Three positive point to Obama's diplomatic strategy re Iran:
1) He did not mention Iran in his State Department speech, neither positively nor negatively;
2) Focused on necessity of Israel PEACE with it's "Arab neighbors", indirectly implying that Iran and Israel are in no "fight"
3) Focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan with emphasizing a NEED to engage their neighboring countries.
This man is clever!
Also, Iranians have been repeatedly saying that "they are open to negotiations", if "old colonizing mentality is put aside".
26 comments:
What we want in Iran is for US to leave us alone.
Put another way, we want the war between US & Iran terminated.
If that happens, everything else could be discussed.
If not, the present situation will continue.
Israel is at war with Islam, thus she is at war with Iran as well.
pen Name
GITMO Gone!!!!!!
One year to close it up and move on.
Naj:
We fought in the name of Islam; our people walked over the mine-fields in the name of Islam, and they died saying 'din'.
چو بشنوی سخن اهل دل مگو که خطاست سخن شناس نيی جان من خطا اينجاست
pen Name
Nonesense!
People USED "religion" for motivation; people, fighters like you, took courage from it; took inspiration from it. This is normal to hang on to religion, to spirituality when the world stops making sense. And in a war NOTHING MAKES SENSE.
No "sane" human will be able to fight; so one does need a bit of religious insanity. And yes it was necessary! It was necessary to fuel yoru heart with religion because else, WHY and how would you have endured it 6 years beyond what it was necessary!!
Those who dragged the war too far were the SICKOS that I am talking about! But many of those who ent to war, went there to make sure their mothers and sisters won't end in Arab's hand! Many of them went to fight for their country! Many of them went because they were called to service. And yes, people go fight for 'din'; we have these kind of crazies everywhere; and for as long as history knows!
I LOATH a man who kills in the name of god! Man must NOT kill unless "accidentally" in self-defense! And only accidentally, because man must make a CHOICE to not kill; to not be violent! You are a violence promoter and I loath you for that.
I LOATH a religion that feeds on blood; call it Islam or Judaism!
//I came across yoru comments elsewhere suggesting that the "psychotic Hamas" is responsible fro he current blood bath.//
Hi Naj,
I finally saw your post. The blog, which I share with Aaron is being monopolized by another individual who has been writing Aaron incessantly.
Anyway, I *never* wrote that Hamas was responsible for the current bloodbath. I *did* write that Hamas *shares* responsibility. Nothing that I have read, including what you recommended, shakes that conclusion. I can't see that blaming Israel for this conflict, to the exclusion of Hamas, serves any more purpose than to exclusively blame Hamas - which I've never done.
That said, I'm increasingly horrified by the Isreali response. Nothing good can come out of this.
My heart goes out to the Palestinian people, but not to Hamas, and not to the Israelis.
By the way Naj,
I like your site. I've bookmarked it.
Naj,
I couldn't tell if my second comment made it through, but I wanted to tell you that I like your site. I've bookmarked it.
Hi upinVermont,
I cannot now remember which comments of yours I commented on previously; but I concur with you that in any conflict there are always two sides.
This recent assault on Palestinians leaves me completely dumbfounded. I cannot judge it as anything but election campaign by Israelis; or perhaps a last attempt to escalate the situation before Bush departs--and perhaps a faint struggle to drag Iran into the game; because Israel's existence seems to be pending on existence of a big enemy, real or imagined!
Whatever it was, it has left them (Israelis) defeated in my personal opinion. They have subjected themselves to serious negative public opinion; and international condemnation; and they have done it at the WRONGEST of all times--when people in the west are Obama-high; and suddenly peace-lovin; and on top of iot suffering economic collapse which is making them wonder "why are we giving our money to Israel to kill and create us enemies?"!
I wonder, did someone trap Israeli's in their own usual trap this time?
naj:
I am replying to your postings addressed here and in the previous entry below.
Clearly you are frustrated with events and actions that you find immoral - as God has led you to see them as such.
Human beings are in the State of Fall (from the Grace of God). Why that is so, I do not know. There is the allegorical story of the Fall of Adam (Hobut-e Adam in Quran) that essentially states that
1: Man was made in the image of God - thus man's nature, like God's, consists of both Good and Evil.
2: That to human Reason, God is mad and so are we who have been made in his image. God is a savage and so are we.
How else can you explain the Love-Hate Relationship that people have with members of their own species.
