Those who believe that Islam as a monolithic and unchanging doctrine resting on the bedrock of sharia (Islamic Law), should note that we have here two leading Shi’ite theologians in open conflict with an “Islamic republic” that claims to rule in accordance with sharia. Both Soroush and Montazeri want an end to it, and both would welcome a secular state. Finally, both were close allies of the Ayatollah Khomeini and played important roles in the Revolution (as did Mousavi and Karroubi).
Similar criticism is coming from previously apolitical sectors of Iranian society. As the New York Times reports today, “a conservative filmmaker and activist wrote an unusual letter to Ayatollah Khamenei on Monday blaming him for the post-election violence.
‘As a commander in chief of the armed forces, you did not treat people well after the election,’ wrote the filmmaker, Mohammad Nourizad, in the letter posted on several Web sites including his Web Blog.”Nourizad blamed Khamenei personally for the wave of violence.
Finally, there is violence against the regime as well. This is rarely reported, but there is a recent report that gunmen entered the house of the temporary Friday Sermon leader in Sannadaj following Friday’s prayers and shot him dead. He was a prominent cleric in Kordestan Province who supported Ahmadinejad in the last elections. This is the second attempt on officials’ lives in Sannadaj during the past week; the first was a failed attempt to kill a local Revolutionary Court judge.
The French call this phenomenon “Thermidor.” It’s the destruction of the revolution by the revolutionaries themselves. That is the fear that keeps Khamenei, his son (who seems to be the eminence grise who leads the forces of repression these days), Ahmadinezhad and the rest of the slim veneer of faithful that sit atop a burning society that hates them.
And still there is not a single Western leader who has supported the opposition, nor demanded the release of Iranian political prisoners, nor refused to recognize Ahmadinezhad as the legitimate president. All are obsessed with the nuclear question, ignoring the evil of the regime and the war it has waged against us for more than thirty years.
Citizens with a few fragments of common sense should ask their leader: “The Iranians are killling us. What are you going to do about it?”
In our case, the answer is quite clearly “nothing. Maybe we’ll talk a bit.”
I’m told that many Iranians are now openly calling Obama “Chamberlain.” And rightly so.
Soroush! And Montazeri again! But, where is al-Sistani? If Montazeri and Sistani were together, they would become an unbeatable Duo. The Iranian regime would simply implode like the Soviet Union if Sistani joined Montazeri, because the loss of legitimacy would be total: moral, legal, and theological.
Interesting that the NY Times does not pick up on Soroush’s characterization of the Iranian regime as “fascist.” It’s also interesting that no mention is made in the American media of Soroush’s freedom philosophy, banned in Iran. Somehow, I doubt if anyone at the NY Times has even read any of Soroush; they certainly have not read Khomeini.
Will Soroush video-tape his lectures at American universities, and put them on YouTube? Then everyone could see one of the world’s bravest philosophers, worthy of Socrates.
“Pentagon backs massive missile sale to Turkey
The Pentagon agency said the sale was essential for Turkey to maintain “a strong and ready self-defense capability that will contribute to an acceptable military balance in the area.”
http : // www .spacewar.com/reports/Pentagon_backs_massive_missile_sale_to_Turkey_999.html
Given that everyone that is well tuned into the events in Iran is EXPECTING BIG THINGS will happen in Tehran, and given that I’m almost neutral and don’t expect ANY MAJOR things will come out of it this Friday, AND given that when I get such a neutral feeling, this clearly proves that I’ll be 100% wrong. I’m not shy to admit it and particularly in this case.
So here you have it!!! If you believe in contrary way of thinking, my lack of enthusiasm and having no expectation of anything major thing(s) happening this Friday must be read as some big things will indeed happen!!
” … many Iranians are now openly calling Obama ‘Chamberlain.’”
And as many Iranians are getting it as wrong as are 0(zero) and the rapidly thinning ranks of his (living) supporters.
For never was the once-great British electorate better represented than by the hapless and gutless appeaser, Neville Chamberlain.
And never has our beloved fraternal republic been less well “represented” nor “led” than by the hapless, gutless and dangerous dullard who presently pretends to the “presidency.”
Not going to do any good. Tiananmen proved that. Best guess is that about 8,000 Chinese demonstrators died at Tiananmen Square. How many Iranians will die in Tehran Friday?
