FW: [change-links] Iran is "hiding" lots of smart people, too!

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following is the one comment I have received from an Iranian about
my postings on Iran. She attempted to send this to all the lists I
sent to.  I assume she got a lot of rejection notices unless she
belongs to all of them, so I am sending her contribution on.
Fred


-----Original Message-----
From: Farah [mailto:farah@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 6:54 PM
To: change-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; snowd; ufpd; nsan; rad; 107; snews;
solidarity; kominform2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; antinato;
mxmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; laborstandard_discussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [change-links] Iran is "hiding" lots of smart people,
too!


Fred,

Thanks for your analysis. Quite close to the situation in Iran. As you
stated, any and all the positive changes in the country have been
achieve by
the pressure from the people. It has been only possible because of the
people and against the desire of all factions of the government.

One more thing to consider is that historically and during the last 50
years, changes/revolution/movements have been originated from the
universities. That is how one may analyze/understand the direction of
the
movement.

Obviously, general public is so frustrated/disappointed with the
situation
and the corruption/theft dominant in the current regime that you may
hear
people welcoming the promise of a regime change. However, the center
of the
resistance - the universities - is where the answer remains. Students,
now
millions strong, are seeking a third way - change of the regime and no
US
imperialism.

Farah



-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Feldman [mailto:ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 8:02 PM
To: snowd; ufpd; nsan; rad; 107; change; snews; solidarity;
kominform2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; antinato; mxmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
laborstandard_discussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [change-links] Iran is "hiding" lots of smart people, too!

Yes, now it can be told! Iran is hiding vast stores of the most
terrible "weapon of mass destruction" -- literally tens of millions of
very intelligent people. The most sinister thing is that millions of
these weapons have been disguised as perfectly ordinary people--the
better to fool UN inspectors who may be assigned to destroy these
weapons.

US "intelligence" agencies, despite the disadvantage they face in
keeping up with the current pace of Iranian "intellectual capacity"
weapons production, will be able to demonstrate that stocks of this
deadly resource are concealed in every nook and cranny of the country!

Imagine for a moment a typical frank open US businessman who finds
himself on a crowded street in the capital city of Tehran.  He
good-naturedly assumes that what he sees before him is what he has
been prepared for by the US media coverage of the Middle East -- a mob
of half-crazy, half-witted people (the men wearing towels on their
heads, the women wearing these big cloth napkins that are nailed to
their heads to keep them from trying to remove them), worshipping
false gods and talking languages that no decent person has ever heard
of, let alone understands.

That's the appearance.  But the reality is different.  Our easy-going.
trusting US businessman is surrounded on all sides not by the stupid
crackpots the US press has prepared him for but by THINKING WEAPONS,
WEAP0NS THAT WALK LIKE PEOPLE!  Weapons which can potentially, if they
don't already, focus on destroying our homeland -- the generous
big-hearted America the good, America the beautiful, land that we
love.

What a chilling prospect? What can we do but make war against all
those who show threatening traces of the mental alertness that can
destroy  America!


I remember a recent New York Times news article a year or so ago which
complained that Iranian youth today are "overeducated" -- referring to
the vast expansion of university and secondary education since the
victory of "Islamic reaction" over the shah's "modernization."

Of course "Islamic reaction" is the label that the imperialists, and a
big chunk of the left, have placed on what may be the deepest
national-democratic revolution to take place in the Middle East.  The
"Islamic reaction" label takes the fact that the dominant sector of
the capitalist has institutionalized Islam as the state religion and
ideological form of bourgeois ideology, and uses it to obscure the
importance and conquests of this popular revolution, which still marks
the consciousness of millions and millions of dangerously smart
people.

The fact is that Iran probably is the most wildly misunderstood
country this side of Argentina under Peron. It is, for example, one of
the Muslim semi colonial countries where the conditions and rights of
masses of women have made great advances, despite the government
backing given to many backward laws and practices. (I was relieved to
find out recently, while looking into the situation in Nigeria, that
Iran has outlawed stoning as a form of capital punishment.)

Washington is currently framing up hundreds of thousands of Iranians
who are seeking more democratic rights by claiming to support their
efforts to win more democratic rights.  The idea seems to be that when
the current bourgeois leadership -- the Chatom administration or the
religious leadership structures of the Islamic Republic -- takes this
as a pretext for cracking down, Washington can then proclaim that
invasion is the only way to "liberate" the country. I don't doubt that
a section of the protesters might be hoping for help from Washington,
but that illusion does not cancel out the progressive character of
many of their demands, and I think that the vast majority of the
protesters will become increasingly hostile to Washington as the
threats to Iran step up. The very fact that the political situation
and relationship of forces has made such protests possible is one of
the things that will make Iran a harder nut for the war makers to
crack than Iraq was.

