Bombing or not bombing Iran … hysteria of war sweeps through U.S.
(I have a link below to a TV debate in which I address all this below): Gen. David Patraeus has been on television all week pointing a finger at “Iran” blaming them for the fighting in Iraq. There’s talk that “Iran” has a nuclear bomb and is supplying weapons to “kill American soldiers.” It’s a great strategy from a President still unable after 4 years and 4,000 American deaths to win the war he started illegally in Iraq, to distract attention from his failings there and whip up emotion to hate “Iranians.”
Of course, it is not easy to argue that focusing on Iran as the enemy is wrong and that Patraeus and Bush are both playing politics with more exaggerations and lies, the same lies given when we invaded Iraq.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an electe president, granted a “nut” who has made some ridiculous and hateful statements, clearly a fanatic. But, Ahmadinejad is an elected part of a government that does not necessarily represent the people of Iran. Should we attack Iran and kills hundreds of thousands of Iranians, the way we attacked Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and what? Push Iran further away into a country that hates Americans? I don’t believe Iranians hate America at all but that is how Iranians are being portrayed in this country. They don’t say Ahmadinejad is supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents, they say “Iranians” are supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents. Iranians are Shi’ite and as a cohesive religious group, they have a fraternal religious brotherhood that expands beyond borders. That doesn’t mean they don’t have internal problems, but it does mean that you don’t have to ask a Shi’ite angry about American war crimes in Iraq to pick up arms and go there to fight the invaders and fight the oppression. (79 percent of Iraqis want the American soldiers out, so to say the American soldiers are not oppressing Iraqis is baloney and wrong just as it is to say that we have to start a war with Iraq.)
Here is a link to a recent TV/Radio show I did, Beyond the Beltway, hosted by award winning journalist Bruce DuMont, in which I have to fight to “defend” Iran from broadstroke attacks from a conservative. The truth is Iran has problems, but attacking Iran is NOT the answer and after all the lies we heard about Iraq, I am not about to accept the charges against Iran ont heir face. They claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and evidence it was building nuclear weapons and had stores of poison gas which turned out to be all lies — after the fact. Now they are accusing Iran saying that some of the weapons are traced back to Iran (with serial numbers, no less) … well, what about the weapons Americans provided to Iraq in the 1980s when Donald Rumsfeld was shaking hands with Saddam Hussein (which he was our ally) that ended up in the hands of insurgents who fought us. Did we provide those weapons to the Iraqis to fight ourselves?
The hysteria has to stop and if it doesn’t, watch how quicklyt his escalates into an attack against Iran, if not by the United States then by Israel, justified through a campaign of brainwashing Americans to believe the most exaggerated and extreme charges against Iran.
mms://68.251.204.5/video/btb/btb100707a.wmv.
– Ray Hanania
www.ArabWritersGroup.com
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Voice of America and Fiasco at Persian Service.
There is no need to attack Iran IF the Bush administration pays attention:
Millions of dollars are spent in Persian Service of Voice of America but the end result is nothing but scandalous way of cockamamie management and programming.
It is hard to believe but the Persian Service which supposed to be an organization to convey the policy of the U.S. has become a free platform for hard-line terrorist group of communists who attack the United Sates!
I have the documents in writings to prove that these were done with the full knowledge of the management.
I used to work there and as I said before, I have all the documents in writings.
The manager is a woman called Sheila Gandji who can not read and write Persian. Therefore, in order to hide this shortcoming from the higher management, she has hired an eighty something man called Kambiz Mahmoudi who has a lengthy background as crook and in charlatanism.
You expect a doctor to be in charge of a medical clinic. You expect an engineer to be in charge of an engineering department. You expect a plumber to fix your plumbing.
So why do you expect a person who has no education in Iran and doesn’t know the language of that country should be in charge of publicity, literature or politic for such position?
Sheila Gandji falsely pretended and presented herself as educated with background in journalism. These are absolute fabrications. Nobody in Iranian communities inside of the country or outside has any knowledge about her being a journalist, then and now.
Her partner, Kambiz Mahmoudi is a hateful and despicable person whose activities as crook are widely known through out Iran. Can’t the U.S. government appoint somebody without such shameful background and baggage?
Don’t think that this is a personal vendetta.
Let me quote you a view from another media:
“The Iran Steering group concluded that much of the anti-American perspective that is broadcast is the result of decisions made by station managers in Washington D.C. and Prague. Sheila Gandji, the manager of Persian service has faced sharp criticism, particularly for her decision to stop VOA shortwave radio program in July, 2006 in order to focus on television broadcasts, which are more susceptible to censorship, since the government regularly confiscates satellites dishes in order to prevent the infiltration of foreign broadcasts.”
And this is not the only one. The mismanagement at the Persian Service of Voice of America is the subject of hundreds of web sites and articles in newspapers indicative of disgusts and ridicules in the world about VOA.
The bizarre situation at the Persian Service of Voice of America caused even the Republican Senator Coburn to write a long letter to President Bush about the fiasco there.
It is only in America where the government pays to be insulted. Really, why Voice of America is doing this harm to our nation?
“we’re creating a monster out of a bully”
Excellent line Ray.
Didn’t realize you had such a strong chicago accent.
There is no arguing with these guys, is there?
“The rest of the world should not believe him…” I hate that line! The idea is that taking his words literally shows more respect than understanding that the cultural norms of the region mean that language doesn’t necessarily lead to action.
And Khatami is the religious dictator? Obviously, I am writing this while I am listening to the talk.
That was a good conversation.
Is it true that it is mainly Shia fighting one another in Iraq? From what I understand the Shia were the targets of most of the violence… and it was not Shia groups doing the targeting.