fits that description? The supreme court in 2000 seems to come close, but the interference of the clerics in government is an everyday event.

I've heard that Bush and Cheney will meet with top Christian leaders to discuss important issues.

Oil company lobbyists, Drug company lobbyists, James Dobson, Pat Robertson....yeah, there are lots of folks who have influence. Still not the same as giving the 700 club control over the army.

Just because you are elected does not mean you aren't a dictator.

Hitler was elected.

Stalin was elected.

Elections mean nothing, when people are denied the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of religion.

middleview has a good point here. Iran's Council of Guardians can and does veto their Parliament, and has even gone so far as to veto candidates for parliament.

I think the fact that Ahmadinejad is everywhere in the news is a deliberate deception on the part of Iran. He is the elected President, sure, but subject to the approval of the Council of Guardians. Nor does he have final say on important matters; the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, has the war powers. It's easy to think of Iran as a democratic state if the Council of Guardians and Khamenei stay out of the limelight.

Mind you, dictatorships of one form or another are still our friends or have been our friends. Iraq certainly was a form of military dictatorship and Saddam was our pal for quite some time. Moreover, don't forget Pakistan, where President Musharraf assumed power in a coup d'etat in 1999 and has been clinging to power ever since, rigging elections where necessary.

It's interesting to note that Musharraf came close to declaring a state of emergency this year, letting him stay in power by default. He was talked out of it for now. It's similar to the martial law provisions the Republican Congress sneaked into law last year.

So while President Bush may carry on about democracy, the truth is that we still accept dictators where and when we have to, and to use dictatorship as an excuse to pick on Iran is disingenuous. In fact, before another year passes we may be living in a dictatorship. So perhaps we'll find out if it's really so bad!

"Iraq certainly was a form of military dictatorship and Saddam was our pal for quite some time."

No matter how many times people claim that, its still bull.

We are the UK's Ally and Saddam was anti UK for a very long time. Furthermore, any "arms" we sold to Iraq, we sold over twice as much to Iran in order for them to fight against the Iraqis. Furthermore, we knew that Saddam was allied with the other Baathist that started the movement against both the British and the Israelis, and a Saddam in power jeopardized our more vital assets.

But thanks for lying about history once again.

...that San can talk about our arming Iraq and Iran at the same time, and yet he insists that we didn't get along with Iraq because of Britain.

Feel free to document your claims anytime. Till then, you may be considered the liar, San. The perils of not having much of a long memory.

Who's lying?

Oh yeah, that's who.

Silent.observer; Very nicely done, she said while ROFLMAO.

You're missing the point - the article was about semantics. Hillary said "I will not sit down with dictators", and then supposedly flip-flopped to "I would sit down with Iran". The article claimed that the "I" in the second statement was a sort of "royal I"... But the argument is moot to begin with, as there are no dictators in Iran. It's ostensibly a free democracy, and in reality an oppressive theocracy. It does lots of mean things. That does not make it a dictatorshíp. A dictatorship is a nation ruled by one supreme leader with absolute power. Iran is not.

As for my crack about the U.S., I was thinking of the Supreme Court. Just because they don't abuse their powers the way the clerics do, they're still an un-elected group with incredible power.

Silent Observer uses bs articles that one, don't prove anything, and two, show the bias of the writers as willing to make up stuff.

Everyone knows that Saddam was very anti British, as he OVERTHREW British control of the area.

He recieved far more weapons from Russia than from America. But we all know that YOU are a liar, so really, go screw yourself.

Um, there is no Royal I.

There is a Royal We.

Kings say "we" to talk about themselves as the position.

Not I.

to attempt to educate San? He attempts to tell us that the US didn't support Saddam because

1. We sold more weapons to Iran than we sold to Saddam.

2. Saddam got more weapons from Russia than he got from us.

3. Saddam overthrew British control of Iraq.

4. You are a liar.

All without even being able to maintain any kind of context to the conversation and with no supporting evidence of the "facts" he attempt to use. San is why I have little hope for the republican party returning to the party that I joined in 1974.

Lets see, middleview has made it clear that he thinks its awful that so many white boys have died freeing Arabs and Persians from Baathist Genocidal Fascism and ignores the thousands of Blacks that die in our Urban areas.

Sure seems that middleview is a sick, racist son of a bitch. Way to go, you damn bigot. Your mom must be proud.