GLOBALIZATION

Killjoy's view on Delbar Yousefi's article " Iran's Challenge

I highly recommend that you read a book by Trita Parsi called The treacherous Alliance between Iran, Israel and US" What you read in the western press are not necessarily correct and if you read this book you will see the world with a different pair of eyes. The author of this book , as well as the other books written by the former associates of Khomeini, reveal the true story behind the 1979 Revolution in Iran. The Revolution was plotted for 3 years by the "owners" of Iran one of which was US which assisted Khomeini in every step of the way before and after the Revolution. Ambassador Sullivan was in contact with the rulers of he Revolution and he in fact orchestrated the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran so Chase Manhattan would not have to return over 10 billion Dollars of Iran's reserve money.Not many people within or outside Iran are aware of the fact that Us Embassy in Tehran was taken over on 2 different occasions . On the first one the"students" arrested Sullivan himself and paraded him for the newsman. In fact the front page of Newsweek magazine in early 1979 shows that incident.
You have , like many others,consistently point out to the Islamic Republic to obtain WMD. Although there is not logical need for Iran to have the bomb but you forget the fact that the leaders of Iran , in addition for the threat of regime change, need a guarantee that their neighbor(s) never again attack and hurt millions of citizens. What do you expect them to do? Sit on their butts and tremble and cower when the greatest military power in history has their country surrounded by hostile forces?You tell me! What would YOU do , as an Iranian general, when our country is in dire danger? Wouldn't you want the best weapon for our defense?
Why is it that US does not want to attack North Korea? The leaders of that country are as bad as the ones in Iran and they support terrorists and they hate America.It is obvious ; NK has the Bomb and no energy resources.
Moreover, the rhetorical speeches by Ahmadinejad are for the internal use and gaining support in the Arab streets. You and the entire American press keep alive the notion that Iran has the ominous intention to destroy Israel. The American press fails to mention that the majority of these verbal threats are against the "Occupying ZIONIST Regime in the Holy Land), Iran does not wish to and CANNOT destroy Israel single-handedly without being turned into a parking lot by the counter strike capability of Israel. Besides, as Trita Parsi claims, Iran and Israel are "natural Allies". If Israel is destroyed , or if Israel makes peace with the Arabs for that matter, the Sunni Arabs will then turn all their attention to eliminate Shi'a Iran, their longtime adversary.
Iranian leaders are not crazy and martyr oriented. So, the real rulers of Iran (not Ahmadinejad) who would never sacrifice themselves for Islam are not likely to order a nuclear attack. Neither would they supply any terrorist organization with WMD for two reasons.First, after the delivery of WMD Iran would no longer have any control over them. Two, if any terrorist sets off a nuclear bomb anywhere the world body led by the US will find out the source of it and would certainly punish Iran in the worst manner.
So, before advising people "to get a life" you should read books and articles not subject to the US censor

Killjoy, I agree with you

Killjoy, I agree with you 100%.

I am sympathetic to what the author is trying to say, with the exception of the issue of root of animosity between IRI and U.S, cause I believe is the war mongering, terrorism inspiring, chaos causing and clash of civilization promoting nature of the regime.

I have to add though that lets not forget that the policy f this regime is to isolate Iran as much as it can to globalization, because the ideas of globalization such as human rights values and liberalism are the core enemies of this regime. So, although they haven’t been 100% successful in isolating Iran because of the technological advancements such as satellite (which is banned in Iran as one the last few remaining countries which bans them, but available) , but they have caused Iran to be one of the most isolated nations in the world.

We need a total shift of power, a mini revolution if you will, not like the 1979 one, not that scale that causes human loss, but we should start with the removal of the regime. Nothing less is accepted or desired or practical. Student movement should and is leading the way. But they need help from all Iranians and from the International community. All Iran needs is a spark. A spark and the rest would come. Iranians need to be energized. Now they’re down. A spark will energize them.

when making generalized

when making generalized claims like "Iranians are of a tough and sturdy stock. Besides more than 3,000 years of defending its borders, in its last 30 years alone, the Iranian nation has experienced three events of immense proportions that normally change a country forever..." it is important to keep in mind that any society,no matter how great or important on the world stage, is only as capable and successful at maintaining its end of the "social contract", that wonderful thing called a constitution which binds a regime to a constituency, as the lowest common denominator of that society.

In Iran, the nation will be only as "good" or "open" and "modern" or whatever other general adjectives you'd like, as the people like those in Zanjan will allow them to be. The problem here is reforming religion and reforming the role of the most under served of society. By modernizing, helping, reforming the most near sighted, impoverished, you only make room to go higher up, because you have strong social foundations.

Iran's industrialization

Well, a limited attempt at analyzing Iran's social and economical challenges.

I would like to address Delabar's comparison with other historical events which I do understand and agree with but I suspect she could have worded it in a different manner.

1- The 1979 Revolution is considered by many scholars and students of revolutionary movements to be one of the greatest popular and peaceful revolutions in human history. However never the less a revolution that causes massive social, economical, political and cultural dislocations and challenges if not handled prudently could actually lead to anarchy and many decades of upheaval and unrest.

2- The internal civil war instigated by the imperialists and zionists

3- The Iraqi war of aggression against Iran, instigated and supported by imperialist and zionist powers

4- The wholesale attempt of economic strangulation of the country to bring it to its knees instigated by imperialist and zionist circles

As the author attempted to point any of the above phenomenons is enough to cripple a society or lead to its demise or dis-memberment let alone all of it experienced in less than 30 years.

