Re: Ahmedinejad's letter
No Ma, my largest perception of Iran is driven by my relationship with my daughters Pediatrician. For 19 years I have known the man, my daughter was one of his first patients, and his daughter was born 2 days after mine.
He escaped Iran on his own at age 16. His father was held for months in detention after he escaped, and to this day he has not been able to return nor has his family been granted visas to travel aborad. He fears that he will be held on charges should he return. His stories have largely shaped my feelings about the mullahs.
Additionally, I was working in govenment while the Iran hostages were being held, which is still in the memory of many Americans old enough to have lived through that time.
What puzzles me is how Iran can disqualify 2500 candidates from voting, essentially derailing the reformist movement and not a single guppy bats an eye. Iran is heavily censored and increasingly repressive, and yet you act as if it were the most lovely administration. Of course we Western folk are concerned about state support for Hezbullah and other terror organizations, but to you they are just brave jihadi resistance fighters who happen to kill Israeli civilians.
It would seem as if you are not concerned at all about the nature of the regime, just as you were not concerned about Saddams genocide. The double standards for Muslims in judging a Muslims regime is staggering. Guppies scream at the top of their lungs that hanging chads threw the election to Bush, but you care nothing about elections in Iran where the Mullahs disqualify everyone who does not agree with them. It is almost as if you expect them to be crooked, repressive and cheat on treaties like the NPT, because, Dang, they are Muslims!
Now, if you don't believe me, at least listen to the Europeans, who on many issues would mirror your thinking (Bush, Iraq, etc). Even they have had it with Iran. The Europeans trust them about as far as they can throw them. And in a fashion similar to Saddam, Russia doesn't count, because they would do business with Satan himself if it meant hard currency.
In general, I do have prejudice against Muslim leadership. My first question when I came to Gupshup is, show me a good example of any Muslim country that is well run, and a beacon of enlightened thinking that is an example for the world to follow. Five years later no one has come up with such a country. And migration to Western countries continues unabated. So until the "facts on the ground" as you all like to say, change a little, my assumption is that there continues to be no Muslim country, including Iran, that is so enlightened that Muslim masses line up for immigration. Therefore, any Guppy critic sitting comfortably in a western country, enjoying the freedom and comforts of the west, while complaining about efforts by the west to make the world safer just sort of gets my panites in a wad. If ya know what I mean.