IDEAS

well said Areyo Barzan

I agree with every thing you said.
Thanks

Naravad Mikhe Ahanin Dar Sang

With all due respect Xerxes I live in Iran and you do not Today 99.9 present of Iranians hate IRI and what it stands for. how ever they are so suppressed and each uprising is confronted so brutally that nobody dares to speak. They even rade the homes of participants at night and arrest them and the 0.1 present that pretends to support the Mullahs is for the simple reason of financial benefit.  yes I agree if today Iran was attacked everybody will fight foreign invaders including yours truly. but it would not be because of our love for IRI but for our love and sense of duty towards a country called Iran  I must admit your logic it very weak indeed if you argue that IRI is a legal government because it manager to hold on to power by brutalizing the people. so by your standards Hitler Mosiliny an General Pinochet and Khmer-Rooj were also legal governments. furthermore if just by being in government someone can be legitimate and should be respected then what is all this fuss I am hearing about Palestinian cause. isn’t that the case the Zionist government has the support of majority of Israelis who are the absolute majority in that land so how come in case of IRI you are willing to ignore all the outcry of Iranian people for help and get into bed with them and i case od Israel you want to wipe them of the planet. Isn't that the case that just like MKO Hamas is and Illegal organization who brought noting to its people but war and misery so how come one is hero ant the other one is a traitor. if this is not hypocrisy to the core then I do not know what is. just because IRI have killed terrorized and assassinated all the opposition leaders and just because they confront each uprising with such brutal force that no one dares to rise against them it does not make them anymore legitimate that fascists in Germany, Zionists in Israel or apartide in South Africa and if you could not get that through you tick scull then this discussion will go nowhere  Furthermore if we are talking about treason looting of out national assets and murder then Mullahs have much more blood on their hands than MKO or any other opposition group combined together. If MKO assassinated a few people in the early years of revolution (so we were told). mullahs killed hundreds of thousands of young men and women of this country to stop free speech suppress opposition and stay in power and now go have got enough nerve to hand them their victory by accepting the result of their genocide. The next time you come to Iran go to Behesht-e-Zahra in Tehran. Pass the block of war heroes and go to the unmarked graves at the back of cemetery. There you will find thousands upon thousands of unmarked single and mass graves of those who were executed by IRI. 20 years on their families are not still
allowed to put a head stone on their graves and morn them properly.
There is one of these in every town, even today if you try to
approach and talk to some of the parents you will be definitely
arrested by the Herasat Ettelaat and be given a good ruffling. May be I should remind you of the story of the 9 years old girl who was executed along with
her parents and when the bullet hit her she cried for her mummy. The seen was so dramatically and upsetting that even effected the men in
fire squad and one of them turned the gone to his fellow henchmen and
killed them. There are thousands of stories about these cold blooded
murders brutalities around. So don't you dare come here tell me who
has more blood on their hand Although I did not support or even like MKO from the very first day but I am fair-minded enough to know that without them there would have been no revolution. It was them who adopted Khomeini as  their leader and it was them who organized all those demonstrations and rallies.it was them who distributed all the leaflets and taped speeches of Khomeini.When Khomeini was returning from Paris it was Masood Rejavi and Abolhasan Banisadr who accompanied him. You might not be old enough to know the whole story and you have been away for so long that you have lost touch with the this people but that does not change the realities on the ground and it dose not wash the guilt of those who collaborated with Khomeini and the West to bring about this disasters mayhem of revolution to IranIf after being betrayed by the mullah and the West MKO had no option but to deal with the devil and seek help from Saddam and in the process paid with their
life and livelihood the mullahs pay our money to foreigner Arab
mercenaries to brutalize people and students in order to suppress
their uprising. So that you can brag about the absolute lack of opposition Even by your own saying the IRI is so Isolated from its people and the rest of the world that its has to bribe some terrorist tugs to buy their support and call that a strategy how pathetic is that. You know!? the funny thing is that the more this discussion continues the more irrational your reasoning and excuses are becoming. And I can not stop wondering
that you are either plain naïve or stupid to buy into this mambo jumbo or one of the IRI beneficiaries. At the end of the day one can use all the logic in the world but come people will always
believe what they want to believe

xerxes,then it must have been someone else using your name!!

I remember being attachecked ,by a "xerxes" when I was talking as a Bahai.May be it was someone using your name?
As far as I am concern you can drink as much as you want,we Bahais do not have nahye az monker!(thank God for it).
as far as your 1-2-3's....
1-We did not need! a back ward revolution.
2-We are religious but not fanatics!
3-Not sure ,but this oppresion can not contineue.
4-Iranian in exile are as much Iranians,as the ones inside the country.Just because I had to escape Iran for my life,does not automaticly remove my background.
5-Not sure,since ,no pressure could mean let them rule.It could work both ways.

