Published in the San Antonio Express-News

Why think Ahmadinejad is evil? Because he is

Columnist Mansour O. El-Kikhia blames Israel for America's hatred of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He asks why Ahmadinejad is characterized as “evil” by the U.S. media, saying “the answer is very simple. He refuses to recognize Israel.”

El-Kikhia doesn't mention that Ahmadinejad not only refuses to recognize Israel but wants to wipe it off the face of the Earth. Nor does he mention that Ahmadinejad's regime was implicated by a U.S. court in the killing of 241 American servicemen in 1983 — the largest single-day death toll to U.S. Marines since Iwo Jima.

Further, according to U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, Ahmadinejad's regime is involved in funding, training and supplying explosives to the Shiite insurgency in Iraq, which has caused the death of numerous American soldiers.

Americans have enough reasons of their own to despise the Iranian leader without invoking Israel.

— Michael Berenhaus
Potomac, Md.