tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41523362011-04-21T23:02:10.726-04:00Hooman's Scribbles<br>TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comBlogger1461100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-954870632003-06-09T20:38:00.000-04:002003-10-13T21:12:29.806-04:00End of a chapter
Now that Blogger service is less problematic, I am closing my scribbling chapter at this site and continue my rambles here!!! Writing at Blogger has been a great experience that certainly got further ahead of my expectations, thanks to you and your support.
Yours,
Hooman, the scribblerTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-954094822003-06-07T13:40:00.000-04:002003-06-07T14:10:47.000-04:00Coming out of the 'In The News' Mood
Today I waited for 3 hours till Blogger.com let me in to post the very previous news. Half an hour after I finally did it, Payvand News carried the same news. D'oh!
You, dear readers, also show less enthusiasm to comment here on neutral and dull news.
More importantly I am coming out of that mood which made me put more news, and even more than that I don't TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-954059422003-06-07T11:48:00.000-04:002003-06-07T11:50:24.000-04:00????
Apparently Iran has backed the coalitions' claims of hidden Iraqi WMD, according to this. An Iranian government official with ties to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Tehran had received intelligence indicating that the government of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was indeed hiding weapons of mass destruction (WMD)from UN inspectors. "Yes, we agree with the Americans. Our intelligence TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-953705762003-06-06T10:14:00.000-04:002003-06-06T16:03:05.000-04:00Behind the smiles
We all saw pictures of the smiling world leaders "patching up their differences" at G8 summit this past week. I look at those very skeptically, and think the strategic differences are still there. I am not still in a mood to write something better than a scribble. Plus I am really busy. So I leave it here. But here is an example that is related to Iran as well.
Before that TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-953272612003-06-05T10:11:00.000-04:002003-06-05T22:29:46.000-04:00In The News
After days of receiving conflicting news on Russia's position on Iran's nuclear activities, the Russian foreign ministry has clarified its position -- I guess, or did it?
* Russia, contradicting British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said on Thursday it would supply Iran with fuel for a nuclear reactor whether or not Tehran signed an additional inspection agreement with the U.N. nuclearTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-953259552003-06-05T09:35:00.000-04:002003-06-06T09:40:21.000-04:00Out of the context comments
Well, If you have read my last post, I have to tell you that there WAS an option 'c'. Paul Wolfowitz's words were completely twisted according to this. Regrading what he said in that particular context:
"Look, the primarily difference -- to put it a little too simply -- between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-952985442003-06-04T16:16:00.000-04:002003-06-05T19:08:41.000-04:00Highly unconventional comments
You gotta admire the honesty of this man, Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy defence secretary. He tells things in your face that no one else dares to say. And what are you gonna do about it? Huh? He first said that hyping up Iraq's possession of WMD was just for "bureaucratic" purposes, and now guess what? He confirms the worst fears of those opposed to the war: oil.
TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-952878382003-06-04T11:44:00.000-04:002003-06-05T19:08:53.000-04:00The heat could cool down
As of today, all of the US concerns about Iran seem to be resolvable either by Iran or third parties. The most urgent one on hand is Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Russia is continuing to build the nuclear facility in southern Iran, and at the same time, it has suspended exports of nuclear fuel, that is essential to get the plant up and running, until Tehran meets the TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-952630382003-06-03T21:36:00.000-04:002003-06-03T22:07:02.000-04:00Making a point to governments? or terrorists?
It's kinda funny. If you live in the United States, Britain, or any other country that its army is equipped with Tomahawk Cruise missile, you can start thinking that your defense department or ministry is constantly ripped off by the manufacturer company, and your taxes are paying hefty tag prices of these missiles that you think are very TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-952618562003-06-03T21:00:00.000-04:002003-06-04T20:58:39.000-04:00My take on Pahlavi's interview
This last weekend I watched Reza Pahlavi's, heir to Iran's thorn or throne, -- I leave it up to you to decide-- interview with CBC's Brian Stewart. I don't know how important he is these days as everything, regarding decision making on Iran, seems to have been put on hold by the White House. There were a few notes, though, that I wanted to put down here anyway:
1TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-952063642003-06-02T16:25:00.000-04:002003-06-03T10:59:27.000-04:00In The News- nuclear focus
* An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, said Iran would not sign any new protocols until international sanctions were dropped and it was given the technology to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes. Asefi said Iran was allowed such technology under the non-proliferation treaty it had already signed.
He said American contractors should help TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-951721962003-06-01T21:56:00.000-04:002003-06-02T22:31:09.000-04:00Political complexities of a complex Iran
We keep hearing about the Iranian government being made up of the conservatives and the reformists. But is it really as simple as that? I am not going through the nuts and bolts of this complex political system. However, I will try to shed some lights on the big picture.