Tahirih what the hell?

I don't understand your point? I can drink wine if I wish and think about a solution that is best fit for Iran. You may provide your own incite? I don't get your point. I never ever have talked against any religious groups, specially Bahai's, NEVER. Let me clearify,
I am not a religious person at all, if it seems to some that I "support" the regime or IRI, it's because of the lack of communications and labels that Iranians are used to put one in. If I say something that is not secular, based on today's Iranians society, then I must be a IRI agent, Islamofacist, and so on. These are my main points:
1-I always believed that we didn't need a revolution
2-We are a religious country
3-We don't need another revolution, since there is an absolute lack of opposition.
4-Those Iranians inside would know best what they want
5-We need to create an atmosphere (economically) that people be able/can afford to focus their attention on the regime.

come on xerxes!

I am amazed in your ability to change colors!!!
You attack Bahai's,(in another article),then you praise drinking wine in another article ,and now you are telling areyo barzan to work to lift sanctions !because masses of Iran are loving IRI.
Come one take out your bareh costume,and show your wolf nature!!!

Do not waist your time Areyo barzan.

Anonymous 7 and the likes of him are no match for the truth that your are saying.These tugs,are in the west with our oil money to intimidate and scare Iranians in exile.They get paid 2000$ per month,to study in the west!!!!
They meant to agitate our conversations in this site otherwise they have no answers to your intelligent concerns.
Do you think this young bacheh akhond(oazadi)can answer me,as why a 16 yr old girl was hanged in a rush ????
His tongue is really elequent when he is praising his elders!!! but he has no answer about one little question.
I am sure the mojtahedine were sleeping with her and to quiet the situation they hanged her in a rush!!!!

Areyo Barzan

You have asked the difference between IRI and MKO? Well one is a government of a country another is a political group that went to Iraq to fight against Iranians. You know that. But from the technicality point of a view, a government could be a dictatorial and/or religious, yet be a representative of the country. IRI is a representative of a huge portion of the Iranian population, although you and I might not like it. If tomorrow IRI is in danger, I would argue that millions would come to support it, unlike Shah that no one stood up for him. That's an argument that I believe it's true.
You mention that IRI is an Arabized government and so forth, well again, I don't believe that. Iranian Islam is much different that Arabs, and also if a country is Christian, would you Label them as Middle Eastern or Roman? I don't see your connection between religion and not being Iranian?
If you are bothered by the fact that Iran helps Hezbollah or Syria and so on, you must know that every country has cards that they play to secure their threats. All countries do that. Remember that Iran's national defense budget is .3% of Saudi Arabia, so consider some of Iranian "assistance" as the military budget. Like it or not, I personally find their tricks and foreign policies very well designed and calculated. I am not sure what you are trying to argue here, all I have said over and over has been that we need to work from the west to secure the path for the Iranians inside Iran to take care of their business however they see it fit. To create that atmosphere, I believe Iranians should have a better economy and that sanctions do not work against the politicians but the general public. We need to raise our voice to lift those imposed sanctions. I personally do not see any other way. If you do, let us all know.

Anonymos7 Do you even bother ….

Well Mr. or Mrs. Anonymos7 from your comments it is obvious that you did not even bother to read my responses before commenting on them.

I have mentioned to you and the others several times that I Do LIVE IN IRAN.

Just to make it more clear I would like to confirm that I am a 45 years old man living in Iran from the day one of this mayhem of revelation. I had the (mis)fortune of first hand experience of all that happened to this people from day one, from the killings and executions to 10 years of war and economic mismanagement which lead to total devastation of our infrastructure, to broken promises by Khatami and other so called “reformists” who in the end collaborated with hardliners and arrested and killed all the activists who by the way were acting within the law and even within the IRI constitution

Really mate this worries me and lives one to wonder

If you do not even bother to read a few lines of response before shooting your mouth off  and embarrassing yourself the first question comming ti mind is that how much do you actually know about the state of Iran, its people , its economy and civil liberty and its situation as a country today and how deep is your knowledge of IRI and its history or its reputation and past behaviors..

As far as the above article is cincerned you have to go back and read the excellent analysis posted by anonymus4now.(whom I would like to personally thank for raising to my defense) and also my first response to the author.

