Posted on 01/05/2006 5:32:06 PM PST by Cyrus the Great
For months Iranian activists and even moderate clerics have been concerned about the radical tendencies of Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the past few weeks - after he said that the Holocaust was a myth, called for Israel to be wiped off the map and banned Western music from state-run radio and television, the concern spread around the world.
But there is another development in Iran - this one positive and with great potential - that the world should not miss: civic defiance against Ahmadinejad's authoritarianism is increasing.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Yeah Persian Street!
Pictures of Iranian hotties please!
2. Too many poor folks who see the reform movement as a "rich kids" movement.
Or the Iranian puppets in Southern Iraq will go bonkers and cause a lot more of a mess than we have had in the past few days there... Just something to consider...
(Peter Ackerman is founding chairman of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict...
I don't think this is a particularly credible source for this opinion piece.
We tried that with Saddam in the Gulf War and it didn't work. - tom
You are either half right or stressing the least viable successful alternative.
Yes, both USA and Israel could mount a successful attack, before or after the mullahs get their new toys.
Yes, that might set off a popular uprising, and yes, it might result in a positive regime change.
More likely, it would set the majority of islamist 'states' on a warpath, crush the Iranian opposition, and deepen the present conflict - but with Iran a mere sideliner.
What is needed is some backbone in the Iranian 'resistance'. It is they who need to rise up against both the nuclear fantasies that might encourage a non-islamist strike against their country, and against the lunatics who shroud themselves and their people with a fanatic vision of destruction.
I truly believe that the dominant ideology in islamist ruling circles, including the "moderate" ones, is that a world melt down is necessary in order for them to rise up and enforce their beliefs on the globe. I very nearly believe that the left in our country and the west in general agrees with that vision.
I absolutely believe that Iran will not be rescued until Iranians actually rise up, take up arms, bomb their institutions, and force the rest of the world to take action. I also believe that is or will be up to the USA to insure that that action is favorable to creating a new and more rational order in Iran.
I agree 100%. Back in 1999 the word was that the mullahs were on their last legs as the revolution was building.
Khatami was an enlightened, informed Ayatollah. And Rafsanjani was a pragmatist.
All that is a lot of horse dump. IMHO we're going to have to make much of Iran look like Germany from 1944-45 really soon.
We might as well forget about all this talk of "liberation" and just concentrate on bringing Iran and ALL its people to their knees.
Period.
When it came to hard choices, GHWBush cut and run leaving thousands to be slaughtered.
An American tradition since Vietnam.
W is trying to clean up the miserable legacy of Ford and his father.
An American tradition since Vietnam.
W is trying to clean up the miserable legacy of Ford and his father.
You got that right.
After we abandoned the Kurds to be killed by Saddam, I can't understanding the Kurds wanting to play ball with us in Iraq after Sadaam and his sons were neutralized.
I can't understand why a civil war wasn't started by the Kurds to cut out a piece of Iraq for themselves only. - tom
Actually we protected the Kurds very well.
That's why they like us.
It was the Shiites in the south that we abandoned.
It is a miracle that they trusted us at all after that disgrace.
That's always a winner for an economy. What is he going to do close street market stalls and open government stores?
posted before
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1551795/posts
Iran 's future? Watch the streets
I've been hearing about the anti-Cleric and liberal attidudes and pro-western feelings in Iran for more than ten years. And yet, there they still are. Nothing ever comes of it.
I'm afraid I'll still be hearing the same thing ten years from now.
You got that right. Just a bunch of hot air, chest pounding, and no substance. For all the screaming, crying, pissing and moaning about how oppressive the theocracy in Iran is, NOBODY in Iran is going to take up any sort of resistance, armed or otherwise, unless it involves sneaking into Iraq to kill the kafir soldiers of the US.
The Iranians have laid down and rolled over to get fisted by the mullahs for going on 26 years now. Remember, it was the discontented Iranian citizenry that ran the Shah out of town. Granted, the Shah was an SOB, but was Khomieni any better? Is Ahmadinejad an improvement? Sorry, my give-a-damn is still busted.
But I can hear my detractors now... The mullahs have all the weapons! What are we supposed to fight back with? Translation: We would rather live on our knees than die on our feet. With all the know-how heading into Iraq to cause trouble, how about taking in some of that knowledge to free yourself?
It's plainly obvious, but the Supreme Council only cares about one thing; maintaining power. And the only thing that will strip that power is direct, violent confrontation. Mad man recognize nothing else.
Trust me, as a proud Cherokee, nothing breaks my heart more than oppression and the sound of freedom getting smashed. But while my people were defeated militarily, the situation in Iran is a self inflicted wound. And unlike finally forcing the central government to honor its own treaties, Iran is held in the grip of evil, violent men who can only be toppled by violence. But ultimately, it is up to those forced to their knees to rise to their feet to live and die as free men.
And just remember. Like the mullahs of Iran, former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had life and death control of all Romanian citizens. In only three days, he was taken from that status to being executed by a firing squad manned by those same citizens.
I pray for Peace my brothers (nuwato hiyadv anadanvtil), but I fear it's in vain.
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