IRANIAN ESCALADE
…a step that would likely increase Iran's isolation and alienate Western nations that have been trying to keep options open with Tehran despite its crackdown on protesters.
…At the same time, the arrests test the U.S. and Europe's policy, which has so far been to avoid an overly harsh reaction to Iran's postelection crisis. The West has been wary of condemnations of Iran's leadership, in part for fear of undermining prospects for future talks with Tehran, particularly over its controversial nuclear program. So far, the EU has taken an incremental approach. On Friday, a day after issuing a public call for the staffers' release, governments across the 27-nation bloc summoned Iran's ambassadors to present the demand in person. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the EU's "escalatory approach to Iran was working." But French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his country backs Britain's push for tougher action, "so that Iranian leaders will really understand that the path that they have chosen will be a dead end."
Article Ref: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090704/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election
YES.
The dead end is that ABSOLUTE POWER in the hands of only “a few countries” in the world surely leads to more DEAD people in other countries. AND some day it will have to stop. For the sake of all of those who are living in the bombed and destroyed countries or being threatened…
These “spanking wars” only enriches the Western (military) industries, the News outlets and the whole Media industry behind it…. There is nothing “dignified” or “human rights” in them.
A human life is supposed to be more important than my pocket. Or is it?
Or at least that’s what we learn as the main ideology of the Developed world … but I guess many have also forgotten the 6st and 10th commandments … and that is really PITIFUL.
A fair trial is actually a more civilized manner to blame someone of a wrongdoing rather than BOMBING a whole country for the wrongdoings of a few people.
Let’s see what we will see and let’s not worry too much about seeing criminal and illegal action stopped legally (whether they are normal citizens or “immuned” diplomats). If such a method is to be considered unacceptable, then the ICC should not exist either and no one will have to pay for humanitarian crimes that are so easily decided in round tables and white and red houses….
As if other human beings in the world are too “dumb” to think and decide for themselves about their OWN internal affairs.
Now that the UN has been “de-credibilized” thanks to the biased attitude of the SC, the only thing that is left for any global consensus is the UN Charter which all member countries are supposed to be respecting:
Article 2 – The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from their membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
All Members shall refrain in the international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
…. And finally
7- Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.
(Chapter VII – Article 39 – The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security…)
THANK YOU the Security Council. BUT NO THANK YOU for maintaining constant WAR by the constant AGGRESSIONS that you impose on the most peaceful and law-abiding countries, and their innocent populations which are simply doing/ respecting just what the first articles of the UN charter has set (as the most important principles).
Maybe it’s really time for a CHANGE? But in such way that countries and people are judged, for what they have actually done, and not only in what is promised by them or “expected” of them.
And we will see in time what will be really done, by who… and realize the excuses that are being prepared to justify the violence of what is already planned to happen in the future.
History will tell those who will and can still read history books in the future.
Keeping calm and maintaining peace is the best situation for intelligent and wise behavior. This doesn’t mean that if someone slaps you sadistically, that everyone is a masochist/a slave/or weak and wants, or accepts, to be hit again….
And some people (and country leaders) if they are slapped, answer by slapping back. Because they are not someone's slave or child.
So it’s up to those who start thinking un-shrewdly of slapping someone they consider “weak”, to refrain from imposing their “bully powers”.
They just might get surprised.
Labels: 4th of July, British embassy, Human rights, ICC, independence, Iran, sovereignty, UN
Posted at 7/04/2009 05:55:00 AM UTC
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14 Comment(s):
A "fair trial" - as determined by whom? They've banned any kind of independent media from reporting on anything under the guise that everyone are either spies or instigators of discontent.
It would seem that the iron fist from within has sown enough discontent for years to come on their own. They've just been looking for scapegoats.
This all makes me think of a cousin of mine in Iraq during the days of Saddam Hussein who thought he made Iraq into a beautiful country. Little did she know.
In answer to Zarcom's posting:
So many accusations and so little introspection. Is it really productive to pretend that Iran's troubles are all somebody else's fault?
Is it really true that when political unrest occurs in Iran that it should be blamed on the U.S. and that what can't be blamed on the U.S. can be blamed on the U.K., what can't be blamed on the U.K. can be blamed on the UN, what can't be blamed on the UN can be blamed on the ICC, what can't be blamed on the ICC can be blamed on something called the "Main Ideology of the Developed World", and what can 't be blamed on those things should be blamed on Iranians that have allegedly permitted themselves to become the pawns of evil foreigners?
