Very useful article about understanding Iran

[liam_laddie]

For those interested in the Cheney-Boosh-Likud regime's prime target...October 2008 issue of "Smithsonian" magazine: "Inside Iran's Fury" by Stephen Kinzer, author and ex-NYT correspondent.
<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Iran-fury.html>
I think it's essential reading, seven-page printout. About Iran's 19th-21st century history with the West. How and why the situation has devolved to its current state. An assist for better understanding between peoples. That IS in our national security interest, isn't it?

On a related topic, Ahmadinejad's infamous speech in Oct. 2005; in the original Persian, Ahmadinejad was quoting from an earlier Ayatollah Khomeini statement: "the occupation regime over Jerusalem should vanish from the page of time." That is, eliminate the *Zionist regime* in Jerusalem; not about wiping the country off the the map. The Iranian government's news agency apparently expressed Ahmadinejad's statement with an incorrect translation, as Juan Cole and many others hold. But Western media flogged the "wipe off the map" meme in order to build Western antagonism against Iran. In a June 2006 article, a NYT deputy foreign editor, an Israeli, reinforced this misunderstanding; I suggest negative spin and propaganda hard at work. I believe the current Iranian government is as unpopular with the citizens there as our soon-to-be-deposed regime is here. May they both disappear and new, enlightened politicians begin the necessary dialogue.

[EFerrari]

1. Interesting. Mr. Olmert also expressed the opinion that Israel should vacate

the occupied territories. Unfortunately, he waited until he was out of office to do that

Israel should quit most occupied land: Olmert

By Jeffrey Heller Mon Sep 29, 1:44 PM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel should withdraw from nearly all territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war in return for peace with the Palestinians and Syria, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted on Monday as telling a newspaper.
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Olmert, in a caretaker role since quitting on September 21, said he was breaking new ground in calling for a broad pullback from the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians hope to establish a state, and in the annexed Golan Heights, which Syria wants back.

"(I am saying) what no previous Israeli leader has ever said: we should withdraw from almost all of the territories, including in East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights," Olmert, who resigned over corruption allegations, told Yedioth Ahronoth.

The Israeli daily called it a "legacy interview," published on the eve of the Jewish new year, in which Olmert went further in making offers for peace than he ever did publicly when he was in active office, with greater power to see them carried out.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080929/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_5

[slipslidingaway]

2. Thanks...

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Iran-fury.html

"...Iranians, however, have a very different view.

Bruce Laingen, a career diplomat who was chief of the U.S. embassy staff, was the highest-ranking hostage. One day, after Laingen had spent more than a year as a hostage, one of his captors visited him in his solitary cell. Laingen exploded in rage, shouting at his jailer that this hostage-taking was immoral, illegal and "totally wrong." The jailer waited for him to finish, then replied without sympathy.

"You have nothing to complain about," he told Laingen. "The United States took our whole country hostage in 1953."

Few Americans remembered that Iran had descended into dictatorship after the United States overthrew the most democratic government it had ever known. "Mr. President, do you think it was proper for the United States to restore the shah to the throne in 1953 against the popular will within Iran?" a reporter asked President Carter at a news conference during the hostage crisis. "That's ancient history," Carter replied.

Not for Iranians...

This chasm of perception reflects the enormous gap in the way Americans and Iranians viewed—and continue to view—one another. It will be hard for them to reconcile their differences unless they begin seeing the world through each other's eyes..."

[slipslidingaway]

3. Kick n/t

[magellan]

4. Thank you!

We subscribe to Smithsonian and I read this article last week. I knew some of the history already but some of the details made me see RED.

It should surprise no one that our continued meddling in Iran is largely responsible for what's happened there over the last several decades. It's the same result everywhere we go, and usually for the same reason -- oil.

[Agony]

5. Also the August 08 issue of National Geographic Mag has an article about Iran

called "Persia: Ancient Soul of Iran" A glorious past inspires a conflicted nation.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/iran-archaeology/del-giudice-text.html

[pnorman]

6. I have Kinzer's book "All The Shah's Men" in Audible.com format

It goes into that CIA-backed coup in great detail. Its well worth a read/listen. But much can be found on the web. Google: "Operation Ajax" for starters. Here's one hit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_ajax

pnorman