As many as it takes to keep the Mullahs in power. If Bush had any testes, he would have sent the B-2′s after the Mad Dog Mullahs and their minions. The Revolutionary Guard sleeps somewhere. Bomb them. Bomb the Palaces where the MDM’s sleep. Drive the MDM and there minions into their bunkers and there won’t be anyone to machine gun protesters. Once in their bunkers, bomb the doors so they can’t get out.
That is what it will take to give the good people of Iran the chance to replace the Mullahs. America has the technology, the weapons and the skills to do this. What we lack is a leader with the moral courage to give the order.
If the Usurper gives that order, his poll numbers will go above 90%. Plus Putin, Chevz, et. al. will start to take him seriously. In Geopolitics, if you haven’t the ‘nads to order people killed, then you are not worth a bucket of warm uri…., er, spit.
Read your Nicco. A leader (Prince) that is proven to be ruthless, seldom has to be. The MDM knows this. They will kill several thousand people Friday as a warning to the rest. The world won’t do anything because it isn’t any of our business.
Besides, the only possible means of altering the conduct of the Mad Dog Mullahs is by killing them. Anything else is delusional.
The MDM is on a mission from god (Allah). Nothing men tell them matters. Kill them and see if the next bunch is willing to negotiate in good faith.
Mr. Ledeen, I’ve been reading a little bit about Mousavi’s past, and I’m curious: do you think a ‘perestroika deception’ is absolutely out of the cards here?
I think it is very unlikely, but i would never say that it is “absolutely” out of the question. If it’s a deception, they are sure sacrificing a hell of a lot of people. I don’t think perestroika was a deception either, by the way. I think Gorbachev did not believe that the system would ever come crashing down.
The people of Iran are paying the price for Jimmy Carter’s ineptness as president and misguided priorities.
Soroush wrote:
We are of a fortunate generation. We shall celebrate the disappearance of religious despotism. A moral society and a government beyond religion are the beacons of our Green nation.
We shall cherish and esteem freedom, that same freedom which you did not value and unto which you heaped injustices. You were sold fascism and told that freedom is whimsical and permissive….If you had allowed the press to be free, it would have divulged corruption and the corrupt would not have dared engage in their misdeeds. If you had allowed people to criticize you, you would not have fallen into the abyss of dictatorship and the corruption of power. The people’s true words would have dispelled your daze of ignorance. They are the schools of the nation, not “enemy bases”. And what would have been so terrifying if the doors of those schools had been kept open and you had been able to learn there?
We will cherish religion, that same religion that you made a tool of your power and in whose name you gave lessons in slavery and melancholy. You did not understand that joy and freedom walk alongside true faith….and that religious power corrupts both religion and power. Governing a joyous, free, informed, and nimble people is an achievement, not lording over a bound and dejected nation.”
This sounds similar to a certain declaration written in the latter part of the 18th Century by a bunch of old White Men. They wrote for a population that may have had 50% of the population standing behind them. They wrote for an armed population from a rugged rural background.
Soroush is writing for a large segment of the population that is unarmed and vulnerable, yet they are willing to stand up to draconian measures that include torture and rape of political prisoners. Imprisonment, state sanctioned rape and torture of not only dissidents, but their relatives as well.
Where are all the groups like Amnesty International, where is the ACLU, where is the outrage of the Leftist? Doesn’t our Constitution apply to citizens all over the world? Perhaps, Constitutional Rights only apply to enemy combatants that are trying to destroy the US, that must be the criteria for people to have protection under the Constitution. We hear nothing because the atrocities are being committed against people seeking Freedom, rather than trying to destroy Freedom.
Atrocities committed by Leftists, Communists, Socialists, National Socialists and Leftist Dictators are hidden with a veil of silence by Leftist Politicians and Leftist News Organizations. Unless the news promotes the cause of Socialism and has Propaganda merit it becomes so much flotsam and jetsam to be swept away as news not fit to print or in the case of Leftist Leaders, like our Intrepid Reader, movements not fit to acknowledge.
We have the most flagrant examples of Leftist malfeasance and propagana with our news organizations and politicians. They refuse to acknowledge any movement toward Freedom that stands against a Leftist Tyranny.
Obama, a Leftist Radical from a long line of Leftist Radicals, refuses to admit that a group of Freedom loving students are standing up to a despotic regime. Perhaps, he is worried that he may be faced with the same freedom loving opposition at some point in the future.
