America strengthens Ahmadinejad

Dealing with Iran's not-so-irrational leadership


Balatarin
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America strengthens Ahmadinejad
by Kouross Esmaeli & Ramin Karimian
24-Sep-2008
 

Nothing expresses the widening gap between the mind frames of the Iranian ruling elite and their Western counterparts more than the headlines in their respective newspapers. The American media, above all, have unilaterally resolved the intelligence questions over Iran's nuclear program. The New York Times leads the pack with articles and even editorials that assume Iran is building a nuclear bomb.(1) The American media, once again, are doing damage control for their President -- in this case, for the Bush Administration's embarrassing Iran policy, especially after the December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate's assessment that Iran abandoned its weapons program in 2003.

Western reporting on Iran's nuclear program is based on the underlying assumption that the Iranians are irrational in their policy-making, therefore Iran is a nation with whom diplomacy is a waste of time. A nuclear Iran has been framed by the Israeli hawks as an "existential threat," the framing adopted by the American media as well: Iran is a suicide-bombing nation. If allowed to build a nuclear bomb, they will strap it on and destroy Israel even if it means the destruction of their own country and its 70 million inhabitants.(2) The logical way to deal with such irrational self-destructive characters is to preempt them by destroying them. This logic looms behind Western news about Iran and remains a possible rationale for a military attack on the country.

We in the US are thus constantly bombarded with alarming media distortions of Iran's politics, as well as Sy Hersh's frenzied articles on the next possible date for a US and/or Israeli attack on Iran. The mood in Tehran, in contrast, is calm. Iranian newspapers daily herald their nation's breakthroughs in forcing the West to the negotiating table and creating ever more diplomatic and economic deals with other countries. They show a regime that feels itself well entrenched as a political system, one that is actively building its infrastructure at home and making important gains abroad. For them, Iran's nuclear program is symbolic of national independence and pride.

While the US pressures do pose a nuisance, they are in no way destabilizing the regime. In fact, for the section of the Iranian ruling elite who advocate greater independence from the West, such pressures are only further proof of US injustices. Moreover, the US economic sanctions, putting a Western face on the structural roots of Iran's economic problems, create a greater opportunity -- an impetus as well as an excuse -- to advance their domestic and international agenda. So, even as the sanctions compound the changes Iran's economy is going through, the Iranian government is capable of managing their impacts.

Looking inside Iran, one sees a much more lucid and coherent set of national and international goals on the part of the country's leadership than can be seen from the outside, though this is a leadership that is trapped by its own material interest, fickle and discontent population, and need for long-term stability, like any other ruling elite.

Even a cursory look at Iranian society and media shows that the most serious and far-reaching political debate and contention inside the country is not over the nation's nuclear program. It is, rather, over Iran's rocky attempts at privatization and the government's role in creating a free market. This debate -- named after Article 44 of Iran's Constitution, reinterpretations of which promise the transfer of government-owned industries to the private sector -- is what animates the country's ruling elite and is where competition among them is being fought out.

In that context, the controversy over Iran's nuclear program -- contrary to the goals of those who make military threats and impose economic sanctions against it -- is relevant for the nation's ruling class only in so far as the fallout from Western reaction affects their competition over the country's capitalist development. Whether it is out of confidence in their internal and international popularity or mere hubris, the Iranian regime is basically going about its business on its own terms and is expecting the world to follow.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei laid out his perspective for the nation's future in his annual Norooz address to thousands of pilgrims in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad on March 21 of this year. Alongside Iran's inalienable right to nuclear technology and its unwavering support for the oppressed across the globe, Ayatollah Khamenei positioned extremely worldly concerns over Iran's economy within the ideological framework of the Islamic Republic: "Creating new wealth is a form of worship."

