“Danish pastry is our absolute right”

The Yankee Sailor ^ | 6/1/2008 | The Yankee Sailor

[Yankee Sailor]

There's some interesting insight into the mood of the Iranian street in a Washington Post article today. From the author's experience as an on and off resident of Iran, Ahmadinejad's stock is plummeting while America's is climbing.

Starting in about 2005, Iranians' historic esteem for the United States gave way to a deep ambivalence that is only now ending. President Bush’s post-9/11 wars of liberation on both of Iran's borders — in Iraq to the west and Afghanistan to the east - rattled ordinary Iranians, and Washington’s opposition to Iran's nuclear program - a major source of national pride - added to their resentment. In early 2006, when I lived in Iran as a journalist, I had only to step outdoors to hear the complaints. Standing in line for pastry, I heard indignant matrons suggesting a boycott of U.S. products. The pious bazaar merchant who lived across the street grumbled that America was trying to "boss Iran around" On the ski slopes outside Tehran, I heard liberal college kids in designer parkas lionize Ahmadinejad for "standing up to the U.S. like a man." But on a recent two-week trip to Iran, I found the shift in sentiment palpable. This year...