Saturday, August 12, 2006

Inspiring Dread.

When I read analyses like the one you are about to read below, my outlook for Lebanon in the near and long term becomes very bleak. I start to feel that what has transpired over the past month in my country constitutes merely the first shots in a much broader and all-encompassing war.

Hussein Shariatmadari, a top aide to Khamenehi, and director of Iran's main daily newspaper Kayhan (Universe) believes that with the fall of Communism, the task of challenging the "Infidel" West, under US leadership, in setting the global agenda, has devolved to the Islamic Republic and its Khomeinist ideology.

In an editorial bearing the title of "This Is Our War," Shariatmadari made it clear that Hezbollah was fighting not for prisoners, the Shabaa farms or even "Arab causes," whatever they may be at any given time, but for Iran in its broader struggle to prevent the US from creating "an American Middle East."

The consensus in Tehran is that American power is peaking out and that the West as a whole is entering a period of historic decline. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is convinced that it is the turn of rising new powers, brimming with energy and ambition, sustained by strong demographic trends, and ready for endless sacrifice and suffering, to provide humanity with leadership. (Amir Taheri, Asharq al Awsat)

"Provide humanity with leadership???" "Endless sacrifice and suffering???" Wow!

How delusional are these people?!?! What does the Average Ali in Tehran think about this? I know what I think: words like these do not inspire any sense of confidence in me with regards to peace and quiet in Lebanon or the region for the foreseeable future. In fact it does quite the opposite. It inspires dread. God help all of us! For it looks like we're in for a hell of ride! Literally.

58 comments:

root cause said...

i pray that this is just typical fanatic iran rhetoric. if not this could easily turn into WWIII very quickly. and if that happens, i'm sure tel aviv will drop a nuke on tehran, if the US doesn't beat them to it. anyway you slice it, these comments from the insane khamenehi do not help the situation at all. i wonder if this statement will influence nasrallah since he already kinda agreed to the resolution.

root cause said...

we will soon see exactly how much influence iran has on nasrallah. he has already televised his "agreement" to abide by the UN resolution. so to go back on that now, it would be obvious to all that iran is indeed his puppet master, and therefore weaken his political standing in lebanon.

chris from lebanon,

i agree that the west will be forced to deal with the crazy regime in tehran very soon. we simply can't afford to let this maniac dictate what happens in the ME and the rest of the world. i just hope that the iranian people that i know are not behind his threats can rise up and overthrow these lunatic radicals.

praying for peace...more than ever

root cause said...

shittyzionz...

you have no place here! we ALL have the right to exist and to pursue happiness for us and our children. keep believing nostradamus...good luck with all that! we control our own destiny, NOT some clown who did way too many drugs hundreds of years ago.

praying for peace

Μαύρος Γάτος said...

How reliable is Amir Taheri? If I get the picture correctly he is an Iranian ex-patriate expectedly bitter towards Tehran. How reliable is Asharq Al-Awsat? And how seriously do you think Iran can threaten the West? Like Saddam who was yelling that he would bring the Apocalypse and destroy the West only to be defeated in a matterof days?

Let's not succumb to... what was his name/ That minister of Saddam, the funny one with the glasses? Let's not succumb to conspiracy theories. UIran is not an angel but beleive me, they cannot possibly cause a threat (other than verbal ) to the west.

Courage Lebanese friends, seems like the end of *this* war is near. For the next one, I have no clue....

Μαύρος Γάτος said...

"Ulran" is fot Tehran, of course

root cause said...

shitty

your blind rage is understandable...but FAR from productive!! if you truley love your country you must see the big picture. so every ME conflict is the fault of isreal?!?!?! cmon! the iraq/iran war...was that israel's fault?...that killed more arabs then all the israeli conflicts combined!! but just because thats muslims killing muslims it doesnt count??? please try to have some rational thought. i understand that emotions run very high right now, i am very sorry for your suffering, but the world has enough hate!! please don't spread any more.

praying for peace.

Andrey said...

the writings of nostradamus are poems, witch could be understood only after the things have already happened. many people tried to predict what is going to happen according to his writings, but the world is constantly unpredictably changes. so far the christians are with jews against moslems, so maybe it will all be the other way around, and by the way ehud olmert is the 12-th prime minister of Israel (but soon there will be 13-th). Like ahmadinijad said - the one who starts the fire, may be consumed by it!