As I told Xerxes before, just like him you are either so naïve and have been away from Iran for so long that you do not know anything about this regime and its nature.

Or you are plain indolent and irresponsible and  hence want to get the easiest way out by dealing with the devil and betting your hopes on such evil regime to reform and defeat itself in order to waver your personal responsibility.

Now as I said to Xerxes if that is the case and you cannot be bothered about Iran that is OK with us. You can stay at your U.S or European resident and keep hiding you head in the sand wishing for the best. But at least be a man and admit it or at least do not belittle those who care enough to actually get of their backside and do something about the situation

Alternatively one cannot help to think that you might be a part of this system and personally profit from it and that is why you do not want to see it go.

So which one is it

please see this!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq5LJ2MNa9E

Young Man ,Mr oazadi listen to what God told your mullah's !!!

“O heedless one! Rely not on thy glory, and thy power. Thou art even as the last trace of sunlight upon the mountain-top. Soon will it fade away as decreed by God, the All-Possessing, the Most High.
Thy glory and the glory of such as are like thee have been taken away, and this verily is what hath been ordained by the One with Whom is the Mother Tablet.
Where is he to be found who contended with God, and whither is gone he that gainsaid His signs, and turned aside from His sovereignty? Where are they who have slain His chosen ones and spilt the blood of His holy ones? Reflect, that haply thou mayest perceive the breaths of thine acts, O foolish doubter! Because of you the Apostle (Muḥammad) lamented, and the Chaste One (Fátimih) cried out, and the countries were laid waste, and darkness fell upon all regions.
O concourse of divines! Because of you the people were abased, and the banner of Islám was hauled down, and its mighty throne subverted. Every time a man of discernment hath sought to hold fast unto that which would exalt Islám, ye raised a clamor, and thereby was he deterred from achieving his purpose, while the land remained fallen in clear ruin

so IRI is not ertejaie!!!!

Young man go to this link and see an example of crulty of IRI!!!this is only one example.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovSI2uyZW6w

Mina Khanoom and Anonym7

Mina: 

Did you read my analysis of the article here?  Right now, my analysis makes this article look like a bunch of bologna, and your appraisal of it makes you look bad.  Can you read my analysis and correct me if I am wrong?  I don’t pretend to know it all, but my impression is this article was written by someone who is confused by the terminology himself, and that you didn’t understand it either, but, never-the-less you are praising him.  I will look forward to your rebuttal.

Anonym7: 

If you want to participate in the debate you have to keep up and read the responses.  Areyo has indicated, several times, that he lives inside Iran.  Your responses indicate that you are willing to go on with this Islamic experimentation and let it unwind and reform itself, over time, at the expense of those who are losing limbs, liberty, and dignity, living inside Iran. 

You want an alternative?  How about a secular coalition of the opposition, guided by a constitution, with only a few articles, such as separation of church and state, government by the people for the people, and one person, one vote?  The rest can be determined over time.  As long as people are not suffering, then this constitutional experiment can take the 30 or 50 years you are willing to give the IRI to “reform”, while it is plundering the nation and committing atrocities.  No one particular group in the opposition, be it MKO or the Monarchists, have the organization, the cohesiveness, the numbers, and the savagery to impose their presence on a people who are much more aware and much better educated, politically, than the crowds of 30 years ago.  Iranians will never again be fooled and subdued the way they were 30 years ago.  Even then, if the Islamic thugs had not been as savage and as brutal, that revolution would have failed shortly after its victory.  If you recall, after the armed forces declared their neutrality and pulled back from the streets, in 1979, it was the people of Iran who organized everything from traffic to security, until the Islamists could organize and assert themselves.  Do not make the mistake of comparing Iran with Iraq, a fragmented, factional country, divided along fanatic Ideologies.

The more active the participation of the various political groups the more balanced will be the composition of that coalition and the less it is likely to have the authority to impose its will.  A system of checks and balances, if you will.  This experiment, however inefficient, will and can be performed by the full participation of all Iranians.  It can take as much time as it needs for the population to learn the intricacies of democracy.  All we have to do is to learn to accept and respect each others’ ideologies. 

Barzan, Barzan, Barzan!

When was the last time you were in Iran?
What is your alternative to IRI? No empty slogans please, a concrete alternative.

Behind this Basiji Boy

The Basiji Boy on the picture typically reminds us a school boy before jumping on the minefield.

But 20 years after the nonsense Iran-Iraq war, who hides behind this Basiji Boy? A hideous Mullah? An Islamist Murderer? A sold adult writer? The foreign service of Islamic Guidance? The IRI's embassy?

