Not all of Ahmadinejad's speech can be dismissed. Much of it is accurate hisory.

No, there are no homosexuals in Iran

The religious nuts that hold sway in Iran, a sort of Iranian equivalent of the 100 or so old guys that run the Vatican and its global businesses, are no friends of workers, women or democratic principles in general.  Iran has replaced communism, Somali warlords, Osama bin laden and other various unsavory characters bent on destroying the freedoms we have in America.  Iran is that third component of the imbecile George Bush's "axis of evil".

There is nothing that upsets a religious cleric with a 7th century mentality more than critical thinking of that there's no doubt but as I told a fellow American traveler I met in Australia when he raised two issues of concern to many Americans, Jesus and Iran,"I left Jesus on a bumper sticker back in California and the vast majority of the people in this world are not concerned about Iran, they're concerned about the US.  

Iran  has not invaded another country in who knows how long.  The US and Britain in particular have over the years interfered in the country's affairs including orchestrating a coup that overthrew the secular democratic government of Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953.  Mossadegh was replaced by a US puppet, the murderous Shah.  Rep Dennis Kucinich speaking against a resolution in the US House of Representatives in 2006 hypocritically calling for "solidarity" with the Iranian people while condemning its government reminded them, "In October of 1951, under Mossadegh, Iran sought to nationalize its oil industry. That then resulted in a draft resolution submitted to the United Nations by the United Kingdom, and supported by the United States and France, as depicting Iran then as a threat to international peace and security." Kucinich also stated,  "Then we saw a coup d'etat that was organized by the U.S. and the U.K. Yes, we ought to stand for democracy. We ought to also stand for truth with respect to the historical unfolding of what we say we stand for."

Mossadegh As Prime Minister,  "alarmed the West by his nationalization of an Anglo-Iranian oil company that was later named BP, which controlled all the country's oil reserves." Kucinich correctly pointed out.  It was only fairly recently that the overthrow of a democratic government in Iran by the US and Britain in 1953 (Kermit Roosevelt, the former president's grandson was the CIA agent in charge of the affair.) has found its way in to the light.  All The Shah's Men is an interesting book on the subject but still today, the vast majority of Americans have no knowledge of this.  For Iranians who suffered under the Shah or whose relatives were jailed, tortured and murdered by his secret police, SAVAK, history is very real.

It is in the context of this aggression against Iran by western powers that the present situation has to be seen. The historical obstacle to a democratic society in Iran has been the US and Britain.  And we have to see the comments made by Iran's president, Ahmadinejad and Iran's attitude to the US and Britain in particular with this history in mind.  You don't have to be a supporter of this undemocratic regime to recognize that for the vast majority of the people in the former colonial world in particular Ahmadinejad's words ring true and they are no less true for us.  To have Hilary Clinton and Obama going around the world talking about democracy and freedoms is a joke to most people and pure hypocrisy.

Ahmadinejad questioned the motive of the CIA in assassinating Bin Laden and not bringing him to trial.  He said that the US should have assigned a fact finding team to investigate  "hidden elements involved in September 11." And there are many "hidden elements" with regard to September 11th, not least the UAL shares that were dumped prior to the attacks. To my knowledge, the owners of the shares have still not been exposed. As Americans, we should have had an opportunity to hear what bin Laden would have said in a trial, something he had a right to. Isn't that what the US stands for?  It's amazing for a people that hate the government so much to appear to trust their judgement when it comes to its actions abroad.

He raised the role of the colonial powers in history and the slave trade and who was responsible for it, as well as the world wars and conflicts over the centuries which were wars between colonial powers and now US imperialism for the right to plunder the resources of the subjugated. He raised the role of the US government in having it's old ally and friend in the region Saddam Hussein attack Iran where he used poisonous gas against Iranian youth.  Some half million people died in that war which was designed to weaken the two powers in the region while strengthening the US position and its proxy, Israel.

Ahmadinejad accused NATO of occupying Afghanistan, an accusation that cannot be disputed by anyone with a brain.  Kabul is a long way from the North Atlantic for sure.  He asked who it was "who used the atomic bomb against defenseless people?"  and which countries are the major arms producers and dealers.  The US provides more weapons of mass destruction than all the other arms producers combined, somewhere around 46% of the world's total last time I checked.