Is that really the best an established power structure holding all the cards within a country can do about a political challenge from a few people who don't have the power of the state behind them?
So who made the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers question the legitimacy of the election? Britain? America?
Blaming others for internal problems is something that we are getting used to hear all the time:
The “Terror attacks” (by the "bad muslims") that were the main reasons to destroy a few other countries (without really finding the real criminals who could have planned such an "extraordinary" scenario)- but oh yes, using all kinds of “acceptable torture methods” to get a few black haired scapegoats “speak”- , (I wonder who has the best techniques in this matter?) that was enough;
the declining economy in the world (which somehow all that "gray material" which is continuously debating and “reflecting” on problems that others have, in exclusive VIP conferences..., was not even capable of preventing or stopping such a mess- although a few did get a good chunk out of it),
nuclear proliferation (selling nuclear technology and military capability to “extremist-really-undemocratic -nations” and permitting a few others get away with their “admitted” nuclear weapons…)
and many other things that definitely need some introspection.
But apparently it is easier to scrutinize other people's problems than look inside the deep hole that one is sitting in by making it more deep.
No one denies that there are “real problems” inside developing countries, but certain retrospection is called for inside “western societies” too.
Leaders of some of the independent countries in the rest of the world are not blind or deaf and would have more respect for their counterparts commenting on their internal problems, if they truly saw a distinguished difference of attitude by the “Super Powers”. But they mostly don’t. Obama is actually showing a great sense of repairing, although he might also be forced into wrong actions that are to the benefit of a few only.
Someone who lives in messy house can’t give lessons of healthy living.
So if anybody is being patronizing it isn’t those who are just trying to repair their own broken furniture that was broken in a family brawl (fueled by some far away relatives). Everyone is to blame, but does pouring oil over fire make things better or worse?
If every time that a man has a fight with his wife, he considers divorcing her, or killing her, maybe that IS a big mistake. But if his wife has a long term secret affair with another man for many years and that is the reason she keeps fighting with him, maybe it becomes the right time to divorce her. (BTW the action of easy killing comes more often in places where people carry guns and spies are not released http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article3469.)
If they don’t divorce and keep on acting as a happy married couple, it means the man accepts being humiliated and cheated, and there can be no more real happiness in that home. But if there is still any love left between the two of them, they will find “how to fix it” usually in bed without the need for any advice from any caring parent or neighbor or friend or some “doctor” or tv showman.
Such decisions belong to those who are real actors in an event. Not of every passerby who wants to catch a part of it because he/she is desperate. Maybe Dr. Phil and Oprah have created more housewife monsters than they have tried to soothe.
“Is that really the best an established power structure holding all the cards within a country can do about a political challenge from a few people who don't have the power of the state behind them?”
I return to you the same question? Is there real freedom in the Western world today?
As for “not having the power of state behind them”, you are wrong again. Most of those who did defy this regime from the inside were holders of official signatures (for many years) and were simply rejected by the system because of their bad management, and greed. Someday all the truth will surface.
But just as each country should protect itself and maintain control over its sovereignty, its agreed upon that its national security and it should not show ALL the back scenes of the unbelievable election scam (such as Bush, and Gore, Kerry…etc.). But this time it is the “few” who had carefully prepared this imaginary mise en scene in Iran who were caught red handed, and those who should know, know.
Those who don’t want to believe, as always, it’s their choice. Just as they chose to follow one candidate against another.
As for the mystery of the Association of Qom check out this very interesting (unbiased) analysis – which would be good that someone actually inform the rest of the “professional” media about…( also check out the comments).
UPDATED Iran: Solving the Mystery of The “Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom”
http://enduringamerica.com/2009/07/06/updated-iran-solving-the-mystery-of-the-%E2%80%9Cassociation-of-researchers-and-teachers-of-qom%E2%80%9D/
So once again check the translations before throwing the bomb!
As for some other information sources which could be interesting to study:
Proof:Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter #IranElection
http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/06/proof-israeli-effort-to-destabilize-iran-via-twitter/
Retired Harvard researcher urges peaceful and diversified tactics
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31570447/
One Third of Iranians
http://notsylvia.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/one-third-of-the-iranian-people/
Biden: Israel free to set own course on Iran
http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200907051430/NEWS18/90705018
Israel's angel of destruction' is gambling on Iran
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097430.html
So as far as I am concerned, the real problems are no longer what the people inside of Iran will do right now, (there is more stability in this country without the need to kill thousands of people). They will build this country more and more, once the rash feelings cool off.
