View from Iran

Long time, no write…
Even longer since I started this post…

So… a lot has happened: Ashura, UFOs, better relations with America, and a resumption of uranium enrichment. What’s that you say? Better relations with America? ( Read between the lines…) Worse relations with Iran? That too. Iranians are sure that America plans to attack.

Iranians are smarter about the world of politics than I am. “Iranians have political brains,” one older friend told me. “Americans are much simpler.”

When the Iranians I know say that Americans are simple, they mean it as a compliment. Elaine Schiolino writes in her book Persian Mirrors that it is meant as an insult. Well, maybe it was, and maybe it is. In fact, I am sure it was and is. I do, however, believe that it is becoming a compliment. Iranians of all stripes seem to find American simplicity refreshing. “It’s so easy to work with Americans,” a nationalist Iranian tells me. “They say something, and they do it. They tell you what they can and cannot do. Everything is so straightforward.” (They are not speaking about our politicians, mind you. They are also clearly not speaking about many of our CEOs.)

“I find so much more common ground between American culture and Iranian culture than between Iranian culture and the culture of Europe or Asia.”

“For instance?”

“Americans are religious. They understand religion. When I go to Europe, they think I am backwards because I am religious. Americans understand that. They don’t find it odd.”

Will America attack Iran? Has Iran purposely screwed up nuclear proliferation negotiations with the EU in order to get America to participate in the discussions? Their chief negotiator is busy insulting the EU representatives, saying things like they cannot make up their mind without crossing the Atlantic.

Today (well not today anymore) I received an email with an article from Ray McGovern that concerned attacking Iran. Well, all options are on the table, aren’t they? Listen carefully, I will only say this 10,000 times, Iranians need to clean up their own mess. The regime will not change if America attacks. It will get stronger. (Am I wrong, or didn’t we just fulfill Khomeini’s prophecy that Iraq would become an Islamic state if Iran refrained from taking Baghdad itself and left it for the future? What do you think would happen here?)

Iranians worry too. “It is always people like us who suffer in war,” a friend just told me.

I try not to worry, but I worry too. I do not want to see war. I do not want the people I know and love to be bombed. I don’t even want to see people I do not like bombed. That’s what a sissy I have become.

As usual, the Onion has the best analysis:
(http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4110&n=0&ref=myy)