Iran arrests demonstrators in 2nd day of anti-regime protests

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/n..._medium=article&utm_term=&utm_campaign=social

Iran: Stop increasingly ruthless crackdown and investigate deaths of protesters
4 January 2018, 11:17 UTC

Iranian authorities must ensure the right to peaceful protest, investigate reports that security forces have unlawfully used firearms against unarmed protesters and protect hundreds of detainees from torture and other ill-treatment, Amnesty International said today amid concerns that the crackdown against demonstrations that have spread across Iran in the past week is intensifying.

 

US Foreign Policy is practically the same no matter who is your President

 

Precisely. Makes you wonder what the Secret Service or the CIA take the incoming president to the White House basement and shows them when they get there, lol.

 

I think we all know the drill by now, the corporate state has decided once again it will decide the leadership of Iran, done it before, endless permanent war and the endless destabilization of the middle east must be maintained at any costs and the american public will swallow and support anything including the continual military occupation of Iraq full well knowing it was a bogus enterprise from day one.

Tillerson told us all what "human rights" is used for in american foreign policy, kudos for saying it out loud Rex.

 

I have no clue as to why the American public does so administration after administration, one gratuitous war after another, and trillions after trillions wasted, with nothing but chaos, destruction of property and loss of life to show for it.

 

Utterly bipartisan all along the way, and the corporate state media machine is always gleefully on board. It serves the interests of the Wall Street/donor/"job creator" class and the people simply do not matter, we have no representative form of governance in the United States, merely the illusion of such.

 

Wow, so now the left is excusing and apologizing for muslim oppression of minorities by blaming the US, who exists 12,000 miles away. Sure, its the US' fault that the iranian filth regime mistreats its minorities so horrendously...

If only the leftists like this were as tough on muslim-majority countries regarding their lack of civil rights and abundance of ethnic cleansing/terrorism as they are on the US/Israel.

This is a major reason the muslim countries do mistreat minorities, their enablers in the West exemplified by this far left poster, and the despicable media like the NYT, give them a free hand and a pass by rarely, if ever, condemning them for their awful behavior no matter what they do.

 

Yeah, anyone who questions the power structure must be labeled "leftist", we know, standard obfuscation.

America's faux concern for the rights of others is not why we war, it is merely part of the illusion the power structure leverages to keep a subjugated population at home compliant, complicit and bowed.

Rex Tillerson: 'America first' means divorcing our policy from our values
“I think it is really important that all of us understand the difference between policy and values,” the secretary of state, a former oil executive, said as part of what he described as an “overarching view” on Trump’s “America first” mantra.

“Our values around freedom, human dignity, the way people are treated – those are our values. Those are not our policies.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/03/rex-tillerson-america-first-speech-trump-policy

Rex Tillerson’s State Department: Human rights? Big deal!
In a flashback to Henry Kissinger, U.S. foreign policy no longer even pretends to care about human rights

America has long had a disconnect between ideals and reality when it comes to human rights. After all, the country was founded on the idea of the inalienable right to life, liberty and happiness, even as it held slaves and stole the land of its Native inhabitants in a genocidal rampage. There were Red scares, Jim Crow, deportations, internment and mass incarceration, some of it still happening today. And that's just what we did in our own country. Indeed, it's obvious that throughout American history, our elegant paeans to freedom and liberty and the rights of man were not universally applied.

Apparently, a deputy named Brian Hook, a former Bush administration official, wrote up a memo for Tillerson explaining how the U.S. looks at human rights. And guess what? After nearly half a century we're back to Henry Kissinger's foreign policy from the 1970s. According to Politico, which got a peek at the memo, Hook explained to the neophyte diplomat that "the U.S. should use human rights as a club against its adversaries, like Iran, China and North Korea, while giving a pass to repressive allies like the Philippines, Egypt and Saudi Arabia." As Tom Malinowski, former assistant secretary of state under Obama, told Politico, this "tells Tillerson that we should do exactly what Russian and Chinese propaganda says we do — use human rights as a weapon to beat up our adversaries while letting ourselves and our allies off the hook.”
https://www.salon.com/2017/12/20/rex-tillersons-state-department-human-rights-big-deal/

“America First” foreign policy may mean ignoring human rights, Rex Tillerson says

“In some circumstances, if you condition our national security efforts on someone adopting our values, we probably can’t achieve our national security goals,” Tillerson said in a speech to State Department employees meant to outline to what “America First” means in diplomatic terms. “It really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests.”
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article...mean-ignoring-human-rights-rex-tillerson-says

 

What does this have to do with iran's monstrous repression and slaughter of minorities in that country? Are you even capable of condemning iran, or only can attack the US?