What IS the main problem, is what some of the close by neighbors are planning to do…, because once again (like Saddam) they mistakenly think they can catch fish from muddy waters.
Any comments on that?
Ah freedom. Let us not kid ourselves, there is no total freedom, only limited options, some countries offer more, some less. Apart from the obvious restrictions such as money, health, education, there are the more subtler varieties such as neighbourhood, political system, religious affiliation, etc.
In the West we may like to think of ourselves as free, but are we really when whatever political party we elect the government and corruption levels stay the same? When our protest marches and demonstrations are blatantly ignored? Granted we can demonstrate, but by and large we are as ineffective as protesters elsewhere.
How can we think we are free to express ourselves when statements made on the internet can work against you in job interviews? When CCTV's watch us everywhere? When we have biometric passports and all our movements are monitored? When our shopping habits are analyzed via fidelity cards and the data passed to governments? When our bank movements have to be notified to a clearing house? What happened to freedom of speech and expression? How can we be free when democratic governments impose rules on where, when and how you may protest? Our cage is looser and invisible, but still exists. It's always easier to see someone elses restrictions than thinking about your own.
A German folksong states that only thoughts are truly free, and I agree.
Introspection:
Yes, the powerful nations of the West need to engage in constant re-evaluation and criticism and reform of their own social, political and economic behaviors. This is the legitimate inheritance and burden of 500 years of aggressive behavior and willingness to exploit. The wealth of Europe and of the U.S. could never have reached their current levels relative to others in the world without greed, aggression, and exploitation. And yes, this bilking of the world has always been explained away by the excuse of some form of righteousness be it religious, political, or even sexual. Did any good come of it? Sure, if you like things like symphonies, parliaments, women's rights, movies, space exploration, rock and roll, radios, computers, etc. But if you're not into any of those things (or you think they would all have arisen sans L'Ouest) then no, the rise of the West was just one long instance of indulging wealth gained from the shooting, shelling, rounding-up, and enslavement of noble, peace-loving peoples of the southern climates.
In the post-WWII years most of this world domination stuff came from the U.S., which first took on the mantle of superpower (in a legitimate opposition to the Soviet Union) and then eventually hyper-power (with no obvious opponent). This American primacy has come at the cost of about one million Southeast Asians, a couple of million Arabs, countless Africans, countless Latin Americans, and even about 120,000 U.S. soldiers. Is that cost too high? I'd say yes. Would the alternative to the 50 years of U.S. might have been some kind of world paradise filled with peace and understanding among nations? I'd say no.
As for the most recent history, all of the things you mentioned (War on Terror, use of torture, double standards on nuclear arsenals, disastrous economic policy) are things that have been bitterly debated within the U.S., EU, Australia, etc. for the last eight years. For a lot of that time, the debating didn't seem to stop governments from doing the wrong things, but the debates were at least going on the whole time. And yes, during those years and probably still now, demonstrators in Washington, San Francisco, Seattle, London, Sydney, etc. have been and are being surveilled, observed, documented, and sometimes wrongly imprisoned. Some of them have even been called traitors by the Press. But throughout all this the notion that people have the right to question their government has remained intact.
Many of us who watch the news from Iran have the feeling that the Iranian Government behaves unjustly toward many of its citizens. We have expressed similar opinions about just about every other place on the planet that does that, including occasionally the U.S. So my question is this, "What's so special about Iran that its government gets to be above criticism?"
No one says there is total freedom, though it could be that people like the Kalahari Bushmen enjoy something close to it!
All of us on this site enjoy relative freedom as individuals. That means that we as individuals have more of an ability to do what we want to do (and to not do what we don't want to do) than the average person in our society has. That's true isn't it?
As for the freedom of entire societies or countries. Who knows how to best define it. How about this, "Relatively free societies import more people than they export." Hmmmmm. Well, it doesn't apply 100% of the time, but mostly correct, right?
Maybe we agree more than it seems.
We totally agree that the West has brought many great gifts and values(to all of us) during the times it was living to its peaceful principles. Personally I am most grateful for all that I was taught and all the freedom that made me believe that it could be. The rules and actions of the West were, 40 or 50 years ago (after the 2nd WWar), such that many of the nations of the World took it as a model.
But what makes it so unhelpful today, especially in keeping that “ideal” alive, is the fact that despite all that you are saying, you have just become citizens of a colonial nation.
