Posted on 01/07/2006 11:34:44 AM PST by F14 Pilot
By stating his wish to see Ariel Sharon, “the criminal of Sabra and Shatilla dead and joining his ancestors”, the news Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demonstrated that not only he is genuinely anti-Semite, but he has not the slightest human compassion and feeling.
"Hopefully, the news that the criminal of Sabra and Chatilla has joined his ancestors is final", the extravagant, islamo-populist Ahmadinejad told hard line religious students in the holy city of Qom, known as the “cradle” of militant Shi’ism, where he took his cabinet for meeting on Thursday.
His remark were so shocking that most of Iranian press, except for some of his staunch supporters like the semi-official students news agency ISNA or the internet site “Khedmat”, considered as his site, deleted this part of his speech that contained new diatribes against Israel and the West in the one hand and reiterated his determination to go ahead with controversial nuclear activities, on the other.
“Even the most radical figures of the Palestinians, who have all the right to not regret the possible death of Mr. Sharon, the man from whom they suffered the most, refrained from such inhuman remarks”, one former official told Iran Press Service on condition of anonymity, adding: “such statements are indignant of the president of a nation proud of its humanity”.
In response to some of his supporters who, in his defence, argue that some declarations of Mr. Ahamadinejad are due to his lack of experience, he has responded that what ever he says and does are based on carefully studied plans.
“We have plans, we have projects, we have long term policies”, he told a recent meeting of the Majles’ National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, during which some lawmakers from the reformist minority fraction openly criticized his recent anti-Semite statements that, according to Mr. A’lami, a representative from Tabriz, the capital city of the north-western province of Western Azarbaijan, have badly damaged the national interests and the prestige of the Islamic Republic.
“What in the West is known as human rights, we consider it here as debauchery, something that in our view, is against human rights”, said Ahmad Khatami, a solid supporter of Mr. Ahmadinejad and his anti-Western policies, appointed by Ayatollah Khameneh’i as the new Friday preacher of Tehran in his first public sermon pronounced on Friday 22 December 2005.
In fact, less than five months after his surprise and controversial victory in the last Iranian presidential elections, Mr. Ahmadinejad has created two strong fronts against himself in Iran and against the clerical-led regime outside, observers said.
At home, while his relentless attacks on former presidents, their governments and their policies has brought together powerful heavy weights like Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami and Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karroubi, a former Speaker and many other senior officials, his insistence that he is a protégé of Mehdi, the Hidden Imam, has angered many high ranking ayatollahs.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in September, Ahmadinejad surprised his international audience by asking the "mighty Lord" to hasten the emergence of "the promised one," the one who "will fill this world with justice and peace."
That speech sparked controversy at home after bootleg videos circulated in Tehran showing the president speaking with a ranking cleric, Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli, about his United Nations appearance. Ahmadinejad said an aide told him a light had surrounded him when he took the podium. And he said he too felt that "all of a sudden, the atmosphere changed, and for 27 to 28 minutes, the leaders did not blink."
At the same time, the clamping of the limited social, cultural and press freedoms is uniting the Iranian intelligentsia against the new Government while communistic economic policies dubbed Islamic is sending away billion US Dollars.
Outside, his continued anti-Israeli, anti-Semite, anti-Western sorties coupled with his determination of going ahead with nuclear activities has almost definitely deceived all those who, in Europe, were hoping and banking on some amiable solution of the nuclear imbroglio.
“Moved by the fact, his fact, that God shows and paves the way, Ahmadinejad can take any action, without considering the costs for the nation”, said Mr. Shahram Chubin, an Iranian expert on international politics based in Geneva, in an interview published by “Washington Prism” dated 19 December 2005.
“Isolated in the international community and without legitimacy inside, Ahmadinejad has no other choice but finding supporters among the most radical of Muslims. To reach this goal, he is, with his outrageous anti-Semite statements, diverting the Arab-Palestinian-Israeli conflict into a religious confrontation, Muslims versus Jews”, commented Mr. Mehrdad Darvishpour, an Iranian political analyst based in Stockholm, speaking with the Persian service of Deutche Welle on 20 December 2005.
An ideological transition appears to be underway. The director of Tehran University, for example, was replaced by an illiterate cleric. Western music is banned on state television and radio, the production and screening of all movies with so-called feminist, liberal or secular views are forbidden and on he pretext of fighting hooliganism, street violence, mendacity, prostitution etc.., police is harassing young ones.
