Iran - General discussion
 

I thought we had a thread on Iran… Anyway, this is a good opportunity to start one…

Iran should join the space club soon with its own satellite launchers.

Honestly if this was for research or for challenging the US monopoly over space or even just challenging the US in general, including military implications, I'd be completely ok with it to the point of being down right supportive.

But if this is about Israel then really, it is just getting old. When the fuck did Iran become so goddamn anti-Israeli? The senseless anti-Israel rhetoric, the freaking debacle with the Holocaust denial convention and now this?
It's pathetic.

For Iran, it's essentially aimed to regain military balance against its regional neighbors.

Iran is surrounded by countries (Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Nato, Israel) that all possess nuclear weapons, long range ballistic missiles, and observation satellites, and Iran is currently defenseless against such weapons. Any country in Iran's position would be looking for a deterrence against potential attacks (the invasion of Iraq has showed them that the threat is very real), and when you're dealing with nuclear powers, the only deterrent is to acquire nuclear weapons yourself.

But Iran goes beyond the simplistic "axis of evil" concept that the US wants to sell today, first of all Persia is one of the world's oldest civilization with over 5000 years of history behind it, and despite centuries of regional domination, Iran has never showed in modern times any will to make territorial gains over its neighbors.

2 interesting points that shows the other side of "evil":

The first set of human rights were proclaimed by Persian king Cyrus the Great in 539 BC (interestingly he freed enslaved jews and let them go back to Palestine).

After WWII, Iran was on its way to democracy, but the democratically elected Iranian governement was overthrown in 1953 by… a CIA coup to reinstate a corrupted monarchy. The coup was pretty much ordered by western oil companies, sounds familiar? Which side was "evil" there?.

Many young westerners wonder why Middle-Eastern countries have so much 'distrust' (to put it lightly) for the West, well… They should read some history books on the colonial period and especially how colonial powers and oil companies supported corrupted regimes that oppressed people in order to maximize profit.

Well that all explains why they'd need to defend themselves against the States but has there ever been a time where Israel has posed a serious threat to Iran?

Iranians themselves have always been pretty indifferent to Israel. If anything, Iranians despise Arabs more than Israelis. All this talk of "wiping out Little Satan" are just pathetic attempts of Iran trying to either stay relevant or boldly attempting a Shiite revival across the Middle East, rivaling Egypt's political and military hegemony.

If there has been threats from Israel, it because they are taking this bullshit seriously. Iran has never been their enemy, they just voluntarily positioned themselves as one.

Then again if this is about the States, Iran has every right to defend themselves. (Well they have the right regardless, but they'd be more justified).

You're right, the main rivalry is with Arabs, not with Israelis (even though they are both Semitic people and ultimately in the same bag from a Persian point of view).

The problem of Persians has always been to be an Indo-European people sandwiched between Semitic people to the south and Turkic people to the north, both are considered historical enemies that can't be trusted (and the recent Iran-Iraq war, started by Iraq, has done nothing to change that opinion). To add to the ethnic divide, Persians have developped their own branch of Islam while Semitic and Turkic people are almost entirely sunni muslims. Iran feels relatively safe only on its eastern border with other Indo-Iranian countries.

The anti-Israeli rethoric is failry recent indeed, too recent to be genuine. In my opinion, the main goal of that posture is to look sympathetic to Arabs, to be perceived by Arabs as a potential ally against Israel, to convince Arab countries that Iran's nuclear program is not a threat to them but only to Israel and should therefore be supported.
Ultimately i don't think Iran gives a damn about Israel (other than it's Semitic people who can't be trusted), the real enemy are sunni muslims and that's who the Iranian military program is primarily aimed at.

300, the latest piece of American propaganda that takes an ancient Greek-Persian battle to push a modern agenda.

The Greeks (the good side) are portrayed as white, masculine, straight, good westerners (played by Anglo-Saxons) while the Persians (the evil side) are portrayed as darker-skinned, androgynous, gay, evil easterners (played by Latinos).
The movie is of course historically mostly inaccurate (anything older than the American civil war is a big blur for those people), and ancient Greeks and Persians were both of direct Aryan descent anyway and rather close in many areas, not the opposite poles showed in there.

As often, that movie tells more about the prejudice, ignorance and motives of those who created it than what it is supposed to depict.

Fighting for historical accuracy and racial/religious/sexual sensitivity in Hollywood is a losing battle.
And they call themselves progressive liberals. :rolleyes:

UN backs fresh sanctions on Iran

Neither China nor Russia have vetoed the resolution, which is not a good sign for Iran. War may not be far away.

Iran's fashion police is in full operation in spring. :laugh: Because, you know, clothing is Iran's #1 problem these days.