While Religious beliefs can be used as instruments for Good or for Evil, so can many other things such as Love, Charity, Progressive ideas, etc. The abuse of ideas in the hands of men does not make those ideas intinsically so.
We in Iran fought for Islam & Iran, for Rustam and for Imam Hussein, for Khomenin and for our parents. There was never a distinction among these for us.
Plato wrote 2500 years ago that only the dead have seen the end of war. And he has been demonstrably right, will you not agree.
God has ordained us to live on this planet for his inscrutable reasons.
Yet he has also told us what needs to be done:
Put Your Absolute Faith in Him
Be Not Afraid (even of Death)
And Try to be a Saint (the great tragedy of our lives)
Men like war: it is exciting, it is thrilling, and it exercises their hatred for other members of human species. I do not know why that is.
It is a question best put to God for he is ultimately responsible.
Wa Alsalam o Aleikon
Wa Rahmat o Allah o
Wa Barakat a
pen Name
Pen name,
I believe in resistance; but I believe it must be carried on WITHOUT arms AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!
YES I AM angry with Israel; yes I AM ANGRY with America; yes I AM ANGRY with Iran ... but I REFUSE to think "war is my god given right to satisfy my anger."
The hatred for the members of one's species is the "religious GIFT" of the duality-based religions who believe in god and bad. In the particular case of us Muslims, Jews and Christians, we have not even given humanity a chance: we have created the story of the sons of Adam, who kill each other pretty much right off the bat! And then, we have created a blood thirsty god who orders Abraham to kill his son to PROVE his freaking faith.
I am sorry, but I don't believe an actual "god" has blabbered all this nonesense. WE have created these myths and have stuck to them for thousands of years! But, thousands of years in the age of "universe" is peanut ... we are humans, yes we are images of 'some god', and now it is time to stop thinking ourselves ugly!! and worshiping warrior gods ...
Yes i will resist; yes I have resisted; yes I have not become like YOU even though you have taken my home, and have kicked me out of it; and I will NEVER kill you, no matter how much you have done me wrong; and even though I KNOW you shall hang me for denouncing your blood thirsty god ...
Naj:
The Ancients had a model of the Cosmos in which the initial (Cosmic) Unity gave rise to Duality (Male/Female - Positive/Negative - Light/Dark) and thus to the Creation. This model predates Islam, Christianity, or Judaism. It is clearly expressed in Hindu religious doctrines, however.
The archelogical excavations conducted over the last few decades in the Levant, Southern Europe, Anatolia, and North Africa clealry indicate warfare 9000 years ago. That was before any of our current religions ever existed.
And the NAZIs were not religious, nor were the Romans.
You cannot blame the Fall of Man on our religions.
Do you not see that the only reason you "resist" - as you say - is because of the moral code of Islam?
pen Name
Pen Name:
I resist "what"?!
And what is this "moral code of Islam" that you think I "resist"?!
I don't need to look at evidence of 9000 years ago to know warfare has existed in human society; I can see that in more contemporary 'primitive' societies.
I ALSO see that in certain primate genotypes and am learning that the "violence" phenotype is an outcome of interactions between nature and nurture. To binarize the world into a duality has been dominating much of our human history; but are we doomed to history; or are we going to take advantage of new knowledge like "earth is not flat" and "earth is not the center of universe" and "duality model doesn't hold in natural reality" to become DIFFERENT kind of primates than we have been so far?!
Re Nazi's, their ideology was the WORST kind of religion; they were "uberman" worshipers; that doesn't distinguish them from "allah" lovers, or Jesus lovers who think they hold the key to 'truth' and thus are entitled to KILL; really!
naj:
You wrote: " but are we doomed to history...".
Yes, indeed, we are doomed as long as we try to create Paradise on Earth and deny that we are in the state of Fall.
For we cannot resuce ourselves by our won efforts; we need the Grace of God.
And you wrote: " ... or are we going to take advantage of new knowledge...". This new knowledge is not going to help us over come our Fallen State; it only makes possible newer Evil deeds possible on much larger scales than before. Once again, you, in a similar way as the NAZIs, are putting your faith in the collective power of mankind.
Man was kicked out of paradise. He puts his effort into re-creating Paradise on Earth but he always fails - his constructions are a shadow of Paradise from which Man is an Exile. So man grows despondant and destroys that which he has built and tries one more time.
He has to put his Faith in the Unknown & Unknowable Powers of the Cosmos - a.k.a. God and strive to be a saint (at the individual level).