Thus, the Supreme Leader articulated the Iranian version of American evangelicals' "Prosperity Doctrine" as he put his official stamp on Iranian government's open and unapologetic turn towards market-driven economics. The current fight amongst the discordant and competitive ruling elite, whose referee is Ayatollah Khamenei himself, is over who controls and benefits from this increasingly privatized market. It is one of the many ironies of the Islamic Republic that, as it increases its criticism of the West and resistance to Western pressures, it also increases its emulation of the worst kinds of American-led IMF/World Bank-style structural adjustments.

Despite his image in the West, this is the primary role that President Ahmadinejad is playing inside Iran: he is using the autocratic and repressive state apparatus to privatize public industries, weaken labor laws, and take away government subsidies. He is, of course, doing so with an eye on building a stronger base for the regime and for his own re-election campaign next year. And in that sense, Ahmadinejad is becoming a double-edged sword for the leadership of the Islamic Republic. He is at once re-mobilizing some of the popular support for the regime and building a base for himself in order to operate as independently as possible. He recently voiced frustration at the limitations on the powers of the President to implement his vision, the same frustration that former President Khatami expressed a few years ago and was denounced widely as being out of step with the regime.

So, while Supreme Leader Khamenei has proclaimed his pleasure at President Ahmadinejad's strong stand against the West and has even hinted that the President should expect to be re-elected to a second term next year, establishment politicians such as former President Rafsanjani and former Speaker of the Parliament Nategh-Nouri have deepened their criticism of Ahmadinejad, his economic policies, and his attempts at repressing competitors.

In this process, one of the interesting outcomes of Ahmadinjead's leadership is the fact that a layer of the ruling (and relatively more liberal) clerics are being marginalized at the hands of lay technocrats. Many of these technocrats are veterans of the Iran-Iraq war, and they see themselves as, once again, picking up the banner of the Islamic Revolution from the indolence-prone mullahs. They hope to further the independence of Iran while supporting other developing countries suffering under Western imperialism. The nuclear program plays the ideological role of buttressing this sense of independence, and there are no forces inside Iran who are allowed to openly disagree with it.

Because of the West's choice to ignore the Khatami presidency's desire for rapprochement, President Ahmadinejad can say his own strong stand against the Western pressures is the only way to deal with Iran's adversaries. And as far as the Iranian establishment is concerned, he has been proven right. The current negotiations between the West and Iran have come to allow Iran a lot more leeway than those under President Khatami, whose nuclear negotiation team was willing to accept the West's preconditions before starting dialogue.(3) The West rejected President Khatami's overture, whereas President Ahmadinejad can point to his own success at bringing the West to the negotiating table under more favorable and just terms for Iran.

Though Ahmadinejad's contentious political and economic policies have made a huge dent in Iran's ability to join the international economic system -- a stated foreign policy goal of the Rafshanjani-Khatami period throughout the 1990s -- there is a logic to Ahmadinejad's seemingly reckless behavior: he is not only forcing the world to accept Iran's nuclear program, he is also actively and forcefully turning Iran's economy away from being focused on the Western market. Today Iran is becoming an increasingly independent nation.

And it was the decision in the West to not engage with Iran 10 years ago that has allowed Ahmadinejad to take Iran on its current course. "A decade ago, the most relevant debate inside Iran was how [we] should try to build trust with the West in order to join the world market," explains Bijan Khajehpour, Chairman of Atieh Group, one of Iran's most respected investment consultants. "Today, the debate is detached from the West and focuses on developing Iran's [economic] potential by first building this alliance with other developing nations with the objective of becoming the region's strongest economic and technological power [in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia]."

This trend finds ideological expression in President Ahmadinejad's talks of reviving the Non-Aligned Movement, and economically he is also putting his money where his mouth is. Iran's economy is moving towards development that relies on the formation of a second-tier economic alliance comprising sectors within the world economic system that have as tenuous an access to the capitalist core as does Iran. These possible allies include the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and smaller developing nations, as well as smaller sectors within the West.

