"You can't sow the wind and not reap a hurricane." Thus Saeed Leylaz, an Iranian economist, the day after Tehran's stockmarket plunged to its lowest level for two years in response to worldwide condemnation of a venomously anti-Israel (and anti-American) speech by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on October 26th. Mr Leylaz bleakly notes a discrepancy between "running a country" and "pursuing transformative ideals". His message may be lost on Mr Ahmadinejad. The president's description of Israel's "occupying regime" as a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map" recalled a time, after the revolution of 1979, when Iran's leaders competed to sound outrageous. The inexperienced and unworldly Mr Ahmadinejad probably had no idea that his comments would provoke such revulsion—or lead Tony Blair, Britain's prime minister, to muse that he might have to "do something" about Iran. After all, the president explained, he was only quoting Iran's revolutionary leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
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