The sanctimonious outrage by the Left over the waterboarding of three terrorists, that saved countless American lives, is used to weaken the CIA and the United States; while political prisoners are being tortured, raped, and murdered by the tens of thousands in Iran. This is an example of moral disconnect that will hopefully discredit the Leftist Movement and Obama for generations, despite Michele’s promise that Intrepid Reader is going to rewrite our history.
Obama and his Socialism is slapping the concept of Freedom in the face on an International scale, the United States has always at least spoken out in support of Freedom Fighters who struggle against tyranny. In the eyes of the world, we are no longer a bastion of Freedom; we are no different than China and Russia in our determination to see the continuation of the status quo, despite its tyranny, as long as a Leftist Government maintains power against the forces of Freedom.
Our Leftist Media is more than willing to be complicit in this covert effort to watch unarmed Freedom Fighters be ground into the dirt by the iron heel of Socialism. This is a dark period of history for the United States and for the world, may we all be ashamed of the cowardice and immorality in Washington. Although Obama, pathetic Socialist that he is, is our Leader, we have yet to hear a member of congress stand against the human rights violations and atrocities being committed against the Iranian People. The sun has truly set on true freedom in the United States.
Obama has plenty of company. Over at the National Post, George Jonas had this: George Jonas: The Tory malady — pussyfoot conservatism
Posted: September 16, 2009, 10:00 AM by NP Editor
George Jonas, Canadian politics
Many people think there will be an election, and almost everyone thinks we don’t need one. Much as we want to help Michael Ignatieff get on with his life, making sure his visit to Canada won’t be a total waste isn’t a sufficient reason to go to the polls. Pundits don’t agree on much, but there’s a consensus on this.
A consensus usually makes me suspicious. It’s when most people agree with one another that they’re likely to be wrong. This time, though, I think they’re right. Still, just for the hell of it, here’s another perspective.
First, I’m not so sure that there will be an election. The people who need to pull the trigger may think better of it, not necessarily for the right reason, but for reasons of their own.
The right reason, of course, is that disrupting the country and wasting $300-million on a process whose most likely result will be another minority government and what’s more, probably the same one, isn’t a very good deal for Canada. I doubt, though, that this would stop Ignatieff and his merry band of Liberals or Jack Layton and his sad sack socialists if they thought it was a good deal for them. What might stop them is the fear that it won’t be.
They could be right, too — which is why I’m dissenting from the consensus that a $300-million election would be a waste. It wouldn’t be if it induced voters to hand Prime Minister Stephen Harper a mandate to go with the office they’ve already handed him twice.
If Ignatieff & Co. force an election, it’s possible, just possible, that Canadians might say: “Hell, we sent Stephen Harper into the ring twice with a hand tied behind his back against pretty mean opponents, and he’s still on his feet. Why don’t we untie his hand, let him have a majority and see how he does in a two-fisted fight?”
How would Harper do? Would a majority make him govern more like a true blue Tory, perhaps even a Tory with a libertarian tinge? Would he champion ideas and policies of the kind he championed once as head of the National Citizens Coalition? Would he try to stem the tide of the regulatory state? Would he buck interventionist trends in business, environment, education and free speech? Would he reform, or even abolish, human rights commissions? Nix the gun registry? Help cool the globe without freezing the economy? Make sure “universal” in healthcare doesn’t translate into “universally unavailable”?
What would it take for a Conservative government to feel sufficiently mandated to pursue conservative policies? Would a majority do it? I doubt it — not if past performance is an indication.
The Tory story rarely varies. Whenever the centre-right wins an election, the centre-left allows that its opponents have the office, but denies they have the mandate. They can govern for a term, yes, but only by consensus, not according to their own lights. They may steer the bus to a mutually agreed destination. Driving it along a route of their choice is out of the question.
Majority isn’t the issue. The centre-left reminds the centre-right of its inherent lack of mandate as soon as the votes are counted, whether the centre-right’s win is a squeak or a landslide. This is especially true in Canada. The amazing thing isn’t that the centre-left makes this declaration — why shouldn’t it? — but that the centre-right often believes it, or acts as if it did. Majority or minority, Tories tend to govern apologetically, as if they were caretaker governments, probationary constables, relief politicians holding the fort until the real politicians catch their breath and return for the next spell of legitimate centre-left governance.