"Ever since September 11, there is a desire by many in the region to keep their money invested nearby [rather than in the US or Europe] and Iran is benefiting from this tendency," Khajepour explains. He continues to lay out a number of examples of the way Iran is making economic progress in spite of the international sanctions: offering gas and other commercial incentives to various nations in the region in return for financing projects inside Iran, the building of the "Peace Pipeline" to Pakistan and India, and working with mid-sized European companies (such as OMV of Austria, E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany, and Edison of Italy) that are less vulnerable to US sanctions. And with the closing of many major European banks in Iran, smaller banks are filling the void.

China is a big factor in this dynamic. According to Mohsen Shariatinia, Senior Researcher at the Asia Research Group of the Center for Strategic Research, a major official think tank, "under the Rafsanjani period Iran was closely watching and following the Chinese model of development . . . basically learning how to turn a post-revolutionary society into a consumerist one."

Yet, as the Iranian ruling elite proved themselves much less cohesive and disciplined than their Chinese Communist Party counterparts, and as the American "War on Terror" and Iran's nuclear program marginalized Iran in the world economic system, they have had to change their models.

"Now," continues Shariatinia, "China has become Iran's primary economic partner and Iran has become China's largest trading partner in the Middle East." China is more an ally than a model, and with China's growing energy needs and Iran's large oil and gas reserves, there is no reason to believe that this trend will stop.

"The sanctions [in effect] have slowed down Iran's drive to be a major world energy power," Khajepour sums up, "but they have encouraged the Iranians to seek other means to build their potential." This will be Ahmadinejad's legacy if the Western threats and sanctions continue and Iran is left to develop its newly-liberalized economy under the current terms.

Looking at financial news in the Iranian newspapers since the Ahmadinejad presidency, one can see that Iran has strengthened its economic ties not only with its closest allies (Venezuela, Cuba) and neighbors (Iraq, Lebanon, Persian Gulf States) as well as the BRIC nations, but with such diverse countries as South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Eritrea, Sudan, the Congo, Algeria, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, North and South Korea, Vietnam, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. This list is by no means exhaustive.

Of course, this kind of economic development will not bring the Iranian public the consumerist bliss of Dubai, Beirut, Amman, Cairo, or any other place that is developing on a Western model. But for a society that has been denied access to that kind of consumption pattern for 30 years, the inability to participate in the glitter that pours out of the satellite channels is not such a big deal. In fact, developing a model of a strong-yet-humble economy is exactly what has created the air of popularity around Ahmadinejad -- both nationally and internationally.

The social repercussion of this process within Iran is the marginalization of the class that prioritizes the Western consumerist culture. "Ahmadinejad is [in fact] actively destroying that class," laments Alireza Alavitabar, a liberal journalist and editor of numerous newspapers all of which were eventually banned. "And in order to do this, he has relied on the support of the rural and urban poor and the large sector of government employees."

Ahmadinejad is in effect re-animating and re-strengthening a social base which had been marginalized in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war. In the name of "Islamic banking" the Ahmadinejad administration has been giving away no-interest loans (Sandogh Mehr-e Reza and Qarz ol-Hassaneh) which are giving promises and perks to the poor and the marginalized, alongside short-term opportunities that they have been denied since the end of the Iran-Iraq war. This social base is, in many ways, in opposition to the classes that were benefiting from the Rafsanjani-Khatami period and who were seen as too unbeholden to the regime and its ideology.

Recent US media reports have shown that the US-led economic sanctions have had only a limited ability to stop even US exports to Iran. In fact, the total amount of US exports to Iran has steadily increased in the past 8 years.

As the sanctions are wiping out the long-standing economic relations with major European banks and manufacturers, the Iranian government is turning its attention to smaller European firms and, more importantly, welcoming companies from Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The government is encouraging a new layer of Iranian capital to benefit from this interaction. The sanctions have slowed this process, too, but they have not stopped it. In fact, it is not clear to what extant it is possible to hinder it through sanctions.

The question that remains to be asked is: if even the US itself is continuing economic engagement with Iran, then what purpose do the sanctions and threats of attack serve politically ... other than allowing the faction of the establishment in Iran that is most antagonistic to the West to use them to strengthen itself and its roots in Iranian society?

