Some heart felt "Advice"

[Mega]

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/9/25hahn.html
Mike

[Starving Steve]

End of the empire or end of "Pax Americana", whatever, what do we do to survive the Tyrant of Tehran, not to mention the Taliban?

Neither America nor Britain nor the world have a choice in this. Putting our heads into the sand and having a beer is not solving this problem of simple survival. You can not negotiate with these devils, and even if you could, who would ever want to?

Let's go down fighting, kicking some ass. Press a button from a ship at sea, and good-bye to them with one barage of missiles.

It's like killing a couple hornets that fly into your house: You clobber them with a telephone book, and go back to enjoying your sunset years on the sofa.;)

[ricket]

Neither America nor Britain nor the world have a choice in this. Putting our heads into the sand and having a beer is not solving this problem of simple survival. You can not negotiate with these devils, and even if you could, who would ever want to?

Way to stoop to their level there.

"THEY WONT NEGOTIATE, BUT IF THEY DO, WE WONT NEGOTIATE ANYWAYS! LOOK, SEE YOU CANT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS!"

So just who is the terrorist if you define terrorism as a lack of desire for negotiating??

[Starving Steve]

May I remind you that for thirty-one years, NATO has tried to negotiate with and appease the regime in Iran. The negotiation/appeasement effort began with Jimmy Carter in 1978. And look at where we are now in Iran: two atomic bomb-making facilities buried in mountains, plus Sunborn missiles to deliver the atomic bombs at 10,000 kilometres per hour.

Hard to believe now, but the University of California at Berkeley invited students from Iran to speak at UC about toppling the Shah of Iran and establishing the world's first Islamic Republic in Iran. (This was back in 1970.)

[doom&gloom]

don't confuse him w/the facts...

[Mashuri]

I'm sure things we've done in the past, like Operation Ajax (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat), had no unintended (or intended??) consequences. We're certainly good at making enemies.

[rjwjr]

It still seems to me that there is a real disconnect in Iran between the Iranian citizenry and the leadership. I realize that my sample size is quite small, but the three seperate Iranian-born (one prefers "Persian") individuals that I know are all terrific individuals, comfortably Westernized, and grateful for the incredible freedoms they now enjoy. They are very pro-America. If they are representative of the typical Iranian citizen (which I believe they are) then the Iranian leadership is doing us all a grave injustice.

Iranians seem to have a proud Persian past and a history based on many of the moral imperatives shared in the founding of the US. Nuking them makes no sense, although regime change would be nice, especially if it came from within. I bet Iran could be a terrific ally and a respected and friendly Nation if their true spirit were unlocked and allowed to flourish.

[Verrocchio]

I bet Iran could be a terrific ally and a respected and friendly Nation if their true spirit were unlocked and allowed to flourish.

Most of us have seen that movie. The star was Mohammad Reza Shah, and the denouement was the ascendancy of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

[sunskyfan]

Iranian bomb? BFD. They won't use it because when anybody uses a bomb it will mean the end of that somebody. We have nothing to worry about unless Goldman Sachs gets involved.

[GRG55]

It still seems to me that there is a real disconnect in Iran between the Iranian citizenry and the leadership. I realize that my sample size is quite small, but the three seperate Iranian-born (one prefers "Persian") individuals that I know are all terrific individuals, comfortably Westernized, and grateful for the incredible freedoms they now enjoy. They are very pro-America. If they are representative of the typical Iranian citizen (which I believe they are) then the Iranian leadership is doing us all a grave injustice.

Iranians seem to have a proud Persian past and a history based on many of the moral imperatives shared in the founding of the US. Nuking them makes no sense, although regime change would be nice, especially if it came from within. I bet Iran could be a terrific ally and a respected and friendly Nation if their true spirit were unlocked and allowed to flourish.

I was living in one of the Arab Gulf states on 9/11, which gave me a first hand experience with the initial reaction there. Frankly the commentary from some of the Arabs I encountered that evening was more shocking than the pictures coming over CNN from New York and D.C.

While the reaction of the Arabs ranged from indifference to jubilation, across the water in Iran something quite different was happening. (http://www.time.com/time/europe/photoessays/vigil/index.html)

If Iran has difficulty understanding the USA and its motives, it's not a stretch to observe that many US citizens are probably mystified by Iran. I sometimes wonder how many people in the US know that the Iranians are not Arab, and what that really implies...

You are correct that the regime and the people are two entirely different things...sort of like the USA these days... ;)

[Starving Steve]

Arminishod and his gang of radical Islamic clerics will use their atomic bomb because they want to die as martyrs to Islam. They are guaranteed by scripture an after-life with virgins to flock with, etc.

We are not dealing with Western logic and Western liberalism here. We are dealing with the Islamic Republic of Iran, headed by mass murderers and liars in Tehran.

[Mango]

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