For me, any sensible discussion of Iran must accept a number of facts. I will set these out as Set A and Set B. Both sets are true. But ideologues of the right routinely discount Set A, while ideologues of the left routinely discount Set B. That is why most debate on Iran is inane.
Set A
Iranian Islamic fundamentalism allied to fierce anti-Americanism was born from CIA intervention to topple democracy and keep in power a ruthless murdering despot for decades, in the interests of US oil and gas companies
Iranian anti-Americanism was fuelled further by US support for US friend and ally Saddam Hussein who was armed to wage a murderous war against Iran, again in the hope of US access to Iran’s oil and gas
The US committed a terrible atrocity against civilians by shooting down an Iranian passenger jet
Iran is surrounded by US military forces and has been repeatedly threatened to the extent that the desire to develop a nuclear weapon is a reflex
There is monumental hypocrisy in condemning Iran’s nuclear programme while overlooking Israel’s nuclear weapons
Set B
Iran is governed by an appalling set of vicious theocratic nutters
Iran is not any kind of democracy. It fails the first hurdle of candidates being allowed to put forward meaningful alternatives
Hanging of gays, stoning of adulterers, floggings, censorship and pervasive control are not fine because of cultural relativism. Iran’s whole legislative basis is inimical to universal ideals of human rights.
Iran really is trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme, though with some years still to go.
There are two very good articles on the current situation in Iran. One from the ever excellent Juan Cole. I would accept his judgement on the elections being rigged.
http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/class-v-culture-wars-in-iranian.html#comments
The other from Yasamine Mather, which puts it in another perspective.
http://www.hopoi.org/articles/elections%20June%202009.html
I am not optimistic about the outcome of the popular protest.
technicolour said. “a) A million people or so marching peacefully on their parliament is and should be news. If it happened in Japan, it would be news too.”
If my memory serves me right, a million or so brits turned out with the stop the war coalition with regard to our invasion of Iraq. Didn’t achieve much did it? We’re still there.
Latin description of government =
govern (control)
ment (mind)
Surely its a coincidence?
“others, particularly those in positions of power – may well have other agendas”
Yes, it’s always useful not to lose sight of the big picture. Iran:
1) has the world’s fourth largest oil reserves;
2) has the world’s second largest gas reserves;
3) has, owing to its coastline on the Caspian Sea, a share of the Caspian’s vast oilfield;
4) has one of the shortest land routes from the Caspian Sea to navigable waters;
5) has an independent central bank that issues its own currency interest-free, and is therefore not in debt to (read – not in the control of) the global banking cabal.
Is there anything else we really need to know?
“BBC has now issued a correction and changed the caption of the photo.”
Only because they have been found to be lying…AGAIN.
Remember…
http://tinyurl.com/mje7xs
Spot-on, MJ! A knock-out in five!
@dreoilin
I had slipped into the US usage until it was pointed out to me. The USA thinks it invented the internet and so does not see the need for a country suffix in urls. See for example gov.uk for the UK, but just gov etc for the USA based addresses.
Well put MJ.
“In 2005, the BBC commissioned a study to review the impartiality of its Israeli – Palestinian coverage. It consisted of an independent panel, the Communications Research Centre at Loughborough University, and British – Israeli international lawyer Noam Lubell. Their published April 2006 findings weren’t what the broadcaster wished. Highlights from them showed BBC coverage:”…
http://tinyurl.com/kjc5ht
There is only the web left to find out the truth…But for how much longer?.
///The American Civil Liberties Union reported June 10 that “Anti-terrorism training materials currently being used by the Department of Defense (DoD) teach its personnel that free expression in the form of public protests should be regarded as ‘low level terrorism’.”///
http://tinyurl.com/llzkk2
Then there are the freedom lovers in Iran, whom get the full support of Pentagon, CIA, State Department, and above all POTUS!
Talk about hypocrisy?
Now, you low level terrorists (except that suck up eddie troll thing) go keep quiet, before you are all rendered to Gitmo, Bagram, or some other hell hole in the vast array of the black prisons of CIA.
I love the smell of Freedom brand in morning!!!!!
“Stop town hall political newspapers paid for by council tax, MP urges”…
http://tinyurl.com/mdoh3n
Where does it all end.
Edo, re marches here, I know. I think we’ve all learnt a lot since then.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090616/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_mi6_chief_2
The ‘C’ Word
Bye-bye, Captain Scarlett. Welcome Tom Sawyer.