Kouross Esmaeli is a journalist and filmmaker living in New York City. Ramin Karimian is a scholar and researcher in Tehran. First published in MrZine.

NOTES

1 -- For the most recent examples, see New York Times editorials, "Adrift on Iran," April 11, 2008 and "Belatedly Making Nice," March 31, 2008; and Steven Lee Myers and Nicholas Kulish, "Iran Unmoved by Threats on Its Atomic Program," New York Times, June 12, 2008.

2 -- The clearest elaboration of this line may be found in Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael B. Oren's "Israel's Worst Nightmare," TNR, January 30, 2007. But just about every other article in TNR pushes the same line.

3 -- See Kaveh Ehsani, "The Populist Threat to Democracy," MERIP 241, Winter 2006.


Balatarin
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I enjoyed the article as well as the posting of the commentators

by Anonymous-2 (not verified) on Mon Sep 29, 2008 06:30 AM PDT

For many of us living outside of Iran, we only hear the much propagandized version of how the U.S. and some of its powerful western powers see Iran.

On the foreign policy front, I have to give it to Ahmadinejad he has done a brilliant job, whether one likes him or not. He has kept Iran out of the cross-hair of the battles taking place in the Middle East thanks much to the blunders of the mis-guided U.S. foreign policy.

If one looks at our region, nearly every country surrounding Iran is on fire (don't read it literally); from Iraq, to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and in the Caucus region Georgia and further north the stupid confrontation of U.S. with Russia - all have helped keep Iran at least to this point shielded; or maybe the appropriate word is with all the mess the Bush Administration has created on the domestic front and internationally, the next president of the United States will literally have to think in a much more sophisticated matter how to deal with Iran. The same old policy of say as I tell you or else will not work, and would have never worked with Iran. Mutual respect is the pillars of how relationships are built and trusts developed between nations; this is something that the U.S. has to learn if it too wants to admired by its owm citizens and respected on the international front.

Russia is no longer willing to participate in a third round of sanctions as we just recently witnessed and the P5+1 simply gave a warning to Iran to comply with the UNSC. What happens further down the road when the U.S. determines it needs Russia in its camp if it aims at tighten the screws on Iran is yet to be seen.

I don't want to see my mother land on its knees begging for hand-outs, nor do I want to see Iran subjugated and colonized like its neighbors. So, yes, I will praise Ahmadinejad for standing up to the bullies, again this is my personal view!

Ahmadinejad's visits and speeches have also gained him much praise among the people of the Arab world, despite the fact that the majority are Sunnis, as well as in Asia. You would be surprised to see that even the Chinese people are routing for him, as well as people as far away as Malaysia, Singapore, and India; this I witnessed personally during a recent visit in Asia.

Furthermore, the taboo, that you can no longer criticize the policies of the State of Israel, along with its supporters the Israeli lobby and the neoconservatives has also been lifted. Israel can no longer hide what it has been doing with the full support of the U.S. Government in Palestine, Lebanon and other countries in the region. Olmert is currently fighting his own version of extremism in Israel and does not know how to stop it!

For those who have not read or viewed Ahmadinejad's speech at the United Nations last week, I recommend that you read the full transcript published in Haaretz. More importantly read the comments and see for yourself how frustrated many people from around the globe are with both Israel and the United States, this includes Jews and even some who declare that they are Zionists.

That's on the foreign policy front. By no means do I intend to suggest that the threats against Iran have disappeared and we can all sleep peacefully, but at least the world powers will have to take Iran seriously and I hope for the benefit of the Iranian nation as well as for the people of the United States that a dialogue will take place at the highest levels of the next U.S. Administration with top Iranian officials.

However, I am not blind to Iran's problems and my compliments regarding Ahmadinejad is not intended to mean that I will only flatter him or anyone, when the Iranian nation is not benefitting from economic reform, civil liberties and a true and egalitarian justice system for all people regardless of ethnic background, or religious faith, or no faith at all.