Ok this?
Is fucking hilarious; nothing is more Islamic than a full unibrow. I wonder what is says about this guy.

Apparently the whole issue is supposed to distract the population from the unemployment rates and the rampant drug use among the youth, which is probably rampant because of the unemployment rates.

This sounds so much like what Bush would use with gay marriage. It's too bad he won't talk, they have so much in common.

Poor those people in Iran. I hate when some president is tripping like his country is most powerful in the world, he wants to make his country no. 1, hates EU & USA etc.
Something like that was the stupidest Serbia's president Milošević, and Hitler in his time.

This thing with clothing is hillarious. I'm just sad 'cause all those people are gonna be aspired by president's crazy ideas and then chaosity will be just bigger and bigger...:(

People just need to find and seek after peace, these human beings i tell you haha.

I can't imagine how do people contrive to live there?

I think it's dangerous and wild society, especially for gay/lesbians rights. Do you remember the two Iranian gay teens Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, which were publicly hanged in 2005 because they raped 13 year boy? They were also caught when they've been having a sex with each other. They were kept in a prison for fourteen months, where they got blow by lash for 228 times :bum:.

I know that raping is awful, but to execute... especially they were not full aged. In Russia there's not only children execution, but there's no an execution at all (yet)!
I know a lot of guys, who have ever raped others. And they're still do it and they're still on freedom :confused:. There are a lot of cases of raping even here, in my little town, but nothing happens with them (who rape, I mean).

Ew, I would never live in such a country as Iran :blabla:.

First of all i'm so sorry for all Iranian people here ! They are just stupid ones who are showing these points of my country ! I don't like our government in general but i see no reason to show my place like this hell you all made ! everyone , everybody dislike something about her/his country , governemt or ... but is it nice to you to show all of them in public ? be sure if someone do that , if someone could see all of the sh..ts in your country (one of you example) then people would sigh for you !

and you Cooper Scream or everyone who are sorry for us ! don't be . we are all ok . we have some defectives but not that much you want to be sorry for us ! evryone has her/his/their culture . i would be happy if i wouldn't use veil but it doesn't mean that i'm suffering about that . We have so many handsome guys , hot and beautiful women , intelligent people like Anoushe Ansari the first lady who traveled to space . many genuse doctors all around the world and we proud of them .

You that think that man who raped doesn't deserve to death . i don't want to pray for you to one day be in this situation . If you will be ...

Stop people ! we don't need your sighs and we can live in Iran satisfied but a little less than anywhere else about our interests . Learn to respect others ! I'm a fan of t.A.T.u. .. even they can't and don't want to come but be sure if they would .. they would have fun more here than anywhere else .. Not because of the beauties of places . But because of kindness of Iranian people .

well people.
I may talk about Iran in diffierent area! Iran was what so called persian Empire, some leaders are still dreaming of the days of Empire and trying to do it again.
Iran is interfering in all Arabic countries internal affairs, Nobody knows what persian leaders want exactly. in Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain and palestine.. they support one side to evoke conflicts and commotions in arabic countries. There is a historical hate between Iran and Egypt because Egyptian leader El sadaat wellcomed the persian king just after the Islamic revolution take over in iran at the late of 1970's.

I don't know about this reviving the empire business (but really what country isn't trying expand their influence?) but I do know that Iran wants to be left the hell alone. If I had different countries calling for your destruction and having your neighbours (which are now failed states) taken over by said countries, I'd be jittery too.

tatu-rocks, I sincerely hope all is well with you, and your family. And I hope that your country makes itself out of this mess for the better and in one piece.

Seeing Neda die has made me do something I have never even thought about doing ever, even for my own country; I contacted my MP.

I'm watching what's happening in Iran in shock ,with prayers to protect them.No need to tell that the regime in Iran has come near to end and hopefully there will be democracy without a US manipulation.I just hope that some time people will live freer and not under the mollas as soon as possible in that wonderful country.I really want to go there in future.

I hope Moussavi does come through with this.
One thing that just amazes me throughout this is how women are commanding the protests. Not to downplay women's role in protests throughout history but rarely do you see women at the forefront of demonstrations taking all the beatings and it's they, not the men, who are beating back (damn they are fighters). Makes sense, they have way more at stake.

The US isn't going to intervene anytime soon, thankfully.
Obama wisely hasn't said nor done anything with regards to Iran.
Not only because it would reek of warmongering, wastefully stretch out an already exhausted war effort, and give legitimacy to the Iranian power. And besides the US can't afford it right now.

Wow, imagine if McCain had won?!
The guy actually sang about bombing Iran!