In any case, it seems the IRI uses such unidentified pictures as a tool of propaganda.

Mina Mina Mina

Tell me girl. When was the last time you have been to Iran

do you really believe that such nonsensical article changes the realities on
the ground and makes mullahs less evil. Do you really regard these murderers backward
dictatorship as democratic representatives of Iranian people.

Don't you ever read the news, didn’t you learn anything from 29 years of misery

Have you even read the history of French revolution or the ongoing journey
of Europe towards its today's Democracy?

When are you people going to start thinking for yourselves and instead of falling
for the classic IRI textbook spin, analyse the facts on the ground for yourselves and ask some
meaningful questions

When is this nation going to wake up and smell the coffee?

So Sad, so sad indeed

Wonderful Article. Thanks.

Thanks for a wonderful writing. Keep it up.

regards,
Mina

Oh come on Xerxes pull the other one

You do not make any sense at al

How come you are willing to forgive or at least forget the still
ongoing execution imprisonment and torture of hundreds of thousands of Iranian
young men and women in the hands of mullahs? How come you still consider
mullahs Iranian when they hire Arab mercenaries to kill maim and suppress
people and university students of Iran
in order to stop their uprising?

When they pay Hezbollah millions of dollars to get their support while children
of bam are still living under the tents donated by The Red Cross.

How come you are willing to reconciliation with these traitor
monsters whose crimes of murder treason toture unlawfull imprisinment and looting of our national assets far exceeds allother regime or political party in the recent
history of our country by
any standard, while you are holding firm to your "principals" when
dealing with those who are in exile.

Could the reason for this double standard be anything but
the fact that the mullahs have the grip on power in today’s Iran
and you have chosen the easiest way out by dealing with them and hopping that
they would do your job for you? As I said before if you do not want to accept
your responsibility towards the future of this country and keep sitting on your
backside wishing for the best that is your business but at least be man enough
to admit it and do not pretend that you care.

On the other hand if I had a suspicious mind I would have
thought that you are a part of this system or at least benefit from its existents
that is why do do not want your interest to be jeopardised by ending of this
regime

Xerexes: All the economic

Xerexes: All the economic indices are against what you're envisioning. I wish you were right. Iran's oil is at its peak and will stop being an oil exporter in 20 years...

The IR is on a suicidal path of self-destruction with sanction or without. Iran needs to diversify her economy and it's already too late...

'horseshoe' covering some 900,000 square kilometres around the Persian Gulf is the locus
of all of the Middle East's supergiant oil fields and accounts for over 95% of regional oil reserves --- Including those of Iran and Iraq. Historically, oil was first discovered in the Middle East at Masjid-i Sulayman in Iran (by George Bernard Reynolds in 1908), to be followed in 1927
by the strike at Kirkuk in Iraq (due to the stubborn efforts of the legendary Calouste Gulbenkian). The government's announcement of rations for fuel caused unrest Tuesday in Tehran. What's happening there, and what do the developments signal for the Iranian government? Angus McDowall, who reports from Tehran for The Independent newspaper in London, talks with Melissa Block. (Listen to NPR)

According to the Oil and Gas Journal, as of January 1, 2006, Iran held 132.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. This figure, which includes recent discoveries in the Kushk and Hosseineih fields of Khuzestan province, means Iran holds roughly 10 percent of the world's total proven reserves.Iran's economy relies heavily on oil export revenues, with such revenues representing around 80-90 percent of total export earnings and 40-50 percent of the government budget.

Despite higher oil revenues, Iranian budget deficits remain a chronic problem, in part due to large-scale state subsidies on foodstuffs and gasoline. Thus, the country's parliament (the Majlis) decided in January 2005 to freeze domestic prices for gasoline and other fuels at 2003 levels. In March 2006, parliament reduced the government's gasoline subsidy allocation for FY 2006 /07 to $2.5 billion, compared with a request of $4 billion and costs of over $4 billion for imports last year. As of July 2006, the Iranian government is still debating how to handle gasoline subsidies. NIOC has said it has used nearly all of its $2.5 billion budget for gasoline imports, but legislators have stated their opposition to providing the additional $3.5 billion necessary to pay for imports through the end of the fiscal year, in March 2007 (see Oil section for more on this subject).

