“The imperialist spokesmen say … Ahmadinejad and I are going into the Miraflores basement now to set our sights on Washington and launch cannons and missiles,” said one anti-American president, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, to the other. “It’s laughable.” He added, “That hill will open up and a big atomic bomb will come out.”
There’s an element of truth to every joke, or so the aphorism goes. That, coupled with both nations’ open hatred for the U.S., provides a disturbing visual for the “joke,” although it’s more likely that a nuclear bomb is in Iran (for peaceful power generation, of course) than in Venezuela.
Chavez made the remark to Ahmadinejad during the latter’s visit to Venezuela. Ahmadinejad is currently touring Latin America countries that might support or sympathize with Iran, which appears to be straining under the pressure of recent sanctions and threats of more.
“Despite those arrogant people who do not wish us to be together, we will unite forever,” Ahmadinejad said. He added that if they were together building anything like a bomb, “the fuel of that bomb is love,” according to the New York Daily News.
Chavez’s joke about a bomb in a war bunker isn’t much different than John McCain’s infamous Beach Boys-tuned “bomb bomb Iran” quip, but if Iran possesses an actual nuclear bomb — fueled by love or other materials — the joke is likewise devoid of humor.