The reality is that each group is also made up of a political spectrum. The TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-951718832003-06-01T21:47:00.000-04:002003-06-02T14:36:39.000-04:00China's yesterday, Iran's today? - sporadic scribbles
Despite cultural, geographical, geopolitical, and economical differences, Iran and China share staggering similarities. I even sometimes think the Iranian government, partly intentionally and partly unintentionally, copies their Chinese counterpart.
The similarities are sometimes on the detail level.
Both countries? business is monopolizedTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-951530262003-06-01T10:25:00.000-04:002003-06-01T18:43:19.000-04:00In The News - Change, Iran
The US National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, in an interview with Financial Times, said the United States would like to see a different kind of regime in Iran, one that would move away from "an aggressive agenda based on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction". She stopped short of a desire for regime change in Tehran, though, the paper said on Saturday.
TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-951208142003-05-31T10:48:00.000-04:002003-06-02T22:33:27.000-04:00In The News - Iran's invitation to ...
* Iran's foreign minister invited Western countries to join Russia in building new nuclear plants in Iran and pledged to sign extra nuclear nonproliferation treaties if Tehran gets access to the latest atomic technologies. He spoke Friday at a news conference in the Iranian capital after Russia's atomic energy minister urged the United States to join MoscowTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-951078092003-05-30T23:46:00.000-04:002003-05-31T00:19:34.000-04:00In The News - no military action and more
* Colin Powell said US was not contemplating "military or other sorts of actions" for regime change in Iran, Syria, North Korea or Libya, as it did in Iraq, but its policy was to "speak" to Iranians to bring about a "transformation" in the country.
"We hope Iranian people will make it clear to their leaders that the manner in which they are being led byTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-950837452003-05-30T11:24:00.000-04:002003-05-30T16:20:33.000-04:00This time around 50 years ago
Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1953: the U.S. secretary of state held a press conference in which he said, "The growing activities of the illegal [al-Qaeda ... I am sorry] Communist Party in Iran and the toleration of them by the Iranian government has caused our government much concern."
Later in August 1953, a pro-Shah demonstration arose spontaneously in a TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-950796302003-05-30T09:41:00.000-04:002003-05-31T00:19:57.000-04:00In The News - Meeting on Iran and more
* The White House has postponed indefinitely a high level policy meeting on Iran scheduled this week, State Department officials told CNN Thursday, source CNN. The officials cited several wide-ranging reasons, including President Bush's focus on the Middle East peace process and the need to further investigate questions about whether Iran is harboring al TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-950485272003-05-29T16:13:00.000-04:002003-05-30T16:24:51.000-04:00Back to 'In The News'
During the Iraq war I kept a weblog, In The News, that served as my bulletin board for my friends. That would save me from sending multiple emails to different people. I would post parts of the stories that wouldn't catch the eyes of a casual news follower. Of course I discontinued that weblog after the war and recylced it to be my list-keeper -- on the left.
As Iran is TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-950331882003-05-29T09:31:00.000-04:002003-05-29T23:29:16.000-04:00WMD emphasis was "bureaucratic"?
I need to kill more of my brain cells with some toxicating beverage over this, but it's too early for this ;) We had heard some US officials had admitted there would be no WMD in Iraq. But this one is both reliable and plus has topped them all.
Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy defence secretary, in an interview with the American magazine Vanity Fair said the decision TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-949985282003-05-28T14:03:00.000-04:002003-05-28T14:06:55.000-04:00What do you think about it?
Sydney Morning Herald is a paper that I trusted once and put down a story from on the Iraq's construction contracts that would be given out to only American companies way before the war was waged.
Now here is the second news item. According to this piece of news, Iran has captured a high ranking al-Qaeda leader, al-Adel, an alleged mastermind of the Riyadh bombings.TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-949982642003-05-28T13:56:00.000-04:002003-05-28T14:55:18.000-04:00Re-dicovery of a new disease - daily observations
No, it is not SARS, mad cow disease or west Nile. It is an old disease re-discovered by me recently after my occasional, but not casual Internet surfs: self-righteousness.
If you have contracted this mental disease, you will show one of the following symptoms depending on its development and your physical strength.
1- Feeling that what you haveTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-949562452003-05-27T16:47:00.000-04:002003-05-27T19:46:32.000-04:00The writing is vividly on the wall, part IV - Iran Watch, latest news
On Tuesday a meeting between top US officials on Iran was reportedly suspended until Thursday, US officials told Reuters news agency. But that did NOT stop the US officials to heat up the pressure on Iran. source BBC:
- The United States has rejected Iranian denials that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons or harbouring TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-949196792003-05-26T22:00:00.000-04:002003-05-26T23:49:27.000-04:00Neoconservatives
We hear a lot about them these days. But who are they? To answer that, I did a little homework. In the end, I found some parts of this article that a friend had sent me some while ago --and I have used here-- more to the point About the rest of the article ... it's a column spiced with lots of personal opinions anyway. I cannot judge it without further studying the subject. NoteTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-949182932003-05-26T21:22:00.000-04:002003-05-26T21:26:13.000-04:00The writing is vividly on the wall, part III - doubts and an American perspective
Let's be realistic. As once a friend of mine said, and I agree with him, the Pentagon might have some military plans to attack any coutry just in case the US has to square off with that state. I wouldn't be surprised if they had some plans to attack Canada just in case ... the southbound migrant Canadian geese TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-949022762003-05-26T12:53:00.000-04:002003-05-26T14:38:58.000-04:00Shy Ledeen
Do I really need to introduce Michael Ledeen here? I have a question though. In 'The writing is vividly on the wall, part I', I suggested the news of regime-change in Iran was openly discussed by the maninstream media.