On the domestic front we have many challenges! Iran has indeed made much stride in scientific progress as well as in other areas, many which neither Iranians living in Iran nor abroad are fully aware. But for the ordinary Iranian economic reform is the key factor just like it is for the ordinary Americans here as well as any other country.

The challenge of Ahmadinejad and any future Iranian Administration will be economic reform.

Right now there is much bickering and finger pointing from the various political camps in Iran all vying for power (seems like what is taking place with the Republicans and Democrats and our presidential candidates). However, if Iran cannot battle the challenges on its domestic front it may be able to win the hearts and minds of people from other countries but not its own people. Without the full support of the Iranian nation, I don't care how wonderful your foreign policy is, eventually, the Iranian people will be your worse enemy.

Our economic problems are complex and cannot be solved as easily as some may believe, including the Iranian political leaders, current, past and future (whomever that may be).

We have different strata in our economic structure some people benefitting tremendously from the current situation (this does not just include the Mullahs, but many people who are acting as middlemen and go between who have gained tremendous riches) while some people cannot pay for their basic livelihood, and others who are so religious, while poor and have no problem with the system.

To satisfy all three strata each looking at Iran from a different perspective is not an easy task.

As you all know we have mafia galore -anyone attempting to cut the hands of these mafias will be crucified, thrown in prison and God knows what else will become of them.

I personally believe Ahmadinejad is an honest well meaning individual. He is highly nationalistic, and is proud of Iran and the accomplishments that Iranians have made despite sanctions from the western powers. So far no Iranian even those who hate his guts in Iran can say he is corrupt, in fact totally the opposite, they say he is not! For me personally, this is rare and I give him a positive plus.

His domestic economic plan while I agree with the authors are interesting in that he is looking at the BRIC nations and smaller European companies, and financial institutions as well as other developing nations to reduce the impact of sanctions imposed by the West, the same countries that the developing nations are attempting to gain a foothold, however, on many other fronts his economic policies have been flawed. Now one can attribute this to his lack of knowledge of economics or his desire to run on the platform for which he got elected, helping the poor. I really don't know and wish to find out more about what the hell is going on domestically. But whatever the issue, this must be solved else we are doomed for another catastrophe similar to what we witnessed prior to the downfall of the late Shah of Iran.

Sometimes I feel that the same patterns are repeating themselves, and I wonder has anyone learned from our past mistakes.

I agree with some of the comments made by TRUTHSUAD, and others, these are the same complaints that I hear from at least the Iranians which I meet living in Iran and some family members. Thank you TRUTHSUAD for describing some of our problems in detail - it was tremendously helpful to me.

I hope that we can all find a way of helping our mother land remain a proud nation in all fronts. We have a fantastic country, a beautiful country, and an intelligent, educated, well informed people.

Finally, some quotes from Robert Kennedy which should give us the energy to see Iran not as a hopeless nation, but one where we can instill a positive perspective in assisting and partake in the challenges that it faces.

As Robert Kennedy said: " If not us, who. If not now, when?"

"Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why'? I dream of things that never were and say, 'Why not'?"

May peace, prosperity, justice on an equal footing, prevail for all of mankind and more so for our very precious jewel of a country.


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Persian Empire never dies

by Izzy (not verified) on Sun Sep 28, 2008 10:28 PM PDT

Hey All

AHMADINEJAD made a positive statement last year, "Nobody in the past 2500 years could destroy Persian Empire. We have to remain nuclear power." He detested the speeches by PASDAR MOHSEN REZAI or ALI LARIJANI and said, "There words don't speak the truth." I believe him. It is time for IRANIANS to join world community like INDIAN, CHINESE, KOREANS, JAPANESE, TURKS, AND RUSSIANS. Listen to his speech on www.memritv.org (Jan. 2007) I wish good luck for the future of Iranian nation.


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TRUTHSUAD

by Fatollah (not verified) on Sun Sep 28, 2008 10:44 AM PDT

very well put, but you were too kind! F.


