***One is a very old article written by Mr. Michael Ledeen in April 1979 about the nature of the Khomeini's revolution. Read it at NY Sun.
Mr. Ledeen, an expert observer back then writes about why Khomeini hated the Shah:
- The attacks on the Shah are not complaints about the harshness of his regime or violations of human rights by Savak, the secret police. Rather, Khomeini condemns the Shah's regime for having sapped the fiber of the country by bringing unsuitable people (non-mullahs) to positions of power.
***The other one is by Iranian journalist, Mr. Taheri which you can read here and it is about those people who find the idea of talks with the regime attractive and think pure diplomacy can help change the behavior of the Iranian regime. As Amir Taheri says, talks can not stop the Iranian mullahs from the evil they are doing. The only language they understand is of force and toughness.
Cross-posted @ The Shotgun blog
6 comments:
I reallly enjoyed that article by Ledeen from 1979, Winston. If he was so right then, when everyone else was wrong, maybe I should pay more attention to what he says now, when I see him on the news. I'll give it some thought. I've been kinda writing him off for "wishful thinking" lately.
This part I found kind of ironic:
No matter how strongly one may deplore the Shah's authoritarianism, no matter how revolting one may find the excesses of Savak, there can be little reason for any democratic citizen of the West to sympathize with Ayatollah Khomeini.
Shortly after this article was published, Khomeini became the most hated person in America's history, with the *possible* exception of Adolf Hitler. I was only 14 or 15 years old and I knew very well who Ayotollah Khomeini was, and wished him to be dead, as did ALL of my friends, most of whom didn't even have the vaguest idea even what part of the world Iran was located in. But we all knew what that son of a bitch looked like, and how his name was spelled, and what he had done that he deserved to die.
We're all 40ish now. It wasn't that long ago. I think the IRI is vastly underestimating America's willingness to go to the wall to bring down that regime.
...America's willingness to go to the wall to bring down that regime...
PC, when do you think that will happen? What I've been hearing about Bush is that he's gone wussie on you.
Hi Louise,
I don't think Iran is a neocon issue, anyway... there is almost unanimous consensus of opinion when it comes to Iran in the US Government. I can't think of a single major democrat who doesn't favor a hardline on the IRI. Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Shumer, Diane Feinstein... arch-enemies of the Bush Administration, yet fully on-board with a hardline position with Iran.
I think we just saw that in play with Israel's recent campaign against Hezbollah. Expect to see the same support for whatever Bush does when it comes to Iran. If he recieves criticism it will because he is too weak in his approach, not because he over-plays his hand. That's my opinion, anyway, but I'm pretty certain of it.
I think the Bush admin is concerned about the ramifications for Iraq, right now, and would like to get things stabilized there first. The neocons have become entirely too cautious and I don't much like it, myself.
Hi Winston,
Sorry for off-topic comment. What's about Hossein Khomeini? Is he really as moderate and as good as they write in Wikipedia?
Cheers
What the Bush Admin needs to do is gather about 1,000, maybe more, Iranian exiles and talk with them about what THEY want to see in their Govt and not what his (Bush Admin)Govt wants to see.
Ya know in a way, I'm getting sick and tired of hearing 'but not the kind of republic we have' for regime change. What's wrong with ours?
Is this not what we did with Germany and Japan? Are they now not kicking our butts in some markets? I do know that they are no longer our enemies. That's what counts.
We have respect from them by first using overwhelming force, btw. It works everytime.
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