But in those stories and analyses, there is no mention of Michael Ledeen whatsoever. It is interesting.
P.S. Poor engineers and designers! Their efforts are never TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-948728782003-05-25T18:30:00.000-04:002003-05-25T21:09:18.000-04:00The writing is vividly on the wall, part II - an Iranian perspective
Reza Pahlavi. Remember this name. Son of the late Shah of Iran, he could very well be Iran's Ahmad Chalabi. Before the rise of Iran's reformist movement, and in the absence of any alternative to the ruling clergies in Iran, Reza Pahlavi had always been raised as an option half jokingly/ half seriously in casual chats within theTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-948634522003-05-25T12:24:00.000-04:002003-05-25T13:09:29.000-04:00The writing is vividly on the wall, part I - regime-change in Iran
These days the signs are not just coming from alternative media like Alternet.org or CommonDreams. org. The US State Department, once hesitant to aim at that direction, appears to have inclined to accept such a policy, Washington Post reports -- courtesy of Payvand News. Even cautious BBC implies that too.
Accroding to BBC's TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-948420272003-05-24T19:45:00.000-04:002004-04-03T19:37:20.750-05:00Hummer kills off hybrid?
This is soooo mind numbing. There are many people out there talking about how tax cuts proposed by George W Bush can benefit the rich. I am not going to harp on that. After all it is not my business either. But this one ... anyway, if you live in America, you can write off $25,000 from your taxes in the first year after the purchase of a 6,000-pound civilian armoured TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-948417422003-05-24T19:32:00.000-04:002003-05-26T23:48:50.000-04:00A few points on socialized services - Inspired by my web host shopping and free service of Bloger.com
Note: There is no such a thing as free service. Our taxes go to pay for their costs.
*In an ideal world where there is no fraud and mismanagement, publicly funded and publicly operated services are deemed to have the lowest cost as opposed to their for-profit counterparts. Mind you the TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-948416802003-05-24T19:29:00.000-04:002003-05-24T19:29:30.436-04:00What's newer
The days of web host shopping are over. Within the next few days I will decide what I am going to do, based on the responses I get from blog host providers: Should I stay or Should I go? On the other hand Blogger.com seems to be more stable since yesterday. So I start writing again.TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-947360042003-05-22T09:37:00.000-04:002003-05-22T09:37:44.980-04:00What's new
There are many things new actually, but I have decided to slow things down till I sort out my bandwidth problem. Right now Blogger won't let me upgrade because of their changes. I have also asked a few other web servers to provide me some trial account to get a feeling of their blogging application. I'll see what I can do. TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-946639542003-05-20T22:24:00.000-04:002003-05-20T23:09:20.000-04:00Reality is relative
Inspired by 'The dullest blog in the world':
As I was surfing the Internet I realized that I had been in the virtual world for quite a while. Then I felt an urge to spend some time in the real world. To surface my submarine and satisfy this urge, I drove to the biggest shopping mall nearby.TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-946467512003-05-20T15:17:00.000-04:002003-05-20T22:30:20.000-04:00It sucks to be me
I have been reading a few columnists' weblogs recently who have been interested in Iranian bloggers. There are some interesting things that they have in common.
a. They are all on the (far) right hand side of the political spectrum.
b. They are quick to pick up anything that an Iranian blogger writes, no matter how irrational it is, as long as it is against the Iranian TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-946380342003-05-20T11:51:00.000-04:002003-05-20T12:02:06.000-04:00Bear with me
I am sorry for the inconvenience caused by presumably Blogger's upgrade. That could explain the frustrating connection problems to my weblog and dramatic drop in my traffic. But that's the only problem you encounter while connecting to my site. Or maybe not. All other free of charge services, e.g. open-comment and site meter, have their own hiccups as well.
I have to deal with TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-945213362003-05-17T23:19:00.000-04:002003-05-17T23:45:45.000-04:00I don't get it
Let me get something straight. Who pays for the cost of the Iraqi war? US government, obviously. They are those who ran the military operation, flew the bombers and shot the missiles. But who pays the US government? American tax payers, of course. They are those who work off the cost.
