Americans are losing their very best friends in the world
Contrary to the Bush's administration's repeated claims that the sanctions target the regime, there are signs that shows they have targeted ordinary Iranians

Hassan M.
February 4, 2007
iranian.com

I know the materials printed in this website will be studied by the American monitoring offices stationed in Dubai and I hope I could directly open my hearts to them.

I am not related to the Iranian regime whatsoever, neither have I ever had anything to do with politics. I would like to ask them just one question: Is the USA really a friend of Iranian people as its president persistently emphasizes? The USA does not show the simplest cue of friendship to ordinary Iranians at all. Just pay a visit to the American consulate in Dubai and see for yourself the impolite and humiliating behavior of their workers when they see our Iranian passport.

What kind of country would talk of friendship when its court in Chicago tries to auction ancient pieces of Iranian heritage, which also happens to be the heritage of humanity -- only out of spite towards a regime? What country would talk of respecting another country's culture and history while it actually tries to make the people of that country jobless and hungry?

I am an Iranian businessman who started from scratch and worked hard for the past four decades. I have the responsibility of taking care of more than 500 families who work in my manufacturing plants. In the past few months after the U.S. involvement in putting pressure against Iran, my business went down like many many others.

Two months ago after the U.S. treasury department implemented sanctions against Sepah Bank, many of my transactions with the west came to a halt. We badly needed materials and some spare parts but somehow had great difficulty importing them from our various sources in Europe. Now we hear the news of even more possible financial sanctions in the near future. In that case I have to close down most of my businesses and wait for the dark future that the blue-eyed Americans have in store for us.

More than 500 of my employees will soon be out of jobs and their families who greatly depend on their incomes will be hungry. I am not the only one who has to do this and I personally know scores of small and big businesses which cannot survive without continuous transactions with the outside world. Soon after blocking the transaction of Iranian banks with the outside world, hundreds of thousands of people will be out of jobs and millions will be affected.

Do you think the jobless people will take to the street and topple the regime? If so, you do not have an inkling about this country and nation. I have saved enough money to help my family survive and have a comfortable life in case of any possible happening, so I am not worried about myself. The thing is I could not look into the eyes of my employees when I have to tell them they have to stop coming to work because a number of stupid, illogical and virtually illiterate people in the U.S. Treasury Department have decided to implement more sanctions on Iranian banks.

Any American who has ever traveled to this country would testify a total lack of hostility toward his compatriots in Iran. Iranians are the one and only friends left for the USA in the region and maybe in the world. I have not seen very many pro Amercians among my European friends either. I have lived among Arabs for such a long time and I know the degree of their hatred and resentment toward Americans. But this will not be forever.

American sanctions will eventually show their true nature to the Iranian youths who would love to watch American films and visit the USA just for the heck of it. Contrary to the Bush's administration's repeated claims that the sanctions target the regime, there are signs that shows they have targeted ordinary Iranians. Just turn back time and remember the promises of Mr. Bush for a rich and prosperous Iraq. Now the country is torn apart in blood and smoke and there is not a small sign of security and happiness there. Mr. Bush has the same plans for our poor country too.

Mr. Bush should know the future sanctions will not have ANY effect on the government in Tehran. Just remember the fact that Saddam Hussein built half of his grand palaces during the last ten years of UN sanctions while Iraqi babies died in scores everyday due to lack of food and medicine. Just look at Cuba and see more than 40 years of political and financial pressure did not make any crack mindset of its leaders. Now Castro is dying, yet there is no prospect of the dictatorial regime falling apart.

I think the Bush administration is quite ill-advised on this matter. I know there are some stupid Iranian opposition groups who live in the USA and many of them try to justify U.S. actions in one way or another, but they have lived so many years far away from this country that they hardly even speak colloquial Farsi of today. Some of them are inviting American soldiers to their motherland but they do not really know what they are talking about.

American sanctions and military intervention will have only one effect on us and that will be the fact that ordinary Iranians will soon realize the true face the United States. These sanctions will take all of them out of their reverie and they will see the real war-making machinery of Bush-Rice administration is no friend of ours. And it will unite us all together. Soon after the very first bombs falls on Iranian soil, America's very best friends in the world, will turn out to be its greatest enemies. Guess who benefits from that? Comment