Iran

Below is a link to a petition to Mr. Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, president of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/omidadvocatescom/

The goal of the petitioners is one million signatures. I signed and am number 10, 405. They have a long way to go. It remains to be seen whether it will do any good. With everything going on in Iran right now if the U.N. does not get involved, a petition certainly will not cause it to. And then again, what if anything can and will the U.N. do anyway? Pass a resolution?

There isn’t much point in rehashing the history of America’s sadistic involvement with Iran here; our joining with the British in 1953 to remove Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq from power in a coup because he had nationalized his country’s oil industry, the installing of the Shah, and the creation of Savak, the feared and brutal Iranian secret police headed by the father of the Persian Gulf War’s H. Norman Schwarzkopf. If you think terror is bad now, whew!!

So, you see, America has a history of creating its enemies by doing nasty things to innocents, going all the way back to the Indians and the first Thanksgiving (one day I’ll tell you the truth about that—maybe this coming Turkey Day). This generation of Iranians obviously sees something different in America in the form of Barack Obama. Could that something be hope for a better future between us and them?

What I find obviously hypocritical about the Ayatollah Khamenei is that the Quran says, “A Believer shall not kill another Believer” and yet here he is, a religious authority inciting the Basij, the secret goon squad, to kill the protesters. Expecting Khamenei to adhere to the Quran is like expecting Bush to adhere to the Constitution.

The most famous death caused by Khamenei’s hypocrisy is Neda Aghah Soltan, the young female music student who, it seems, happened to be on the fringe of the protest and was killed by either a sniper or a Basiji on a passing motorcycle, depending on which report you read.

To another topic in these events, I disagree with the popular analysis in the media about the remarks of some Republicans along the line that Obama needs to use harsher rhetoric toward Iran to lend our support for those in Iran who are doing more than simply protesting against the regime.

I have occasionally entertained the idea that idiots like Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Chuck Grassley (is it just me or does anyone else think he has lizard eyes?), and others, are not stupid, but rather, cunning, deceptive and agenda-based. I believe they want Obama more involved because they already know their stated goal will backfire and their secret goal, intensifying the status quo, i.e., solidifying Khamenei’s position and maintaining Iran as an enemy with an even greater hatred toward the U.S. is their secret goal for the benefit of the military-industrial complex lobby (the long-awaited war with Iran?) and the future of the Republican party.

Creating a situation where Iran is no longer an enemy is not in their interest, let’s face it. Graham, McCain and others are in lockstep with, and doing the bidding of, Da Fuhrer, Dick Cheney. If we can’t scare Americans, we can’t control them. The Obama-is-weak theme is very similar, and, in fact, compliments well, Cheney’s America-is-less-safe-under-Obama which everyone refutes.

The obvious and superfluous question here is: why are Republicans so intent on Obama getting so involved in a stolen election in Iran when the Republicans themselves didn’t get involved to protest and help those who charged voter fraud in 2000 and in 2004 here in the U.S.? The answer is obvious.

As Chris Hayes of The Nation said on Rachel Maddow last night, the Republicans seem to think they can cause others around the world to do what they want. He cited the example of Reagan imploring Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987.

That moment and what followed with the Berlin Wall coming down on November 9, 1989 (so long after Ronnie’s speech, there is no direct link) has become part of the Reagan myth that Republicans have invoked over and over again in the presidential campaign last year, as if most didn’t already know that Reagan was the second worst president in the last thirty years.

The only other thing I can say to these Republicans is if you want Reagan, go watch his speeches on videotape with some comfort food and a pillow, especially the speeches to the American people about not knowing anything about Iran Contra or the Just Say No To Drugs campaign.

For those who want to stir things up, call Graham’s office at 202-224-5972, call McCain’s office at 202-224-2235 and call Grassley’s office at 202-224-3744 and tell all of them that these protests were in-part inspired by Obama’s Muslim ancestry and his outreach in Cairo, so let him handle it his way. They (Graham, Grassley and McCain) could not have created this with a speech so they get to say nothing about it—Obama bought the car, so to speak, so let Obama drive it.

The question I want answered is what is going through the minds of Egyptian youth who are watching this? 2005, anyone? And what would be Obama’s response if this happened again in Egypt?

Perhaps then, Graham, McCain, Grassley and others would be calling on Obama to lighten up in his criticism of the democracy activists? After all, Egypt is one of our strategic partners, isn’t it?

Further, what must be going on in the minds of youth in other Muslim countries that are able to see this? Saudi Arabia?

Thirty years ago this October the hostages were taken. However, this is a new generation in Iran, inspired and emboldened by Obama’s Cairo speech. Putting these events in the context of their relationship with 1979, the question is: what repercussions and changes will this current uprising cause in Iran and throughout the Muslim world thirty years from now in the generation recently and not yet born?