Tag Archives: america

Dec 30 2011

Iran and America play chicken in the Persian Gulf

According to a high-ranking Russian naval official, the combat potential of a US naval group that has entered the Strait of  Hormuz is more powerful than the Iranian Navy and coastal forces in the region. “The Iranian Navy’s combat resources are incomparable with the potential of the US aircraft carrier group that has entered the Strait of Hormuz and are incapable of opposing it” Deputy Navy Commander Adm. Ivan Kapitanets told Interfax on Thursday.

The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and escort ships have entered the area of an Iranian naval exercise east of the Strait of Hormuz.

Captain of a US vessel in the Persian Gulf who wanted to remain anonymous has said that in the event of war, US naval forces would “smash” the Iranian coastal installations within hours. “The Iranian Navy is coastal and can only protect the country’s interests in the coastal waters but in open waters they are no match for us”.

The Russian naval commander agrees with the US statement that “there can be no comparison between the fire power of America and Iran given Iran’s limited offensive military hardware.”

While painting a different picture, Seyyed Mahmoud Musavi, the Iranian Navy’s deputy commander for operations, said that the Iranian Navy was ready to confront foreign naval groups in a real war scenario, while the Iranian Navy held maneuvers in the Persian Gulf.

Despite the tense situation and strong rhetoric on both sides, Kapitanets believes that it is in neither countries strategic interest to go to war and will therefore show restraint.

“The US’s actions are certainly provocative, but the matter is unlikely to go as far as direct military confrontation,” he said. “Certainly, the situation in the region is very complicated, but it is unlikely to grow into military action.” The Iranians say the exercises are within the norms of international law and should be respected. “We are ready to confront the violators who disregard the security perimeters set for the drills in line with international law,” said Musavi.

Nov 6 2011

Let’s play cowboys and Iranians

For 30 years a restaurant in Texas has had a picture of  a dead man with a beard hanging from a tree surrounded by what appears to be a lynch mob with guns, on its wall.  The caption at the bottom of this horrifying image reads “Lets play cowboys and Iranians”.

Now if anyone knows American history they will tell you that white Americans have not exactly been the nicest of people to other races since the country’s inception in 1776.   The indigenous population of America were gunned down by the thousands and removed from their lands, Chinese Americans were forced to work on railways and in mines, African Americans going back to the days of slavery picking cotton from the fields, and even Japanese Americans who had nothing to do with World War 2 where quarantined on farms in suspicion of  being spies or sleeper cells.

And so, while there are many examples of crimes against humanity that white Americans have committed over the centuries and have tried hard to make up for, I don’t think this picture falls into that category, and here is why.

In my view this image and its message is less about hate for Iranians as much as it is  a reaction on the part of an American citizen who has been demonized by a foreign country.  Now why is that?

Well, since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and the coming to power of a fanatical group of mullahs and leftists who saw Western liberal democratic values as a threat, America has become a target of wrath.  During the past 32 years the regime in Tehran has called for the destruction of America, has held American diplomats hostage, has bombed American interest around the world through its terror network, and has shown its hate and resentment towards America by symbolically burning the country’s flag and chanting “death to America” at every anti Western rally orchestrated by the state and at every Friday prayer.   And so it is only natural for any patriotic American to feel devastated and angry by the irrational behavior of a country that has set its goal on the destruction of everything America stands for.

Having said that to my fellow Iranians, which includes Iranian Americans, who are raising awareness of this picture on social media I would say,  if we really want to bring this picture down from the walls of this restaurant all that is necessary is  to focus our energy on bring about a regime in Iran that makes us proud and does not damage our good name in America or in any other country around the world.  I don’t think the American is at fault here.
Get political and get moving.

Oct 23 2011

Where Qaddafi went wrong and didn’t learn from Middle East history

You can’t rock the metaphoric “boat”, endanger the lives of billions of people in the Western Hemisphere and expect no retaliation.

What was the man thinking???

