president Carter is more bellicose than you are

Ban Ki-moon is more bellicose than this tragic failure is!

Thankfully, not everyone is as militantly ignorant as the author of this piece. The US has zero standing (for good reason) in Iran. To say anything more than has been said would be unwelcome by all (not just the incumbent gov’t). I know that Everything Obama Does Or Says Sucks seems to be the guiding light around here, but you could, occasionally, reach a bit beyond that.

Well, you have to admit it. The past few days have shown that Obama can be swayed a bit if the public criticism is loud and broad enough. We should keep that in mind for future use.

” The US has zero standing (for good reason) in Iran. ”

Mike Huckabee made a keen observation when referring to the protests in Iran. He rightly noted that many of the protester’s signs were in English, and not Farsi, and were likely targeted at us, and not their fellow Iranians.

He has a point, and while I believe that among the theocracy in Iran, yes, we have zero standing. But among a populace yearning for freedom ? Doubt it..

“noted that many of the protester’s signs were in English”

I have a friend that was born and raised in Pakistan, the school that they attended was an English language school. It is not uncommon for middle easterners to be fully bilingual.

Most of the English language schools are upper class schools.

I have known people from Israel, Iraq and others that were also taught English in school.

I would say that their signs were in English so that more of the world could read their signs and hear their pleas and witness the situation.

Jacob, don’t be such a simp! The assahola and friends are doing everything they can to make this out as a western conspiracy. They’re using their state-controlled media to hammer home the idea that these protesters in the streets are being manipulated by the US and Great Britain, that the ringleaders are actually British citizens, etc. All they need is a sound bite of the POTUS saying “the US is supporting the protesters” that they can take out of context to further undermine the protesters.

It’s a rhetorical game, and there’s nothing to be gained from coming out with rhetorical guns blazing in favor of the protesters. If there’s one thing the US can take from it’s past involvement in Iranian politics is that the fastest way to kill this movement would be to stick a little American flag pin on it.

I don’t know, do you have a course of action in mind for the US government to take that would help the protesters in their cause? Do you

As an aside, we really know hardly anything about the election in terms of rigging or fraud. Sure there are some sketchy things, but there was something sketchy about all those votes for Pat Buchanan in Palm Beach county, too!*

It’s not to say that I would be surprised to find out that the Iranian election was fixed but -reality check- our best source of information on this is something called “twitter.” …didn’t the last in-over-his-head commander-in-chief teach you anything about basing US middle east policy on weak intel and gut feelings??

HE, $1 says the irony of referring to 338-electoral-votes Obama as “the usurper” in this context totally lost on you! hahaha

* whether the election was rigged or not, at the end of the day what really matters in terms of the regime’s stability is whether it’s able to appear legit in the eyes of the people. That’s something that the powers-that-be in the US pulled off pretty well in 2000, but the Iranian regime is failing at right now. However, if they succeed in shifting the focus from voting irregularities to “the meddling West” they can leverage the tried-and-true “us vs. them” rhetoric to both regain some legitimacy and circumvent the issues that people are angry about. None of that is in our national interest.

That should read “without resorting to the use of utmost force”

Are you kidding?!!! I didn’t miss a minute of it. Many Iranian women are real lookers. Of course I was a lot younger then….

Wolv,

“These women practically undressed and then dressed in front of me.”

Reminds me of the GAP store at the Leesburg Outlet Mall, during a big holiday sale.. Think some reserve their Victoria’s Secret undergarments just for this shopping trip..

Stay Puft, it would appear that you and I are pretty much on a similar page with regard to all this Iranian business — at least for the moment. However, this type of thing is capable of changing on an almost daily basis, requiring we in the U.S. to stay on our toes and to plot in advance a number of possible moves to meet the evolving situation. My own past experience tells me there is an acute and ongoing focus on this in every agency concerned with foreign affairs and intelligence.

I’ve got to say that Iran is one of the tougher and more perplexing problems I’ve seen personally; and I was right there for the Tehran embassy hostage situation and the hostage situation in Lebanon. In fact, by my own calculations, I turned out to be one of first persons and maybe even the first person in this city who became aware that our embassy was being overrun. What a night that was!! Everyone should have the experience of waking up the VIP’s in this city and trying to get them to comprehend something as extraordinary as that when all you have for the moment are a couple of barebones emergency messages! I have seen since Iran become like a piece of gum on the sole of our national tennis shoe. Doesn’t make much difference who is president. Very tough deal to handle for anybody.