Andrey said...

we want to live like in europe, free borders, while arabs recognize that we (jews) are the closest nation to them, and stop demonizing us. we want 2 states, palestine and israel in 1949 borders. we want not to have a need in US - we want to be allys of our neighbours.

root cause said...

natalie,

believe me, i am all for peace, but when you spew that hatred, my patriotic juices boil. do you think for one second iran can harn the USA??...we would completely destroy them many times over!! my filthy ass....paaaaleeeze you know nothing about the USA. we are the MOST diverse county in the world, and we have only been around for 230 years....seams to me we must be doing something right...

i do wish peace for lebanon, but your views are suicidal

root cause said...

i wish we could yael k....we owe it (if not for ourselves)...to our children. every human being on this planet should be able to to be free and be able to raise their kids in peace!!


praying this madness will end NOW!!!

root cause said...

very true shmulik

still praying for peace

Andrew Baker said...

As a westerner I do believe that the west is responsible for the loss of faith in its words deeds and values.

By denigrating international law, by sidelining the process of involvment of regional stakeholders and undermining the involvment of the UN.

In one of the English newspapers there was the headline "Mass murder on an unimaginable scale planned". Instead of the intended reference to the security alerts in the UK I immediatly thought this must be reference to Blair. Surprise surprise. This is indeed the looking glass world we are now inhabiting.

This is I hope not a pointless rant but relevant to this thread. Yes the political and military manipulation of innocents is wrong by any side. However the disregard of the lives of innocents in the middle east under the justification of spurious ideals and objectives by western powers has created the atmostphere of confrontation and a genuine mistrust of western intentions.

root cause said...

andrew....in some aspects i agree, however, radical islam has been around for centuries, there is NO negotiation with that mind set regardless of any "policy"...when an entity is hell-bent on desctruction of another entity....how will rational negotiations help?

plz may we have peace!!!

Andrew Baker said...

The development of so called radical Islam has arisen because it is a shadow side of what the west has created. An outside force pressing in builds unlikely coalitions.

The mistakes we have made is to change another without changing ourselves. This we have neglected to do.

root cause said...

huh??? if i am not mistaken, we have gone to great lengths to accomodate all religions/beliefs...and for that matter non-beliefs in this country..plz include examples in your discussion. i don't see radical christians, jews, buddists, athiests, or any other religion opther that islam blowing themselves up to kill "infedels" in the name of God. i am NOPT racist, this is a simple fact.

still praying for peace

Andrew Baker said...

Am I right in guessing that you are from the USA? WE simply have to recognise that there is a justified cogent point of view that the western powers, USA and UK in particular, have meddled in the affairs of the middle east in pursuance of self interest at the risk of peace and the lives of innocents. Futhermore that this has been done under the guise of altruism and idealism.
If there was a will within the US from a president who is not looking at the profile of his voters/supporters, Isreal would have been forced to make meaningful negotiations.
Hamas and Hesbollah have arrisen as a result of stalling and bad faith. Ironically this is apparently what Israel wants in order to justify its intransigence. It is clear that it has systematically destroyed moderate Arab voices in the occupied teritories.

Its about taking responsibility. We need to address our negative contributions and understand that the view of ourselves held by others may be closer to the truth than we have fooled ourselves into thinking.

root cause said...

andrew,

obviously i an from the USA. cognent?? no...sorry...i don't buy into that. there are very real success stories in the ME because of our "meddling". it is the the ppl that refuse to progress with the rest of the worl that we have a problem with. do you honestly believe that women in the fundamental islam countries enjoy freedom...is this right?...if you want to fight for all human rights...start there!!

still praying for peace

root cause said...

i apologize for my last post....VERY off topic

Andrew Baker said...

Root Cause - did you mean as I did 'Cogent'.

Expanding the argument as a critique of the faults of Islam will do nothing to help peace in the region, in its current dilemma, and the world as a whole.

You make changes for the good when you include and empower. Pardon me for saying this but the USA has not got a good track record in its involvment in the affairs of others. One has only to look at Nicaragua, Chile, El Salvador, Argentinia and Cuba to realise the shadows of the imperialist intentions of the states. But lets not be partisan about this, The UK is just as bad accept with our diminishing role in the world we now have to suck up to the USA to get a wiff of power.

root cause said...

i'm very sorry..but how exactly would you like to empower.....oh lets say....iran....syria....north korea....hezzballah.....osama....cmon man....i understand some policies dont make sence, but geeez....to blame pretty much the vast amount of evil in this world right now on the US and UK!!!

Andrew Baker said...

Read my post and stop falling into your patriotic denial. Both the UK and the USA have a lot to learn and should take more responsibility. The fact that you have just read my comments as applying solely at USA shows defensive reflexes not balanced thinking.

root cause said...

plz answer my questions....i would seriosly like to know how you would address the current conflicts with iran...north korea....syria....i would like to know how u would handle them? plz instead of insults

Andrew Baker said...

