It's summer, and Amsterdam is filled with visitors from Iran here to visit family and enjoy the cool, long days. Our visitor, an old family friend, told us, "I've come from Hell and landed in Heaven."
Last night at a party with other friends visiting from Iran, he lamented the fact that his teenaged daughter was stopped by the morals police for showing too much hair. "Look how free you are here," he said. "Nobody bothers you. You can cover your hair, not cover your hair, drink a beer in the park. Nobody cares."
Some of our friends have been telling me that Obama said that if Iran does not agree to the nuclear demands made by the UN, then Israel will bomb them. This seemed a bit extreme even for an American politician. I found the quote, which is here:
"Nobody said this to me directly, but I get the feeling from my talks that if the sanctions don't work, Israel is going to strike Iran."
I get the feeling from reading that quote that Obama's been talking to a lot of hardliners. It's just a feeling though.
Even though all readers of this blog know that I am against an attack, I think it's important to remember that Iran does regularly threaten Israel. These are not all empty threats either. Iran funds Hezbollah and Hamas, even if it does not control them. So the fact that Obama would get a feeling that Israel might attack is not so surprising.
4 comments:
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During the crisis when Iran seized the British sailors, on radio shows in America.. there would be discussion on what would be the smartest way to attack/harm Iran but also not alienate the population of Persians.
One idea tht came up time and again was to destroy the very few petrol refineries in Iran and blockade all fuel shipments to Iran.
If such a thing was done as a result of the general conflict between US and Iran.. what do you think the overall response would be of the Persian people?
Vince P
That's a hard question that I cannot answer. I don't have a good model in my head anymore for the way that Iranian society would respond to any kind of attack.
This whole situation distresses me... as I'm sure it does a lot of people.
The main thing that bothers me is that I don't believe any leader in the West is properly educated on the ideology of the Iranian revolution and the subsequent rise of the Twelvers
and then there are so many people of infuence who do not care to learn about Iran or anything.. and they will work to undermine any policy we put together..
I dont know how much longer a society can survive with such an ignorant/self-defeating population and political environment when facing a very shrewd and deterermined foe.
How much longer is Fate going to protect lands like the US from the hellish conditions tht most people around the world live in, while at the same time the people in the US take everything they have for granted.
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