A dialogue is a conversation between two people. A debate is an exercise in rhetoric between opposing viewpoints. But the AP apparently does not have writers or editors knowledgeable enough to tell the difference between the two, nor between a publicity stunt by the Mad Mullahs’ mouthpiece. Witness the cognitive dissonance:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed on Monday a face-to-face debate with President Barack Obama at the United Nations if he is re-elected next month as Iran’s president.
But he balanced the offer with a sharp rebuke to Washington and its allies over Iran’s nuclear program. He reiterated that Iran would never abandon its advances in uranium enrichment in exchange for offers of easing sanctions or other economic incentives.
The nuclear issue “is closed,” he told a news conference.
Got that? Issue closed, end of discussion. But wait—here’s the fig leaf for the western media which, of course, is all too happy to use as a cover for Iran:
His offer of to debate Obama could also be campaign posturing before the June 12 vote. But it does put Ahmadinejad on record as supporting a potentially groundbreaking encounter following Obama’s offer for dialogue.
Dialogue, AP. Not debate. And as we have seen in the past, Ahmadinejad simply turns the hard questions aside and reverts to his anti-Israel, anti-Western rhetoric, over and over again.
There is nothing groundbreaking here. Ahmadinejad offered to debate Bush three years ago, as you can see by clicking on the link to the AP story. Apparently, AP news writers don’t even know what’s in their own archives.
Score another one for the feckless media.
I’m starting to think maybe AP stands for ARICEPT Press. Such profound memory loss across a broad spectrum of people.
Puzzling to say the least.