By creating regional alliances and restoring talking and negotiating as tools of foriegn policy.

The real question however is how did Iran come into its current political identity in the first place?

Syria needs to have its own influence and identity reaffirmed on the world stage. Syria is at a point when it is under severe internal pressure for change. It is currently avoiding this when it has the USA to hate.

North Korea? Why was this country not the focus of military action more than Iraq? It has nuclear capacity and is a maverick in foriegn affairs. The answer yet again lies in USA foriegn policy. Play the long game - be believable to others in respect of your foriegn policy and importantly develop a more intelectually coherent attitude to China who are N. Korea's main sponsors. Realise also that N. Korea has enormous economic problems which it covers up and needs desperatly to trade with the rest of the world. S. Korea has now developed a real influence with the north and both countries have political and economical agreements.

Deal with this seriously plse.

Andrew Baker said...

In dear old UK time it is very late.
May I bid you a very good day or night and may we all reach out to friendship and trust. PLse feel free to add comments on my site at http://andrewmarkbaker.blogspot.com

Bye for now

chitta said...

Which country would destroy countries in a war (Japan, Germany)
and then thrust constitutions on them and then help them build up
so that they are peaceful and world powers?

Which country will go to a place like Veitanm (no oil or any other resources) and sacrifice
tens of thousands of its sons to protect the world from the evils of communism? (If you
are not sure of the evils of communism, just read about the number of people
killed by Stalin, Lenin and Mao, etc.)

One cam compare North and South Korea; one supported by one country and the other
by many communist countries and then figure out which country's influence made
South Korea a prosperous nation and North Korea a basket case.

Sure, this country has made mistakes. Many mistakes!
Often these mistakes become clear in hindsight
and other times they appear as mistakes but the alternative (a communist
government or a dictator) would have been far far worse.

One can of course come up with examples where the side this country supported
did bad things (e.g. early support of mujaheddins in Afghanisthan against Communist
Soviet Union), but one needs to think of the other side and in most cases
the other side was a much bigger danger to the world at that point of time.

One should be proud of UK, especially Tony Blair's UK,
that after its brutal imperial past it came to senses and is
now on the right side of the history.

I am proud to immigrate to this country (USA) and salute its desire and willingness
to sacrifice its sons and daughters to make the world a better place in the long term.
Like many others who moved to this country, it took a long time for me
to get rid of my preconceived notions and beliefes created by reading years
of anti-US news. But after thinking about it a lot and discovering the
number of soldiers sacrificed in wars in countries like Vietnam and Korea
(where there is no oil or such things that this country could be accused of eying for)
I am no longer delusional. I hope more people in Iraq will soon realize that
and instead of killing each other form a stable democracy and then quickly ask
this country and UK to leave, which they both would be very happy to do.

best regards
Chitta

R said...

dougjnn,

"But after she did, why did Hezbollah persist on rocket attacks and cross border raids, on and off for six years, while building up not only a strong defense capability against ground invasion, but also an enormous rocket arsenal, all supplied by Iran?"

Because they are aligned with Iran and Syria, and serve the intersection of the latter two's interests. Add to that, the Syrians controlled lebanon completely until 2005, and you have your answer.

Now it is up to us as Lebanese, to make sure that the Syrian era is over, the era of being pawns, tools, and bargaining chips is over, and to move on once and for all. The Syrians and Iranians aren't gonna like it, and neither will HA, but we have to do it anyway...

Baroon said...

1 month and im reading isrealies opinon and more isrealies opinon here. to extend that i decided not to participate in argument anymore and let isrealies debate eachother here :)
BUT what is funny is isreal wants PEACE but want to nuclear iran and rest of ME if nessessery " IF NEEDED" (hahaha i wonder what in the SAFE HANDS means !).

root cause said...
i pray that this is just typical fanatic iran rhetoric. if not this could easily turn into WWIII very quickly. and if that happens, i'm sure tel aviv will drop a nuke on tehran


and Rest of ME want PEACE with no isreal around them.
peace will NEVER EVER EVER happen between Isreal and ME. ilusional peace maybe..but PEACE as other countries in other part of world has it NO.

this morning i was thinking this war gave Isreal enemies a prety good idea how to fight thier wars with Isreal in future. and maybe this is begining of the end for isreal :)
hahah.. come on.. jump on me and start to bit each word i wrote hehehe

Lirun said...

sounding a bit like lord of the rings

Baroon said...

