Posted on 06/28/2005 10:06:14 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
TEHRAN, June 27 - Outside the mosque where Iran's president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, went to vote on Friday, a parade of cars, trucks and scooters rumbles by, day in and day out, right over a picture of an American flag painted on the blacktop.
The message is unmistakable: that America is still the Great Satan, the enemy of the people of Iran, the nation vilified by the father of this country's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and to this day chided by his successor as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But Hamid Reza Solimaai is embarrassed by that flag on the ground. So is Sayed Reza Mirsani. And Manocheh Jamshidi. And Mohsen Malek Mohammadi. All work in shops on Samanegan Street, the road in East Tehran where the flag is painted, along with those of Britain and Israel. All say they see the American flag in the road as a relic of an era that has passed.
"The government has imposed this on people's minds, painting flags on the road," said Mr. Solimaai, who was working on Monday in a closet-sized storefront repairing tires. "Almost all the people hate this."
Mr. Mirsani labored over a blast furnace of an oven, baking bread. "I can recall the good old days, before the revolution, when we had good relations with the United States," he said. "We all lived better. Now we live worse."
In the realm of international relations, the United States and Iran are enemies. American officials attacked Iran's presidential election as undemocratic, while Ayatollah Khamenei said the 60 percent turnout had "humiliated" the United States.
But on the streets of Tehran, from the gritty neighborhoods in the south, to retail areas in the center of town, to the fancy northern neighborhoods, America is spoken of more as an estranged cousin - maybe an annoying cousin, but nevertheless one with whom people would like to reconcile.
"The people of the U.S. live like us," Mr. Mohammadi said as he worked inside his film processing shop along Samanegan Street. "The politics are in the hands of politicians. Ordinary people cannot change this. I would love to go to the United States, not necessarily to live there, but to see how they live and how they feel about Iranians."
Because many Iranians feel alienated from their government, they assume that Americans feel the same way about theirs. But the warm feelings toward Americans could easily cool if they understood that many of them support policies of Washington's that Iranians loathe.
The election of Mr. Ahmadinejad, a religious conservative aligned with some of the country's most reactionary forces, has raised some concern in the West that the new president may aggravate already strained relations.
But in his first news conference on Sunday, Mr. Ahmadinejad sprinkled small overtures to the West in with his red-meat bombast. On the streets, it was clear in conversations with dozens of people in the last week that there was no appetite for another showdown with the United States. In fact, most people said they were hoping for just the opposite.
"This is stupid," Mahmoud Safteri said of the flag on the roadway, as he stopped in at the bakery. "Tell them it's not the Iranian people. Tell them it's the government."
Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers have taken a tough line on foreign policy, one rooted in a sense that the United States does not show Iran respect, and that resonates with the public. Almost everyone interviewed said that for relations between the two countries to improve, the United States would have to treat Iran as an equal, not as a second-class country.
"Tell Bush that each ballot cast in favor of Ahmadinejad was a ballot cast in his eye," Muhammad Abdullah said as he leaned on his cane and seethed with anger. "Iran is not Iraq. The U.S. should apologize to Iran."
But then, without skipping a beat or pausing to catch a breath, his face relaxed a bit and he said: "I am telling this to the government. The American people are good."
At Mr. Ahmadinejad's headquarters two days before the election last Friday, Hassan Khalili, a spokesman for the campaign, demonstrated a similar attitude. With his voice rising in anger, he said, "When foreigners talk about this country, they laugh and make fun of us." But when asked if he meant all Americans, Mr. Khalili looked shocked and said, "No, we like the American people," then leaned over and kissed an American reporter on the cheek.
Throughout the Middle East, attitudes toward the United States are often far more nuanced than the images suggested by images often played on evening television news programs of protesters burning American flags or effigies of President George W. Bush.
Many people who want more democratic governments in this region, whether on the left or the right, say, however reluctantly, that they view the United States as an effective vehicle to force change in regimes unwilling to yield power.
In Iran, attitudes toward the United States are even more positive, in part, it seems, because so many Iranians know someone living there. Solimaai, the tire repairman, reached behind a stack of tires and grabbed a laminated business card for a body shop in Harbor City, California. He said it is owned by his sister, Fatima, and her husband, who have lived in the United States for 20 years.
"I'd very much at least like to go and see the United States," he said.
Across town, as the roadway feeds into an overpass leading to the center of the city, motorists see a huge image of an American flag painted on the side of an apartment building. The image, which is about five stories tall, has skeletons in place of stars, and the red stripes are the trails of bombs falling to the ground. "Down With U.S.A." it says in English at the top of the flag, and on the bottom, in Persian, it says "We won't go along with America, even for one moment."
