Posted on 01/04/2006 10:06:34 AM PST by F14 Pilot
For months Iranian activists and even moderate clerics have been concerned about the radical tendencies of Iran's Ahmadinejad. In the past few weeks - after he said that the Holocaust was a myth, called for Israel to be wiped off the map and banned Western music from radio and television, the concern spread around the world.
But there is another development in Iran - this one positive and with great potential - that the world should not miss: civic defiance against Ahmadinejad's authoritarianism is increasing.
From the outset of his term, the new president's policies exhibited a volatile mixture of nationalism and radical Islamic social engineering. While touting Iran's nuclear program, he has promised to redistribute wealth to the poor and curb capitalists (without yet delivering on either promise).
Ahmadinejad's language has been replete with contempt for religious and ethnic minorities, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, rejection of compromise, and readiness for violence in dealing with the political opposition and minorities, including Kurds and Arabs. His performance is disturbingly reminiscent of those of European fascist leaders of the 1920s and 1930s.
While policy makers and pundits in the West are rightly chagrined by the language coming from Iran's new leader, less has been said and little has been done by the international community - now or in the past - to support ordinary citizens in Iran who have persistently been pressing for genuine democracy, the rule of law and economic opportunity. Iranians are risking imprisonment or worse by engaging in protests, not to satisfy American or European foreign policy, but because they are fed up living with fear, economic misery and arbitrary edicts from unelected clerics.
Against all odds tactics such as protests and strikes have gradually become common in Iran's domestic political scene. Medical professionals, teachers and workers have gone on strike
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
It could have been their plan all along. A controlled burn mini-revolution that dumps the jerk but keeps the mullahs in power. I say we move this along a bit faster...
Good Read!
To read the rest of the article please check the below link
http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2006&m=01&d=04&a=10
I'm pretty sure Saddam started the same way. Over time and military control he was able to take a minority and use force to control the majority for 30 years.
Ever since 2001, there's been predictions of imminent revolt among the Iranian people.
Somehow, it just doesn't ever seem to happen - maybe their government is managing pretty good control over the people.
the change all of us expect in Iran can be gradual and it will happen eventually!
In terms of demagoguery, certainly. I might point out that none of those fascist leaders were deposed internally - they required extensive employment of outside force. And, too, they had to form their own police states themselves in order to suppress dissent (that is, after all, what police states are uniquely structured to do). Ahmadinejad had one ready-made for him when he took office.
Nor, for that matter, was the Shah deposed without outside force if the Paris-based Ayatollah Khomeini may be so described. What little information I get from Iran these days does seem to resemble the ferment prior to the fall of the Shah, which seemed like such a good idea at the time to the kids in the street, but it isn't really enough to go on. And at his worst the Shah never employed the Bassij.
You may be right, but I don't believe it will happen fast enough.
If Iranian President Ahmadinejad gets a nuclear weapon...its to late. I believe we need to take a very hard line now - and without postive changes immediately on Iran's part - need to take action.
Probably by the end of March this year!!!
Iranians: Your nut is going to get you killed.
If human nature is what I think it is, the events in Iraq must be taking a toll on the Mullahs. As Iraqis continue down the path to more freedom, the message to those who crave liberty in Iran cannot be ignored. I also believe that the Iranian Kurds must be watching the activities of their counterparts in Iraq with great interest.
Of course, none of this is likely to address the nuclear issue in a time frame necessary to prevent weapons grade fuel manufacture. However, in the event that outside force is used to stop nuclear weapon development, there seems to be hope that the political situation is nearing a tipping point. Military intervention to eliminate the production of Iranian WMD could also trigger regime change from within.
Im betting there is a strike on the Iranian nuke facilities somewhere in the time frame of March 8 - March 16th.
I respect the difficulties that Iranians live under, Khashayar, but an "eventual" change will be too late. The Mullahs have threatened - no, promised - to destroy Israel in atomic fire. Gradual reform from within would be great, but the clock is running out. I am afraid that blood will have to be spilt in Tehran.
Your first premise is wrong and the second is only a guess. Ill prove it to you. What many supporters of the Iranian regime conceive the form and function of liberty to be is the United States. And while this notion is not necessarily wrong, they have been fed a version of what the United States is through men who use the great power of the United States to distract their supporters from their own failures and therefore use the United States to stay in power. What do they call us? The Great Satan! They describe us, and therefore liberty, in ways that incite violence against us and our allies. Lies do that. Lies have the power to disconnect their believers from the real world and make otherwise rational people do incomprehensible things. The truth connects its believers to reality but has the same power to make otherwise rational people do incomprehensible things, particularly when those who know certain inalienable truths are overwhelmed by the lies of the likes of the Iranian regime. So the Iranian people who support the Iranian regime do have a concept of liberty, the wrong concept. This is not a terribly difficult thing to correct.