Some centre-right leaders in the United Kingdom and the United States haven’t been as vulnerable to the syndrome of pussyfoot-conservatism as Canada’s centre-right leaders. But even the least wobbly, Margaret Thatcher, say, and Ronald Reagan, weren’t entirely impervious to it. With all their self-confidence and charisma, Thatcher and Reagan never radiated that cocksure, hubristic aura of self-righteous intellectual and moral conceit that’s the hallmark of centre-left leaders from Pierre Elliott Trudeau to Barack Obama.
Simply put, the centre-left feels entitled to govern; the centre-right doesn’t. It was instructive, and scary, to watch America’s President open a new chapter of regulatory statism in his Wall Street ululation this week. Obama was cooking, laying down the law with entitlement oozing from every pore, in a dazzling, born-to-govern performance.
Pussyfoot-conservatism is a Tory malady, much as gout was a royal disease. It affects the centre-right only. The left seems immune to it, and so is the far right. What’s the far right’s disease? If the centre-right abandons its constituency, I’m afraid we’ll find out.
The Harper regime suffers from a case of fulminating pussyfoot-conservatism, explained if not excused by electoral verdicts that twice denied Harper a majority. Would winning a majority cure the Tory pussyfoot, or at least provide symptomatic relief? Ignatieff’s folly may give us a chance to find out.
National Post
John Mcain would have seized this oportunity. Sorry Iran we are in open revolt here and can’t help. We reelected Carter.
Why am I suspicious? Something is out of whack here. Calling on the west? Wow! Fighting for a secular state? Very fishy talk. There whole belief system is to hate anything not muslim. Are they chucking out Islam? I don’t think so. Nothing about this makes any sense. It feels like something is missing.
David Lincoln, as an American/Canadian, I can appreciate the frustration of the Canadian Political Scene.
A glaring problem with the US Centrist right politician is the tendency to be a part of the RINO Syndrome, (Republican in name only or Republican in the name of Obama):i other words they are Republicans for the convenience of being elected.
If we imagine politics as existing along a straight line with a center point that theoretically remains constant with Leftist ideology to the left and ideology of the right to the right we have a theoretical analogy of the political world.
However, the line to the right after Reagan became mobile and began a migration. Of course the center was attached to the center point so the movement was not as obvious, because there was less movement. The rest of the line was more obvious in its migration. In the beginning there was a 180 degrees between the two lines. When the right line began to move it could only move towards the left decreasing the included angle between the two lines until a position of 90 degrees has been attained in other words a position half way between the original position of the right and half way to the Left’s position. Consequently, the Conservatives who had formerly occupied various positions along the Right Line were left in the original position, when the right began its Leftist migration.
Although Republicans have awakened to the danger of merging with Leftist Ideology, both in a sense of being electable and in a more practical sense of integrity, they seem to have stopped their Leftist migration now that they have proceeded past the 90 degree point: in other words they are closer to the leftist position than to their original point of legitimacy of being diametrically opposed to Leftist Ideology.
Hence the reason Conservatives feel like political orphans, after being neglected and abused by Republicans, they now consider themselves deserted by Republicans. While Republicans wallow in the stagnant and fetid shallows of the RINO, they are coming to the realization that they have lost their moral compass.
Being adrift in the RINO waters cost the Republicans the last election and allowed a Socialist who is intent on castrating the US and its Constitution. Will they regain their integrity or fawn at the altar of the Obama Cult. This is the fundamental enigma of the Republicans. Do they stand for Freedom against Tyranny, both foreign and domestic, or do they wallow in the feeding trough of Leftist Swine with their “Stimulated” corruption. While they wait for their measured allotment of pork graft rinsed with the blood of freedom fighters from around the world as gravy upon their wretched and grisly meal.
It is only at the cost of freedom that these swine gorge themselves on the flesh of corruption and tyranny. While they feast, the lights of Freedom are being extinguished. They have forgotten how these Socialist Revolutions eat and destroy their own children, while they become morbidly obese on the sacrifices of others, the welfare of their children and their grand children lose importance. They are hedonists of the moment, the future be damned.
Yet Conservatives still occupy their positions without leadership, armed only with the rudder of Conservative Principles they maintain
their integrity in the face of intense opposition and derision. Will the Republican Party find the the ethics to reverse it’s descent into Marxism or will a third party evolve to embrace the Conservative cause and constituency.
