Just some thoughts and ideas going around in my head while trying to figure out where I am and where everyone else is going.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

No More Neda Soltans, Please!

So I’m watching Hannity on Fox the other night. I don’t usually do the Fox channel since it seems to be more interested in commentary rather than news and even though I hate labels, I guess I’m a liberal at heart but with a conservative streak somewhere in the middle that dislikes the stuff they do.

This night they were talking about what is going on in Iran and the protests and the lack of President Obama to come out strongly against the recent election results there. Hannity brought up time and again the death or “martyrdom” of the young lady who was shot and killed during one of the protests and I realized that even though I had heard the story before, I hadn’t really paid that much attention to it.

I believe Senators McCain and Graham and other Republicans had told the story in order to criticize the President as being weak and timid and decided that I would see what they were talking about. It wasn’t difficult to find the video of the death of Neda Soltan, the Young Iranian girl who was shot, and I was surprised that it was still up. Here is a link to that video if you are interested. I didn’t post the actual video because it’s sad and discomforting as you see her slip away as I’m sure most deaths are. But even more than the death of the young Neda, I was struck by idea that many politicians seem not to realize that her death may have been determined 30 or more years even before she was born by the actions of the British and Americans in the ‘50’s. Here is what I mean.

In 1953 the freely elected Iranian Prime Minister Dr. Mossadegh was ousted by British and American interests when he decided to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi was reinstalled as the absolute ruler of Iran with the support of the Americans until the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Then American hostages were taken in Tehran and we backed and supplied Sadam Hussein with arms in his war against Iran. That war now over, the Iranian government now reflects an Islamic fundamentalist outlook and is a total rejection of the Shah’s rule and the distrust of and disaffection towards the United States.

This view and the recent Iranian elections have led many young people, such as Neda Soltan, to protest against it and the outbreak of violence in the streets where the militia has cracked down on them. The Republicans and some Democrats want the President decry what’s happening, increase sanctions and isolation against Iran and threaten the possibility of military intervention in the name of “freedom” and to what end? So we can start the cycle again? So there can be more blood shed by Iranians and possibly American or Coalition troops. Hasn’t there been an adequate amount of life lost in that region where we can say “enough already” and just stay away?

Sure I grieve for Neda as much as anyone else will who didn’t know her, but I don’t want her held up as a poster child for an excuse for more violence, for more suffering and for more fear. I don't want to see more friends and family go off to places they shouldn't be in to die or kill again. I don’t want to read the papers 60 years from now and say this all seems familiar.

I wonder if I’ll still be able to read 60 years from now?

9 comments:

  1. That poor girl.

    I hate to say it, but these places are lost causes. Iran, Irag, wherever... Wracked by stupid, ignorant men and their revolting egos, and pickled by the insanity of their medeival religion.

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  2. Garçon Stupide - I'm not sure that religion has anything to do with it. Afterall the same thing happens in Kenya and Haiti and India and many other places where the very word "democracy" is antithetical to their culture.

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  3. I think it will be less than 60 years that you will read a similar story... history always repeats itself...you'd think that at some point, we'd learn the lesson adn stop repeating.

    On the other question...I am not sure what your eye-sight is now...but whether you read it or it's read to you...you'll still have a very clear comprehension and some very valid thoughts about it.
    You be like that, yo!

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  4. Great post! President Obama is right to stay out of this and he is handling it very well. I studied the Middle East in college and your background info was dead on.

    The Republicans are well aware of our history (one would hope anyway) in Iran. It would make the little hearts leap with joy to see the political shitstorm that would follow if President Obama were to deliver an "axis of evil" type speech regarding Iran.

    He can't win can he? If he stays the course and has a let alone policy - he's spanked by Repubs and several Dems. If he utters a word of criticism regarding Iran's botched reaction to the protests - he's portrayed as the evil leader of the Great Western Satan.

    What's a prez to do?

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  5. BBB - That's what I mean. Polticians are so quick to get up and poke their noses into other people's business or start a war over stuff that has nothing to do with them and forget that the last time it was done, it didn't work.

    As for 60 years from now even if I'm still alive, neither the eyesight or the mind will be there...I'm losing both of those now.

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  6. KST - I must have just missed your response. Yes you are right, the President needs to do what Kenny Rogers used to sing about in The Gambler. He needs to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em and when to walk away. At least I think that's how it goes since country music isn't really my thing. But anyway, he's playing his game just right because if we caught on the losing side again, then we're all screwed.

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  7. This is all so disturbing, our president is a wise man and knows his limitations, the United States has more than enough on it's plate.

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  8. Chet - And yet somehow much of Congress seem to think that there are never too many wars that they can start or send young people off to. I don't get it.

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  9. ^ If we started a war with Iran, that would go down as one of the dumbest moves in US history. And, since we are no longer living in the era of the dumbest president in US history, I'm pretty sure we are safe!

    Curious - Yep, that's sorta how the song "The Gambler" goes. : )

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