AP - Iran's hard-line president said Saturday the Bush administration should be tried on war crimes charges, and he denounced the West for pressuring Iran to curb its controversial nuclear program.

"You, who have used nuclear weapons against innocent people, who have used uranium ordnance in Iraq, should be tried as war criminals in courts," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an apparent reference to the United States.

This from the guy who recently threatened to wipe Israel off the map at conference where the main topic was "how to end world Zionism."

Basically, this guy is Hitler without the industrial clout or a large, domestic Jewish population to oppress/wipe out.

The article continues...

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate, but he apparently was referring to the U.S. military's reported use of artillery shells packed with depleted uranium, which is far less radioactive than natural uranium and is left over from the process of enriching uranium for use as nuclear fuel.

Since the Iraq war started in 2003, American forces have fired at least 120 tons of shells packed with depleted uranium, an extremely dense material used by the U.S. and British military's to penetrate tank armor. Once fired, the shells melt, vaporize and turn to dust.

Depleted uranium is hardly tantamount to radioactive weapons. From what I gather, the stuff is included in bombs more for its density and weight than anything else. One would have to almost actively try to poison one's self with depleted uranium. It is just not a very harmful substance. At least not how American and British forces are using it.

But Ahmadinejad's claims to raise an interesting comparison. By claiming that America is using "uranium ordinance" in Iraq Ahmadinejad makes it sound like we're using a very sinister weapon, when really we're not. This weapon isn't any more sinister than other types of armor-piercing ordinance we use. Yet it probably seems that way to people who aren't as knowledgeable about the topic or don't put a lot of thought into the claims.

This is almost exactly what the anti-war left is doing with their claims about America's use of white phosphorous. They make it sound like a terrible war crime when really its a pretty ordinary weapon.

It really is sort of sad to recognize that our international enemies employ the same sort of "blame-America-first" rhetoric as the American left does.

Back to the article...

"Who in the world are you to accuse Iran of suspicious nuclear armed activity?" Ahmadinejad said during a nationally televised ceremony marking the 36th anniversary of the establishment of Iran's volunteer Basij paramilitary force.

Yes. Why would we accuse a rogue, terror-sponsoring hate-state of trying to develop nuclear weapons? Clearly Iran would never use nuclear technology for war. We should just trust them on that point.