Moammar Gadhafi droned on for 90 minutes yesterday in rambling prose barely befitting a head of state. Later up to the lectern was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who also gave long-winded remarks that wandered from topic to topic, desperately searching for a point. Mikhail Gorbachev was infamous for his preachiness. And Cuba's Fidel Castro once gave a 4-and-a-half-hour oration at the United Nations in the 1960s, probably setting the record.
So why do dictators like to babble?
Time is something that dictators see as a tool in their arsenal, like torture chambers and armies. It is there to be played with, manipulated. Many arrive late to events, to keep things unpredictable. Neil MacFarquhar, in his new book, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You A Happy Birthday, recalls a three-hour speech by Gadhafi, "the only one I remember leaving because the need to urinate overwhelmed my interest in the information being dispensed."
Dictators are fond of keeping their audience, or guests, waiting. Thomas Friedman recalls in From Beirut to Jerusalem how the PLO used to have him wait for hours before giving him a quote or letting him speak to their leadership.
Dictators are oblivious to having talking points memos. They are able to talk at will to their legions of adoring fans unencumbered by time limits or speech requirements. There's no worry about inserting "breaks for applause" since the parliament will dutifully stand and applaud no matter what comes out of their mouths (though some, like Stalin, gave fewer speeches in order to hide his Georgian accent). Nor is there any fear that someone from the chamber will yell out "You lie!" The same rules apply when they write letters. Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush stretched for 17 pages, most of it illegible nonsense (not that his recipient was any great orator).
Luckily, they tend to be pithier in their other writings. Gadhafi's Green Book runs only 82 pages. Mao did call his communist treatise the Little Red Book.
Still, one thing you might expect in this new digital age of Twitter and texting is that dictators would understand that briefer is better. Even the most subjugated of people have shorter attention spans than they did, say, during the Cold War. Dictators would be wise to remember there were only 272 words in the Gettysburg Address.
Joel Rubin: Iran, Holocaust Denial, and Israel Bashing: Don't Take Ahmadinejad's Bait
Ahmadinejad's Israel-bashing, Holocaust-denying statements are bizarre, yet well calculated ploys to distract. We would be well served to remember that he is doing this for a reason. What we should not do is take the bait.
2-Min. Bio: Muammar Gaddafi - TIME
YouTube - Libyan Leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
Gaddafi Not Invited to Obama UN Reception -- Politics Daily
YouTube - Muammar Gaddafi Speech To United Nations Sept 23, 2009 pt.1
Muammar Gaddafi's speech at the UN | Photos | World news ...
--
--
--
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/confess/
You cannot condemn Pinochet and defend Castro or Chavez or Saddam Hussein when he was alive. That is why a lot of celebrities lack or loose credibility with a large segment of the population. When you stand for something, for example human rights, you have to defend it everywhere without distinction of right or left or communism or oligarchy.
The only people who think they have anything meaningful to say are the dimwits who allow them to stay in power.
audience. Bet their eyes were crossed listening to that nonsense.
IF...the written speech is what we are supposed to hear...
I have noticed that there is an entirely different message within the foreign speech...often...in words that sound like English or French words..words which match up with things you are thinking about while you hear the speech...
CSIS hasn't even bitten.
I know I'm babbling. But...I want to know... how and why Tim McVeigh's conviction and execution happened so quickly. [the Okalahoma city bombing in April,1995 McVeigh convicted 1995 and executed June 2001. (a little over six years later) -especially when we have men/women on deaths row for years and years and years. What was so pressing that Tim McVeigh be executed so quickly. Makes you kinda go...hmmmmmm! Doesn't it? I want to know is there something being hidden from the American people...something that we should know about. Well, we wont know because Tim McVeigh is dead.
Babbling happens when people have lots on their minds and they've got to get it all out...may never get a chance again. It's that simple.
Why Iraq, & Afganistan ? My opinion, is George Bush,Jr decided he could win favor with daddy, & put Bush name back on the pedestal, after Sadam Hussain "kicked sand" in daddy's face during gulf war. Sent troops, & bombed, shot,for six months. Sadam stood up, said to world: " I'm still here! You came to war, your best wasn't good enough" He became a hero to millions.
After Bush Jr. started Iraq, reasons changed frequently to justify being there.Preventing direct attacks in this country makes sense to me, but I don't know if we're doing it correctly.
Timothy Mcveigh: Read entire Wikipedia piece, in less than 5 minutes, you will understand. Was worst terrorist act in this country ever, until twin towers. His only "possible" regret was deaths of dayschool kids that he didn't realize were in building. Even that, he brushed aside. Very proud of what he did, wishing whole bldg. had fallen.
Other death row folks get delays from appealing. McVeigh tried once or twice for appeals, then quit. Other death row people only killed a single person, or a "few" , not 168 in three seconds. Big difference.