Hopefully Washington's vast misunderstanding of the political
situation in Iran today, which it shares with much of the left (much
of which has never repudiated and exposed the wretched,
counterrevolutionary, Mujahideen organization which responded to
repression in Iran by selling themselves to Saddam in his war against
Iran and now is marketing its wares in Washington), will lead to the
collapse of US anti-Iran policy short of war.  If that doesn't happen,
Iran is a strong candidate to provide the debacle for US imperialism
that the war drive is bound to produce sooner or later. Fred Feldman



The item, "Iraq, Cuba, and "intellectual capacity" stated

As Viviane, who sent this on to me noted, "they should never have been
let out of the insane asylum". This is the sickest possible excuse for
wrecking a country!!

David

<< http://64.207.156.228/ May 23, 2003 04:19 PM BUSH OFFICIAL: IRAQI
"INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY" JUSTIFIED WAR The Bush Administration is
backtracking -- hard -- from their pre-war claims that Iraq had
stockpiles of biological and chemical arms.

It doesn't matter whether or not Iraq actually had any of the toxins
in their possession, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security Affairs John Bolton said today. What counts is
that Iraq had the "intellectual capacity" to build these
unconventional weapons.

As Global Security Newswire notes, this directly contradicts
statements made by the president during the build-up to war.

In his March 17 televised address, Bush said, "Intelligence gathered
by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime
continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever
devised."
(emphasis mine) Yes, now it can be told! Iran is hiding vast stores of
the most terrible "weapon of mass destruction" -- literally tens of
millions of very intelligent people.  US "intelligence" will
undoubtedly be able to demonstrate that stocks of this deadly resource
are concealed in every nook and cranny of the country!

I remember a recent New York Times news article a year or so ago which
complained that Iranian youth today are "overeducated" -- referring to
the vast expansion of university and secondary education since the
victory of "Islamic reaction" over the shah's "modernization."
"Islamic reaction" is the label that the imperialists, and a big chunk
of the left, have placed on what may be the deepest
national-democratic revolution to take place in the Middle East.  The
"Islamic reaction" label takes the fact that the dominant sector of
the capitalist has institutionalized Islam as the state religion and
ideological form of bourgeois ideology, and uses it to obscure the
importance and conquests of this popular revolution, which still marks
the consciousness of millions and millions of dangerously bright
people.

The fact is that Iran probably is the most wildly misunderstood
country this side of Argentina under Peron. It is, for example, one of
the Muslim semi colonial countries where the conditions and rights of
masses of women have made great advances, despite the government
backing given to many backward laws and practices. (I was relieved to
find out recently, while looking into the situation in Nigeria, that
Iran has outlawed stoning as a form of capital punishment.)

Washington is currently framing up hundreds of thousands of Iranians
who are seeking more democratic rights by claiming to support their
efforts to win more democratic rights.  The idea seems to be that when
the current bourgeois leadership -- the Chatom administration or the
religious leadership structures of the Islamic Republic -- takes this
as a pretext for cracking down, Washington can then proclaim that
invasion is the only way to "liberate" the country. I don't doubt that
a section of the protesters might be hoping for help from Washington,
but that illusion does not cancel out the progressive character of
many of their demands, and I think that the vast majority of the
protesters will become increasingly hostile to Washington as the
threats to Iran step up. The very fact that the political situation
and relationship of forces has made such protests possible is one of
the things that will make Iran a harder nut for the war makers to
crack than Iraq was.

Hopefully Washington's vast misunderstanding of the political
situation in Iran today will lead to the collapse of US anti-Iran
policy short of war (although given the current triumphal in
Washington, I wouldn't bet the farm on this(.

Washington shares these illusions with much of the left, much of which
has never repudiated and exposed the wretched, counterrevolutionary,
Mujahideen organization which responded to repression in Iran by
selling themselves to Saddam in his war against Iran and now is
hawking its wares in Washington. If that doesn't happen, Iran is a
strong candidate to provide the debacle for US imperialism that the
war drive is bound to produce sooner or later.
Fred Feldman




The item, "Iraq, Cuba, and "intellectual capacity" stated:

As Viviane, who sent this on to me noted, "they should never have been
let out of the insane asylum". This is the sickest possible excuse for
wrecking a country!!

David

<< http://64.207.156.228/ May 23, 2003 04:19 PM BUSH OFFICIAL: IRAQI
"INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY" JUSTIFIED WAR The Bush Administration is
backtracking -- hard -- from their pre-war claims that Iraq had
stockpiles of biological and chemical arms.

It doesn't matter whether or not Iraq actually had any of the toxins
in their possession, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security Affairs John Bolton said today. What counts is
that Iraq had the "intellectual capacity" to build these uncoventional
weapons.

As Global Security Newswire notes, this directly contradicts
statements made by the president during the build-up to war.

In his March 17 televised address, Bush said, "Intelligence gathered
by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime
continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever
devised."
(emphasis mine)

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