Western egos are the chains that seem unbreakable and even stronger, in order to satisfy a few, very Evil people, who are sitting at the courts of power. They don’t really care that people suffer. Or they say they cant do anything about it. But they are living on people’s misery. And that is called blood money.
Before they used to force people into slavery, today its called free will. But nobody really has a choice. Okay a few protests to make believe we are still alive… but not much happiness…
“Many of us who watch the news[,] from Iran[,] have the feeling that the [Western] Government[s] behaves unjustly toward many of its citizens”
That’s just it.
Maybe what makes Iran a bit different is a sense that we feel as if we are part of a same (big) family. We are moving forward together and building. We feel there is a future and there is a spiritual peacefulness that makes us strong from inside. The faith in the Iranian people is fundamental. The majority of the people in Iran still believe that there is a Unique Creator stronger than any human or group of humans.
There have been many mistakes and many bad guys were given the power to dictate and rule, but today it feels as if that is changing.
Despite the different social classes that have mingled, and an un-favored class that has become wealthier after the revolution, (and is still missing the “cultural education” of living with the new wealth it has gained), but there is harmony.
Most people have seen their lives changed in the better.
We might not agree with each other in many things, but there are family rules that give us an inner force. Just like in any family, there are those better than others. But it’s a true balanced situation where you still feel like being around at home for all the family events, instead of running away.
Those who did run away at the beginning of the revolution did not like the new father or had an ideological fight and left. They thought they would find a better situation. But they are back now (or want to come back). They have had interesting experiences while they were away, but they forgot that in a strong family, your security and the love you feel is the real thing. Something you miss in other parts of the world, when you don’t really belong in those societies.
In any family, the patriarch (leader) is the real father and we can only respect him when we see his calm and force of resistance to all the pressures. He is a symbol of a strong father that you feel you can count on. You feel he is understanding and wants what is best for you. Even if it means scolding you. He is just and caring at the same time.
The matriarch (or the President) bears all the executive problems. How can you not care about a mother who is hardly sleeping at night to keep the family turning and making sure everyone has an education, pocket money and a future (when all the oil money is lost)?
Of course we have had other mothers, but maybe they were more busy meeting their friends at clubs and dinner parties, and did only the minimum to make the children [people] happy. They were good wives and good mothers, but they didn’t put all they had. They were submissive and couldn’t always defend you when you had problems. Or when bullies tried to hurt you at school.
The Iranian revolution is 30 years old. It’s an age of maturity.
It might surprise you to know that after the teenage period of revolt that many Iranian diasporas had, many are returning to Iran, or really want to be able to come back. An 85% vote count is maybe one of those signs.
But those who are making it look so bad today, left home 20 or 30 years ago. They slapped the door and left. Now they want to come back and want to find everything as they left it.
But things have changed. The house is looking nicer and all the walls are painted and flowers are growing everywhere. It looks beautiful and you can’t-not be proud of it today. Even rules are being imposed to maintain security for all. Moral and Physical security.
Maybe the “highly freedom effect” like in the 60’s will not happen in Iran, but maybe that’s because it really is not such a good thing when you think of it, and when you see what it caused:
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs exploded for the first time then. Maybe because most people in America thought they saw the mushrooms, but from another chemical reaction.
Its always hard to force lawless people turn into good citizens. If you take a bite of the traffic in Iran you will get the picture. But even the traffic has had a phenomenal uplifting. People wear seat belts and stricter rules have brought better conditions for all drivers. This seems like nothing for the Western world, but in this part of the planet it’s a lot.
Every day you feel there are setbacks but at the same time you feel there are new and better things happening.
Its just a happy home and I don’t know how you can explain that.
So its normal that you try to defend yourself if you see somebody trying to break that happy family.
Maybe even the happiest families fall apart some day. But if you don’t fight for your family and your home, someday when you lie in your death bed, you might regret it. And you will never be able to find inner peace.
Okay I finally understand you Zarcom. You are actually a kind of a romantic, I think. 'Nothing wrong with that. But don't you set yourself up for bitter disappointment when you romanticize nationhood like this?
Personally, I can't see a whole nation as being a family. It's a huge place with millions, tens of millions, maybe even hundreds of millions and it's more of a beast than anything else. Of course, a family can be a beast too when you get enough of them together....
I can't see the head of state as a father figure because I see heads of state as people that are put in those jobs by the citizens and asked to do the job of governing. I think this is even true of non-elected officials. To me they are high-level caretakers.
Anyway, I hope we can weather all this disagreement without too many hurt feelings. I do value our discourse on this site as well as on the Yahoo site.
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