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By Guest Post • Jul 22nd, 2009 at 23:09 • Category: Analysis, Counter-terrorism, No thanks!, Internet and Communication, Israel, Newswire, Opinions and Letters, Palestine, Religion, Resistance, War, Zionism
The dreams, aspirations, and accomplishments of millions of Iranians (youth and others), who have filled the streets of every city in Iran for a month, did not even get as much as a sentence in Mr. Paul Craig Roberts’ long article “Threatening Iran.” His article reflects the attitudes of his public career at the service of an infamous American warmonger, Ronald Reagan.
Wielding real and imagined war plans against Iran, which he claims are coming from Russia, China, the U.S., and Israel, Mr. Roberts is waving a scary-looking club to threaten sincere domestic dissent in Iran.
Mr. Roberts completely forgets the main lesson which Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis, and Afghans have taught U.S. and Israeli warmongers: Imperial militarism does not cut the mustard any more. In the words of Iranians, who are resisting foreign and domestic bullies every day, “Bombs, tanks, and machine-guns are no longer effective!”
Mr. Roberts believes that the U.S. and Israel will “dominate” the region, because, in his words, “they have effective Psychological Operations (PSYOPS).” However, if Mr. Roberts had taken so much as a weekend trip to the area, and if he had the ability to talk to the objects of these Psychological Operations, he would have easily been able to detect people’s pride in having confined Israel, through decades of successful struggle, to its present minuscule size.
To date, according to Congressman John Dingell of Michigan, $300 billion U.S. dollars have been poured into Israel, all from the U.S. Congress. This loot was used to extinguish Palestinian resistance, through massive violence and terror. Yet, it does not take a genius to see that resistance continues in Palestine, and, what is more, the international community has increasingly backed boycotts against the apartheid state of Israel. Lebanon, too, struggling under a corrupt U.S.-backed government, has managed to drive Israel out of its territories; a similar situation has also transpired in Syria.
The upshot of it all is that because of successful local resistance to Israel and the U.S., Israel has not grown an inch in size. With the 4th largest army in the world at its brutal command, with hundreds of atomic weapons at the ready, Israel cannot even control the West Bank or Gaza.
The Israeli siege of Gaza is challenged constantly by the international community. Israel is humiliated before the whole world, as it is forced to make a show of allowing medical supplies or food to enter Gaza. The people of Gaza are suffering tremendously, but they know they are withstanding the most ferocious military in the area (second only to the U.S.). The cluster bombs, the white phosphorous, the uranium bombs, all $300 billion worth of it, have crumbled in the face of Palestinian and Lebanese popular resistance.
Proudly we acknowledge that dreams of freedom and democracy have not been extinguished even after decades of massive military invasions and occupations by the most openly racist warmongers ever known to mankind, U.S./Israel.
You, Mr. Roberts, from your post in Reagan’s White House, wrote the checks to finance those invasions and occupations, for years.
Mr. Roberts asks, “Why does anyone in Iran doubt that Iran is on her way to becoming another Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan…?”
Here is the answer: not a single Iranian (there are 75 million Iranians) believes Iran will be the next Iraq. That is because Iranians have not only won a revolution in recent history, they have also managed to withstand the U.S.-instigated, U.S.-fueled, eight-year war with Iraq, as well as thirty years of suffocating U.S. sanctions. Throughout all the pressures that U.S. has imposed on them, Iranians have managed to keep their schools and universities open, their hospitals running, their transportation system functional, and their water and electrical plants in order. Their ability to maintain basic services (despite crippling sanctions) has enabled them to raise a literate young population with enough time on its hands to think and dream of a better world.
As if that was not enough accomplishment for a people on top of the U.S.’s “kill em” list, Iranians decided to make the most of what democratic rights they had. They are stretching and breaking all the limits on their freedom to rule themselves. Faced with this magnificent spectacle, Mr. Roberts can only take pot-shots from the sidelines.
While you may not see this, Mr. Roberts, in the eyes of Iranians, they have already won a lot and they have the stamina to fight for more. Imagine Iran’s example, of mass protest, catching on in the streets currently ruled by U.S. and Israeli puppets (in Cairo, in Baghdad, in Beirut, in Kabul, in Karachi, and in Riyadh.)
If you knew Farsi, and if you were interested in the people and their aspirations to determine their own destiny, you would easily be able to decipher all of that by looking at them march on the streets with their children and their elderly on their side. And you would be able to figure out that people of Iran are united in one thing; they want to establish a home-grown democratic system in their country to enable them to exercise full power over their own fate. Iranians know full well that neither Mr. Rafsanjani, nor Mr. Khamenei, can deliver that.
All these butchers have to show, for their decades in office, is an under-served public, and a fat foreign bank account.
Mr. Rafsanjani is said to have accumulated close to $600 million dollars (a sum that puts Master Butcher Rumsfeld’s capital achievement of only $250 million to shame). Unlike Americans, who see amassing of such personal wealth as a legitimate right, who are taught that they, too, can become as rich as their butcher politicians, Iranians see this as a sign of corruption and decay.
Iranians are now working toward a system-change: a real democracy, articulated by the people and responsive to the people’s long-neglected needs.
For now, Iranians have settled on Mousavi, who had to follow the people’s demands and had to show up at rallies he never intended to participate in. As Mr. Roberts states, Rafsanjani may be the perfect person for Washington. However, Mr. Roberts, Rafsanjani has zero credibility with the people of Iran. As a president, he exhibited his lust for money and his total disregard for the will of the nation. Rafsanjani’s support for Mossavi only became fully public late in the process, since that would hinder, not help, Iranians’ enthusiasm for Mousavi.
While you, Mr. Roberts, see doom and gloom descending onto Iran, Iranians continue to pour into the streets every single day, at great personal risk, demanding their dignity and civil rights. Are you really unable to see that Iranians are demanding real democracy, real people’s participation in decision-making on all aspects of life in Iran? What Iranians want, what we will get, will not be wiped off our minds by Israeli bullying, by U.S. bullying, or by Mr. Roberts’ scary scenarios, designed to make us all hide under our beds.
Even without Mr. Roberts’ help, we will never forget that Israel trained SAVAK torturers, for the Shah, when Iran looked like a permanent captive of the U.S. and Israel. Mr. Roberts is not protecting Iran from Israel by siding with those who shoot Iranian human rights marchers in the streets.
The illegitimacy of both Israel and the U.S., and their desperate economic condition, does not allow any more bloodbaths to be created in the region. Iraqis and Afghans are not exactly silent. It has taken all of America’s military might, just to hide behind thick fortified walls in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Simply put, Iraq and Afghanistan have NOT been a “cakewalk” for the U.S. occupation forces.
An Iranian physician recently said: “Everything has a price. Many bad things are happening but the trend is toward the light.” Light is a commonly used metaphor for Iranians, whose roots are in Zoroastrianism (the religion of fire and light).
“We are standing to the end”, says the chant on the streets of Iran. We are telling the U.S. and Israel, the most bankrupt and racist powers of our times, that Iranians do NOT want wars and that we WILL stand for democracy “…to the end”, whatever the price may be. We already know that the price of hiding, under our beds, is far higher.
Original article published on July 22, 2009.
Mozhgan Savabieasfahani is a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and reviser are cited.
URL of this article on Tlaxcala: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=8238&lg=en
Tagged as: Iran, Iranian Elections, Middle East, Palestinian Resistance, US foreign policy
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