In november of last year, a new study by Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Johns Hopkins University published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences predicted that the Islamic Republic could soon run out of oil to export. "

It is a crying shame that the incompetent IRI has opted to ration fuel rather than dealing with the even harder problem of reducing their (HUGE) subsidies. Gas is roughly 40 cents/gallon in Iran (10 cents/liter ... or about .06 Euros/liter, 1/20th the price it is in France?). The rationing will move the 'extra' gasoline into the black market, where the government/larger population will not gain from the added value above the 40 cents/gallon. That's what happens when your economic advisor is a butcher. To make matters worse, the new sanctions will make Iran to fall short of its oil refining ambition. Why has Iran had to import more than 40% of its gas for more than 2 decades? Where has this ambition been hiding for the past 28 years?

This is great article:

Future of Iran's oil production: It is a very long piece but well worth the read. Here are the parts that pertain to Iran.

Iran is performing the strangest form of economic suicide I have witnessed: willful degradation of a 'cash cow' the Nation depends upon so that the cow stops giving milk and then dies. Feeding the poor thing lots *now* will just stop up its guts... while it can still operate it needs a limited increase in grazing and a good, thorough exam. Soon there will be a carcass if that doesn't happen, so you won't even get steaks from it. A 'poison pill' that Iran has already swallowed... the Nation will run for awhile, but less well and it will start grabbing for high-cost solutions, like buying gasoline. And that will start a very nasty downward spiral as the motion stable system begins to slow and the wobble builds up and suddenly falls over, heading to the complete stability of death as it turns and turns and turns on the ground going nowhere, save to a stop...

... but would also say that they have had a strong anti-technology streak in certain areas. While the 'National Flower of Iraq' is the Satellite Dish, in Iran they are attempting the pure Totalitarian move of limiting all 'net access. Throttle it down and thwart it... which just means other conduits will open and distributed comms will start to increase throughput across all the networks to overcome the localized bottlenecks.

The oil industry, however, is retrograde. By actively removing the educational basis for it and the economic understanding of it to fund terrorism, they are going far and beyond even a Soviet concept here... Luddite is more the concept, I think. Just bonkers. Really there is no word to describe it as even the USSR knew it had to re-invest in its oil fields. Its industrial production was junk, but the idea was in the right place. Iran has neither the industrial capacity nor the educational capacity to understand this, now.

I actually expect depletion to be reaching levels where it can't increase in amount as actual reserves and ability to pump it from the ground are going down.Perhaps pre-industrial is what this is? Used more to the concept of 'piece work' rather than industrial integration. Any way you cut it the multiple feedback mechanisms no longer work and a downward spiral will begin within the next year or so, especially if they get put out of OPEC as a reliable supplier. Without steady export output, contracts for the long term start to dry up. If that is not addressed then the oil trade slowly moves to the spot market, where daily fluctuations will destroy any Nation depending upon it.In the petroleum industry, there are few forms of adding capacity: exploiting new fields, expanding on old fields, rejuvenating old fields. Each of these have overhead time and cost and a multi-year timeline to them. The longest is the new field area, which can be as long as a decade to finally get economic production from a field. It adds yield, but at a higher marginal cost. Expanding old fields is only a 2-5 year timeline, but that is based on the 'knowns' of subsurface configuration and expected reservoir size. This will increase depletion of the field, but has a lower marginal cost and is the easier route to go with, especially on large fields. Rejuvenation starts with the repressurizing scheme, of injecting natural gas *into* the field to raise pressure levels and force oil through the pore space. After that you start to look at some more exotic techniques, each of which cost more to do.

The marginal cost is higher than expansion but lower than new field work. While we may view those from the outside as 'chunks', to the industry these are minor and discrete operations towards an operational system. Still, $70 billion by Chevron in Canada is a huge investment and they promise lots more behind them as do the other companies.Iran is not expanding oil output via new reserves nor by expanding on existing reserves in an amount that is above domestic use. Further, their subsidized use of natural gas puts the cheapest form of rejuvenation in peril. This isn't Socialist... its asinine. Even Socialists *try* to understand industrial production cycles. This? A rare form of seppuku. Take all the regulators and sensors off your servo, feed in a 'dirty' power stream and put a large delay on any control on the system or, no control for balance and see if it can stay in place. Something has got to give. In Iran it will be the refineries which are the most complex part of a complex system. Probably not with a bang, just a sigh of relief that they aren't going to be abused any more.