I would like to point to the fact that Iran for the first time since the advent of the Qajar dynsaty is strong enough to maintain and safegurd its independence and integrity and that's owed not just to the brave selfless young men and women who gave their lives during the Iraqi war of aggression but also because of the valuable and magnificent spirit of slef reliance and can do attitude that Aytollah Khomeini instilled in his followers that Iran is able to prodcue some of the best military technology on the planet to act as a deterance against would be aggressors including the american imperialists.

Iranian scientists, engineers, and technicians have performed miracles in closing the historical technical and scientific gap between the colonial / imperial powers and the colonized societies. One of the greatest weaknesses of Iran during the last 200 yrs which was aptly manipulated and used by the colinial / imperial powers to their avantage and to the detriment of Iran.

These advances in the military industrial arena have to find their way into the commercial sector by commercializing the technologies from the military sector towards meaningful commercial products to take care of the need of Iran's popualtion.

To do that first and foremost you need an educated population with a can do attitude which Iran has plenty of.

You then need appropriate incentives and legal and financial support structure to promote such activities the same way the Islamic Republic did it for the military industrial projects starting in the early 80's.

I really dont see religion as an impediment to Iran's industrial growth and advancement. The IRI has laid all the key foundations for a prosperous and powerful Iran. In reality unlike what marx and other secular thinkers of the west thought, religion in Iran has served as a vehicle to move Iran forward. That does not mean that religion is not being abused for personal gain and greed, it certainly is but it has served Iran's aspirations very well.

However we do have a lot of challenges, social, political, legal and economical hurdles that as a society we have to overcome and keep the colonial and imperial powers out of our business and resovle these challenges as a family.

Having said that Iran has finally arrived as a power after 200 years of humiliation, subjugation and colonization at the hand of the british, russian, american and zionist  powers.

Let Iran defend herself.

The author has written a great intellectual peace which unfortunately is build on a foundation of western propeganda.

However, I think there is wisdom in the conclusion which shows her heart is in the right place. With some objective historical research and experience, the rest will follow accordingly.

Iran will protect herself from piracy and the more you throw special operations stunts, porn, belligerence, extorsion and coersion at it, the more it will throw tasbee and mohr back at you, along with self defending actions that killjoy will turn into further western propeganda.

Leave iran alone, it has 75 million people who are far more capable and carring than the defects that were living the high life during shah's era.

Only through reform Iran will be better

a US/Israel/Western Lead War will only kill millions of our innocenent hamvatans and will put the country back in stone ages, will rise Islamic extremism even more, and will unleash violent conflict between fractions within Iran.

A revolution won't work either because unlike Pahlavi regime, IRI regime is willing to kill anyone in name of their idealogy.

Only through a reform Iran will be better. IRI system has a hole, and that is that they have an elected government that is currently with the self appointed Islamic government, but if there is a successful campaign ran and more serious reformers are elected and are in control of the elected government, they can implement reform and slowly go against IRI. It will be just matter of time then we see a true democratic and free Iran.

What's Superficial About All This?

"The current animosities between the US and Iran governments superficially are claimed to be rooted in the Iranian nuclear program and the support of international terrorism by the rulers in Iran of. Yet, more research of non-dedicated media will reveal that the central disparity between Washington and Tehran is the West’s refusal to take in Iran as a trade partner and its denial of Iran’s yearning to become part of the globalization brotherhood."

Let's examine some of the events that followed the Iranian revolution of '79 and see how supertificial "the current animosities between the US and Iran governments are."

1. The takeover of the US embassy in Tehran by supporters of the regime, wasn't superficial.

2. The slogans of the supporters of the regime such as "Down with America." and "Down with Israel." aren't superficial.

3. Threats(hot rhetoric?) against the US allies in the region including calls for "liberating Jerusalem," aren't superficial.

4. The US sales of arms to Iraqi regime during Iraq-Iran war, wasn't superficial.

5. The 1983 bombing of the US base in Lebanon which the US believes was masterminded by Iran, isn't superficial.

6. The 1996 Khobar Tower bombing and the US government accusing Iran of sponsoring it, isn't superficial.

7. The Iranian regime's support for Hamas and the creation of and support for Hezbollaah, aren't superficial.

8. The designation of the Revolutionary Guards as terrorists by the US government two weeks after 9/11, isn't superficial

9. The US accusing Iranians of killing American soldiers in Iraq, isn't superficial.

10. The Iranian presiden's numerous calls for wiping out Israel, the closest US ally in the region, isn't superficial.

11. And finally, the US suspicion of the Iranian regime's intentions to develop WMD for its ambitious expasionist policies, isn't superficial.

By the way, Americans saw what happened to Iranians after '79 when all Iranians became "brothers and sisters" and don't seem to appreciate such "unholy" ties of kinship.

Ms. Yousefi,

Now that you're done proving the "superficiality" of the enmity between Iran and the U.S. you can go ahead and get a REAL life!

???

"Since 1979 Iran has experienced the October Revolution of Russia in 1917, World War I and the Prohibition and the Great Depression era in the US."  These are very problematic comparaisons!

Almost - not quite

My viewpoint is that the barriers you mentioned are not that important. What is more important is that the majority of Iranians resist a Western culture. The western culture goes against their traditional upbringing and their faith. That's no small issue. I remember someone telling me many years ago, before this Islamic regime that people in "Zanjan" had stop the creation of a factory in their area because they considered "their women" would be exposed to foreign workers and become morally corrupt! They didn't allow workers from other areas of their own country/religion to possibly see and interact with their "women." Imagine how they would react to a culture of another country/religion.

That nation will either have to be gradually educated into a new and different culture or it will start a war against the rest of the world and probably destroy itself.