SLOW CHANGE IN IRAN?
In last Thursday's News and Views from the Nefarium, I spoke about President Trump's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, or, as we like to refer to it here, the (out)house of Saud. In that video, I reviewed a couple of articles from the Washington Post, one by former Speaker of the House of Misrepresentatives, Newt Gingrich - oh how I struggle to resist the temptation to refer to him as Newt Gangrene - in which he extols the President's bright shiny new foreign policy boldness, and the other article, outlining plans for a Saudi-led "Arab NATO." As I indicated there, one of my suspicions, first articulated on the late George Ann Hugh's The Byte Show some years ago, is that the Islamic world was being set up for a fall. In last Thursday's News and Views I also questioned the wisdom of dealings with one of the most blighted and barbaric regimes on the planet, to the tune of selling them billions of dollars worth of arms plus, apparently, the actual weapons manufacturing base to make them.
Put all this together, and what appears to be happening is the weaponization of the Suni-Shia split within Islam, the (out)house of Saud being the former, and Iran the latter. Add to this the fact that Syria is a secular Islamic state, one in which women actually get to do human things like think, talk, express opinions, and go to universities, and where Christians are allowed to have churches, and that it is allied with Iran, and you have all the making of a first class foreign policy debacle.
In short, unlike Speaker Gingrich/Gangrene, I see little here to celebrate, much less extol. It simply looks like more of the same Bush-Obama stew, served up with a healthy dollop of Clinton bad judgement.
Well, I must have touched a nerve, because so many people saw this article and sent it to me, that I simply have to comment on it:
Mr. Trump, When You Were Dancing In Riyadh...
Now, I don't for a moment think that Iran is a moderate paradise, and the authoress of the article, herself a Persian, doesn't think so either:
Mr. Trump, yes, in Iran women have to follow a modest dress code. Yes, Iran has not had a woman president yet. Yes, Iran has political prisoners, among them journalists, as well as those who have been dismissed from office because their views did not support the perspectives of those who occupy the halls of power.
She might of mentioned the persecution of Christians, homosexuals, and the practice of cruel and unusual punishments and so on that continues in Iran. She might have mentioned its own support and dalliances with terrorism. She might have mentioned that all the great boons that she's talking about in her article are possibly also clever propaganda.
But... she has a point. There are also no kooky social engineering experiments in Iran, no gender neutral pronoun experimentation in Farsi in its schools or universities, no transgendered bathrooms (at least, not as far as I am aware). And I rather suspect that what they're learning in Iranian universities is a healthy measure of science, mathematics, and languages and literature, leaving little time for classes in feminist and neo-Darwinian sociological critiques of quantum mechanics. They're learning culture, and this is the real driving engine of the slow change Ms. Keshavarz is referring to; propaganda or no, it is in any measure, howsoever small, real. But beyond this, compare Iran to the (out)house of Saud, and there's a world of difference, it may not be much more than a hair to our eyes, but in that region, perhaps major. The basic thrust of Ms. Keshavarz's article, if I am understanding it correctly, is that the Iranians have been trying to make the best of a bad situation, seeking slow, incremental, systemic cultural change - note, not political change - and as a result, things are improved overall, notwithstanding the manifest faults of the regime. The tactic, incidentally, is a clever and usually successful one, provided one has the patience to sustain it, for the same tactic was applied in Eastern Europe - with great effect - against the Communist mafiosi that ran it: You can have the tanks, the planes, the police, the press, and all the institutions of government, but let us have the culture. Pretty soon, after carefully chipping away, the Communist bosses were out of work.
I find this one theme in her article to be quite thought-provoking for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is precisely this cultural emphasis, which I suspect might be linked to those reform movements that grew up in Iran toward the turn of the last century and that, due to western meddling - principally from Britain and Germany prior to, and during, the First World War - were rather abruptly terminated, and channeled into the "extremist" channels we see today. Indeed, some of those Persian thinkers and reformists over a century ago were trying to work out how to modernize Islam and also to keep its unique Persian culture... all of that was abruptly terminated by western meddling. Perhaps, just perhaps, the things Ms. Keshavarz writes about in her op-ed piece stem from these movements, and perhaps the same long-term cultural strategy is being pursued.
In any case, if one puts oneself into the sandals of the (out)House of Saud and looks across the Persian Gulf, one cannot be encouraged about the future of the regime (and perhaps this was what President Trump was alluding to in his remarks). In any case, with the bid for American arms, and a manufacturing base for weapons manufacture, it is apparent that the Saudis (and the USSA) have chosen to double down on the same course they have been on for the last few decades, if not the last century. Similarly, if Ms. Keshavarz is correct, then the Iranians need to stay the course and keep chipping slowly away, for imagine, if the trends she outlines continue and expand and deepen, perhaps even to the point that Suni Mulsims and Shia Muslims are living happily together in one society and culture, then the (out)house will be left in the dust in every conceivable way, unless it, too, changes. That's unlikely, for change, in their repressive context, means losing power.
