Yet again another very profound statement from you. I have to admit I check this site constantly now for your comments. Like you I believe many in the West are unware of what many Iranians like you think. The sad fact is because of the media control in Iran we are only presented with the hate, death, and blame the other propoganda. Many in the west miss the fact that the Green movement is based on ideals almost identical to the ideals we take for granted in the West. I wish people would wake up.

My two best friends happen to be Shia Iranians. One just came over in the past decade and she has educated me on the situation in Iran. She has told me how the younger population has been quitely rebelling for years. She even recounted her story how she cut her hair into a mowhawk and died it purple under her Hijab. The picures are quite funny when you see her in the drab black coverings with this smilling bald head on top sporting a purple mowhawk. It is a stark contrast to the forced reality in Iran but it speaks volumes to what Iranians want. It was her silent and very personal protest. Her brother happened to work for a reform paper that was closed years ago yet the basiji paid him a visit during the protests and they believe he is still in Evin prison.

While I am frustrated at the lack of response from America on Iran I can understand it on one level. Obama was right to not try and get involved. For us to get involved would only allow the regime to crack down more with real evidence of outside involvement. When the Soviet union fell it was largely done from within. I believe for the Green Wave to be succesful it also has to come from within. I often look at Moussavi and Karroubi as your “Gorbachevs” that are dismantling the totalitarian rule you are currently under. It won’t happen overnight but I believe it will with time it will. After all 60% of the population is under 25 and I have to believe most are not happy with what is going on.

We in America may be somewhat silent but that does not mean we don’t care or have negative opinions of Iranians. Most I know love the people of Iran and trully want to see you free. Our struggle is how to help without damaging your cause. All the best to you and no to death but yes to LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUITE of HAPPINESS!

Thx
Bill

Thanks. To Kevin: Thanks, but I am also sad, this tells me that the 30 years rule of fundamentalist Islam has so isolated us from the world that when one of us makes a statement that makes sense you are impressed. There are hundreds of thousands like us, and we all strive for justice and for what you have in the West. We see through the lies of the IR and we have now been shaken to our core this summer. This has given birth to a delicate new life, and we know we must cherish it and nurture it. You can certainly give us moral support, you can inform your pundits to see the reality and not to dwell on their own outdated guilt-driven sentiments that call for total surrender of the West against Islam. Believe this will not get us anywhere. Bowing to the IR, for example, and repeating thousands of times how sorry the U.S. and GB must be for what the did in 1953 and so on and so forth. 1953 is long gone, please inform your intellectual friends that your guilt driven apologies are outdated, they don’t serve anything anymore, and that is NOT what we want. We want you to recognize our new birth, that we are not different from you in aspiring for democracy and for decency and for truth and for, yes, morality. The “enemy” invoked by the IR and by the Leader is NOT you. We know that. Pass it on. In fact your views on democracy and your ways of bringing about a judicial system that works in the great majority of cases are among the top most list of things we want. We are learning that the West has a lot to offer us beyond the cliche Coca Cola and Jeans and now rock and punk, etc., the IR and all other obscurantist ideologies want to emphasize solely. We want the same moral base in your system that teaches people to tolerate differences and to uphold the law, and yes that justice has meaning and democracy works for the benefit of all of us, even the minority.