“It is extraordinary, if not shocking. According to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s political philosophy, repeating statements by dead or living Nazi and fascists in Europe and the United States, is doing something revolutionary, Islamic, nationalist in accordance with the values of the Islamic revolution. But speaking about human rights, freedom, democracy, defense of equal rights between men and women or playing or listening to music of Beethoven and reading Western literatures or movies, is a blindfolded imitation of the West and Westoxication…”, commented Mohammad Arasi, a political analyst living in the United States on 25 December 2005.
“One has to ask these self-appointed defenders of the faith and justice which is better, propaganda for criminals like Hitler, Goebbels and Goering is dissemination of Western corruption or Beethoven’s symphony and songs of the Beatles. Is repeating nonsense by Jirinovsky, Jean Marie Le Pen and Ku Klux Klan is Islamic and revolutionary but showing and seeing films directed by great movies directors is surrender to the Western attacks?, he asked.
“After the coming in the office of the new Government, the situation in the field of freedom of press and expression has dramatically worsened. All the channels for producing information are closed and the Government has officially restored censorship, one that concerns all fields, including publication of books, the film industry with the astonishing ban on the production and projection of movies with so-called liberal, secular or feminist tendencies”, said Masha’allah Shamsolva’ezin, a respected journalist and editor who is now the spokesman for the Iranian Association for the Defence of Journalists in the Netherland-based internet daily “Rooz”.
“We have regressed instead of going forward and the regression is very fast, concerning the right to free expression, to publication and to the flow of information as well as the physical security of journalists”, he added.
As a matter of fact, after a period of calm that followed the closure of more than 120 publications, almost all of them pro-reform or independent, on order from Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, clampdown on the press increased, as seen by the recent decision of the government to shut down the economic daily “Asia” as well as “Nour Banouan” (Light of the Women) a women’s biweekly not yet published.
The paper's editor, Iraj Jamshidi, told the BBC that Asia was banned because it had published photos deemed to have contravened Islamic values. Asia was banned in 2003 after printing the picture of a rebel leader.
What surprised the press community was that the latest closure was ordered not by the Judiciary, which has usually been responsible for such moves in the past, but by the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry.
"The ban by the board indicates a new round of pressure on the press", reformist journalist Isa Saharkhiz told Reuters news agency.
“Five months and most of the Iranians who voted for Ahjmadinejad are regretting their votes”, a former lawmaker said, adding that “wait a few more months and then there would be an explosion, one way or another”.
ping
When Israel bombs those Nuclear plants I hope they bomb his palace as well.
bttt
I would expect that he won't live to see a bomb falling.... unless he sees it out of the .308 hole in his forehead.
A joint operation with us is probably off the table as well for a variety of reasons.
Which means it will be left up to us (and a few sturdy NATO allies) to deal with the Iranian problem.
Tic, tic, tic....
How about a mass demonstration praying for Bush to bring them freedom?
Now that would be a hoot!!
ZZZZZZ.
From which of the three sons, Shem, Japheth, or Ham do the Persians consider themselves to have descended?
none! I believe!
[insert Mr. Rogers voice here] Can you say "megalomaniac"? I knew ya could........
They have F-15's and F-16's I know we sold them some bunker busters.
Remember this GWOT will be fought at the times and places of OUR choosing....Not our enemies and certainly not at the times and places "arm-chair" generals would like to see.
The fact is going to war is always a last option. Taking out the Taliban and then Saddam were both more pressing issues in the GWOT. Both are steps in the right direction prior to any confrontation with Iran.
The values of freedom and self-worth for far too long were denied the citizens of the ME. Our actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq now have freedom on the march. These values are both spreading now throughout the ME (albeit in a difficult struggle).
But our enemies cannot thrive with these values spreading. The extinction of these values is needed for their continued power.
Iran is a threat....but it is a threat we will deal with when we are best positioned to do so. Unfortunately it looks as if time is running out for any type of peaceful resolution.
The reality is there is no good military option regarding Iran. Having enough Iraqi units online and performing effectively is definitely needed prior to any action against Iran.
They don't have enough to provide the needed SEAD support for such a long-distance strike (taking into account the number of "targets" that will need to be hit).
Nor do they have the needed logistics / refueling type aircraft needed for such a large (and long distant) strike.
Israel would be sending a great majority of their finest pilots on a one way trip (in not so many words). This isn't a viable option for them.
To pull off an operation of this scale they would need a joint effort with the USAF. I don't see this as a viable option currently.
We most likely would rather take on the operation with several other NATO forces and leave Israel out of it.
Israel has air capabilities that are not public. I will say no more other than that I have full confidence that the IAF can take care of Iran if it wants to, without anybody else's help.
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