 

Dear Jimmy, it's called hypocrisy

 

I am not a citizen of Iran, I am of the US. I refuse to support any bogus excuse for endless war, military occupation and economic colonization of foreign lands at the behest of and for the benefit of the Wall Street/donor/”job creator” class which is funded by the public while the power structure economically cannibalizes american society at home and murders its own citizens in the streets with impunity while blathering on about human rights elsewhere. The american war machine has no regard for human rights in any way, shape, or form, never has. You are quite free to offer your own complicity in the matter, I elect to refrain.

We took out Iran’s duly democratically elected government once and we’re still not satisfied. It is little wonder why america has to “export” its democratic values with military force, occupation and violence again and again.

 

He could have taken action on Syria instead he hid behind a Sofa like a child and deferred to Congress,,again not a fan of Mr Orange but at least we know where he stands on a giving day Obama Just made a speech on Syria after the Chemical attack and went to Sleep. I personally like the guy but his leadership on foreign matters didn’t exist!

 

I agree but presidents respond differently to foreign crisis Obama just well dosent respond he likes to sit and watch I guess ‘hope’ was his thing.

 

Dude, that addresses nothing that you just quoted, and I wasn’t a fan of his USFP either.

 

You completely missed his point.

 

I don't imagine hand palms out of nothin yo Rus... So either go ahead and show me what you say is "here" or slowly get lost...

 

That's nice.

So then everyone here on this forum, by your "logic", has just lost its entire ability to criticize Israel since none of them are citizens of it. Also, those in the UK who are criticizing the US can no longer do so; only citizens of their countries can criticize those countries. Amazing thought process.

What the US did 75 years ago has NOTHING to do with the oppression iran is committing against its minorities. How does what the US did in 1953 possibly "forcing" iran to murder and oppress people in 2018?

Again, using your "logic", if one can actually call it that, Israel can slaughter all of the muslims because they tried to invade it in 1948. Is that the argument you are presenting?

As I said, its the enablers in the West who are the mideast muslims' biggest enemies.

 

I decided to do a little bit of research on our friend "fenton lum," who claims he only criticizes the US because he is a citizen of the US, and refuses to condemn iran because he is not a citizen of that country.

However, I discovered a number of posts where he condemns and attacks Israel, so "fenton lum," are you a citizen of Israel? I strongly doubt it. Here is just one example:

http://www.politicalforum.com/index...nd-turkey-warns-trump.520679/#post-1068365343

"Israel produces 60% of all drones worldwide and sells to over 50 countries, at times selling to both sides of a given conflict, and Israel fueled the drones arms race between India and Pakistan"

There are plenty of others.

So I ask fenton lum, how does you square refusing to criticize iran for mass oppression and murder because you claim not to be an iranian citizen, but continuously attack Israel, which you are not a citizen?

 

You can't take this nowhere with that loose Sergey perspective... Erdogan still is doing what he's told to do in foreign affairs... He wouldn't have apologized to Putin, or would have visited Iran, hadn't he been forced to do so. These both official diplomatic moves came right after (within a month) the prior visits of Turkish nationalists to those countries... I'm talking about the nationalists who were released in 2014. I can provide names and visit dates along with some pictures...

Think about it... You got bunch of people imprisoned for 6 years and got released when Russia was about to get the high hand in Ukraine and Syria in 2014. Then these same people managed to push for their own agendas especially in foreign affairs while they weren't - and still aren't- holding a single seat in the parliament. They have met with some deep Russians in Moscow and within months an official apology came from the Turkish side followed by Erdogan's official visit to St Petersburg... Same faces appeared this time in Tehran last summer when they were invited by some deep Persians to the Iranian Parliament. Within a month or so some Turkish VIPs visited Tehran. Then Iranian chief of staff made an official visit to Ankara after 3 decades. This followed by visits of leaders. What's essential to grasp here is the fact that Erdogan was the very person who started imprisoning these deep nationalists back in 2007 and kept them there for 6-7 years. So the question you should ask is how in the world a group of people immediately took control over the entire foreign policy of the country and have become literally the "shadow foreign ministry" shortly after they got out the hole...

Look, I understand how ignorant you may be of Turkish politics, which is perfectly normal for any foreigner, but yet it is completely unacceptable for some Jewish people who think they are hotshots when it comes to read subtext of the mainstream story line of the region. So when you take a glance from where I stand at how that subtext is tried to be read by those "hotshots", believe me you inevitably start feeling bad for them if not already pitty...

 

Well, we are exceptional, so it's always different when we do it, because we do it for the good of mankind.

 

Yet another deflection.

I noticed you avoided post #293, are you going to defend your claims or not?