Tony Blair’s foreign policy advisor, eh? Wonderful. Maybe I’m incorrect on this, but I always thought that only actual spies tended to ascend to head the SIS, so why appoint an ex-ambassador to the position – unless, of course, he himself was always a spy. ‘Political Director of the Foreign Office’, hmn, sounds about right.
Not that I’m being Petty, but it sounds as though he’s Mister Disinformation, himself. Wonder if he ever wrote for the Sunday Telegraph? Or Encounter – I mean Prospect – magazine? {forgive that slip of the pen) Or the Spectator, perhaps?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86544§ionid=351020104
Do you know anything about this dude, Craig? If so, now’s the time…
Destabilization 2.0
Soros, the CIA, Mossad and the new media destabilization of Iran
James Corbett
The Corbett Report
23 June, 2009
It’s the 2009 presidential election in Iran and opposition leader Mir-Houssein Mousavi declares victory hours before the polls close, insuring that any result to the contrary will be called into question. Western media goes into overdrive, fighting with each other to see who can offer the most hyperbolic denunciation of the vote and President Ahmadenijad’s apparent victory (BBC wins by publishing bald-faced lies about the supposed popular uprising which it is later forced to retract). On June 13th, 30000 “tweets” begin to flood Twitter with live updates from Iran, most written in English and provided by a handful of newly-registered users with identical profile photos. The Jerusalem Post writes a story about the Iran Twitter phenomenon a few hours after it starts (and who says Mossad isn’t staying up to date with new media?). Now, YouTube is providing a “Breaking News” link at the top of every page linking to the latest footage of the Iranian protests (all shot in high def, no less). Welcome to Destabilization 2.0, the latest version of a program that the western powers have been running for decades in order to overthrow foreign, democratically elected governments that don’t yield to the whims of western governments and multinational corporations.
Ironically, Iran was also the birthplace of the original CIA program for destabilizing a foreign government. Think of it as Destabilization 1.0: It’s 1953 and democratically-elected Iranian leader Mohammed Mossadegh is following through on his election promises to nationalize industry for the Iranian people, including the oil industry of Iran which was then controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The CIA is sent into the country to bring an end to Mossadegh’s government. They begin a campaign of terror, staging bombings and attacks on Muslim targets in order to blame them on nationalist, secular Mossadegh. They foster and fund an anti-Mossadegh campaign amongst the radical Islamist elements in the country. Finally, they back the revolution that brings their favoured puppet, the Shah, into power. Within months, their mission had been accomplished: they had removed a democratically elected leader who threatened to build up an independent, secular Persian nation and replaced him with a repressive tyrant whose secret police would brutally suppress all opposition. The campaign was a success and the lead CIA agent wrote an after-action report describing the operation in glowing terms. The pattern was to be repeated time and time again in country after country (in Guatemala in 1954, in Afghanistan in the 1980s, in Serbia in the 1990s), but these operations leave the agency open to exposure. What was needed was a different plan, one where the western political and financial interests puppeteering the revolution would be more difficult to implicate in the overthrow.
Enter Destabilization 1.1. This version of the destabilization program is less messy, offering plausible deniability for the western powers who are overthrowing a foreign government. It starts when the IMF moves in to offer a bribe to a tinpot dictator in a third world country. He gets 10% in exchange for taking out an exorbitant loan for an infrastructure project that the country can’t afford. When the country inevitably defaults on the loan payments, the IMF begins to take over, imposing a restructuring program that eventually results in the full scale looting of the country’s resources for western business interests. This program, too, was run in country after country, from Jamaica to Myanmar, from Chile to Zimbabwe. The source code for this program was revealed in 2001, however, when former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz went public about the scam. More detail was added in 2004 by the publication of John Perkin’s Confessions of an Economic Hitman, which revealed the extent to which front companies and complicit corporations aided, abetted and facilitated the economic plundering and overthrow of foreign governments. Although still an effective technique for overthrowing foreign nations, the fact that this particular scam had been exposed meant that the architects of global geopolitics would have to find a new way to get rid of foreign, democratically elected governments.