Time will tell, of this we may be sure, only the Conservatives and the Marxists have maintained their beliefs and remained true to their traditional positions. The Republicans have become prodigal in nature, leaving Conservatives wondering just how close the Republican position is to Leftist Ideology and whether they are ready to repudiate these tenets of Marxism or begin their journey home.
i blame this on the NIE report that established that there was nothing to fear in the current leaders of iran. thanks Mearshheimer and Fingar (ex german translator for the army),job well done.
Steve Sampson, given the number of governments that are challenged when it comes to credibility, as we see here: http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2009/09/14/obama-home-of-the-whopper-thoughts-on-trust-and-the-will-to-believe/ I purport that enough governments-in-exile (but without leaving the country) is one way to yank the run-away horse carriage back into line.
Plus a stiffening of the spine of those who have more clout than the average person to make the case that Gramsci leads to a closed system, thereby leaving no room for differences. For, when you take a look at how
intolerant those who follow in the footsteps of Gramsci are towards those who conclude that
there is more to life than the definable, a person can easily make the case of how intolerant those people are who preach tolerance.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the American federal political scene since the summer of 1980, and on the Canadian federal political
scene one summer earlier, and it is time to demonstrate the truth in any political arena that a man with experience is not at the mercy
of a man with an argument.
BTW, the by-election win by the former leader of the Wildrose Alliance, on Monday; this could be a harbinger of what is to come. So,
keep your eyes peeled on Alberta.
Is it too late for some of the mullahs to redeem themselves by leading the protests?
The President is indeed acting almost exactly as Chamberlain did and if he goes to Iran he will have conducted himself in a way indistinguishable from Chamberlain in his trip to Munich in 1938 (see Telford Taylor’s book “Munich – The Price of Peace” (Doubleday, 1979). I have made this comment before but it is worth repeating. Chamberlain and a reluctant Daladier conceded to Hitler an independent nation (Czechoslovakia), unrepresented at the Munich meeting, in exchange for Hitler’s assurance that this would satisfy all his (Hitler’s) territorial ambitions in Europe. Chamberlain returned to London and proclaimed to joyous Londoners, “Peace in our time!”. In less than a year WWII had started in Europe with the German invasion of Poland. While the following is not in Telford Taylor’s “Munich” I have read elsewhere, in a source I believe to be reliable but no longer can cite for lack of recollection: On his deathbed, Neville Chamberlain is reported to have said, “If only Herr Hitler had kept his word.”
If the President thinks he can, through personal diplomacy, obtain reliable assurances from Ahmadinejad, he will be as naive as Chamberlain or perhaps even more so. Unlike Hitler, Ahmadinejad is a figurehead. The real authority rests with Khameni. If Ahmadinejad does not do Khameni’s bidding, he will be quickly replaced. Any agreement the President may think he has obtained from Ahmadinejad will be hollow and could well be subsequently stained with the blood of many innocent people.
I assume that Dr. Ledeen takes some well-deserved satisfaction in how these events are unfolding, considering that they bear out his longstanding views that the Iranian people have long despised their leaders. From a foreign policy and indeed global futures perspective, his perspectives could not be more important.
And from all that I can tell, he has just come successfully through major surgery.
So perhaps this is not the best of times to impose costs on him; because the man deserves to rest a bit on his laurels. But perhaps by chance I wonder if he might provide more frequent updates over the next few days. The main stream media do not recognize these events as being as important as they truly are, and so it seems to me that there is a troubling dearth of good information about what’s happening.
Or as a service to his most avid fans, perhaps a link or two or three to sources he finds reliable.
Just a thought. Not to complain. I am grateful for all that appears.
thanks for the kind words. yes, i was right, so my family can stop worrying about the advance of dementia for a while longer, but still, hardly anyone wishes to hear it because the govt isn’t going to do anything. “Accomplice to Evil” will be out soon, should be in the stores by the end of the month.
on sources, try http://iran.whyweprotest.net/green-brief/, which is really exceptional, altho sometimes slow. i have learned a lot from him, and it’s a fine way to check rumors, which abound on this subject. there’s another good web site called tehran bureau:
http://tehranbureau.com/ and if you want to follow the opposition intellectuals in english, go to rooz: http://www.roozonline.com/english/ It, too, is a bit slow–i think translation is not so easy– and remember that the regime will be doing everything it can to interrupt net traffic for the next several days.