For years Qaddafi tried to do everything he could to break Libya free of its ties with the West knowing full well he was shackled hand and foot to the oil companies (TOTAL & BP) that were extracting the countries oil riches (black Gold) and taking the lions share of the wealth for themselves.

Soon after taking power and letting his ego get the better of him,  he started doing everything he possibly could to force the West into noncooperation as a means to force the oil companies out.  The funding and support of the terrorist bombing of PAN AM flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland was an example of this mans state of readiness to take drastic measures of such nature, and yet the oil companies continued working in Libya at greater discomfort and a lower profile than they would have liked.

But where Qaddafi miscalculated was that  while the West condemned his political tactics and loathed his style of diplomacy, they were by no means ready to allow this man or any other world leader for that matter disrupt the very financial system that had kept the Western economies moving forward for centuries, especially after world war two where Europe was devastated and needed to rebuild itself.

In my view Qaddafi was a fool for his unnecessary mischief much like the Shah of Iran was back  in 1973 when he too wanted to renegotiate the terms of Iran’s oil dealings with the West, 35 years too soon, and all we saw the outcome of that political debacle, the Americans lost an ally in the Middle East and Iran was set back a hundred years in terms of its development under the ruling clerical regime.

Having said that …

In all of the struggles the West has had with the Middle East there is a lesson to be learned and that is Western countries need to find a common ground with the MENA region where relationships with newly or soon to be democratic Middle East and North Africa countries is based on mutual trust and mutually profitable cooperation. Something we have yet to see given the Wests outdated colonial mentality.

And so while I am optimistically hopeful in what is happening in the Arab Spring countries, I will say that that so long as a stable relationship that is balanced and fair is not envisioned by both sides, conflict of interest between the West and the MENA region will remain on high alert.

Mar 17 2010

US House of Representatives voted to wish a Happy Norooz to all Iranians

The US House of Representatives on Monday voted overwhelmingly to wish a Happy Norooz for the Persian New Year, saluting contributions by Iranians living in America.

The House wished Iranians and Iranian Americans a “prosperous new year” in a resolution ahead of Norooz, a 3,000-year-old annual holiday that falls on Sunday with the start of spring.

“The United States is a melting pot of ethnicities and religion and Norooz contributes to the richness of American culture and is consistent with our founding principles of peace and prosperity for all,” it said.

It praised the Persian empire’s founder Cyrus the Great, saying his sixth-century BC abolition of slavery and respect for religious freedom constituted “one of the earliest charters on human rights.”

The resolution’s sponsor, Democratic Representative Mike Honda, saluted accomplishments by the million-strong Iranian American community including in his district of California’s Silicon Valley.

“This ancient holiday has survived centuries of religious differences and political rivalries, and is celebrated by a diverse group of people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds,” Honda said.

A total of 384 members of Congress voted for the resolution and two voted against — Representatives Jeff Miller and Bill Posey, both conservative Republicans from Florida.

Another 44 lawmakers did not vote on the resolution, which was approved in the evening.

It marked the second time that the House has wished a Happy Norooz after a first-of-a-kind resolution last year.

Mar 16 2010

America to Israel, we have our own interests in the Middle East too.

In a brief Q & A with a journalist and broadcaster from New York a question was presented to me over the latest announcement by Israel on its disputed settlement projects in east Jerusalem that not only made Vice President Joe Biden look bad upon his arrival to Israel last week, but more importantly, and in a larger regional context, has made America’s status in the Middle East appear weak, uneven handed and ultimately incapacitated to resolve situations diplomatically.

And so the question that was presented was this,

The Israelis believe that the United States is dictating what it, as a sovereign nation, may or may not do, and, it feels that the U.S. military is pressuring the White House to bring Israel into line because of concerns raised by Arab states.  If that’s true it raises all kinds of questions about the militaries influence over US foreign policy?

As an expert in Middle East affairs I’d value your opinion on this question.

My answer was the following.  

It’s not about the US military influencing the White House at all. It’s about the US military realizing that after 9 years of bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the death of thousands of US soldiers and the killing of tens of thousands of innocent civilians it has failed to achieve its mission which is to stabilize two wars.   