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US & Iran

by anti-US (not verified) on Sun Sep 28, 2008 03:50 AM PDT

Obama is right: Iran IS a tiny country. Successive US governments have needed an enemy to replace the Soviets and have made Iran strong in the process. It is deliberate and fully cognizant of the fact that Iran poses no real threat to the US or Israel. Where it has all gone wrong is the fact that Iran cannot be slapped down like Iraq or Afghanistan after decades of building regional support, and the economic growth among developing countries has caught the west unawares. Now they wish they had left Iran alone as they have far more important issues to deal with but their own stupid rhetoric has left them trapped in dealing with Ahmadinejad when their economy is collapsing. At the same time, Israel's warmongering can no longer be susbsidised by the Americans. These two nuisances on the world stage have to relearn their basic values and try to rejoin the world community as law-abiding partners with a more realistic appreciation of their own power limits.


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America strengthens Ahmadinejad

by Faribors Maleknasri M.D. (not verified) on Fri Sep 26, 2008 09:38 AM PDT

Just why? Is that because CIA coup made him be elected? Well in that case one can not blame any body. At least is the - in its death bed laying - greate satan allais american imperialism to blame. It can not behave else. Greeting


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The Truth about IRAN!

by TRUTHSUAD (not verified) on Fri Sep 26, 2008 08:44 AM PDT

From:
//plateauofiran.wordpress.com/

""The price of housing has soared over the past three years, since the election of Ahmadinejad as president in June 2005. Rising house prices in Iran are usually a sign of economic insecurity. People invest their money in the most tangible of commodities - land - and not much else. Blessed with rising oil revenues, Ahmadinejad has managed to compensate for his mismanagement of the economy by distributing handouts. If you’re getting married or buying a car or a house you can get loans at 12 per cent, with interest rates running as high as 18 per cent: in other words, sub-prime loans. But the handouts have made the president very popular among the Iranian poor, especially in small towns and villages. These were the same people who elected him in 2005 and most probably will vote for him again in 2009.""
“So why don’t you raise a family in Iran?” I reply.

“How can she expect me to have children in a country where finding crack, heroin, crystal meth and opium is easier than finding a pint of milk? I have to pay thousands of dollars for a decent education in Iran and even then my children may not be able to find a decent job.” Iran has the highest divorce rate in the Muslim world. Divorce here has gone up 7 per cent in recent years. Drug addiction and economic problems are the main reasons for this.

Raisin vodka and tax-free goods

My friend has two choices. He can either live full-time with his mother or try to sell his apartment in Houston, Texas, where he studied, and buy something much smaller in Tehran. For now he lives part-time in his office, where he has had to fire all 12 of his employees, and goes to his mother’s house for a decent meal and a shower. I offer him extensive use of my shoulder. He will need it for a while. I don’t have any money to give him. But it shouldn’t be difficult for him to get a mortgage to buy a house, eventually. While the rest of the world is in sub-prime mortgage crisis, the Iranian government hasn’t done anything to regulate borrowing since the election of Ahmadinejad. As a university professor, my friend wouldn’t have any problem getting a mortgage. God willing, he will also find a way to repay the money at some point.

Like many men around the world who are reluctant to grow up, my friend entertains himself by watching Judd Apatow comedies. He asks me to get him bootleg versions of You Don’t Mess With the Zohan and Step Brothers on my way to his office. At the time of writing, Will Ferrell’s Step Brothers had only just been released in London but had been widely available in Tehran market for weeks. My friend has also ordered a gallon of raisin vodka in preparation for his night at the office. Drinking alcohol is forbidden in Islam, and selling alcohol is illegal in the Islamic Republic. But Iranian Christians, mostly Armenians, are allowed to produce alcohol for their own consumption. Naturally, they like to share their enjoyment of their produce with their fellow citizens. And, of course, they make some money from selling it. My friend’s Armenian supplier is a former pilot. He earns more money distributing alcohol than an IranAir pilot, who has an average salary of around £500 per month, a very large amount for an Iranian.