The Cartels are actually only being set up to meet demand at a given price point. Their goal is to control the price point by their own supply of product. They were much more powerful when they had less competition, but their overall part of global production has been in decline for some years. And they have to be in this wonderful bind of having to either 'cover' for Iran or increase quotas and curse Iran. At some point they will realize that Iran is no longer an 'Exporting' Nation that is reliable. Cartels love reliable environments and seek to manipulate those. Throw a spanner in the works and they seize up and fly apart. The question is: which spanner gets them first? Iran or Canada? My guess is Iran, based on spin-up time for the Canadian fields, and the rate of increase of Iranian problems.It is very telling that not even Gazprom will touch Iranian production. Of course Russia has been faced with insurgents backed in the Chechen region by both al Qaeda and Iran, so they may be having an internal problem deciding exactly how to treat Iran. If I were into conspiracies, I would almost suspect Putin of encouraging the decline of the Iranian petro-industry to hand the West a long-term problem. China, of course, just wants oil, but even *they* haven't invested in the petro-industry in Iran, which is saying a lot, right there.

So much for their 'Russian and Chinese friends' who will give Iran nominal cover so long as they continue to pony up and buy hardware from them. One does wonder if such 'support' will last past the point that Iran can no longer buy anything from them nor pay off its debt....The analysis at multiple levels is difficult without knowing exact conditions. Iran, internally, is coming apart already as seen by student and worker demonstrations. Older, 19th century, divisions are reappearing *again*, with even a Monarchist faction still there. On a nearby regional basis and global basis the question is: how will Iran collapse? When is now a min/max timeline that I see starting in 2010 or so and ending at 2019, but the instabilities are now too numerous to fix a lower date anymore.

From unstable regimes seen in the world prior to this, things rarely go to an extreme and often collapse before that... the American and French revolutions come to mind, while the Russian Revolutions are more towards maximum dissatisfaction being reached. They may try to put the al Qaeda management of savagery approach into play to become a distributed threat, but without a State sponsor... well that puts them on par with al Qaeda's poor rich man's road to Empire. The Persian population of Iran should prove relatively cohesive, but the multiple ethnic minorities at the periphery, those have serious problems some of them now wanting to *be* in Iran to start with.Behind all of that is the view that the Middle East has nearly plateaued in oil production capability and they are now on a depletion curve over the next 50 years. OPEC has not only gone downwards in market share and power, but also in pure output capacity. While they have 'reserve capacity' that means that if that is used you get increased depletion of the oil fields and a shorter lifespan of them.

To milk the cash cow longer, they would like to extend the life of their oil fields at the minimum necessary export amount to get them the maximal cash influx. What they have forgotten is that modern life runs on petro-chemicals and even tiny Nations like so many of the Emirates, are facing increased demand curves at home. Iran has this in spades with a huge population and subsidized fuel - a double-whammy that will get them in the end. Even if China, as I have heard, wants to put in lots of money, they may be faced with the regime actually *removing* Iranian money and depending on Chinese money, and the Chinese are unprepared to be the servants of Iran. Really, though, one Nation cannot hope to fill the multivariate needs of Iran's petro-infrastructure, and I doubt that any amount of Chinese money or skill will do more than steady the plateau or slow the downward spiral. That is at best... at worse it will be money down the drain and a rebellion changing the Nation and deciding not to pay off any debts. Funny how Socialist regimes do that and then get peeved when others do the exact same thing to them.

KJ

Thanks for the article. I agree absolutely that the government has been more focused towards Loyalty rather than specialization, and many other factors. We can go on and on about the mistakes that IRI was and is committing. Still I believe that IRI is a capitalist system by nature and along without sanctions and some management + foreign investments, can improve the majority of the Iranians. Even then you can't expect everyone to be happy. Iranians are merchants but also many sector of the society today is ready for small to medium size production. With investments they can provide employment and so forth. So lifting the sanctions would be beneficial to everyone and Iran in the long run.

ایران در نظام

ایران در نظام کنونی نمی‌تواند توسعه یابد، گفت‌وگو با دکتر غلامرضا افخمی
گفت‌وگویی درباره‌ی اقتصاد و توسعه در ایران

//www.gozaar.org/template1.php?id=616

Xerexes: Iran's economy has been in a dire strait for a long time since before the sanctions...Sanctions have nothing to do with more than 40% of Iranians living below poverty level way before 2000. (Check CIA fact books).

The problem is that the the mullah are 1. incompetent mangagers/economists 2. thieves

When Ahamdinejad economic consultant is his butcher and he follow the donkey-side economic model of Khomeini, one can't expect much. The mullahs will steal and squander the oil revenues just the same if the sanctions are lifted. Today, the mullash are privitising 90 billion dollars of Iran's limited energy assets because they have a cash flow problem. Auctioning off your most valuable commodity, oil, is not the way to fix your cash flow problem. They are wasting Iranian oil and money at their own peril. They are that stupid.

//uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL09...

reconciliation (to Aryo Barzan)

Atyo Says: "So what happened then? Why such hostile attitude towards MKO. Aren’t they after all Iranian too and"

Aryo, I am not an MKO, but I personally know many former MKOs who are going back and forth to Iran and have encountered no difficulty. However I am very doubtful that MKO's Mr. Alireza Jaafrzadeh can go to Iran and expect to have a political position when he comes to Fox News and brags about providing more and more info about Iranian positions that should be bombed.

Areyo Barzan and

Yes I was talking about khodi va naa khodi and although I don't care to prosecute them for killing Iranians during the 8 years war, I consider them non-Iranian. That's my opinion and it doesn't mean that in the tomorrow of Iran they can't have a seat. If people want them then they shall have them. I am not saying that I have all the answers, but I am not sure what other choice is available to us. I would not want a foreign intervention to Iran and putting that option off the table leaves the people of Iran and their own destiny. Now I can agree with Ananomous4now that we have great minds and progressive Iranians out of Iran and should use them, but I am not sure how. We certainly haven't use them yet. I would still say that if we all agree to fight for Iran in the way of lifting sanctions, then economical progress could lead to political openness. That seems to be the best possible path without any bloodshed.

For Aryo Barzan: Towards war

For Aryo Barzan:

Towards war (iran-Iraq war)

//www.al-moharer.net/iraqi_files/iraq_iran_co...

Nasty byproducts of cold war (to still alive )

Taliban, and to a large extent Alqaeda are nasty byproducts of cold war. They became what they are as a result of direct support of US, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan during the Reagan era. These countries thought they could use these nasty creatures only against the Russians and Iranians but they lost the control over them.
So read the history before you attack this guy without understanding where he is coming from.

Xerxes, tell me what am I missing here

Was n’ it you who a few comments earlier were telling anonymous99
off for creating the concept of khodi and naakhodi. Did you not tell him that
you don’t want to be a part of such system? Wasn’t it you and others like you
who from start of this debate were bragging about reconciliation and mullah’s reform?

So what happened then? Why such hostile attitude towards
MKO. Aren’t they after all Iranian too and

Please note that I am NOT a member or a sympathizer of MKO,
however if we are willing to reconciliation with Murderer Mullah and after 29
years of wasted second third and even one thousandth chances we are still
willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and include them in future
government of Iran. Then why not doing the same with MKO and every other
political party by including them in the democratic process, to let the people decide
whom to they want to govern them follow even if they want MKO.

Isn’t that the true meaning of democracy and reconciliation
or do I smell a tad of hypocrisy here J

since you think bin ladin was inevitable..

you should be ashamed of yourself to justify Bin ladin and other terrorist's crime against humanity.

if you really think imperialism has killed many, you should also mourn for people massacred because of Bin Ladin. The beheaded ones and women inside their burka.

thank God most Iranaians are not like you. They are peace loving people who don't like anybody getting killed, and don't try to rationalize the acts of barbarism done in the name of justice.

since it seems you have recently come from Iran, why you don't try to wait a bit to open up your mind to see the real world (and finish your college) before trying to teach any lessons of sociology or journalism to real experienced thinkers.

Such a shame that you call yourself iranian and make other good Iranians people burn with vermines like you.

I would predict that someone like you would be much happier in Iran where you can own as many woman as you desire and kill as many as people you want in the name of religion. Canada is boring for people like you and you will be a total failure in a democratic society, or just another criminal like Bin ladin.

I hope your sick ideology would be noticed by the Canadian government and they would help Americans to find out about where you come from and what is your true intentions...to prevent another tragedy in the civilized world.

امسال سال

امسال سال جلوگیری از جوانان شیعه برای زرتشتی شدن است!

//news.gooya.com/didaniha/archives/2008/02/06...

امسال سال

امسال سال جلوگیری از جوانان شیعه برای زرتشتی شدن است!

//news.gooya.com/didaniha/archives/2008/02/06...

Iranian Revolutionary Guards

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Perpetuate Terror Within and Without

Majid Sadeghpour, Ph.D. - 1/21/2008

"Cold blooded murders", a friend of mine cried out recently as she recalled gruesome memories from Iran while reflecting on the newly levied sanctions against Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Encouraged and emboldened, her voice was filled with anger, determination, and a newfound hope that echoed the braveness of dissident university students in Iran of today. All a reminder that the Presidential executive orders 13382 and 13224 carry a subtle but dual benefit affecting not only Iranian regime's activities abroad, but also its enemies within.

