I have a question based on a statement a friend of mine made. He's a helicopter pilot and he gets contract work all around the world. He has worked in South America, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq (before the war) and Pakistan. He told me that there was no other place where the people made him feel so welcome as the people in Iran. He said it's very pro-western and when you get to know the people they can have intelligent rational discussions without making you feel like an outsider. Do you feel, even though there are many westerners calling for war against Iran or calling them terrorists, that the overwhelming majority of Iranians are peaceful pro-western people?

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America's Enemies Are Not Mine

All wars represent a failure of diplomacy

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” - Stephen Roberts.

Would it? You don't share a land border, you're very seperated Navally, and I don't think there is a friendly route for aircraft to travel over.

I suppose you could lob long range missiles over Syria and Jordan.

You don't think that it would be possible to achieve warmer relations after the strike?

Or how about this. If Israel acted unilaterally like they did in the six day war would Iran be particularily upset at the US?

What could iran do? Cry and moan, thats about it. I am sure they would also continue their support of terrorism full steam but so what? They do that anyway. If they try to engage us, they will just lose the military strength that they do have. If they refuse to sell oil, they will starve.

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Qur'an:8:39 Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.
Qur'an:8:67 It is not fitting for any prophet to have prisoners until he has made a great slaughter in the land.
Qur'an 8:12 I will terrorize the unbelievers...Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.
Qur'an 9:5 Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, torture them, and lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.

Unless you are talking pre-emptive nuke strike, There is no realistic "israel unilateral" option. Its a neocon fantasy, gugitaboutit.

IAF cannot fly to Iran without crossing into US airspace. Which means an Israeli air campaign will drag the US into war with Iraq wether we want to or not. Once that happens, the thousands of miles of open border seperating Iran from A'stan/Iraq will start crawling with baddies intent on killing US troops inside the occupied areas. You can also count on the Iranians to shut down civilian tanker traffic in the gulf.

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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan

iranian people are so hospitable to westerners. and they have no problems with them. almost all of those who can speak English are pro-western or at least like westerners.

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Iran would use the help of his allies, just like israel would use US.

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When you say your country has been devastated by the sanctions, can you give us a clearer picture? The UN passed sanctions against Iraq for years, but it simply strengthened Saddam's power and the ones who ended up most hurt were the people.

How effective do you think are sanctions in changing the minds of the Iranian people against their current leaders/form of government? Do you forsee a revolution of some sort if Iran suffers an economic collapse? Or will it just stir up more hate against the West, garner support for the political and religious leaders, and silence government opposition for fear of being labeled 'unpatriotic'?

I'm also aware that the US is pressuring and threatening international banks to effectively stop all business dealings with Iranian banks. Do you consider that as an act of war? Also, Russia and China are considered by some to be your allies and will stand by your country if attacked. (Hello WWIII!) Who are your allies, and do you think you can count on them?

You mentioned that Iran's goal in enriching uranium is not to acquire nuclear weapons, but to uphold national sovereignity. Many here in the US use the same argument against involvement and participation in the United Nations. Would you please explain what you mean by protecting Iran's sovereignity? Also, do the citizens of Iran want nuclear weapons and even if most do not, what Iranian interests are served by owning one?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is of huge importance to many Americans. How important an issue is it for local Iranians? Is there any sympathy at all for the innocent Israeli civilians who are quite often the target of groups like Hezbollah, or do many Iranians consider them as legitimate targets? (I do realize that many Americans do not come across as sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and the Lebanese either.)

Iran is a Muslim country, and the USA is predominantly Christian. Is it true that the young people in Iran are taught to murder and spread their religion through violent means? How are people of other faiths treated in your country? For example, I've heard reports that children of the Bahai faith are denied education and those who practice it are oppressed by the government.

I have many more questions, but I think those will satisfy my curiosity for now. Thank you for taking the time to answer questions and for sharing your knowledge and expirience.

As long as they are straight apparently, heh heh

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My Political Blog (Last post Feb 14) - My MySpace Page

I meant iranian people by Iran, not the government. the sanctions have the same effects on Iran. our government sells the oil nevertheless and is rich and powerful, but non-government companies are suffering from bankruptcy.

iranian people are against ahmadinejad now, his rates are less than 20%. about the form of government, we all know that we should do slow reform, we're up to it anyway.

no, we've done our revolution before. these sanctions changed people's mind about west, I can't say they hate US and western countries, but they understood that US is not by their side.

if I see that as an act of war, then I should say that we were in war since 1979. it's somehow a cold war, but I prefer it to stay cold.

well, Lebanon & Syria are the main allies. Russia and china do support us, but I personally don't count on them to defend us in a war. all I can count is our own military. however, a war means the end of independent Iran, everybody here knows this well.


what I meant was that this issue, is now a patriotic issue, so, no one can take it away. this actually had cost more than its benefits, but people want it now, and they don't give up their right to have a nuclear power station and peaceful nuclear devices. making a bomb needs at least 1 year of stopless working of 50000 centrifuges, we have 9000 centrifuges, they are technologically old, and are working under direct supervision of IAEA experts. making nukes is impossible with current situation.

those who care about these issues, have more sympathy with innocent Palestinians that are living in a huge jail in their own home country. most of people, don't care much, they care about their own innocent children that are living in misery because of international sanctions.

by all means, it's totally fake propaganda to display Iranian people like savages. do I look like what you think?

bahai is a false religion founded in 19 century. it was used before to take advantage of iranian government in Pahlavi and Ghajar dynasties. that's why it's prohibited here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1'%C3%AD_Faith

Christians are treated good here, I have many Christian (Armenian) friends here. you can ask about how they're treated from Alan Baghumian, the founder of Parsix Linux.

http://www.parsix.org/

they have their social interactions, etc. they have their parliament seat as well. the same goes to Jews, Zarathustran, and other faiths.

you're welcome.

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More and worse sanctions are coming and soon, because your leaders are defying the will of the world that takes them at their word- that they will use the weapons to wipe Israel of the map. We are not going to allow that to happen. You can argue and moan about it forever, but we are going to stand with Israel no matter what you say or how many civilians you murder, so it merely means your own destruction to escalate.

You have stated your rulers are bad/evil yourself, which means its abundantly clear to most of the West who condemn your attitude that gays should be executed (and lots of others you haven't admitted yet). Therefore, the wise thing to do, if you are sincere, is prepare to seize power when the USA removes the regime and even assist the USA in the process. I guarantee you the USA nor the West has any desire to take away your sovereignty. Victory is almost near in Iraq, and that means Iraq will be left to make its own decisions as a member of the world community. You should start a revolution because one way or another, your evil rulers are going down. The more success we have in iraq, the sooner we are going to take them out. Even your fanatical leaders understand this all too well which is why they are using proxies to fight us already in iraq despite the severe risk that we will declare war on them for it.

Of course we aren't by your side. You have been committing savage terrorist attacks against us for decades and calling for our destruction vocally through your proxies hezbollah. If you start acting like civilized human beings, you would suddenly find an ally in the greatest military power the world has ever known. We don't care what God you worship and we would even let you mistreat your women and gays and all that, but you will not enforce your evil on us, ever.

You are correct. No one is going to stand with iran. All the surrounding countries are afraid of iran and therefore want them weakened, if not destroyed. And they are afraid of the USA, and don't want to alienate us. Your only hope is the USA.

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Qur'an:8:39 Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.
Qur'an:8:67 It is not fitting for any prophet to have prisoners until he has made a great slaughter in the land.
Qur'an 8:12 I will terrorize the unbelievers...Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.
Qur'an 9:5 Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, torture them, and lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.