Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

[JahRasta]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

I agree that Iran is not the epitome of morality and ethics, but the fact remains the Iran does not impose ITS will on other countries. US uses its power against most nations to get its way, mainly OIL. THE WORLD runs on oil, and the US wants to run a monopoly on it. ANYTHING that gets in their way, they will either impose a trade embargo or sanctions against them. I HARDLY think Iran does the same.

[JahRasta]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

I agree that fundamentalism is NOT the way to solve ANY problem, but desperation makes people do crazy things. US being one of the worlds most educated country, it has a responsibility of solving problems on a MORE ethically and morally responsible manner. If Gandhi could solve a highly uneducated countries problem without being morally or ethically corrupted, I would expect US to find MUCH better ways of solving its problems.

[rubyraks]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

I agree that Iran is not the epitome of morality and ethics, but the fact remains the Iran does not impose ITS will on other countries. US uses its power against most nations to get its way, mainly OIL. THE WORLD runs on oil, and the US wants to run a monopoly on it. ANYTHING that gets in their way, they will either impose a trade embargo or sanctions against them. I HARDLY think Iran does the same.

They may not do it in exactly the same way, but there's no denying that Iran has been trying to impose it's will on the middle east region for quite some time now...arming and funding of groups from outside your own borders like hezbellah and hamas IS trying to impose your will on the region and if you'd like to take an honest look at the regime, there's little denying that Iran's nuclear ambitions is somewhat founded on gaining the kind of power to allow them to impose their will.

[JahRasta]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

Ruby: You are right to a certain extent, but you know..and the US knows ..that the fastest way to earn a lot of money...is by selling arms. US knows this cuz US was selling arms to both Iran and Iraq during the Iran Iraq war. The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend. Going under that premise, why not help them out?

[rubyraks]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

Ruby: You are right to a certain extent, but you know..and the US knows ..that the fastest way to earn a lot of money...is by selling arms. US knows this cuz US was selling arms to both Iran and Iraq during the Iran Iraq war. The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend. Going under that premise, why not help them out?

Yeah, but they only sold the chemical weapons to Saddam

[Miroslav]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

Going under that premise, why not help them out?

Do you mean that question sarcastically in reference to US arms dealing? Or do you mean that literally - as in, why not help out Iran, if they are the "enemy of the enemy (the US)"?

I don't dispute that the US does a lot of selfish things...I just think it's a mistake to conclude that Iran is on a higher moral level just because they don't have the same menu of options that a world power like the US does. I suspect their government is just as selfish and power-hungry as any other...not to yet even mention the moral implications of some of their basic religious and societal norms.

[JahRasta]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

Ya..the enemy of my enemy is my friend...in regards to Iran helping out Hamas and Hezbollah.

I agree that Iran is not anywhere near being a truely selfless state....and I truely believe that absolute power corrupts absolutely. So it can be said of ANY nation.

[Miroslav]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

I'm personally suspicious of the intentions of any group of people who are towards the extremes in their acceptance of any specific dogma that defines their entire frame of reference on right and wrong. That includes not just the religious freaks in the Middle East, but people in the US and anyone else anywhere.

[Yao]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

couldn't agree more...

[Bululu]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

A trip report of an Aussie who went to Iran , might surprie alot of you here on how westeners are treated in Iran , one thing don't jump to conclusions if you don't have real life experiences.
Its mainly an airplane loving person but it has some comments about Iran , i think it will be fun to read for most of you guys.

http://www.airliners.net/articles/read.main?id=88

[JahRasta]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

I agree that extremeism in any form is not a good option, but when ALL other options have been exhausted...and still no conclusion is reached....then what? If people are starving....or celebrating a wedding...but cant do it, in fear of being bombed by other nations who believe everyone in this country is a terrorist, or if there are serious trade sanctions put against you, cuz you are developing military or nuclear power. When all avenues of diplomacy are gone....THEN what? Would you not take the necessary steps to make sure you family is safe from wrongful persecution? People forget...that a LOT of major changes in the world have come through the form of revolution, or extremeism (in one form or another).

[Miroslav]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

I agree that extremeism in any form is not a good option, but when ALL other options have been exhausted...and still no conclusion is reached....then what? If people are starving....or celebrating a wedding...but cant do it, in fear of being bombed by other nations who believe everyone in this country is a terrorist, or if there are serious trade sanctions put against you, cuz you are developing military or nuclear power. When all avenues of diplomacy are gone....THEN what? Would you not take the necessary steps to make sure you family is safe from wrongful persecution? People forget...that a LOT of major changes in the world have come through the form of revolution, or extremeism (in one form or another).

I see no substantial connection between extremism and humanitarian concepts like helping starving people, keeping one's family safe, etc. I do see a lot of connection between extremism and a certain group's desire for power.

But let's assume for the sake of the argument that the extremism over there is in fact due to such national injustices as you describe and that all other options have been exhausted. That's all well and ,then...just have it both ways and recognize that if we can look upon the Middle East's extremist (and correspondingly violent) tendencies as natural responses to external threats, then we can see US actions in the same way

And we still have bigger bombs, at least for now.

[JahRasta]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

Hahaa...yes we DO have bigger bombs...and we are paranoid about other countries who have that capability. Truthfully, the world has more to worry about the US using its nuclear arsenal against them...than we have to worry about anyone using it against the US. US poses the largest threat to the world. Especially with brainless presidents, like Dubya, and war hungry VP's like Cheney. I certainly hope that the recent power shift in the Capitol can bring this mass abuse of executive power to a slow crawl.

[rubyraks]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

Hahaa...yes we DO have bigger bombs...and we are paranoid about other countries who have that capability. Truthfully, the world has more to worry about the US using its nuclear arsenal against them...than we have to worry about anyone using it against the US. US poses the largest threat to the world. Especially with brainless presidents, like Dubya, and war hungry VP's like Cheney. I certainly hope that the recent power shift in the Capitol can bring this mass abuse of executive power to a slow crawl.

Are you actually serious here? The US being the largest threat to the world? I mean I'm far from the biggest supporter of our gov't and their foreign policies, but that's quite extreme there.

Let's follow the logic of a nuclear arsenel for a moment. The US is subject to "Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)" theories, while those same theories would not apply to many of the extremist islamic regimes. The only way MAD actually works is if you have a fear of dying, but when you believe that your time here on earth is only a precursor to the afterlife and you also believe that all infidels (which is a term that becomes more and more loosely defined by the islamic clerics by the day) are deserving of death and killing them will grant you a heavenly afterlife...well you actually do have a bigger threat than the US.

[krelm]

Re: Iran wants YOU to come for a visit

Several co-workers (one of them an American) went to Iran a couple years ago for a conference. They spent most of their time in Zanjan (sort of a university town), but they were also in Tehran for a short time. None of them had a single bad thing to say about the way they were treated by the locals, and all of them (epecially the American guy) would gladly go back just for fun. Everybody they met was incredibly friendy (they were almost celebrities ), the surroundings were quite nice and they never felt in the least bit threatened. The biggest problem I heard of was that one guy who is vegetarian had some troubles finding appropriate food (cry me a river, hippie!). Other than that, I get the impression that if you keep in mind that you are in a muslim country and don't do anything disrespectful or stupid (common sense when travelling to a different culture, no matter where), it's no different than travelling to anywhere else. Just don't go asking around for bars or go trolling for some hot muslim booty.