Raja

btw " hosien shariatmadari" is considered in iran an extremist. always voice of extremist are louder than moderate ppl.
the political party in iran which is in power now will not last. " shariatmadari " and his newspaper are not popular in iran, but i guess non of these matters as long as ppl hear what they wana hear. beside every where in world extremist are reaching the power

Baroon said...

eyval

i dont think this was a real war..but i think it has real lessons

Baroon said...

eyval

what HB -iran-Syria wishes for u.. is the same as Eyption ppl. jordanian ppl , suadi ppl , gulf rigion ppl, iraqi ppl,pakistani ppl, indonisian ppl.. wishes for u

Baroon said...

Egyption ppl say exactly what " ahmadinejad" Say..but i guess they r not as stupid as " ahmadinejad" to say it when milions of aduians are around . learn some arabic if u already dont know it and tune to whatever arabic chanel (egyption ones also ) and listen. not a word diffrent than ahmadinejad.

Baroon said...

eyval

actually im not thinking that way..but when i come here and read isrealies are proud that they can use nuclear on others or carpet boming ... i learn more about the way isrealies are thinking

Baroon said...

eyval

and by the way...i personaly prefer to die rather than living in a world that whenever isreal wishes carpet bomb me !!!
dieing is better than living in fear

Baroon said...

eyal
ok !!

Baroon said...

eyal

after this war most extremist government will come to power in isreal. and first plan will be preventing war against isreal potential threats.. ur future government not seeking to any peace .
u think really any one wants war? 1 month and u keep saying HB attacked isreal .. u even dont want to see WHY!! u keep saying Iran ..syira ..iran syria !
IRAN NEVER WANTED THIS WAR ! simply becuase Iran needed the blance of power in south lebanon what is the usage of balance if u dont use it !
evey one keep saying IRAN IRAN..no body ask why all of the ppl who attacked WTC were SUNI ! not shiea and were from SA.
all the ppl that UK And US arrested regarding last terror threat are paki non are them iranies!non of them shiea
Im not saying iran is innoccent but what iran really want is to be completly safe,like every other country becuase there was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Many attackets againest him in last 30 years.
anyway... i shouldnt get to in such a long argument , every one will see and believe what he want at first and last

Paul Edwards said...

barroon, "1 month and u keep saying HB attacked isreal .. u even dont want to see WHY!!"

We know why HB attacked Israel. Because HB is dogmatic, racist and religiously bigotted, the same as you. Israel on the other hand is rational, humanist and anti-subjugation. World War IV is a war between rational, humanist, non-subjugators and dogmatic, non-humanist subjugators. The good guys will win this war. We have FAR superior firepower and a HUGE alliance.

Baroon said...

Omer

b`cuz Israel is strategic ally of US, b`cuz US treated Iran new born government in 1979 the way arabs treated Israel in 1948 and since then US Think this government shouldn’t exist and since then Iranian government think US want remove it from the map ( which US wants indeed) . Iran new government had his own battle of existent starting 80tees .
iran government wants to exist and it is surrounded by unfriendly countries ( afghanestan , Pakistan , iraq " ex goverment Saddam and baes party" , gulf countries such as Kuwait , sudia Arabia ) which all are suni and hate shia and US used these unfriendly feelings to the maximum against iran starting 80tees

Baroon said...

Omer

i don’t know why HB don’t attack Syria , but i guess HB needed prisoners b`cuz Israel in more than 20 years since 1982 was not willing to negotiate with Lebanon government for settling pending issues between Lebanon and Israel. B`cuz isreal think leme think I am the 4th military force in the world why should I settle any pending issue as long as I can resolve it one sided ! !

Paul Edwards said...

barroon, the US does not want to wipe Iran off the map. It merely wants the Iranian people to have their human rights of having a rational, humanist and non-subjugating government. It is the Islamofascists who want to wipe Israel off the map and drive the Jews into the sea. The Islamofascists will lose this war. The free world is WAY too strong and the free world gets stronger every time we liberate a country, such as Afghanistan, Iraq or Iran next.

Paul Edwards said...

barroon, "why should I settle any pending issue as long as I can resolve it one sided"

It is Lebanon that is one-sided. Israel DID settle the issues - it withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 with the assurance that the Lebanese army would deploy there. Israel stuck to its end of the bargain, Lebanon didn't. Israel doesn't need to put up with shit like this. It should have reinvaded Lebanon back in 2000, instead of sitting back and letting Hizbullah arm itself with rockets. Because you're a racist you don't have the ability to see reality.

Baroon said...

Paul

how come US never attacked SA which is the place of most extremist Islamic idea producer in the world., how come US never speak strongly against the human right violation in SA ? or Egypt ?
SA have one of the most dirty positions and government in whole ME !