The truth of the matter is that the US military wants out but they can’t leave for two reasons.  A) If they leave the Middle East now the Islamists from both Sunni and Shia camps  lead by Saudi Arabia and Iran will create havoc in the region.  And B) any premature departure will compromise American interests in the region which means all the investment made to secure the flow of oil and gas and to open up new markets for American goods and services will be lost.

Therefore, to minimize the complexity of this asymmetrical combat situation for its troops, the US military aims to avoid escalated hostility on  the ground while at the same time giving US diplomats time to resolve other key issues in the region such as the situation with regards to Iran’s nuclear program.   

The Middle East is entering into one of its most tumultuous periods in history and Prime Minister Netanyahu is playing a dangerous game when he fails to see the relationship between Israel’s interest and that of the United States.  I think the message from the White House to the Prime Minister was clear, America also has its own interest in the region beyond Israel.

Mar 15 2010

US wants Israel to cancel building plan in East Jerusalem

AP – Israeli officials said Monday that the U.S. is pressing Israel to scrap a contentious east Jerusalem building project whose approval has touched off the most serious diplomatic feud with Washington in years.

Competing Israeli and Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem were feeding tensions in the holy city, where Arabs and Jews maintain an uneasy coexistence and sometimes clash. Police were out in large numbers in the volatile Old City in expectation of renewed clashes.

Top U.S. officials have lined up in recent days to condemn the Israeli plan to build 1,600 apartments in east Jerusalem, the sector of the holy city that the Palestinians claim for their future capital.

The project caused a storm in Washington because it was announced during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the region last week, badly embarrassing the U.S. and complicating its efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. The Palestinians immediately threatened not to join upcoming U.S.-brokered talks meant to jumpstart negotiations after a 14-month breakdown.

U.S. officials have not disclosed what steps they want Israel to take to defuse the crisis, and Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev refused to comment Monday. But Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official decision has been made public, said Washington wants the construction project canceled.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly apologized for the timing of the project’s approval, during Biden’s visit, he has not indicated he would be prepared to cancel it.

Netanyahu’s curb on east Jerusalem construction would threaten to fracture his hawkish coalition but it also does not stand to benefit from antagonizing its most important ally.

Mar 14 2010

Iranians deserve our solidarity

Back in June of 2009 Carlos Alberto Montaner a Cuban-born writer, journalist, and former professor and one of the most influential and widely-read columnists in the Spanish-language media, was asked, should the world support Iranians demand for democracy and if so in what form?

Mr. Montaner replies in a blog post: Of course Democrats worldwide must support those in Iran who are trying to expand their freedoms. There are three very important reasons to give them that support:

(1) If Iran evolves toward a political system that is more open and secular, the danger of international war is reduced. That can happen without the need for Iran to stop being an Islamic nation, as happens in Turkey, a country that does not threaten its neighbors and is an international factor whose behavior is consistently constructive.

(2) If the non-fanatical sector triumphs in Iran, it will bring an end to Tehran’s support to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, which not only acts against Israel but also has attacked innocent civilian objectives in Madrid and Buenos Aires. The United States estimates Iranian support for Hezbollah to be about $100 million a year.

(3) The Iranians who have taken to the streets to protest expect solidarity from the free world. Failure to give them that solidarity, even if only on a moral plane, would be like telling the retrograde forces of the religious fanatics that they can do anything they wish against a people pleading for freedom because nobody really cares.

It is important for the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, i.e., the world’s great democracies, to emphatically support the Iranians who ask for freedoms, not only through their governments but also through the public pressure from political parties, labor unions and the rest of the organizations in their civil societies. It is not a question of artificially feeding a conflict but of supporting the sector that’s ethically attune to the West. Not to do so would be a shameful moral abdication.

This is so interesting that 9 months later these words are starting to resonate with politicans in democratic countries.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/carlos_alberto_montaner/2009/06/iranians_deserve_our_solidarit.html