Destabilization 1.2 involves seemingly disinterested, democracy promoting NGOs with feelgood names like the Open Society Institute, Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy. They fund, train, support and mobilize opposition movements in countries that have been targeted for destabilization, often during elections and usually organized around an identifiable color. These “color revolutions” sprang up in the past decade and have so far successfully destabilized the governments of the Ukraine, Lebanon, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, among others. These revolutions bear the imprint of billionaire finance oligarch George Soros. The hidden hand of western powers behind these color revolutions has threatened their effectiveness in recent years, however, with an anti-Soros movement having arisen in Georgia and with the recent Moldovan “grape revolution” having come to naught (much to the chagrin of Soros-funded OSI’s Evgeny Morozov).
Now we arrive at Destabilization 2.0, really not much more than a slight tweak of Destabilization 1.2. The only thing different is that now Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media are being employed to amplify the effect of (and the impression of) internal protests. Once again, Soros henchman Evgeny Morozov is extolling the virtues of the new Tehran Twitter revolution and the New York Times is writing journalistic hymns to the power of internet new media…when it serves western imperial interests. We are being asked to believe that this latest version of the very (very) old program of U.S. corporate imperialism is the real deal. While there is no doubt that the regime of Ahmadenijad is reprehensible and the feelings of many of the young protestors in Iran are genuine, you will forgive me for quesyioning the motives behind the monolithic media support for the overthrow of Iran’s government and the installation of Mir-Houssein “Butcher of Beirut” Mousavi.
http://www.corbettreport.com/articles/20090623_destabilization.htm
Another great post, from the one-who-has-no-name! Thanks again.
Curiouser and curiouser…
Zizek on Iran (no mainstream would take it, apparently)
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/433107.html
“Whatever the outcome, it is vitally important to keep in mind that we are witnessing a great emancipatory event which doesn’t fit the frame of the struggle between pro-Western liberals and anti-Western fundamentalists. If our cynical pragmatism will make us lose the capacity to recognize this emancipatory dimension, then we in the West are effectively entering a post-democratic era, getting ready for our own Ahmadinejads. Italians already know his name: Berlusconi. Others are waiting in line.”
… and curiouser. A nuanced view, the Zizek piece.
I sense that over the past couple of days the Cheshire cat has disappeared, leaving only the faintest hint of a grin.
Yet another “revelation” from another “Zizek” flaming about Islam, Authoritarian, apologists, Ahmadinejad!
Fact that evidently there are those whom after thirty years of Islamic Republic still dreaming of a “Kingdom”, and or a secular republic, regardless of the actualities on the ground. These zealots going on to regurgitate the neo liberal weltanschauung, without any relevance to all things Iran, and Iranian, and for the benefit of contributing even more towards the Gesundes Volksempfinden in the West.
Nonetheless this kind of unconscious drivel and cornflakes box philosophy finds room in the Indymedia with an offer of free copyright to boot! What is happening in this bizarre world where anarchists are observing copyrights, and giving a platform to the fascio that pours bile on aspirations of the majority of Iranians, and keeping with the traditions of leaving a back door open raves on about; “emancipatory” bollocks, admonishing us all for not falling for the stories and despite these, still seeing the psyops for what it is, and shirking off our duties by stubbornly refusing to throw away reason, and experience and dive in head first into buying the stories of a bunch of retired, and retarded neo conservative/liberals.
Well I buy into that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://tinyurl.com/nbjhkc
CNN: Fake reporting or duped by caller?
and finally:
“Well, the results from Iran’s presidential elections are in. And Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declared victory. But his opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, is claiming ballot fraud and wants an investigation. If that doesn’t work, he’s planning on making a documentary about global warming.” –Jimmy Fallon
It’s keeping eyes and ears open and trying to srt through the information and opinion – one cannot stop people from expressing their points-of-view, otherwise discourse would be both pointless nd impossible.
Also, people in Iran actually have different views on things, or even conflicting views within themselves about things – as do most of us about many things. It’s just life.
It would be useful, though, to know the pedigrees of the various ‘pundits and commentators’ whose pieces have been published in the web. One example was the article which turned out to be translation of Khameini’s speech, but which did not declare itself as such.
I sense that most of the people posting on this thread do understand how imperialism works – MJ’s snappy list of ‘five points’ awhile back is as good a primer as any – but also understand that matters involving human societies can be complicated.
I say this, really, simply to state the obvious, rather to add to the already abundant disinformation.
MJ
“Yes, it’s always useful not to lose sight of the big picture. Iran:
1) has the world’s fourth largest oil reserves;
2) has the world’s second largest gas reserves;
3) has, owing to its coastline on the Caspian Sea, a share of the Caspian’s vast oilfield;
4) has one of the shortest land routes from the Caspian Sea to navigable waters;
5) has an independent central bank that issues its own currency interest-free, and is therefore not in debt to (read – not in the control of) the global banking cabal.