But in Iran your official salary doesn’t mean much. People usually have several jobs to make ends meet. They also try to make more money while doing those jobs. It is not unusual for teachers and government employees who have official monthly salaries of £150 to have a second job as a cab driver. Receiving bribes is an acceptable form of supplementing one’s income. An Iranian pilot may officially earn £500 per month but he makes three times as much by bringing tax-free goods from abroad and selling them on the black market. Yet even if an IranAir pilot has an actual monthly income of £2,000, my friend’s Armenian vodka supplier makes more than that and never wants to be a pilot again. The local products are not sufficient for the Iranian market. I once visited a very large warehouse, near Suleymaniye in Iraqi Kurdistan, filled with bottles of whisky, cognac and vodka destined for Iran. The owner of the warehouse was a happy man, with impressive love handles, who told me about his house in Majorca.

I’m supposed to pick up the illegal DVDs on the corner of Islamic Republic Avenue and Bobby Sands Street, next to the British embassy. The Iranian government named the street adjacent to the embassy after the Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer who died while on hunger strike in a British prison.

I once asked an Iranian official: how would he feel if the British named Princes Gate, where the Iranian embassy in London is located, Salman Rushdie Gate? He told me that there was no comparison - Bobby Sands is a martyr and Salman Rushdie a heretic. He then told me that his next visitor had arrived and asked me to leave his office.

Lying is also forbidden in Islam but, unlike alcohol, it is widely tolerated in the Islamic Republic. If you’re caught with a bottle of raisin vodka you can receive 50 lashes on your buttocks. But lying has become something of a virtue among Iranian officials. The government spokesman has several times announced that he knew nothing about the resignation of such-and-such a minister, while the minister himself had announced his decision to resign days earlier. The head of the sports organisation praised the victorious Iranian Olympics team, even though Iran won only two medals at the Games. And the guy selling the illegal DVDs said that they were originals, but when I watch the film I can see the guy sitting in front of the dodgy cameraman in the auditorium choking with laughter on his popcorn as Will Ferrell sings “Por ti volare” at the end of Step Brothers.

To get from Islamic Republic Avenue (which used to be called Shah Avenue) to Freedom Square (formerly Shah’s Memorial Square), I have to go through the busy traffic around Revolution Square (formerly 14 March Square, after the shah’s father’s birthday). Consecutive governments in Iran have acted as if by changing names they can change the nature of things. When the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were published in 2005, Danish pastries were officially renamed Muhammad flower pastries. (My American friends, don’t laugh! Remember freedom fries?)


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Please take a little time to

by An Iranian McCain-Palin Supporter (not verified) on Fri Sep 26, 2008 08:31 AM PDT

Please take a little time to look at this 30 second clip. I am interested to know your opinions regarding it. I view it as a clear outline of the Iranian regime and how Senators McCain and Obama would treat it differently.

Are these quotes representative of Sen. Barack Obama?
If they are, do you support these views?

Whatever you think of this video, it is a clear example of how Sen. McCain will have an offensive foreign policy platform as opposed to Obama's defensive one.

In my opinion this is what B. Hussein Obama believes. I disagree with him, and I disagree strongly, but I will try not to insult him. Many people, including myself, view him as under-qualified to be president. Especially when taking his 'present' votes in the IL state senate into account. He is a respectable human being, especially because he admitted his mistakes on the O'Reilly Factor, but so is Senator McCain. Sen. Obama's social policies are very out-of-touch with "White middle America" who is pro-life and anti-gay marriage. Obama opposed something similar to the Born Alive Infants Act in the IL State Senate. Also, Obama opposed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Sen. McCain supported. Obama is for the radical redefining of marriage. This is our chance to also take back the supreme court. Regarding Senator McCain's economic policy, I believe it is truly brilliant! He will cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. 35% is the second highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. Only Japan's is higher. Also, for those of you who do your own taxes and know, Sen. McCain will increase the dependent exemption from $3,500 to $7,000. In addition, Sen. McCain will "tax-exempt" the amount of your income (up to a limit) that is paid, in any way, towards your insurance, whether you pay it or your employer does. All of this, in addition to making permanent President Bush's prodigious tax-cuts and fixing loopholes such as cell phone taxes and internet taxes, will be sure to keep our low inflation and HIGH GDP growth rate.