Do the American tax payers get somehow redeemed? Like some other countries contributing even TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-944841292003-05-16T23:58:00.000-04:002003-05-17T14:51:00.000-04:00Conspiracy theories
It is a human nature to resort to conspiracy theory where we fail to see contexts and explanations. Basically you can find them in every imaginable field from politics to workplace. The common aspect among these theories is that they simply add up. Human brain works in an amazing way to infer links between separate incidents. In another words human brain falls for an TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-944515872003-05-16T10:48:00.000-04:002003-05-17T00:32:58.000-04:00Mass graves in Iraq and the question of liberation
Thousands of bodies have been discovered in a series mass graves in Iraq. They are believed to be the remains of the people who have been killed in a Shi'a uprising in 1991.
You would think that this story should be the big news that could be taken the most of to justify an already finished war, specially in the absence of any evidence on TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-944079932003-05-15T16:04:00.000-04:002003-05-15T22:27:17.000-04:00Mummies return, and more ...
I am not in the mood of writing. But here are a few things that I have in mind and I leave most of the job of conveying message to the links I have provided here:
- Mummies Return:
You may know how I think when emigrants of a country make political comments on their old country: Frozen in time. That includes me as well by the way. But hey, we are all free to make TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-943023792003-05-13T22:16:00.000-04:002003-05-14T21:33:33.000-04:00Roots of the Islamic terrorism, cold war
We all may have heard arguments like, " ... these kind of crises exist wherever Muslims are, whether in the Philippines, Indonesia, Kashmir, Chechnya, or Nigeria". Then commentators conclude there is something wrong with Islam or its followers, or muslims are branded as problematic.
You may have also heard of the word 'Wahabism'. It started as an IslamicTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-942997102003-05-13T21:23:00.000-04:002003-05-14T15:03:16.000-04:00Traffic laws ... democracy
This post is a round-up of some comments on the line of the disucssion I am having here.
Valerio, who is from Italy, gave my previous post, life in Iran , an Italian spin in his weblog. In doing so, he has switched my jay-walking metaphor with wearing seatbelts that has apparently the same implications in Italy. This spin gave me some foods for thought.
Certainly TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-942414532003-05-12T22:50:00.000-04:002003-05-14T16:12:30.000-04:00Stop at the red light - Before changing the government
I came across this article, by Farhad Radmehrian, that had appeared on Iranian.com. Courtesy of observations of Tehran life -- a cool weblog. It was so thought-provocative that made me write the prequisite to a discussion -- previous entry.
In a nutshell, the author raises instances of traffic law breaches and expands on them. Then he drawsTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-942401252003-05-12T22:19:00.000-04:002003-05-13T11:23:33.000-04:00Life in Iran
One of the examples I usually bring up to walk people through a very challenging concept to human-beings, i.e. life in Iran, is jay-walking ;)
Jay-walking is illegal and subject to certain amount of fine according to law; however, at the same time it is also tolerated. Hang on a second. Although the cops seem normally to be cool about it, jay-walking is still left to your TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-942347882003-05-12T20:25:00.000-04:002003-05-13T16:05:39.000-04:00My issues with polls
There are always three critiques that I have on the result of a poll:
- Many pollsters have access to a circle of people with certain commonalities linking them to the pollster, e.g. viewers/ readers of the same TV program or newspaper that runs the poll.
- The same people react differently to the same question when the question is re-worded. To get the point across, I TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-941588712003-05-11T14:44:00.000-04:002003-05-13T11:14:50.000-04:00Putting something into perspective - Iran's Internet restriction
It has been a while since I felt I would be double standard if didn't write about Iran's latest restrictions while I keep writing on certain policies of the current US administration. But wait a second, there is less damage to the smaller animals and plants when a fox walks in a forest as opposed to when an elephant moves. You may TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-941584342003-05-11T14:32:00.000-04:002003-05-11T16:35:06.000-04:00A note back from self
So my self writes me back, an answer to my request put in the previous post:
I can't help it. It is more of a sensitivty than anything else these days that your country of birth has come closer to the spot light. Or at least you think it has come to that place.
I was trying to take the time to write 'My Pub Talks', a round-up of the chats you and I have had in pubs --not TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-940719282003-05-09T16:34:00.000-04:002003-05-10T08:40:43.000-04:00Note to self: enough of politics
This site is getting boring. Get back to social, life, and other easy-going matters. Otherwise I am outta here. Keep your posts short and enjoy your weekend as well.TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-940609492003-05-09T12:51:00.000-04:002003-05-10T09:45:22.000-04:00Atomic Iran
I was curious to know if this bomb us, please is what Iranians think. So I did a bit of a research through the small circle of people I know in Iran and asked their input based on their respective circle of people around them. Even I was surprised to learn that if there was one thing that defines an average Iranian in this diverse and polarized nation, this would be the one: They TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-940556162003-05-09T11:15:00.000-04:002003-05-10T01:06:45.000-04:00Bomb us, please
Since I changed the subjects in my weblog from gun control and sunflower seeds -- I still think those posts were the best, to political ones, I have received two emails from two Iranians, asking questions like this --I am paraphrasing:
"Hooman, it is easy to live in a peaceful country like Canada and recommend other Iranians or Iraqis to bear with their plight. Someone must help TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-940501232003-05-09T09:32:00.000-04:002003-05-09T11:09:11.000-04:00Brain behind Washington's foreign policy
This post is a summary of William O. Beeman's column at Alternet.org. He teaches anthropology and directs Middle East Studies at Brown University.