Is there anything else we really need to know?”
Yes, actually there is. Why is Iran not therefore one of the richest countries in the world? World Bank and IMF figures show that its wealth per capita ranks it down in 80th place or lower, with less wealth per head than South Africa or Belarus, in spite of 30 years of stable and independent government. Of course this is entirely the fault of the USA and nothing to do with the fact that the country is run by reactionary theocrats who have no inkling of how to run a modern economy and who disqualify 50 per cent of the population from playing a proper role through their policies of sexual apartheid.
Suhayl Saadi: “It would be useful, though, to know the pedigrees of the various ‘pundits and commentators’ whose pieces have been published in the web. One example was the article which turned out to be translation of Khameini’s speech, but which did not declare itself as such.”
Here’s another speech, the origin of which should perhaps have been declared – Obama’s Cairo speech:
http://www.distantocean.com/2009/06/the-habit-of-skepticism.html
” no inkling of how to run a modern economy”
eddie
You have got to be joking?.
I have to point out the “modern economy” as you call it is on the brink of total collapse due to the greedy…”theocrats who have no inkling of how to run a modern economy”.
It’s no wonder people on here think and treat you as an idiot.
eddie at June 25, 2009 4:43 PM
NO it is not the reactionaries, but the thieving Western brigands, whom verily believe everything on Earth belongs tho these!
Fact that Iran is trying to carve an independent path and away from the clutches of the “international financiers” read as the bullies with bigger caliber of guns, somehow makes her an outsider which ought to be punished through; sanctions, covert ops, invasion, etc.
However, these days world is no longer a mono-polar play ground, and the newest of the new world orders just does not accommodate the old and stale operators. Hence the changing scenery and the mood music.
Get over it eddie, what you see is going to get even worse, have you noticed that there is a possibility of the collapse of the dollar? This could mean at its wake Pound would follow suit, hence the worries of Mervyn the King!
“Let’s take the story that is being shoved down our throats by almost all media sources now; the Iranian election “fraud” and subsequent unrest. The news is augmented by proclamations from Obama, France’s Sarkozy, Germany’s Merkel, and just about every politician in the UK. Oh, I forgot to mention the US Congress voting 404 to 1 supporting the protesters.”
“We are being told that the elections were rigged, even though western pollsters all had Ahmadinejad ahead by a 2 to 1 margin on election’s eve. This matters not to our government which continues to place politicians in press conferences dutifully covered by a pliant press corps.”…
http://tinyurl.com/nrkc3h
The people who destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan have absolutely zero interest in enabling Iran to become even richer or to effect redistribution of wealth in that country! It’s psychotic to even suggest this as a motivation for whatever games the West is getting up to in Iran or a causus belli.
To suggest this has to be a cynical joke. It’s certainly not credible!
And as others have pointed out, the London-Wall Street-centred capitalist banking system has not been of great benificence for the world as a whole, ever, and certainly not recently. My God, what errant nonsense.
The sexual apartheid thing is nonsense, too and is an old trope used by liberal imperialists to justify intervention. Personally, I do not agree with theocracy and hijabs, chadurs and all that, etc. (but I also understand that utopias, even liberal utopias, are dangerous things) yet one need only look at Iran’s literacy and education and many other ‘vital stats’ across the genders and such an assertion is shown to be the simplistic disinformation it most obviously is.
There is no variation in tone from this source, it is not worth the time and effort engaging in discourse with someone who clearly sees themselves as a corporatised, broken-record-style PR mouthpiece for the UK hard state whose interests have been all too apparent over many decades.
the chatham house that bastard organisation to promote the british piracy and propaganda has the temerity to put fraudulent study to discredit the iranian elelction.
It is high time thse scumbags in british media be taken care of!
====================
== How the enlgish race conspired to kill Lincoln in USA.
see this theme
published in The London Times in 1865:
“If that mischievous financial policy which had its origin in the North American Republic during the late war in that country, should become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without debt. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.”
Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. According to historian W. Cleon Skousen:
“Right after the Civil War there was considerable talk about reviving Lincoln’s brief experiment with the Constitutional monetary system. Had not the European money-trust intervened, it would have no doubt become an established institution.”
==========================================================================
Lincoln won the civil war by ignoring international bankers(controlled by London) and printing his own, interest-free, money.