Please spread the word that in spite of our cowardly leaders, many, many Americans are on the side of the Iranian people.
“sacrificing a hell of a lot of people” – fair enough. i suppose the perestroika deception is ultimately unfalsifiable. the inference arises from the basic dynamics discernable from the wires and other reports: (1) it could be interpretted as a dispute among aristocrats, and (2) the urban folks closest to the surface towards modern life, who feel the least weight of the Islamic Revolution and the general weight of consonant affiliations that make it tolerable (e.g. rural traditional Shiite piety, family and social dynamics, and etc.). so the present rift doesn’t just (from this distance) resemble a popular uprising, it also seems as though it might be confined to elites, the more “liberal” of which might be distinguishable only by a degree that would not satisfy the requirements of Hamiltonian republicanism (on the pro-reform side). There’s the question of what result? Would the patronage remain, the Revolutionary Guard, the Russian sponsorship remain after reforms? Whether or not it’s a plan. Analyzed closely and practically enough, whether there was a plan is of relatively limited importance. But the result means everything. Are you pretty confident that a successful overthrow of the present ruling junta, the dissolution of the guardian council, the elevation of the Mejhilis, would result in a strategic relaxation and maybe a turn inward/sympathy for the West’s concerns? Or?
I wonder why the Pentagon suddenly decided to sell missiles to Turkey,
and forgot Poland, where these missiles were supposed to be directed at Iran ?
also ships will be supplied as helps to Israel.
So me think tha Obama doesn’t believe to get his discussions with Iran anymore, and that he is going to press in it.
Michael, here is another proof of the difference between those the terror masters would want to dominate, and the terror masters: http://www.sderotdove.com/ is something that the former would come up with, and the latter would fire the rockets to be later turned into works of art.
I guess Abba Eban was right, the South Syrian Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Which just goes to show the steep price of they paying heed to Nasrallah, instead of Sadat.
This period is a phony period, just l;ike 38-39 The forces are circling, gathering, marking, positioning. More warfare is on the horizon, whether it starts here or there makes little difference for there will be more war. A question is when war comes as it surly will. What will the disciple of Alinski, the protege of Ayers, follower of Chomsky do? Fiddle like Nero will he founder like Carter, produce fly paper Ala Chamberlin.
What will be left of his power, if anything?
None of the parties in play have infinite patience. Who will be first not to check 6? I think I know the answer and its unpleasant at best.
This period is a phony period, just like 38-39 The forces are circling, gathering, marking, positioning. More warfare is on the horizon, whether it starts here or there makes little difference for there will be more war. A question is when war comes as it surly will. What will the disciple of Alinski, the protege of Ayers, follower of Chomsky do? Fiddle like Nero will he founder like Carter, produce fly paper Ala Chamberlin.
What will be left of his power, if anything?
None of the parties in play have infinite patience. Who will be first not to check 6? I think I know the answer and its unpleasant at best.
I just dont see much change in Iran, or the mideast in general, for many years to come. The cultural infrastructure of the entire mid east/souwest asian areas do not lend themselves for change any time soon. Its a mess.
To Poor Citizen:
Please do not despair! Iran during the reign of the Shah and his courageous father (50+ years) was the island of stability in the region. The region had enjoyed decades of peace and stability except few short periods of war but never anything like what we are experiencing with the Islamo-fascists ruling and threatening the region and beyond.
It was due to the wrong and imperial policies of Russia and Britain and the incompetence and wrong policies of Carter that all has changed. Carter supported and materialized the ousted of the Shah and establishment of the Khomeinist regime in Iran, then Russia happy to see Shah gone, went to grab Afghanistan, then American congressman Wilson support and funding of the rebellions in Afghanistan to oust the Russians all again materialized the strength and power of the Islamic jihadists in the region. After all the rebellion in Afghanistan who were fighting the forces of Russian invaders were for the most part getting indoctrinated by Al Queda and our American naive congressman Wilson without knowing was supporting the Al Queda to the tune of trillions of dollars thinking it will be instrumental to fight off the Russians which happened to be true. Now with Russian defeated in Afghanistan and gone back and Shah of Iran ousted as well, the forces of Al Queda are free and loaded with $$$$$$ cash to spread their venom around and the rest is what we see now. Basically if we want to see peace and succeed in fighting the forces of Islamic darkness we should cut off the sources of $$$$$ which rests in the vaults of the “World Bank” and their so called “Aide” to the poor nations (meaning rich thugs in powers of those nations!!!) and the UN and its corrupt bodies of power pouring millions of dollars into the pockets of those fascist regimes. So basically it is not the as simple as black and white but it is a complex scenario where it had all started with bad policies of the West in the 70′s perpetrated by the imperial ambitions of the the Soviets of that era.