Most Americans have never heard of Michael Ledeen, but if the United States ends up in an extended shooting war throughout the Middle East, it will be largely due to his inspiration.
A fellow at the TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-940313252003-05-08T23:52:00.000-04:002003-05-09T09:55:46.000-04:00Liberated from the media
I hate to use black and white expressions like liberal and conservative, or left and right. But I have used them from time to time to save extra explanations. Here I do it again.
I used to read newspapers and watch TV news a lot more than these days. But in the course of time, I axed one newspaper after another and one TV newscast after
another. The number of slashes TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-940111292003-05-08T16:43:00.000-04:002003-05-08T17:55:15.000-04:00Ice thaws in spring, or does it?
I don't care if the Iranian reformists MPs call for restoration of ties between Iran and the US since they cannot even enforce what they agree on to begin with. However, once Iran's foreign minister urges better ties with Washington, I think to myself, "hmmm ... that could mean something". "What's the difference? We hear the Iranian government is equally TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-939685382003-05-07T23:38:00.000-04:002003-05-08T10:05:24.000-04:00Self-esteem - long overdue post
The emergence of some people in certain Middle Eastern countries who long for foreign invasion to their country certainly defies common sense. This defiance is especially more visible when you don’t have any direct exposure to the mindset of people in the countries mentioned above. I cannot speak of other less fortunate countries in other parts of the world with TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-938726182003-05-06T13:09:00.000-04:002003-05-07T15:08:08.000-04:00Next stop, Tehran Updated
Michael Ledeen, author of The War Against the Terror Masters, is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and moderator of a conference on the future of Iran taking place today in Washington D.C.
To have a big picture of Washington's who's who and where the American Enterprise Institute fits, go to my previous post.
He believes Tehran should be next onTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-938652092003-05-06T10:55:00.000-04:002003-05-06T10:56:02.000-04:00Crisis factor
If one crisis, e.g. 9/11, can push a democratic country to a direction whereby privacy and human rights are compromised, what would happen to a crisis-ridden country? I have lived in a country whose prime minister and president were assassinated at the same time and at the same place. And yet that was just the smallest drop in the crisis bucket of the country.
On a totally TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-938115552003-05-05T13:45:00.000-04:002003-05-05T23:38:35.000-04:00Chance for democracy in Iran?
This post is an answer to a few questions I have been asked on Iran after Khatami and whether he is really a chance for democracy in Iran. The jubilant mood that succeeded Khatami's rise to presidency in Iran has certainly subsided to a large degree. And there are many reasons to it:
- Khatami's weakness in delivering his promises to people. He is weak by the TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-937502892003-05-04T12:36:00.000-04:002003-05-04T20:02:52.000-04:00Weapons of mass destruction
I don't understand why some people are in such a rush to jump into certain conclusions. Like the conclusion that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And yet wrose, they wave this conclusion in the face of the US administrations as a reason that the administration was lying all along. Hey people what's the rush? Calm down. You have to give the weapon TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-937038942003-05-03T09:56:00.000-04:002003-05-03T12:48:42.000-04:00Polarized society and democracy - Iranian example
If you are North American and think you live in a diverse society, let me walk you through this:
Forget about ethnic diversity. It is not too unfair to say that the developing countries with a history of being colonized suffer from a deeply divided and polarized society. Polarized between what? Between tradition, modernity (read Westernization),TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-937022902003-05-03T09:00:00.000-04:002003-05-03T09:04:15.000-04:00Internal battles in the most influential city of the world
On 17th Street, Washington DC, every Tuesday the leading neo-conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, holds its "black coffee morning". Before Bush took his oath, AEI had issued an astonishing paper urging the US to ally with Israel and "strike fatally" at Damascus, Baghdad, Tripoli, Teheran and Gaza, to "establish theTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-936620492003-05-02T13:32:00.000-04:002003-05-03T09:02:19.000-04:00Re: Requisites of democracy - rundown of previous discussions
Before anything, I must welcome all of you, new readers, including my now more regular reader from the US State Department. But let me tell you, if you watch me ...[trembling voice] ... I watch you too in my site hit counter...actually I have read your website, the US State Department thing, too and that was ... [gulping fearfully]...TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-935678932003-04-30T21:59:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:10:56.000-04:00Momentary shock of my day
When I started this weblog, I spread the word among my friends obviously. After I put up my site meter, one of my funs was to figure out who had visited my site from the name of servers or gateways where the traffic was routed from and recorded in my meter account. I remember one time I detected that a friend of mine had just visited my site from the name of his TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-935097262003-04-29T23:55:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:11:39.000-04:00What W. Bush and I have in common
There are two things in common between Mr. B and me. One is our admire toward the former Iraqi information minister, dubbed as "comical Ali", even though his name is not Ali. If you want to know why this man deserved our deepest esteem, please read 'Mother of all liars' to have more insight.
