Former Iran president urges U.S. to stay in Iraq

Daily Progress ^ | September 7, 2006

[xjcsa]

Harvard forces Summers to resign over a "comment" that they deem offensive towards women, but the University welcomes a man whose policy was to execute women who committed adultery. Am I correct?

Yep. Or women who showed too much wrist.

[COBOL2Java]

Former Iran president urges U.S. to stay in Iraq

Reading between the lines:

1. Stay in Iraq, it's a good escape valve for our domestic problems - keeps the sheeple mad at you and not us;
2. Stay in Iraq! Don't come to Iran.
3. I'm out of power, so I can say the craziest things.

[Momaw Nadon]

"only half-dozen students protested his appearance"

Question: How many UVA students would protest a speech by President Bush?

[Captain Rhino]

You got me on the quote. It is a shame if he said it, but in someways, not surprising.

As for the turd aspect, there are limits to what we can expect at this stage.

Gorbachev was ex-KGB which made him acceptable to the Politburo and somewhat stinky to the West (although having a pretty, stylish wife helped). Yet it was he, the ultimate insider, that brought about the end of the Soviet Union (with some help from a drunkard, Boris Yeltsin and more than just a hat tip to Ronald Reagan). Sixteen pretty bumpy years have passed and we now have another KGB type running Russia. The issue of whether the terms "Russian" and "democracy" go together is still in doubt

Richard Nixon was a fervent anticommunist until he decided it was in the United States' best interest to recognize the People's Republic of China. That hasn't been an unalloyed success either.

As I noted, Khameni is considered a moderate among a pretty conservative group of senior Shia clerics. So it can be expected that on many topics he is going to sound as conservative as any of the other clerics. Yet he tried to introduce a number of reforms to move the government away from the mullahtocacy and toward a functioning democracy. His efforts were foiled by the schizophrenic nature of Iran's government.

We are going to have to practice "Realpolitik" and take progress where it occurs even if it comes in small increments. It is going to take some time and will require dealing with some unsavory leaders.

Unfortunately, time is not unlimited, the threats are real and serious, and we have unhelpful allies. This may force us down roads we would prefer not to travel.