Talking trash. When I was a kid and we played basketball or football at recess, it was all about talking trash. I didn’t realize it fully at the time, but it really worked. Whoever was talking more trash was actually getting a mental and very real advantage over the other side. I was intimidated by it, I would think about what the person said they were going to do and whether it was worth it to beat them at the game. They got in my head, and when I learned how to do it, I started to get in theirs. We got better at it and I found myself talking trash during cross-country runs in high school, and definitely during golf matches when you can destroy someone’s day with a few well placed comments. All this to say, when you are talking trash you say things to get inside your adversary’s head, something to make yourself look better or bigger or something that makes them think that they are weak. When you are losing and don’t know what else to say, you call whatever your opponent is doing weak.

And that’s just what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this weekend. He said the new round of sanctions were pathetic, and that the countries around the world regret their bullying of Iran.

There you have it. Name calling and hollow threats. I don’t understand how this guy continues to be in charge of an entire country. His foreign policy seems to consist of little other than picking fights and calling people names. Maybe that’s how it works in his government, though I doubt it and certainly hope not, but he needs to understand more clearly that he will not be winning this fight. It’s everyone against Iran, no matter what he thinks.

And what he thinks is pretty interesting. Here is his take on the situation:

"They know that there is a sleeping lion in Iran which is waking up and if she wakes up all the relationships in the world will change. Their pathetic acts show they know what a great human power is hidden in Iran. They thought that by having meetings and talking to each other and signing papers they could stop a great nation's progress. Iran is much greater than what they can perceive it in their small minds. We know that if this Iranian civilization awakes then there would be no more room for arrogant, corrupt and bullying powers," said Ahmadinejad.

Yep. Maybe this is a little American ego looking over and wondering what he is talking about, or maybe it is him making things up that are going to sound good to the people who live in Iran and keep him in power, or maybe a little bit of both. Or maybe, just maybe, he believes that and is actually talking straight to the world, saying that Iran is a sleeping lion of a great civilization and that nothing will stop the progress of that waking beast.

If so, we need more than sanctions to deal with this guy.

The hardline Iranian leader has consistently played down the impact of sanctions. He called the U.N. resolution a "used handkerchief" and said that Iran could become self-sufficient in gasoline within one week if needed -- more likely a rhetorical flourish than a realistic assessment of its energy needs.

Last week, France's Total joined a list of oil companies that do not sell gasoline to Iran which, despite being the world's fifth-largest oil producer, lacks sufficient refining capacity and imports up to 40 percent of its petrol.

Two days ago, South Korea's GS Engineering & Construction called off a $1.2 billion contract to sweeten gas from the South Pars field. This one of the world's biggest gas fields, but Iran has yet to exploit it fully, partly because sanctions have limited foreign investment and knowhow.

Ahmadinejad has said he is prepared to return to talks with major powers on the nuclear question, but on certain conditions only, and not before the end of August -- a delay he said was intended to "punish" the West.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, with the backing of the major powers that have been involved in nuclear talks with Iran in the past, wrote to Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator last month inviting him to resume negotiations.

Photo Credit: Daniella Zalcman