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samsam1111

The magician apologists scape goat Ahmadi Dajjal

by samsam1111 on Fri Sep 26, 2008 06:23 AM PDT

trying to white wash regime cultural treason and holocaust on the count of a mere 3rd rate malijak..dream on pal!!

Thanks Maryam !


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excellent analysis

by Anonymous8 (not verified) on Fri Sep 26, 2008 03:05 AM PDT

Thank You. Don't be discouraged by the brainless clowns who only want to hear one thing: overthrow the IRI tomorrow morning. If you don't say it, you are some form of a killing monster.


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Maryam Hojjat

Samsam 1111 is correct

by Maryam Hojjat on Fri Sep 26, 2008 02:35 AM PDT

30 years of corruption, injustice , & mismanagement tell all about this regime & its  governing.


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To all Islamists:

by Anonymous... (not verified) on Thu Sep 25, 2008 03:32 PM PDT

Kouross Esmaeli & Ramin Karimian, tell your handlers that we're not as stupid as they think.
The world is on to you!

Islam and the Theology of Power
Khaled Abou El Fadl

Islam and the Theology of Power

“Supremacist puritanism in contemporary Islam is dismissive of all moral norms or ethical values.”

By Khaled Abou El Fadl, UCLA School of Law.

//theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/arti...


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Thanks God our enemies are stupid.

by ca_wanderer (not verified) on Thu Sep 25, 2008 09:09 AM PDT

That is what Ahmadinejad said right after his election. We may not like the way he looks or whatever. But he is a smart man. He is using sanctions imposed by the West to destroy the class of people whom he called the “Mafia”. This is the exact group of people who are pro western and who control the wealth especially import/export from the west. The Western countries by imposing sanctions are playing into his hand and destroying the pro western band. By keeping the West applying sanctions and talking possible war (Israel & US), he will keep the price of the oil above the $100.00 and move Iran away from the West. Thank you for a very smart article.


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Bavafa

samsam1111 is correct

by Bavafa on Thu Sep 25, 2008 07:45 AM PDT

Go fool some other useful idiots, this group of idots have already been fooled by the neo-cons/AIPAC group

Mehrdad


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Desperate attempt at

by Anonymous... (not verified) on Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:59 PM PDT

Desperate attempt at deceiving the useful idiots since the IR's manufactured propaganda seem to be waning in its effectiveness...This article is hilariously divorced from reality and delusional...

Once the oil prices fall, Mr. Antarnejad can no longer bribe his ignorant constituents with the oil revenues. How long can you buy the loyalty of your base with money???


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I'm really confused; Is there a diff between Zionist and Jew?

by Gharishmish (not verified) on Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:57 PM PDT

The anti-semitic rhetorics against Ahmadinejad are so exagerated, but take a look at his few hours news conference with NY Jews (down-played to just few sentences):

Wed Sep 24, 8:03 PM ET Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) speaks as Rabbi Moshe Ber Beck of Neturei Karta, a fringe Ultra-Orthodox movement within the anti-Zionist bloc, listens during a meeting in New York, September 24, 2008.
(Brendan McDermid/Reuters)


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samsam1111

The mouth piece of Qadesiyeh regime

by samsam1111 on Wed Sep 24, 2008 09:13 PM PDT

Now We have dwo Gholoos Ommati siames twins writers on this site. As if one was not enough. What,s next? Quadropelet Ommatists to write one article for max propaganda. Arab regime propagandist production line is producing  colons in overdrive. America is now responsible for Al Ahmadi -Dajjal...Yeh ..and Seyed Ali Khallifeh had nothing to do with it. .Go fool some other useful idiots..


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