US President George W Bush has admitted that he enjoyed the Iraqi TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-934694212003-04-29T11:16:00.000-04:002003-05-04T11:40:26.000-04:00Documenting another theory for another war
After Documenting a war theory and by the popular demand, I decided to raise another theory on another war ;) There are two differences here though. A) I dont have anything in this theory except for typing a few keys in the Internet; B) This war hasnt happened yet.
Note: I think, even more complicated than everything else in life, a war is TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-934331942003-04-28T20:46:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:12:07.000-04:00Requisites of democracy
I prefer to bring Marks eloquent way of describing it that he once used in an email for me.
All successful democracies require three essentials:
1) A large and literate middle class, combined with an economy capable of supporting that middle class.
2) A tradition of conflict institutionalization.
3) An entrepeneurial spirit which sustains both the political and TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-933428832003-04-27T10:41:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:17:33.000-04:00Roots of dictatorship
Imagine you live in a country with a diverse economy. Imagine you keep 70% of your income in your pocket and end up paying 30% to the government as tax. Your government hinges on you and your fellow countrymen and women to stay afloat then. Despite this dependency, there is a chance, sometimes good chance, that the government completely forgets this and behaves snobbishly TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-933106852003-04-26T16:34:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:12:29.000-04:00Documenting a war theory
I realized today that I hadn't documented a theory I've had all along during the past two three months even though I talked about it a lot with my friends and co-workers. I even remotely referred to it in one of my posts:
France and Germany simply see their control over European Union's future slipping away. Not only that, more of their control will be left in US handsTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-932414582003-04-25T10:49:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:13:59.000-04:00Toronto and SARS
If you live in a third world country, the international organizations look to you as a bunch of corrupt clubs dominated by rich countries. If you live in a democratic country, the same organizations look to you as corrupt clubs dominated by undemocratic countries.
I felt a little bit the same way (which way? I don't know) when I heard that WHO had issued a travel advisory to TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-931555272003-04-23T23:45:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:14:33.000-04:00Re: Double standards
Prequisite reading: Double standards
Dave writes me about my comments on the Shi'ites:
"What ya gonna do? Reminds me of the Philipinos last weekend nailing themselves to wooden crosses on Good Friday."
That gave me some food for thought today. Actually what the Shi'ites did in Iraq the other day - scaring themselves, is officially banned in Iran, and guess who banned itTMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-931507292003-04-23T22:19:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:16:06.000-04:00What I like about North America
I have been asked several times what I like about North America the most. Here is my answer:
1- lack of history: This is where eyebrows are usually raised, then, I continue. Short history of Canada has left its crack along the French and English line. A little longer American history has left its scars after a Civil War along the South and North line and don't TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-930807672003-04-22T20:59:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:16:44.000-04:00Double standards
If you have been following my weblog during the war, you must have realized where I am coming from - I was critical of US government's approach regarding Iraq. Having said that I am not for double standards at all.
If I was an Iraqi Shi'ite, I would probably have mixed feelings toward US invasion of Iraq. I would be happy, on one hand, to see Saddam go and to be free to chop TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-930526722003-04-22T12:00:00.000-04:002003-05-02T12:15:06.000-04:00Iran, an unassuming place for webloggers
It has been almost a year since a friend of mine who lives in Iran suggested me to start a weblog.
"Weblog? What the hell is weblog?" was my response.
"You don't know what weblog is? You work in high-tech industry, and live in the world's leader in Internet", he said.
I was taken aback then because of my lack of knowledge on weblog. Later on I put the TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-929668542003-04-21T01:16:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:53:59.000-04:00Steps taken forward, sleepwalking back again
The arrest of a young Iranian journalist and webloger in Iran made me ponder over the long and painful path of democracy in that country today. You would think the story of democracy is something quite new there, wouldn’t you? And you would think that Iranians made their first revolution in 1979, wouldn’t you? False and false.
The first Iranian TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-929419932003-04-20T15:21:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:55:09.000-04:00Meet my new friends
When I started this weblog, all I had in mind was this. I never had the idea of finding some friends on the Internet or finding a hobby of reading other people's weblogs. Well, I found some good friends and now I am addicted to reading their blogs too. Check the left hand side of my weblog to meet some of my new friends who all write everything but scribbles -- Non-scribbles.TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-928175282003-04-17T23:47:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:55:30.000-04:00Choking on the sweet air of the "freedom"
When I was up to organize my Less Scribbles, after a friend's suggestion, I realized how non-politicized I was back when I started writing weblog as opposed to nowadays. So were many of my friends then. The war changed what was on our minds ... for a while. There is a difference between them and me at the moment though. After Iraqis were happily "TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-927840922003-04-17T12:00:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:56:04.000-04:00No more wars any time soon
If you have followed my weblog, you know that I believed all along that there would be no other wars after Iraq, at least any time soon. I brought a range of reasons too. However, this new reason is different by nature.