You wrote: "...allah" lovers, or Jesus lovers who think they hold the key to 'truth'". Yes indeed.
As Jesus, the Blessed Son of Mary, in a famous Hadith of His Holiness, stated: "Ye Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make Ye Free." When Man has understood the Truth of God and his station, then he will be free in God to puruse his own divine nature.
pen Name
naj:
You wrote: "And what is this "moral code of Islam" that you think I "resist"?!"
You have misunderstood me.
I meant to state that your so-called resistance is implicitly predicated on the Prophetic Tradition (from Adam to Muhammad) and the Ethical Codes of Islam.
pen Name
To paraphrase our lovely Ali Shariati, by "being in the state of fall" you mean being kicked out of the "paradise" of being a Monkey and having become this mutant miserable thing which we call "human" with hands and destructive mental abilities?!!?!!
No we won't be in a state of fall if we listen to Plato and return to the utopia of being a monkey again! Albeit a monkey with proper alleles! Not these weirdo ones that make us humans!
By the way, seriously, I think it is YOU who is acting/speaking/THINKING like Nazis by thinking that god is speaking to you in a loud speaker!
In my opinion, man is powerless, man needs to surrender to "nature", and stop this stupid paradise making business! Just live and let live!
Ain't it what you keep preaching to americans, to live and let you live in Iran as you wish?! So why can't you let Israelis just live; and bite their ass ONLY when they bit yours?!
by the way Pen, sorry for being RUDE and aggressive! This is not my usual style, but your zealous fundamentalism just has forced me to take my Persian gloves off and act like a "savage" :)
naj:
"man must surrender to Nature" you say.
I suppose for myself that meant that I should have been enabled to have sex with as many women as I could while between the ages of 15 to 45. Regardless of their willingness, any offspring, the feelings of their husbands, parents, and others.
Or to take a more concrete case: the two young men who were kidnapping, raping, and killing the Afghan boys (generally less than 10 years old) in Southern Tehran. One of the murderer's had stated that he really enjoyed raping and killing those boys.
Which reminded me of a case in the United States not too long ago of a young man (around 27) that enjoyed raping and killing women.
Next time I rape a 14 year old girl she & her family will be comforted that I am only surrendering to my nature - no doubt.
Surely you cannot be serious.
Or else you live in a dream world of your own construction.
pen Name
naj:
In regards to "...being RUDE and aggressive!" think nothing of it.
I am not offended.
I know you are, in your heart, with God.
ما برون راننگريم و قال را ما درون را بنگريم و حال را
Also I have been married for a long time; one gets a lot of practice in dealing with female wrath that way.
pen Name
Naj,
You've been more than patient with pen name, much more than I could do. Good on you for standing up and speaking the truth as you believe it. I must admit I agree with your points. :)
Peace,
Nunya :)
ps, I too am apalled at the Isreali military response to the silly little rockets, it's not proportionate. Didn't know that, did ya? I had a fight with my friend over the maps that I'm sure the Isreali government wish would disappear off the internet. You know, the ones that show the shriniking Palestinian territory?
I believe that Israel is shooting itself in the foot by responding to the rockets by killing ten to one.
Naj, I should have added that I was NEVER a supporter of the war on Iraq. I was much too young to understand the Iraq/Iran war, but reading about it now, I don't think the US had any business supporting Iraq then either.
I still have mixed feelings about the US support of Israel, but I sure don't think we should be funding settlements, nor do I think that that support should be unconditional.
and Naj?
Don't back up and aplogize for acting "savage." It's all some people understand, at times, sadly. (Umm, it's all I understand when I'm angry, a short, "STFU and listen!" usually works with me, or time to calm down and think about it.
Pen,
So I think it is Islam that is saving you and the rest of the world from your being a "natural rapist"!
No wonder you are subject to yoru wife's wrath for as long as you have!
On that note, I should inform you that I have other more important things to do than to play rhetorical games with you.
Nunya:
Correction: Israeli's response is not 10 to 1; it is 100 to 1.
Yeah, you're right, it is 100 to one, sorry about that. I knew that, I don't know why I goofed that up.
Hi Naj
Great huh? I now feel positive about the middle east and everything else though I don't know about Israel and Palestine.
He is a real Diplomat not the decider! He will talk with Iran!
He is already making a difference in the middle east. Iraq says we can leave by May of next year.
Israel and Hamas have found common ground though I never expect peace there. It is amazing what can be done when a President actually works and for the people and of the world not for destruction and dominance!
Post a Comment