"It's ridiculous," said a man standing on the sidewalk below. The man, a driver for a government official, became frightened when his boss arrived, and he hurried off without giving his name.
But two blocks up the road, Ahamad Yaghobi, who was working behind the counter of his jewelry shop, said, "We don't hate America. We like to have better relations. It's just the governments."
The single largest symbol of Iran and America's troubled relations is still the former U.S. Embassy, which was sacked and its employees taken hostage during the revolution that brought the Islamic government to power in 1979.
"We will never go along with the United States, the Great Satan," reads one of many anti-American slogans on the red brick wall that surrounds the compound. "The United States is the top of all criminals," read another.
But there are no longer crowds in the streets chanting slogans. Pedestrians hurry by without even glancing up.
"These are things that are done by the government people and people don't necessarily like them," said Mohsen Hasseni, an accounting student as he walked by the wall. "It was political tit for tat as far as Iran was concerned. That's all."
Many people who want more democratic governments in this region, whether on the left or the right, say, however reluctantly, that they view the United States as an effective vehicle to force change in regimes unwilling to yield power.
In Iran, attitudes toward the United States are even more positive, in part, it seems, because so many Iranians know someone living there. Solimaai, the tire repairman, reached behind a stack of tires and grabbed a laminated business card for a body shop in Harbor City, California. He said it is owned by his sister, Fatima, and her husband, who have lived in the United States for 20 years.
"I'd very much at least like to go and see the United States," he said.
Across town, as the roadway feeds into an overpass leading to the center of the city, motorists see a huge image of an American flag painted on the side of an apartment building. The image, which is about five stories tall, has skeletons in place of stars, and the red stripes are the trails of bombs falling to the ground. "Down With U.S.A." it says in English at the top of the flag, and on the bottom, in Persian, it says "We won't go along with America, even for one moment."
"It's ridiculous," said a man standing on the sidewalk below. The man, a driver for a government official, became frightened when his boss arrived, and he hurried off without giving his name.
But two blocks up the road, Ahamad Yaghobi, who was working behind the counter of his jewelry shop, said, "We don't hate America. We like to have better relations. It's just the governments."
The single largest symbol of Iran and America's troubled relations is still the former U.S. Embassy, which was sacked and its employees taken hostage during the revolution that brought the Islamic government to power in 1979.
"We will never go along with the United States, the Great Satan," reads one of many anti-American slogans on the red brick wall that surrounds the compound. "The United States is the top of all criminals," read another.
But there are no longer crowds in the streets chanting slogans. Pedestrians hurry by without even glancing up.
"These are things that are done by the government people and people don't necessarily like them," said Mohsen Hasseni, an accounting student as he walked by the wall. "It was political tit for tat as far as Iran was concerned. That's all."
PING!
Don't tell the MSM and we'll just keep it as our little secret.
The source of this is International Herald Tribune!
Thanks for posting this. But somehow when I read towards the end I felt as if I knew what was going to happen. :)
This is left wing media!
Why do we call it MSM? It's not "mainstream" at all. It should be called the ELM-ELITE LIBERAL MEDIA. And, as always, you'll never see them report on Iranians who like the US.
I think the youth of Iran will someday have enough and overthrow them. Hopefully sooner then we think.
I hope so!
If you like America, then why did you elect a fascist?
At the start of the Afghan war I saw an interview with a woman on an Iranian street. Her face was intentiuonally blurred but her comments were clear. She said that she hoped America would do the same in Iran.
Also on the show (National Geographic?) were college kids saying they just want to be able to hold hands in public, wear the clothes they want to wear and allow women to let their hair blow in the wind.
They made it very clear that they did not want to become American but they did want the freedoms they see in America.
That is a funny comment...
THEY DID not elect any one. That fascist guy was SELECTED by the supreme leader and IRGC commanders.
If Iranians were free to choose, they would have gone for a secular, democratic system
http://roozonline.com//11english/
I have known a lot of Iranians, and I liked them. This was when it was okay to be secular in Iran, before the revolution...
It doesn't surprise me that they might view us favorably. Remember, they aren't Arabs...
sure
That may be true, but let's face it, even if there were a free vote in Iran, the result would not be much better than what they ended up with. The students might be on the verge of revolt (as they've been for about 40 years now), but the attitudes in Iran as a whole has not changed during that time.
They're Persian I believe.
I disagree!!
You might need to read some first hand reports from Iran or talk to an Iranian online to see how they feel and what they want!
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