[kabar]

1. Whether Iran is able to to finance its foreign policy on its own is a matter of opinion. During our discussion, by accident you have managed to persuade me that its impossible. Even USSR in its hey days wasn't able to finance

Different circumstances, different scope, different countries. I still don't know specifically what you are referring to in terms of financing what guerrilla wars. The Soviet Union was trying to match the US in terms of weapons systems and armaments in addition to funding proxies in the Cold War. Iran does not any such pretensions anymore than North Korea does.

2. I don't know why do you bring Poland into this? If you wanted to impressed me you are extremely unlucky because I was born in Poland, even worse I spent 80's there I even participated in some strikes. It wasn't heroic at all.

I figured you were born in Eastern Europe. Sorry, but I spent two years in Warsaw, 1981-83, and found the struggle very heroic. The Pope and Reagan were able to support a movement that would eventually lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall. After Poland, I lived four years in West Berlin and visited East Berlin frequently. I am indeed puzzled by your perspective. Were you a member of the Communist Party?

3. Stalin passed away in 1953. So obviously I don't remember those times, but my parents and grandparents do. You visited USSR after his death. It was different country by then.

Not that much different for those who lived there. Ask people like Sharansky about life in the Soviet Union in the post-Stalinist era. Read his The Case for Democracy

4. I know Iran a bit. I would compare it rather to Yugoslavia in 70's than to USSR at any time. Iranian are pretty well connected with the world. They move freely around their country. They are relatively well educated, and can study the subject of their choice. No sane person would choose to live in Stalinist Russia over Iran. So I believe the is a ground for comparison.

How do you "know Iran a bit?" I would rather not live in either place. Of course, a lot depends on who you are in terms of where you live. If you among the controlling elite, it really doesn't matter that much.

I hope that the crazy Mullahs will go away peacefully. Because Iran is a beautiful country with enormous tourist potential. And with urban Muslim population craving to adopt modern life style.

If you know just a little bit about Iranian history, you must know that the mullahs will not go away peacefully. They have been part of the Iran's ruling elite for a thousand years. In Iran they are referred to as the "Shah" and Shaykh": the king and the cleric. The Shah's father, Reza Shah, tried to remove the mullahs from power in the 1920's, including taking away their lands and other institutions of power. After his exile in 1941, his son initially restored the mullahs to the trappings of power, but then the White Revolution of the 1960s led again to reforms that stripped the mullahs of their lands and power. Khomeini's return in 1979 and the hijacking of the Iranian revolution just is another chapter in the story.

Iran changed overnight. I was there during the Shah's fall from power and Khomeini's takeover. I left on March 31, 1979. Iran went, virtually overnight, from a country where you could buy Playboy on the newsstands and the Iranian parliament had more women in it than the US Congress did to a fundamentalist Islamic country that forced women to wear chadors and the advent of sexual apartheid.

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Let's try your way
1. Different circumstances, different scope, different countries. I still don't know specifically what you are referring to in terms of financing what guerrilla wars.

USSR was financing a lot of proxy wars. Out of top of my head Vietnam, Angola, PLO members were trained in Poland so obviously USSR participated in this effort as well. USSR meddled in all those places where US was engaged. It was Cold War only in the western world. It was quite hot in other places.

2.The Soviet Union was trying to match the US in terms of weapons systems and armaments in addition to funding proxies in the Cold War. Iran does not any such pretensions anymore than North Korea does.

The quest for nuclear weapon and import of weapons form China doesn't qualify as upgrading? USSR has never been a match for US in terms of sophisticated weaponry. USSR was good at producing good quality arms [not cutting edge technology] and selling it. It was quite profitable business and still is. Iran doesn't make any money in this business sector. It's simply a buyer. It's very expensive

3.I spent two years in Warsaw, 1981-83, and found the struggle very heroic

There is nothing heroic about a real struggle. It looks good on the TV. Real struggle is quite prosaic matter. You simply are doing things you have to do or are expected to do. I was there for real. You was looking for experience, so you saw it.

4 Were you a member of the Communist Party?

I was to young to be a Communist Party member. My family wasn't considered trustworthly enough to be accepted. We have family abroad and my grandparents generation was in the wrong army [the one that swore alliance to the previous, non-communist government]. Sorry You cannot hurt me there,

5. Ask people like Sharansky about life in the Soviet Union in the post-Stalinist era. Read his The Case for Democracy

Come on! You are saying that I should ask Sharansky what I have seen. Sharansky sells books and opinions to the western public. He is trying to prove his point, he has agenda. I lived there, most of my family lives in former Soviet Union. I don't need Sharansky to tell me what is happening around. By the way, do you really think that the best way to learn what is going on in your village is to read books about your village publish in China and written for Chinese public. No offense, but the idea is ludicrous.

6.How do you "know Iran a bit?" I would rather not live in either place. Of course, a lot depends on who you are in terms of where you live. If you among the controlling elite, it really doesn't matter that much.

There are places where live is better for an average person. And there are places where an average person has worse quality of life. It as simple as that. I have seen places much worse to live than Iran.
Knowing a place a bit means seeing few things and having few friends. I suppose that after living in Poland for 2 years you know that place a bit. Although knowing what was going on in Poland then and knowing the Poles' attitude towards people from the West at that point of time, I have a strong suspicion that you simply paid few bucks to some people [at that time the currency exchange rate was ludicrous, a physician could buy only 2-4 dollars with his month salary - you should remember that], and they felt obliged to show you all the excitement you wished to see. No offense, but it's a rule of thumb if I go to a poor country, I always take into account that the natives have the tendency to look at me as a retarded source of a quick buck. Sorry, the same applies to you.

7. If you know just a little bit about Iranian history, you must know that the mullahs will not go away peacefully.

I can always hope. However, unfortunately, I also don't consider it very likely. They have to much to loose and little to gain, by allowing to modernize the country. However eventually they will go, because their time is up. Good night