It sounds like stating the obvious now after US officials announced there are no war plans on Syria or Iran. But that does not play down the TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-927566642003-04-16T23:42:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:56:44.000-04:00Deep down conservative
Deep down there is some layer of our psyche that refuses being wishy-washy. It makes us opt for strong, but wrong decisions instead of the ones that are weak, but right when we feel uncertain. Try to apply this rule, if you will, in other aspects of your life. You wife, most likely, prefers you to act more decisively when things are not assured, even though your actions' TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-927474322003-04-16T20:39:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:57:05.000-04:00My goddamn right
As someone who occasionally writes, I understand that nothing compares to the warming feeling of an occasional pat on the shoulder by a reader in the electronic form, aka email. Even deep down a critical email conveys some one's care for what you have written.
As some one who again occasionally writes, one thing that has become part of my ethics, if you can call it that way, TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-926915282003-04-15T23:11:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:57:55.000-04:00Mother of all liars
Well he is not exactly a mother, so you can call him 'the father of all liars' or perhaps 'the father of all comedians'. They called him "Optimistic minister" and "Comical Ali", rhyming with "Chemical Ali", another Iraqi official. But his name is not Ali, rather Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi information minister. No word can describe this individual.
You don't need TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-926215622003-04-14T22:01:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:58:27.000-04:00Quebec: A brilliant lesson for the rest of the world
Tonight is a night-to-remember for Quebec. A federalist party beats the separatist government of Parti Québécois after being in power for nine years. That is depite the fact that the Parti Qébécois had pulled sovereignty off its election campaign to attract more voters. It is safe to say that people in Quebec are sick and tired of hearing TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-926143712003-04-14T19:49:00.000-04:002003-05-02T13:58:59.000-04:00What's not next - revisited
The US government has started to pick a bone with Syria of all places. Will it go to war with that country? Having still an Old World Order mentality, I believe US will not start a new war with Syria for the same reasons I mentioned in What's not next? about Iran. However, there are some modifications that I would like to do to that post as well. US administration TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-925577562003-04-13T22:49:00.000-04:002003-05-02T14:09:59.000-04:00Settlements
As you know, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has hinted that he is ready to take steps "that are painful for every Jew and for [him] personally". And that would be the removal of some Jewish settlements. He didn't give more explanation on details. It is necessary to add that settlements are illegal under the international law.
Meanwhile Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-923863632003-04-10T17:55:00.000-04:002003-05-02T15:54:22.000-04:00Cautiously happy
These two words express my feelings on Saddam's removal. After all, because of my backgournd, I have my own reasons to be happy as well. One more tyrant down. You must be very cynic not to be touched by Iraqis' cheers when the guy's statue was brought down. That's despite the fact that there were very few people shown on TV expressing their joy for a city of 5 million people!
ITMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-923243302003-04-09T20:10:00.000-04:002003-05-02T15:55:08.000-04:00Looking back at other "liberations"
Let's move away from the Middle East, a region with its PR nightmare, for a while to the warm coasts of the Carribean.
1991: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, elected president of Haiti, is ousted in a coup led by Brigadier-General Raoul Cedras in 1991. UN imposes sanctions after the Haitian military regime rejected an accord easing Aristide's return.
1994: Haitian TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-922247602003-04-08T11:08:00.000-04:002003-05-02T15:57:16.000-04:00Were war protesters wrong?
Unlike many war protesters, humane side of the war has never been no. 1 reason of my objection to it. Human casualties have been only one of the tons of reasons that I have to be against this war.
If you have read my 'Not ready yet', you know that I mentioned some Russian military analysts suggested Americans have only two options: starve the Iraqi city residents to TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-922207972003-04-08T09:57:00.000-04:002003-05-02T16:00:22.000-04:00Good times, eh?
them: You used to change your writings' topic and style "faster than a frog on hot asphalt" according to the review on your weblog. What happened? You are stuck with war on Iraq, or abstract political issues surrounding mostly the war. Why don't you write about the things that tick the country [we live].
me: You mean like SARS?
