The Power of Translation

How many times have you heard that famous quote attributed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he is alleged to have threatened to “wipe Israel off the map”? Too many to count I bet. Well folks that’s how propaganda works. First you properly demonize the enemy in the minds of the cowering masses (he/they/it is a sponsor of terrorism, general hater of goodness, etc), then take his words and twist them into new meanings that further serve the objective of identifying him as an existential threat to survival and thus a legitimate target of attack in “self-defense”. There is a saying—coined by the Nazis over 70 years ago—that if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes “Truth”.

You are likely to be as fascinated as I was by the following revelations in an article from Anti-War.com about those famous words by Ahmadinejad and how they have managed, like Saddam’s WMD before them, to take on a life (and new meaning) of their own.