By April 1862 $449,338,902 of debt free money had been printed and distributed. He said:
“We gave the people of this republic the greatest blessing they ever
had, their own paper money to pay their own debts”.
The Times was incensed. In that same year it wrote:
“If that mischievous financial policy, which had its origin in the North American Republic, should become indurated down to a fixture,
then that government will furnish its own money without cost. It will
pay off debts and be without a debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of civilized governments of the world. The brains and the wealth of all
countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe”.
By 2001 there were only 7 nations left without a (Rothschild-controlled) central bank. These were: Afghanistan: Iraq; Iran; North Korea; Sudan; Cuba and Libya.
Note that by 2003 that number was reduced to five. By the end of this year it may be down to three. Note also the extraordinary coincidence between not being in debt to international banksters and being labelled an “axis of evil”.
===============================================================
21st march, 2009.
” Goldman sachs-the parasite bank
. and they sit on the boards of those banks. Even though all the banks are American, they are heavily tied into international banking. On the States Street Corp board for instance there are 3 Goldman Sachs board members, so they vote and their votes are a conflict of interest since they also benefit from Federal Reserve policy which is blatantly illegal under our ‘conflict of interest’ laws. Many are retired, but then so was Paulson, it makes no difference, its how they get around the conflict of interest, yet they still are tied to Goldman Sachs.
There is no question, they have put layers upon layers between them and those who carry out the agenda, but look at these administrations, Bush had Paulson as SEC OF TREASURY AND HE IS A INACTIVE CEO OF GOLDMAN SACHS….. THEN GEITHNER ALSO WORKED FOR GOLDMAN SACHS BEFORE BEING APPOINTED HEAD OF THE NY FED RESERVE…. HOLY TOLEDO… TALK ABOUT CONTROL….. So you hit that nail right on the head.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO GOLDMAN SACHS. They also supply the economic hitmen to the IMF for stealing third world emerging economies of their natural resources… that is why they are called “economic hitmen”. That is why some of those third world emerging economies kicked them out of their country… like argentina.
From the beginning banks have always controlled the fed… here is a study done by staff of the congress showing the interconnection between them and the fed… its worth getting some history of who hte players were that controlled our money.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12954740/Federal-
eserve-Directors-Congressional-Study-1976
Now States Street Corp is one example of a company that is part owner of the Federal Reserve, and here are two new board members appoint in 2009 to the board. One American and another from foreign country and BOTH FROM MAJOR BROKERAGE HOUSES OF THE US. Morgan stanley and Goldman Sachs. (don’t forget to cut and paste)
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article
.aspx?
Feed=BW&Date=20090313&ID=9695761&Symbol=STT ”
=====================================================================
DAVID ROCKEFELLER at the 1991 Bilderberg meeting:
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”
Do you plan to MARCH toward world government? I sure as hell don’t. Don’t be their chattel. WAKE UP! Get off your good intentions and organize. Shut down Wall St, shut down Pennsylvania Avenueand certainly shuit down the dowing street-the headquarter of evil.
=============================================================
what if someone challenges the racist-steeped version of American history and exceptionalism they taught. What if they couldn’t maintain in their children a hatred of all ‘races’ but caucasians, as well as Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Buddists, blacks, and heathen cultures such as the Red Chinese and Commie Russians, etc.
=======================================================================
“The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them.”
Doctor Albert Einstein (in a letter to Sigmund Freud 7/30/1932. 1879-1955)
“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government of the U.S. ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (on oligarch Fascist rule in a letter to handler “Colonel” Edward M. House, confidence man for the cartel and founder of the Council on Foreign Relations. House also handled President Wilson for the foisting of a private and unconstitutional “Federal Reserve” Corporation sham with its IRS in 1913. November 21st, l933 from the book “F.D.R.: His Personal Letters” – New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce 1950)
==========================================================================
Embodying Americans’ hope to break through the British blockade and revitalize the depressed postwar economy, the Empress of China, the first American commercial ship after its independence, left New York for Canton (Guangzhou), China, on February 22, 1784. Before the Empress of China left the East River Harbor of New York, George Washington duly signed the sea letter, guiding the purpose of the Empress of China’s voyage.
There was a great deal of uncertainty in the newly founded country. After the war for independence was over, the nation’s fiscal system was on the brink of chaos. Many small farmers, the broad base of the new nation, were being thrown into jail for debt and many others were forced to lose their farms. The Congress, established under the Articles of Confederation, was attempting to bring order out of the turmoil. In Massachusetts, an agrarian revolt spread quickly.