Our knowledge of IRGC's past and present terrorist behavior within Iran is abstract, at best. The real example she provides would perhaps serve as a reminder of their brutality. Recalling a memory from a sleepy Caspian Sea town north of Tehran, she describes a mid-summer afternoon's horrifying memory. As it is a Muslim custom, a neighbor's family was washing their recently executed daughter's body, in preparation for burial. Fresh blood streamed out of the house and onto the neighborhood pavement, she recalls. "I stood there wondering; why so much blood". Little did she know at the time, as she evokes the memory today, that post-execution, a certain part of the young woman's body had been mutilated by IRGC members. For those who wonder, the medical term is Hepatectomy. Historical context of such brutality is beyond the scope of this article. For what crime, one might ask? She was 18 years old, and member of a dissident group called Fadayan Khald who opposed the mullah's undemocratic government.

In the past 3 decades, IRGC's have been responsible for the execution of over 120,000 dissidents and students, including some of Iran's brightest minds. From mullah's "cultural revolution" of 1980-89, to the current wave of executions, or the recent crackdown of protesters (at Allameh, Tehran, and Polytechnic universities), the revolutionary guard's main goal was and still is to safeguard the regime against internal social, political, and security threats.

Apart from other intended reasoning, the blacklisting of IRGC and QODS Force is a breath of fresh air for the Iranian people amidst the murky environment of oppression. For the first time in 30 years, the United States, and perhaps the international community have edged themselves closer to recognizing the will of the Iranian people. With every decisive measure aimed at weakening the clerics and their apparatus of fear, more chants of "death to dictator" will be heard in the Iranian streets. Irrespective of the "moderate", "pragmatic", or "hard-line" faces the Foxes in Tehran put forth, Iranians have always known that the carnage in Iraq, the devastation in Lebanon, assassination of dissidents, bombing of embassies, nuclear weapons program, and countless other deeds are directed by the mullahs in Iran and their IRGC/QODS force.

So, what to do next? Will Iran adapt to fiscal pressure from the West? Will Iranian people rise and overthrow the regime?

However elusive the answers may appear, one thing is for certain: that Iranian people will weather the storm of sanctions in the near term, for it will hasten regime's demise. Additionally, and as the cost of doing business with Iran increases, mullahs will eventually have to face the Iranian people. The key, therefore, is not only comprehensive and universal sanctions, but also reliance on the enormous democratic potential of the Iranian people. Admittedly, organization and mobilization of this great force in the present environment of absolute oppression is no easy task. No one should dream of a fantasy laden, soft or velvet revolution in Iran. Armed with the richness of Iranian natural resources, stone-age ideological prowess, and an immense self awarded righteousness, this regime is the most barbaric mankind has witnessed in the modern era. However distant it may seem today, Iranian people and not their government have the needed democratic capacity. In fact, resolving this enigma requires the full capability of the mostly Muslim, secular, and democratic minded people of Iran. They and their resistance are the true antithesis to the darkness of fundamentalism.

Let us listen then to the wishes of the Iranian people. Let us attend their gatherings without, watch them protest within, and hear the organized voice of their democratic opposition. Such, and not the voice of the self appointed "Iran experts" who continue to advocate capitulation to the mullahs, remains the only way to avoid a calamitous war. They "experts" have never seen the IRGC-shed blood paint the pavements of Iran.

Dr. Majid Sadeghpour is a human rights activist. He works with the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates (www.ncpda.com).

//www.globalpolitician.com/24039-iran

Xerxes Jaan

Obviously, the yes no vote is not for real and it is meant to indicate how people would vote on the only choice they were given 28 years ago, given a second chance.  Don't worry, the MKO will never come to power by a popular vote and as long as the US has their military wing under "house arrest" in Iraq, they cannot force themselves on.   They have no credibility left, ideologically, or otherwise.   

I agree with you that the future of Iran must be built by those inside Iran, but realistically though, 70% of the population is under 30.  While this is great in terms of the energy needed for the reconstruction of Iran, it also means there are not enough seasoned people in the lead positions to guide this young population, and I don't mean that just politically, but in all areas.  As Areyo Barzan alluded to this, for almost 30 years Iranians in all walks of life have become experienced and experts at what they do in the various Western countries.  More importantly, they have been exposed to the ideals of democracy.  It would be a mistake to dismiss that pool of talent and expertise as irrelevant to the future of Iran.  Although Iran has been dealt a devastating blow by the regression of the IRI years, it can recover quickly, only is we could be a united people and a united nation.  We just need the chance.