Here's why they're slashing public services at home

These words are not what the folks in Washington and London want to hear.  He also criticized the Zionists for their role in the region as the US's proxy. And as he speaks we read that the US has just delivered a batch of promised "bunker busting bombs" to Israel, one of the most heavily armed states on earth, much of it provided by the US taxpayer.

Israel has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear plants if and when its nuclear industry reaches a point at which Israel and the US decides they can make a bomb. I am opposed to nuclear weaponry but what right does the US and Israel or the Europeans have to deny Iran nuclear weapons?  In fact, after the invasion of Iraq, leaving North Korea and Iran as the last two "evildoers" why would Iran not want to develop nuclear weapons?  The US didn't bomb North Korea because that nation has nuclear bombs.

A US government cable released by Wikileaks quoted the US embassy in Tel Aviv suggesting that the delivery of the bunker busting bombs "...should be handled quietly to avoid any allegations that the USG is helping Israel prepare for a strike against Iran."

So it's quite obvious that the hype about Iran is more of the same propaganda aimed at getting support from a very uninformed domestic public for a US/Israeli attack on Iran's facilities.  The CIA are already inside Iran.

We only have to look at how the US media reports on friends of Washington like the Saudi's who split the plunder of the region's resources with them.  The Saudi's are certainly no less undemocratic than Iran's Mullahs, perhaps worse I would think. Just this week a Saudi woman has been sentenced to 10 lashes "with a whip" for driving a car. Saudi women have to rely on "live in" drivers or have a male relative drive for them as they are banned from driving themselves.  Women have to get written permission from a male relative (your grandson perhaps) to travel abroad.  Not so long ago, a woman was sentenced to public lashings for going out of the house with a male friend as opposed to a relative.  She was gang raped by a bunch of youth apparently and then lashed for her transgressions.

The Saudi's have a religious police to ensure people are practicing the right creed.  Yet when the papers reported on the King's move to allow women the right to vote, he gets treated quite respectfully in a way befitting a king, after all, he sent troops in to Bahrain on the US's behalf to quell the struggle for democracy there.  The clerics in Saudi Arabia back the ruling family much as the church did the royal families of Europe the religious organizations do today with regard to capitalism. The Saudi's are friends of the US capitalist class though as they share in the loot, are a safe haven to Arab despots and help suppress movements toward democracy in the region as they have in Bahrain.  Next to the Zionists, they are the most trusted of the US stooges in the region.

So as workers we should, for our own sakes, recognize that Ahmadinejad's words will hit home for millions of workers like ourselves throughout the world.  This is despite the bad side of him and the government he represents.  After all, Americans can defend mass murderers like Kissinger or Rumsfeld and even the imbecile Bush.  Brits can defend Blair, another large scale murderer.  It is absurd that Blair is in some influential position with regards to Middle East peace talks.  Workers in the Middle East are not fooled by this. They see it for what it is, western capitalist interests keeping its fingers in the pie.

Ahmadinejad is demonized by western media not for his defense of a despotic regime or for his support for the abuse of women and being ant-Unions.  He is demonized because he raises the role western capitalism has played in the world and questions the right of the US and it's allies to dominate the UN security council and global affairs---their record is not a very good one and he has  many who agree with him on that issue.

If Iran would only cooperate, bow down and let western capitalist interests loot the area's resources, oil basically, it would be "let back in to the fold" as they say. Oh for the good old days of the Shah.

A nation's foreign policy is but an extension of its domestic policy.  US capitalism is waging a vicious war against workers at home and against workers abroad. It is in our interests to oppose their policies at home and to break from US foreign policy in words and action.  Animosity towards Americans that our mass media calls "anti-American" is due to US foreign policy. It is anti- exploitation and as we are exploited by the same crowd we can build allies and a safer environment for ourselves and all workers by opposing US foreign policy and taking an independent class position.  A start would be to oppose all the predatory wars the US is waging in the interests of Wall Street.