Baroon said...

paul

Islamic fascist idea ( as u refer to it ) was there decade before of existents of Iranian Islamic government ! exactly when iran was the only ally and friend of isreal in ME in 70tees

Baroon said...

omer

the only use of force i saw was from isreal. forgive me but i cant call some katyosha that broke some windows every 6 month once a use of force.
it might happen in every other country.
during Afghanistan-US war , Taleban killed 11 Iranian diplomat inside Iran embassy !! but iran didn’t start a war with Afghanistan.
every now and then Kurds in west boarders of Iran attack Iranian boarder keepers and engage in guerrilla fight but iran don’t start war with turkey !
lots of countries in ASIA and AFRICA have problems in boarders but they are not bombing each other systematic and threat of carpet bombing say we are for PEACE

Baroon said...

OMER

"kill all jews" in not Iranian policy. it might have been said by extremist religious figures but it is not a policy , and im sure there are enough extremist jews who say " kill all other religious"

Hatred toward Jews first raised in Europe, not Muslims .

Baroon said...

omer

u say arab world
Iranians are not arab

Baroon said...

Omer

i say if isreal want peace this is not the way of handeling problems . which i know 99.99% of isrealies think they are handeling it well!

Baroon said...

dunes

im talking about before 12th of July . i never heard any isreali killed on katysha attacks in few previous years

Baroon said...

omer

as far as i know still 85% of isrealis think this war was needed. and i said in early comment.. yes i agree olmert will kicked out and an extrem isreal goverment will come to power and i guess then real wars will began !!
my solution is that Isreal put 1000,00000000000% effort and good will in solving pl problems so no boday can calim thier fight!!
if pl start to say well we are living good with our isrealies brother every one will and SHOLD shut up

Baroon said...

omer

if pl wants to come back to thier land... why isreal act so stupid .. just give all of them a passport and help to bulid
100 floor towrs in pl land and give each one of them a house !! will it cost more than all these years of war ?
may be my solution seems stupid as much as it is simple but im sure there must be a way a comprmise way to solve this problem.
let lowers go door by door to these pl refugee and gather thier consent for having 1 home and job in pl land ..will it take more time of all these conflicts?!?! will it take more time of bulding a wall ?
let isreal give economic plans for these refugee...
isrealis are proud of thier military force first and then of thier economic development..well why isrealies dont use it to some thing constroctive rather than destructive???
pl will not even need money from isreal just good will/help and sharing in resources

Baroon said...

omer

when there is no cuase , iran cant fight a battle which doesnt exist !
PL cuase !!

Baroon said...

OMER

well .. i give up..it seems this cycle is not going to finish.
the finla word
If israel think it is big let it act BIG

Paul Edwards said...

barroon, "how come US never attacked SA which is the place of most extremist Islamic idea producer in the world."

Good question! And I would point out that the US hasn't attacked SA *YET*. The reason for this is GEOSTRATEGIC. SA is not an enemy government, and while enemy governments exist, it is better value for money to defeat them first. You can find full details of Anglophone Geostrategy here:
http://antisubjugator.blogspot.com/2005/06/anglophone-geostrategy.html

"how come US never speak strongly against the human right violation in SA ? or Egypt ?"

It does. It does an annual report on every country's human rights records. There's a lot of problems in the world, and the US can't deal with them all at the same time. It is going after them one at a time, in a geostrategic manner.

"SA have one of the most dirty positions and government in whole ME !"

Yes, and diplomatically we are getting them to change their textbooks. We need to see what the result of a more balanced education is. It may solve the problem without the need for war. We are hoping to avoid the need to wipe out 50% of SA's population who are religious bigots. But the option of genocide is still there if anyone wants to do it.

Baroon said...

Omer

reporter said : " in most aggrasive attack on Dahiyah aljunobi today isreal attacked that area with 20 missile in less than 20 secend ..same happend in "eyt al shab" 1 missle per/sec "
both happend after Isreal cabinet accepted 1701 !!
if this is not carpt boming i dont know what is carpt boming in ur definition!

Baroon said...

is olmert that stupid to understand there is no HB fighters are in that area ? is he that stupid to figure out there is no katyusha fire from BIERUT!! to aknwoladge that he fires at civilans? is he that stupid to understand Hassan Nassral is not there ?!?!

Baroon said...

dougjnn

since its accepted by Israel is more civilian casualties in last few hours necessary ?

Baroon said...

hehehehehehe

I left him (A.N.)a comment.

Nightstudies said...

The US needs to make a gift of a couple of our ICBM filled submarines to Israel so that Iran and everone else in the middle east will give up on destroying Israel and get on with life.