You mentioned freedom. When you talk about freedom it is important that that notion be connected to truth. I think of freedom as the power to be you in a world that is not you! But some take a different view of freedom, namely equality, and use it to say Americans are not free because our paychecks are not equal or that they have more trouble than others getting editors to publish their articles. And to them I say living with freedom is not a utopia
Being you in a world that is not you is no guarantee of reward, in fact all societies, even free ones, tend to frown on true expressions of individualism. But so long as that expression is guaranteed, so too is freedom. Iraq is free now and this is an important thing to realize. Iraqis now have a system geared to protect them. That system is improving daily and those improvements are showing the region that it can be free. Will it be like our system?
in our lifetime?
I doubt it. The invasion and facilitation of democracy in Iraq is not the product of the American system I was born with however I believe it was an improvement on it. If that change in policy, a change that occurred in our lifetime is any indicator, we should both expect the definition of our own system to change again, in our lifetime. And because of improvements like the one we all just witnessed, so too will the definition of liberty and freedom change for the people of the Middle East. Freedom will ring from every mountaintop
this is the natural state of human affairs.
MonstersAndCritics.com (DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR): Hamburg - "GERMAN INTELLIGENCE WARNS THAT IRAN HAS NEW MISSILES" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "German intelligence believes Iran has now bought 18 longer-range missiles from North Korea, giving Teheran the capability to attack targets in central Europe, the German daily newspaper Bild reported Friday. The study by the foreign intelligence service BND said the BM-25 missiles were being purchased from Pyongyang in the form of kit sets. The mobile missiles, which are based on the Russian SS-N-6 missile for submarine launch, will have a nominal range of 2,500 kilometres. However it was possible to upgrade them to hit targets 3,500 kilometres away, the Munich-based BND said. Iran already has Shehab-3 missiles with a range of 1,300 kilometres.") (Read More...) (December 16, 2005)
FOX NEWS.com (AP): Moscow - "RUSSIA AGREES TO $1 BILLION ARMS DEAL WITH IRAN" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Russia has agreed to sell more than $1 billion worth of missiles and other defense systems to Iran, Russian news media reported Friday, a move expected to draw a heated reaction from the United States." (December 2, 2005) (Read More...)
A Discussion on FREEREPUBLIC.com regarding a NOVEMBER 28, 2005 COMPASS article: "IRAN'S PRESIDENT: 'I WILL STOP CHRISTIANITY IN THIS COUNTRY' Secret police crackdown results in the torture of 10 other Christians" (November 30, 2005) (Read More...)
JIHAD WATCH.org (ASIA TIMES): "Ahmadinejad off the deep end: 'I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible'" (October 27, 2005) (Read More...)
WASHINGTON TIMES.com: Ramallah, West Bank - "IRAN LEADER PREDICTS ISRAEL'S DEMISE" by Joshua Mitnick (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday predicted a wave of Palestinian attacks that would erase Israel "from the face of the Islamic world," just hours before a suicide bomber killed five Israelis in a marketplace.") (October 27, 2005) (Read More...)
MEMRI.org - Special Dispatch Series - No. 1018: "IRANIAN ANIMATED FILM FOR CHILDREN PROMOTES SUICIDE ATTACKS" (SNIPPET: "The following are excerpts from an Iranian animated movie for children, which aired on IRIB 3 TV on October 28, 2005, at 8 a.m. Iran time. To view this clip visit: http://memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=906 ") (November 3, 2005) (Read More...)
MEMRI.org - Special Dispatch Series - No. 929: "Al-Arabiya TV Report: Iranian Volunteer Suicide Bomber Organization of 40,000 'Time Bombs; Recruited to Target Americans in Iraq and Israel" (July 6, 2005) (Read More...)
MEMRI TV.org - Transcript - Clip No. 736: "ON THE IRANIAN MOVEMENT OF 'MARTYRDOM SEEKERS'" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "TRANSCRIPT SNIPPET: "The following are excerpts from a report about the movement of "martyrdom seekers" in Iran. Al-Arabiya TV aired this report on July 2, 2005.) (Read More...)
SAVAK was something like NSA, MI6 or MOSAD
It seems to be out of control NOW!
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