bobhhh
When the hunt for Bin Laden began, one of my polysci proffs used to quip that the Osama was tough on crime and fiercly antidrugs, wanted more respect for family, disapproved of gays and actively denied them rights, thought government should not suppress open displays of religion, sought unlimited power to monitor ordinary citizens, and still had a healthy distrust for the russians leftover from the cold war...

He's also a spoiled rich kid playing war with other people's lives. Cough cough.

The healthy distrust of russians was from Afghanistan.

TnTComic
The healthy distrust of russians was from Afghanistan.

Granted, I was diverting by mentioning Bin Laden, but my point was that a lot of crazed leaders are more similar than they would like to admit.

Don't you remember that Bin Laden was part of the Afghan resistance? That's when the CIA trained him and gave him aid. Funny thing now the blowback, because his CIA training is one of the things that makes him such an effective enemy and so damn hard to find....

But that's another thread.

Those who specialise in the study of Al Qaeda say that Bin Laden is mostly a figurehead now. He started as a benefactor and founder of the group, the aims seemed to be to promote Muslin theocracy in Arab countries, and not much beyond that. "Promoting" through violent terrorist acts theocracies that are along their lines of thinking. -About the only people who measured up to their idea of a good government seemed to be the Taliban.

They say that after Ayman Zawahiri joined (Al Zachari or whatever the name is), then the focus seemed to shift to be more generally anti West and specifically Anti US. And he's still the driver of that agenda with Bin Laden as the titular head.

So you should probably direct you ire in this vein towards Ayman Zawahiri.

And as with Iran, Ahmadinejad isn't really the leader he's made out to be, as others here have said. He's unlike Bush though, in that he really does have less power within his country. He's the "popular" face of Iran within the country and outside. A democratically elected leader (so that idiot remark by the university guy about a petty dictator was quite wrong), the real power as most people know resides with the theocratic council. Ahmadinejad is not much more than a friendly smiling face, even though he is the country's representative in name.

So I suppose he does hold a similar position to Condeliza Rice, except he doesn't go from country to country telling people what do do and he does actually have the title of a leader as well as being fairly elected while she is an appointee. But they're both representatives and promoters for their countries to the outside world, with limited powers themselves.

RobertTidwell
I know. Lets step on his toes, forbid him to visit public spaces, mock him for his political views and then call him a terrorist.

What the fuck is wrong with some people?

s

It's party politics. Bombing foreign dictators has become the raison d'etre of the Republican Party since 9-11. Forget all that Ronald Reagan stuff about cutting spending, eliminating waste, and "government is the problem". Conservatives are about unending war, seizing power, and threatening other countries. In most respects that do not involve shooting people or waving the Bible, they are hard to distinguish from liberal Democrats.