Dear Kevin, indeed inform people we don’t want outdated guilt of how a long time ago westerners oppressed people in the ME. This is a new day. We want to be equals in all domains starting with education and morality and so on. Did you ever stop to think why it is that people in the IR lie more than say in GB or U.S. or Swedan? I will tell you. It is our Islamic upbringing now intensified in folds by the Islamic revolution. I can say this. Firstly I was brought up in a Muslim home, devout at that, secondly I am a strong opponent of political correctness. We must state the facts as we see them. T he amount of lies in the IR is more than anywhere in the western world by folds. We must recognize this and we must stop this. Your guilt trips of yesteryears and western distorted political correctness will not get us anywhere. There is no way to justify the harsh and violent nature of fundamentalist Islam. We must recognize the roots and we must teach our children to avoid it. To learn to tell the truth no matter what. This we must learn and must teach our children. We must not white wash it. Violence has roots in basic Islamic teachings where there is no tolerance for non Muslims, so called kafer. This is amoral, and we Muslims must put an END TO IT. This radical behavior by especially Muslims in GB, e.g., must stop. Ther eis no way for British leftist radicals to justify the nonesense uttered by Muslim leaders asking for the death of kafers. No. This must end. And her is the glimmer of hope. We have observed the birth of a new life in Iran this past summer. A precious new life. We must nourish it. FOr it has gret potential. THis may turn out to be the very esswence of what we need. End of the culute of death, end of hate mongers. End of the ideology of kill this and throw that ot hte ocean. And, certainly the end of the culture that does not allow any right sof “minorities”; just look at he horrible behavior of Muslims in this and the past century against minorities. This is awful. We are learning that this is not what we want. The Green is all this and more. Dear Kevin, this is what we request of you. Inform your western thinkers and intellectuals and journalists and the common folk that the Green has been born to end the culture of hate and seeks to do way with the slogan of “death to!” Our slogan is “love to!” and in fact what a long time ago did define Islam, SALAM! (peace!), but Muslims have forgotten this and are clinging on to the formal side while they are being fooled by false meanings, such as “kill!”; “infidel!” “western immorality”; and all such false meanings that have taken over the life of all Muslims. The Green, at least in Iran, will replace our ancient mythos, the culture of tolerance and of compassion and of truth. I am passionate about all of this. So, PEACE! now.

You presented this in a very respectful tone and I would encourage you to shoot this out to Diehl and others in the MSM. Diehl’s position, unfortunately, exemplifies the true political priorities of those opposed to Iran. Namely the nuclear issue trumps any humanitarian concerns of the Iranian people. What I think many miss is the fact that the nuclear issue breakthrough was heavily influenced by the internal discord due to the elections. If Iran was talking from a position of internal strenght there is no way they would have relented on the Nuclear issue. They only did so because it 1) Distracted the masses 2) Bought some legitimacy for the regime and 3) most importantly allowed to avoid a two front conflict. It is my ardent belief the regime saw the nuclear issue as tool to stay in power. It is sad that the Western side has largely fallen in this trap. I would like to say they fell in unwillingly but the words of the politicians clearly show the nuclear issue has always been their focus. From a selfish standpoint I can understand this but like you it infuriates me to see the “objective” press pushing the same agenda. What ever happened to the people of Iran?

Thx
Bill

American Hawks Feel Betrayed By Iranian Opposition

By Daniel Luban

Today’s Washington Post features an unusually honest column by hawkish deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl, in which Diehl confesses disappointment at the fact that the Iranian opposition’s goals do not match up precisely with those of American neoconservatives. It is slightly odd, however, that Diehl is only arriving at this revelation now. After all, there was never any indication during this summer’s protests that the bulk of the “Green Movement” shared the goals of Iran hawks in the U.S. and Israel, most notably the overthrow (rather than reform) of the Islamic Republic itself and a total halt to Iranian nuclear enrichment. As I discussed during the June turmoil, many of the goals attributed to the protesters in the U.S. media simply reflected the projections of hawks in Washington.

Diehl’s column is also a reminder that, despite the Iran hawks’ over-the-top expressions of solidarity with the Green Movement, in actuality nothing would have been more disastrous for them than for Moussavi and the opposition to have triumphed. If Moussavi had taken power and announced that Iran would continue uranium enrichment – which seems extremely likely, given his record of repeated public pronouncements in support of the Iranian nuclear program – this would have put the hawks in the politically untenable position of calling for military action against the same people they had been hailing as saintly voices of freedom and democracy all summer. The same logic that made neoconservatives like Daniel Pipes support Ahmadinejad prior to the election suggested that few were genuinely hoping for a Moussavi victory.

http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=305

Hukook al- Insan
http://tqa81.wordpress.com/

A quick personal note before signing off and waking up on the day before 13 Aban. Many thanks to all of you for your kind words — I was very nervous about converting my initial anger at the Washington Post piece into the right tone of support in the piece for those who are bravely pursuing their hopes in Iran. It is an honour to carry your reassurance into another day.

S.