| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Regrets in Tehran |
| 2004-11-17 |
| Via Bill Hobbs: Blackhawk Down author Mark Bowden, whose new book, Road Work: Among Tyrants, Beasts, Heroes, and Rogues is a collection of articles previously published by The Atlantic, has a must-read piece in the December issue of The Atlantic in which he interviews several of the Iranians who, 25 years ago, stormed the American embassy in Tehran and triggered the 15-month hostage crisis... His description of a trip to the old embassy site in Tehran with documentary filmmaker David Keane in hopes of taking video inside the former embassy, only to be rejected, is ... amazing. We had gone about ten steps when Blue Shurt came running back out. "No," he cried. "It has been decided that you can only take still pictures - no moving pictures." That was when we gave up. We had already taken still pictures, on our earlier visit. As we made our way of of the compound, crossing the sidewalk onto Taleghani Avenue to hail a cab, the three young Revolutionary Guards came running after us. We wondered for a minute if the procedures wer going to change yet again. The guards all spoke to Ramin in Farsi, smiling and gesturing toward us, and then he relayed their comments: "They want me to tell you that they are embarrassed, that they think this is silly. They want to apologize on behalf of their country." |
| Posted by:anonymous2u |
| #11 All the Iranians I've worked/work with are fairly secular, but love their country and obey their religious calling without falling into the hate-America/Blackhat syndrome. The difference is education. Persians are well-educated, but the mullahs are destroying that for future generations. Time to knock them off their perch and let the people take care of them |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-11-17 11:11:37 PM |
| #10 MS - Sounds like one of those classic be careful what you wish for stories. I feel sorry for the Persians... to have gone from the Shah to the Mad Mullahs, and still under the thumb of the latter. An educated population, with far more liberal values and aspirations than their Arab neighbors. I hate it when they're lumped together. I believe these people would actually create a decent representative democracy if they had the chance. I favor the decap / topple / uprising scenario, but hey, that's just my opinion. And yes, I've worked with 3 Iranians whose parents got them out before the hard curtain fell - and they all adapted and fit in without a hiccup. So, based on a sample of 3 personal expereinces, I think they're good people and they could do it. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-11-17 11:05:44 PM |
| #9 Back in the late 1960s and early 1970's, when I was a student at the University of Oregon, we had a lot of Iranian students who were very radical. If only the USA would stop supporting the Shah, they said, the Iranians would immediately develop a wonderful democracy. The reason Iran was governed by tyrants, they said, was solely because of the USA's support for the Shah. Oh, how dreamed of the day when the Ayatollah Khomenei would return victoriously to Iran. . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-11-17 10:55:20 PM |
| #8 Does it strike anyone else here that our "friends" in the future are yellow, brown and black? And our white heritage despise us? Japan has been a really good ally, all things considered. I think Afghanistan will, too. And Iraq, Iran and Africa, tho it's going to take an extremely long time. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2004-11-17 9:14:38 PM |
| #7 Sistani's support? Interesting. Is he hostile toward the mullahs? |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-17 6:17:22 PM |
| #6 Drives me crazy too. I want peace with those guys but it looks like madness. I hope we never go into Iran unless it's for a popular uprising and then only covert. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-11-17 6:06:53 PM |
| #5 I think Sistani could, if he so desired, move the timetable up quite a bit. His strength in this depends on how much support he still has in Qom, and how the elections go in Iraq. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2004-11-17 2:32:44 PM |
| #4 some possible prereqs for revolution in Iraq 1. CIA reform. I mean really, these are guys who are gonna do the heavy lifting. How long will it take to transform the directorate of Operations? More than 12 months, I think. 2. Democratic elections and some stability in Iraq. The model of Iraq, (combined with the less important model of Afghanistan) will stir things up, esp. when Iranian pilgrims to the Shia holy cities see demo in action. We have elections in January, but without more stability, and further development of the constitutional processes, this wont be enough. 12 months is possible, but optimistic 3. Stability in Iraq sufficient to relieve the overstretch on US troops. Not that I think change in Iran will be done by invasion, but it will be necessary to "backstop" the covert actions. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-11-17 2:06:45 PM |
| #3 Faster and then some....what's our window - 12 months, maybe? |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2004-11-17 1:29:34 PM |
| #2 Faster, damnit. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-17 12:40:58 PM |
| #1 You can't post stories like this anymore. It breaks my heart to hear about these poor bastards. I don't think I can handle it properly anymore. At some point, I'm simply going to begin yelling at, and beating anyone that doesn't think America should promote Freedom about the face, head, neck, and chest areas. Then I'm going to start them on fire and make s'mores. Anyone up for some Brats? |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-11-17 12:30:57 PM |