them: OK, something the ticks the city or your TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-921106642003-04-06T18:52:00.000-04:002003-05-02T16:00:46.000-04:00Painkiller versus remedy: the difference between some Iranians and me
Iran is depicted as an emerging democracy, especially by European countries. How much does it live up to reality? Quite frankly I don't know. However, I am pretty sure of one thing: Iranians have started to look under their hood. They are looking for an answer to why their democracy project cannot fly. In doing so, they leave TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-921020552003-04-06T15:32:00.000-04:002003-05-02T16:01:22.000-04:00Nazi Germany, Ba'ath Iraq
OK. I am finally sick and tired of making arguments against the analogy of Germany and Iraq. There are people who compare these two situations, as you know, and based on an example, draw a conclusion on the action to be made -better say justify an already made action. So to save time and energy, I decided to dedicate a post on this subject and refer people to it. Here TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-920385112003-04-05T08:24:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:02:00.000-04:00Frozen in time
There is always something uncomforting in the mind of the first generation immigrants to a country. Detached from the old country and yet not connected to the host country, they all live on isolated islands. Even their fellow countrymen and women, also immigrated to the same community, cannot fully save them from isolation. That is simply because an islander cannot save another TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-919856072003-04-04T10:17:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:02:39.000-04:00No peace
It has been quite a while that I want to take down my 2-cents on post-war Iraq. Something that kept holding me back was the fact I am not an Iraqi pundit. As a matter of fact I am no pundit at anything. But today I came across an interesting viewpoint that struck a cord with me. Haifa Zangana, an Iraqi novelist living in London, tells BBC News Online that the West does not understand TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-918871192003-04-02T22:25:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:03:34.000-04:00Has war helped?
Bosnia and Kosovo are still in shambles. Afghanistan? A senior Taleban military commander has suggested that the Taleban hopes to regain power in Afghanistan, with popular support, and the US military is still pounding the extremists. We just don't hear about them. Perhaps journalists are busy "embedding" with the US conformist factory, aka US military.TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-918818342003-04-02T20:51:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:10:47.000-04:00Eastern skepticism, western optimism
"... they've become cynics- as cynical a people as I have known in the decade I've spent writing about south Asia and the Middle East. " Christopher de Bellaigue writes about Iranians in his 'Happy new year from Tehran' in Guardian. He is not alone in describing Iranians in such a way though. Some even go further than that and brand the people of the whole TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-917952962003-04-01T16:30:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:11:16.000-04:00According to plan
Pentagon officials publicly insist that their campaign against the Iraqi regime goes according to plan. However, they fail to mention it goes according to plan B which is getting prepared for more casualties.TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-917295362003-03-31T15:46:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:11:53.000-04:00Not ready yet
The US-led invasion of Iraq has hit some snags. I read somewhere that some Russian military analysts strongly believe Americans have two options: destroy the cities, or starve Iraqis to surrender, both would give a new meaning to "Operation Iraqi Liberation", OIL for short, eh? Whether Americans adopt one of these two options or come up with a third option, as opportunities allow, TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-917288962003-03-31T15:34:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:12:15.000-04:00A sick day thought
Freedom and democracy are not to be taught, they are to be learned. Every nation should evolve its social and cultural fabric to accommodate these two notions accordingly. The process is surely lengthy and painful, but is proven to be the most promising one by the free and democratic world whose leaders tend to occasionally forget this learning part of their history. In this TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-914261882003-03-26T13:45:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:04:33.000-04:00What's not next?
George W Bush will be likely a single term president. History has proven to have a harsh treatment for victorious prime ministers, like Winston Churchill, or presidents, like Roosevelt and Bush Sr. None got re-elected once the wars were over. They were defeated by rivals who came to prominence almost right before the elections. Now add this too: you run a war that there are TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-914132872003-03-26T09:47:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:05:04.000-04:00From porn to war, and to porn again
We live in an incredible era in terms of transfer of information -- that's the only thing I can think of about the incredibility of this era right now. We live in a time when horrific images of bomb explosions are carried to our homes live whereby we see things we weren't able to see before. Even though I am not a big fan of concentrated media, I think they TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-913681162003-03-25T16:21:00.000-05:002003-05-04T15:34:19.000-04:00People's role
I have shattered many people's presumption with my stance on war during small talks. It is quite conceivable that many think I'd be all for this war simply because of my Iranian heritage. They are all surprised once they learn many Iranians do not have hard feelings against ordinary Iraqis, and even more, they hate to see them suffer. This feeling is so powerful that totally TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-913116602003-03-24T19:27:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:09:53.000-04:00End game
It seems Iraqi forces have dug deeply into the urban areas at major cities on the American ways to Baghdad. They have dug even more deeply into the suburban districts of Baghdad, waiting for the final game. They know Americans are pressed for time and vulnerable on the human causality given its psychological impact back home. Their strategy could be very well based on buying time by TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-913012032003-03-24T16:12:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:06:37.000-04:00Anti-wars' dilemma
If you were an anti-war, what would you pray for?
- a brief war whereby civilian casualties and Iraqi destruction would be minimal?
- a prolonged war whereby the incumbent US administration would learn one lesson or two? The civilian casualties would be much higher in this situation. Totally conflicting with your peaceful view on war!!!TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152336.post-912255132003-03-23T10:16:00.000-05:002003-05-02T16:07:15.000-04:00Weblog under Shock'n'Awe
March 22, 2003: I came across this blog in the main page of Blogger today. It is the journals of an Iraqi living in Baghdad. I haven't had a chance to read the weblog yet, and I don't know if he is faking writing from Baghdad, or if he isn't, where he stands on the current war.
March 23, 2003: I skimmed through main page today, and liked these excerpts:
"No one inside TMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10206293207301237514noreply@blogger.com