In the meantime, Britain, which lost the war militarily, was seeking to defeat the Americans economically. It strengthened its economic pressure on individual states to compel them, one by one, to return to “Mother England”. Britain closed all traditional trade partners to the new nation, and American merchants could no longer trade with Spain, Africa and West Indies. In the aftermath of the victory of the American revolutionary war, France, Holland and other European countries were willing to use the US as their market, but not anxious to take American wares in exchange.
Given the situation, commerce became “the lifeblood of America’s recovery from its economic slump”. New trade partners had to be discovered, new trade routes had to be opened and new connections had to be established. Otherwise, political independence wouldn’t last long. It was in this critical situation that the first American voyage to China started.
Washington regarded Europe as only a sideshow that must not divert attention from the permanent strategic interests of the US . He had not wanted to do business with England after the revolution. In October 1783, six months before the Empress of China started her virgin voyage to China, Washington made it clear in his letter to Marquis de Lafayette, a general in the American Revolutionary War and later a leader of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution, that “I do not incline to send to England (from whence formerly I had all my goods) for anything I can get upon tolerable terms elsewhere.” Where could the Americans trade for what they needed? His solution was for the newly founded US to develop its commercial relationship with China.
======================================================================
George Dutton – that abuse does not answer the point I’m afraid. Why is Iran so low in the world rankings for wealth and we are so high, yet they have so many natural resources? Do you even know what a theocrat is?
Saadi “The people who destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan..” what,you mean Saddam and the Taleban? Both countries have elected governments and we are seeking to help them to rebuild. As a failed novelist and recipient of taxpayer’s support I hardly think you are qualified to lecture anyone on economic success, do you? And that hat makes you look ludicrous. Iran has been a sovereign nation for 30 years so why is the economy in such a mess when they have such resources? Response comes there none. Read point 5 again. You can”t have your cake and eat it. It’s the usual story, blame the west for everything, nothing to do with me mate. The Iranian regime is doing it now – riots on the streets? Must be the fault of the BBC and the Voice of America. Easy cop out.
What a right little shit the troll is.
And very persistent, for some obscure reason.
Avatar, you’re right. The bottom line is… the bottom line. And the answer to the riddle is: GOLD.
I try to resist self-advertising on other people’s blogs, but since the issue of my couture has been raised (not that I am vain!), if anyone wishes to check out my work (or my hats!), here is a link (I hope you don’t mind, Craig). I only just managed to get round to inserting a link in the URL box, so I’m very pleased that people are checking it out.
My new novel, ‘Joseph’s Box’ comes out in August and will be launched at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and is already receiving glowing reviews, which I have received but which are yet to be published – they usually come out once the book is publically available. I am scheduled to be interviewed (again) by a number of national newspapers.
Previous books have been shortlisted for awards in the UK and Pakistan and I won an award for ‘Psychoraag’ in the USA! I have appeared as a writer in many countries around the world, including, incidentally, in Washington DC, at the geographical heart of contemporary power. It’s a lovely city, btw.
This does not affect my critique of power.
For those of us who remain human, unlike for those who role it is to serve the masters of war, in life, the bottom line is not the bottom line. Thank God.
Afghanistan has been destroyed, in deranged but inevitable concert, by the West and the USSR over a 30-year period, starting, in recent times, with the Carter Adminsitration in the late 1970s (before, and in deliberate provocation of, the Soviet invasion).
Right now, members of my family are helping people who (sometimes simultaneously) have been victims of both NATO strikes and Taliban violence. Right now, as we speak. My forebears come from Afghanistan – as does the mother of the protagonist in ‘Joseph’s Box’ who is named Zuleikha MacBeth.
I do know what I am talking about on this subject.
‘Joseph’s Box’ draws on many traditions and musics from many cultures and is about love, music and death. But above all, it is about love and the continuum of humanity.
Here is the link and also the website addresses.
Enjoy!!
http://www.josephsbox.co.uk/HTML%20pages/Main%20page.html
http://www.suhaylsaadi.com
http://www.josephsbox.co.uk
“that abuse does not answer the point”
eddie
You are wrong once again on both points,it is NOT “abuse” it is a FACT. You have said as much yourself on this blog as to how others see you and YES it does “answer the point”.
You now realise how stupid your post was and that response was your rearguard action eddie…Not a very good one at that.