History of the 70′s gives us all the lessons we need to understand today’s menace we are facing. In the meantime the people of mid east has been taken all hostages!
What craziness?!!
Thanks so much for the article. Especially the quotes.
I wonder if the Iranian people can do what it will take? Either way is a tragedy, but if they can rid themselves of this government, at least the tragedy has purpose and value.
Sometimes we tend to assume Islam is one thing, or another thing, forgetting that it is a great world religion. The fact that Islam has been abused and horribly misrepresented doesn’t mean we are justified in making assumptions about any Muslim. Yes, I have read the Quran, but there is much more to Islam than that. The Iranians want and deserve freedom as much as anybody.
It is a fickle fate that gives us a president incompetent to deal with this. So many Americans would help the Iranians, if we knew how, and Obama is not just voting “present”, his acts support the regime in power. But then, I wonder if the realization that they are alone brings home to the Iranians that they and nobody else will have to deal with their government.
There are messages here for us in the US, regarding our own situation. The most obvious one is ‘don’t let anybody mess with our right to bear arms’.
No doubt there is deep concern among the Iranian reformist activists, where the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that “they will suppress strictly any protests or demonstrations by opponents of Ahmadinejad on Jerusalem Day.” Most probably, Khamenei and his thugs won’t hesitate tomorrow to beat and kill thousands of Iranians God forbid! The west MUST MOVE to help Iranians and by all means.
MAY GOD BLESS IRANIANS
” … many Iranians are now openly calling Obama ‘Chamberlain.’”
” Khamenie ….[wants] nuclear weapons for his birthday..”
Mr. Ledeen, where is the world are you coming up with these fabrications?
Oh yes, I guess Iranians favored Churchill over Chamberlain because Churchill was directly responsible for overthrowing Mossadeq’s government.
Khamenie’s birthday?? Would you be kind enough to tell us the exact date of birth.
Such non-sense, taking Khamenie to be like Saddam Hussein with his birthday celebrations.
Are these the type of “facts” you have published in your books? I guess that is why they made it to New York’s Best Seller List- one after another –hmm
People like Micheal Ledeen and unethical pseudo-journalists like Judith Miller have shown their true colors- Fabricate, and propagate as long as it is good for Israel.
They go about their lives thinking they can fool people- and the best part is that the ISraeli policy makers won’t invite them for a local celebration.
Oh, God, how good I feel to know that I saw the day when that trash-journalists like aka Judith Miller & AM Rosenthal fell from grace. From NYTimes to NY WHAT???
Mr. Ledeen, never was high profile like Judith but his book sales speak volumes. After all, how can someone with prior experience only in Italy come and pontificate about MIddle East when he never studied it.
Mr Ledeen, thinks that by talking human rights he can pull one over us. That’s like Micheal Savage’s (Even though fervent Zionist, atleast his little stories and delivery makes one like him) attempt to conceal his Jewish identity (MIcheal Weiner) to come across as the mouthpiece of blue collar American CHRISTIANS. Yes, many Mr. High School Football player now security guard might buy that, but anyone with some culture and interaction has long ago found out about Mr Savage.
Anyway, people like Mr Ledeen, Joseph Farah, World Net Daily and clique have all shown their true intentions- -
Thanks God, Iran is at a point where no amount of pressure can make it bend. All the Sarkozys, Ledeens, Coulters, Hannitys can burn their hearts out and seethe in anger, but not a hair follicle would move in Iran.
PS. Mr. Ledeen, maybe if you would have written a Italian cook book things would have gone much better.
My thoughts on the Subject are here
http://www.bloggybayou.com/2009/09/keep-eye-on-iran-this-weekend.html
Still, one can only hope I’m wrong, but I think not…
Cheers
Ali, t’as de l’humour quand même !
but if we cut you refined oil, would Putin serve it to you now ?
I don’t think so, he’s got Obama gift in Poland.
So have a nice time to taunt us, as long you still can manage it