We probably should have expected another Iranian to come along and capture America’s attention. Shah Mohammad Pahlavi and his political rival, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, engrossed us for successive decades in the ’70s and ’80s, and after missing out on any key figures during the ’90s, those of us who keep an eye on international affairs expected that another Iranian would come along and grab our attention.

Such is the case with current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; unlike the Shah who fascinated many with his royal splendor, or even Khomeini who succeeded the disposed Shah with an almost ruthless brilliance, Ahmadinejad stakes his fame simply on the value of his words.

While many people have heard the Iranian president’s downplay of the Holocaust and denial of homosexuals in Iran, perhaps his most shocking quotes have gone unheard. Ahmadinejad has indeed asked for peace in his region of the world multiple times already, despite his insistence on the removal of the Israeli state. He has written an open letter to the American public and addressed us many times through his speeches, offering support to those Americans discontent with the current administration while calling for an increased dialogue with the United States.

However, these calls for dialogue with the Bush administration have been met by harsh rejections and criticisms on Pennsylvania Avenue. Most officials at the White House become absolutely incensed at the idea of negotiating directly with the Iranians and many grumbled when President Bush finally approved two meetings with diplomats from Tehran over (and exclusively concerning) issues pertaining to the situation in Iraq.

How can government officials in Washington continue to play hard ball with Tehran in good conscience if they have yet to give diplomacy a whole-hearted chance to flourish? It is incomprehensible that figures within the Bush administration could accuse the Iranians of murder in Iraq when the blood of anywhere between 74,442 and 81,131 Iraqis lies on their hands (these figures according to the Iraq Body Count Web site, as sourced by both CNN and BBC).

The Bush Administration attempts to exploit the uninformed about leadership in Tehran, telling us that the Iranians are promoting ethnic divisions within Iraq while compromising Iraqi sovereignty. Yet the truth is that these divisions in Iraq have existed for hundreds of years between all sorts of ethnic groups and religious sects.

President Bush himself should know much more about exploiting ethnic groups than any Iranian leader, as it was one of Mr. Bush’s fellow Republican presidents who sat in the White House when the United States funded Iraq, an ethnically Arab nation, with arms and weapons to fight an eight-year war against Khomeini’s Iran, which has a Persian ethnicity. As for the accusations of Iran violating Iraqi sovereignty, it is worth noting that any Iranian interference in Iraq pales in comparison to that coming from the White House, where the invasion of Iraq was ordered in 2003.

Now we see Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has neither royal lineage nor American hostages to hold our attention, yet still manages to do so. While it is easy to hate and laugh at Ahmadinejad for his Holocaust remarks and denial of the existence of Iranian homosexuals, it would be folly to believe that these are the remarks that keep Ahmadinejad in the American spotlight.

Rather, it is time to propose that a major part of the American consciousness has finally grown tired of the lies, oppression and suffering our government has presented to the world in recent years; that we are ready to listen to a voice ‘ as fanatical as it may be ‘ which speaks with a slightly greater inkling of truth than that of our own president, who has become nothing more than white noise in our ears. Mr. Ahmadinejad, you have our attention, and the time we give you is not to be wasted.