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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994
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Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 6:32 am Post subject: Military Dictatorship |
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Clinton: Iran is becoming a military dictatorship
Some have been saying this for months now, but it now seems to be the official US attitude. It puts the US firmly and openly on the side of the opposition Green Movement.
"Speaking to Arab students at Carnegie Mellon's Doha campus, Clinton said Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to have gained so much power that it effectively is supplanting the government.
"Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship," she said. "That is our view."
Last week the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was freezing the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of a Revolutionary Guard general and four subsidiaries of a previously penalized construction company he runs because of their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_clinton_mideast
That will be good news to the opposition, which commonly chants "Down with Russia", "Down with China" because of their support for the 'elected' government.
It comes at a good time since the Greens were defeated in last week's demonstrations. They are having to reassess their approach since giving an oppressive gov't a month's notice of just where and when you are planning an anti-gov't demonstration finally met a brick wall.
A new front has opened:
"A leading conservative rival to Ahmadinejad, lawmaker Ali Mottahari, warned that Iran was not yet out of the clear.
"We cannot claim the crisis is totally over until both sides make up for their mistakes," he said in an interview with Khabaronline (in Persian), the news website affiliated with parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani. "The differences of opinion between the government and [the opposition] might have been eased to some extent, but they still exist. Our statesmen should not imagine that people's massive presence in the Thursday rally reflects the approval of their performance.... The presence of political elite in the rally does not mean there is no longer any criticism or objection towards the regime."
Mottahari recently called on opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to stop calling for protests for a bit and let government insiders like him take care of Ahmadinejad and his ilk."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/02/iran-a-day-after-22-bahman-rally-a-conservative-ahmadinejad-rival-opens-fire.html
So while neo-cons spout off about bomb, bomb, bomb Iran (see Sarah Palin's Nashville interview), things continue to develop in Iran, the US gov't works to increase economic pressure while further delegitimizing the administration, a new front opens up in Iran. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 8:15 am Post subject: |
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^ endless hypocrisy.
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The possibility of yet another U.S. war became more real last week, when the Obama administration sharply confronted both China and Iran. The first aggressive act was performed by Obama's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who "warned" China that it must support serious economic sanctions against Iran (an act of war).
Clinton said: "China will be under a lot of pressure to recognize the destabilizing effect that a nuclear-armed Iran would have, from which they receive a significant percentage of their oil supply."
The implication here is that China will be cut off from a major energy source if they do not support U.S. foreign policy -- this, too, would equal an act of war.
A more direct military provocation occurred later when Obama agreed to honor a Bush-era military pact with Taiwan, a small island that lies off the mainland coast of China, and is claimed by China as its own territory. Taiwan has been a U.S. client state ever since the defeated nationalist forces fled there from China in the aftermath of the 1949 revolution. Taiwan has remained a bastion of U.S. intrigue and anti-China agitation for the past six decades. Obama has recently upped the ante by approving a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, including:
"... 60 Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot interceptor missiles, advanced Harpoon missiles that can be used against land or ship targets and two refurbished minesweepers." (The New York Times, January 30, 2010).
[...]Obama's polices against China have been far more aggressive than Bush's, making a farce out of his campaign promises of a more peaceful foreign policy. Obama's same, deceitful approach is used in South America, where he promised "non-intervention" and then proceeded to build military bases in Colombia on Venezuela's border, while giving a green light to the coup in Honduras.
[...]The attitude of the U.S. government towards China has nothing to do with the Dalai Lama, internet censorship, or human rights. These excuses are used as diplomatic jabs in the framework of a larger, geopolitical brawl. Chinese corporations are expanding rapidly in the wake of the decline of the U.S. business class, and Obama is using a variety of measures to counteract this dynamic, with all roads leading to war.
This grand chessboard of corporate and military maneuvering reached a dangerous standoff yesterday, with the U.S. military provoking Iran. The New York Times explains:
"The Obama administration is accelerating the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, placing special ships [war ships] off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four [surrounding] Arab countries, according to administration and military officials." (January 30, 2010)
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http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-Provokes-War-Against-by-shamus-cooke-100201-595.html |
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Reggie
Joined: 21 Sep 2009
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:09 am Post subject: |
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Absolutely amazing, as the world�s number one arms dealer, the world�s leading nuclear armed super power, having more military bases in more nations than any other, militarily occupying more nations than any other, and that our military is the largest single portion of our budget by far Hillary Clinton is going to lecture foreign students on the dangers of military dictatorship in a nation that we militarily occupy its two closest neighboring countries?
We have absolutely got the best propaganda in the world and the most completely brainwashed mass of citizens that someone like Hillary could make such a statement with not only a straight face but half the brain dead, undereducated, wholly ignorant and deceived people in the nation cheering her on.
It defies all reason and boggles the imagination that Americans could be so blind as to the militant nature of our own nation and its agendas while being extolled to look for the tell tale symptoms of it in other nations at a time when our own nation is off the chart in its scope and scale of gunboat diplomacy, deadly violence as a solution, and has a perpetual culture of war and death. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:15 am Post subject: |
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^ well said. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:27 am Post subject: |
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Man, I really hope we don't ever end up attacking Iran... Aside from all the obvious reasons that killing/maiming innocent people and destroying their country would be horrible, it's also a country I've been interested in traveling to for awhile. It just looks like such a fascinating part of the world. So much culture and history. The prospect of seeing it turned into Iraq #2 (ie. a bombed in hell-hole), does not impress me one bit.
Obviously the government's no good, but all the regular Iranians I've met (and I've met a fair number) have been really cool, friendly (as well as free-thinking) people. |
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mithridates

Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:45 am Post subject: |
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Summary of the responses so far: the US is hypocritical, thus Iran will not be a military dictatorship. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:59 am Post subject: |
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mithridates wrote: |
Summary of the responses so far: the US is hypocritical, thus Iran will not be a military dictatorship. |
Even if Iran does become a military dictatorship (which hasn't been established yet), so what? Are you suggesting that US military intervention is the answer? |
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mithridates

Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:12 am Post subject: |
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visitorq wrote: |
Are you suggesting that US military intervention is the answer? |
No. Whatever put that idea into your head? |
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Dude Ranch

Joined: 04 Nov 2008
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:15 am Post subject: |
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It is funny how hard the media is beating the drum for war with Iran. Who has an interest in that country I wonder. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:20 am Post subject: |
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mithridates wrote: |
visitorq wrote: |
Are you suggesting that US military intervention is the answer? |
No. Whatever put that idea into your head? |
I thought perhaps the point you were trying to make was that Iran is a military dictatorship (i.e. a threat) and therefore deserves to be bombed regardless of how hypocritical the US might be. No doubt there are plenty of people who hold this view.
Anyway, no worries, I was just asking.
Last edited by visitorq on Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:22 am; edited 1 time in total |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:22 am Post subject: Re: Military Dictatorship |
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Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
"Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship," she said. |
Stay out of it (besides expressing sympathy and support for the Iranian people while wishing them luck in getting through their plight). |
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mithridates

Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:29 am Post subject: |
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visitorq wrote: |
mithridates wrote: |
visitorq wrote: |
Are you suggesting that US military intervention is the answer? |
No. Whatever put that idea into your head? |
I thought perhaps the point you were trying to make was that that Iran is a military dictatorship (i.e. a threat) and therefore deserves to be bombed regardless of how hypocritical the US might be. No doubt there are plenty of people who hold this view.
Anyway, no worries, I was just asking. |
Okay. I agree most of the time with NIAC:
http://www.niacouncil.org/
For example:
Clinton's statement may be correct:
http://niacblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/clinton-irans-shift-towards-military-dictatorship/
But military action is definitely not the answer:
http://niacblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/deja-vu-all-over-again/
They also said that they agreed with sanctions targeted at the Revolutionary Guards and the companies they own, but not broad sanctions on the overall economy:
http://www.niacouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1643&Itemid=2
I hope to live in Iran for at least a few months and maybe longer eventually, so no I definitely don't want to see anything destabilizing happening to it. I also don't like how the whole world hyperventilates every time Ahmadinejad says something. He loves the attention. |
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bacasper

Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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visitorq wrote: |
Man, I really hope we don't ever end up attacking Iran... Aside from all the obvious reasons that killing/maiming innocent people and destroying their country would be horrible, it's also a country I've been interested in traveling to for awhile. It just looks like such a fascinating part of the world. So much culture and history. The prospect of seeing it turned into Iraq #2 (ie. a bombed in hell-hole), does not impress me one bit. |
Come on, we've bombed the cradle of civilization, the Tigris-Euphrates valley in Iraq. How can we ever outdo that?
And Iran has some awesome skiing!  |
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beck's
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
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Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:32 am Post subject: |
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America has to stop these continuous, long-term foreign military adventures and idealistic notions of "nation building" in parts of the world that are only just emerging from savagery. Americans are destroying their economy by following these paths which make necessary the out-of-control printing of money.
What we need to do is encourage democracy in Iran through the funding of democratic rebel groups in Iran and coming out strongly in favour of the benefits of the politics of democracy and the economics of captialism. This can be done through media blitzes and careful use of the CIA to fund and encourage the Iranian rebels. We do not need to send troops into Iran. We put the Shah (a great leader compared to the nut-job in power now) on the throne without any military involvement. We can do this again.
If military force is needed to prevent Iran from attacking Israel or any of its neighbours with nuclear weapons it should be done with the airforce. Simply bomb the sh-t out of the nuclear facilities and the launch pads. Using our airforce completely destroy Iran's will to make war a la Dresden and the other German cities circa 1944. |
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