See you on ... Oh, incidentally, do a search for the Elahe Gallery in Tehran as Ms. Keshavarz suggested, and have a look for yourself. Some of the painting is quite stunning.
See you the flip side...
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Iran – good side and bad side – is in a classic double-bind: Once the ‘color revolution’ agitators are assigned & revved-up, you have two choices – roll-over or crack-down. Roll-over, and you get The Ukraine. Crack-down, and you start to resemble a totalitarian state. Both are, to put it mildly, sub-optimum ‘solutions’.
The problem (including for Iran) is that both of these ‘solutions’ are purely Defensive in nature. The originating States, Deep States, and/or alphabet agencies are untouched. All gain and no pain – what’s not to like?
I submit that those situations – like that which the Iranians find themselves in – will not end (or even ameliorate) until a way is found and put-into-play such that those ‘highest powers’ feel the pain. Personally. Voilà; peace. Double-bind broken through empowerment…
If you wanted 2 countries to kill each other off how would you go about it?
First they would need a common border so that they can attack each other easily. Air and sea just won’t do for massive slaughter or genocide. For that you need starvation and disease. Just ask the British (India, Ireland, Iran).
Next you would arm them both to the teeth.
Lastly some provocation to get the ball rolling.
I see a huge military power (USA) crush a country (Iraq) and then leave a huge vacuum that they know will be filled by a neighbor (Iran) that they are supposedly hostile to.
Iraq with its 66% Shia now are taking orders from Iran. The northern part will be Kurdish control and the Wahabi insurgency will be crushed. That leaves a nice long border between Shia and Sunni. Check.
Next we need to arm them both to the teeth. USA with record sales to Saudi Arabia and Russia with large arms deals to Iran. Check.
Lastly a provocation that will start the shooting. The Wahabi Sunni start to kill the Shia in the north of the Arabian peninsula? Iran coming to their rescue? Yemen gets lots of troops and ammo from Iran. What if Saudi Arabia retaliates by sending their Wahabi nutjobs to Afghanistan to start attacks on Iran? Lots and lots of ways for this 1500 year old drama to play out.
Seeing as the Saudi’s can’t even take care of Yemen they will be no match for battle hardened Iran. The Pakistani mercenaries are what SA relies on. Seeing as they can’t even take out Yemen they will be no match for Iran. They will eventually use their nukes on Iran.
The USA has pledged to defend the house of Saud so they would get involved in defending them.
Ah the fun has just begun. Watch for it.
TRM, a good analysis. Thanks. I usually back-away and see if any ‘movements’ fall in line with the Pike-Mazzini letter (and the Protocols):
threeworldwars dot com/albert-pike2.htm
“The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the ‘agentur’ of the ‘Illuminati’ between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam and political Zionism mutually destroy each other.
Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue, will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion… We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil.
Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view.
This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”
(Most readers assume that ‘Islam’ is the Moslem Arabic World, and ‘political Zionism’ is the State of Israel. I could see a different situation as far as ‘political Zionism’ is concerned – i.e., mainly the US and the Five Eyes. Also, Russia is probably the most Christian nation in the world today…)
TRM, I tried to respond to you, but “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
goshawks – May 28, 2017 at 2:56 am.
and the ussa just announced they can’t find something like a billion usd worth of military valuables in iraq. the musta mispaced it near where them weapons of mass distraction are buried. we know exactly where they’re at: somewhere east north south and west of bagdad.
But what should you expect Joseph Iran, China, Russia have a old histories good bad or indifferent a real past. Western Europe is like the states in 1984 changing it’s past and worse lying to themselves dreaming up phantom enemies. The pseudo states they created do the same unable to keep their lies strait truth is alien to them. Chaos seems to be their natural state they exist in lands of confusion always seeking attention like the children they have always been.
My suggestion to Iran would be to start dabbling in unorthodox physics, if you haven’t already, and also kill your present god (the dastardly yahweh) with a new one or an old one. You’ve killed your god before and you can do it again. Bring back the old time religion or start a new one. It’s not that hard to do.
isn’t that what keshe is supposed to be about?
Mr. Trump does not play 4D chess, but 5D chess. The difference is, that a symphony holds omnipresence, whereas a crossover is a wise fool, with is a lucky strike for a home run. Mr. Trump is a gambler playing with odds and the gallery for a fool.
Women are strictly forbidden on my campus, in the Green Man’s University. I go to the forest to be left alone. I find the trees to be learned scholars. And the wind in the willows is the head of the news. The crystal well is very clarifying.
Point is, that there is no cultural change, only a gravitation away from thought systems in the Tower of Babble, towards natural behavior. Nature finds it’s own course, when it is allow to breathe. Because cows like Mozart.
“The Fall of man, I further realized, represented a falling away from contact with this vast communications network and from the AI unit expressing itself as the voice of Valis, which to the ancients would be the same as God. Originally, like (my cat) beside me, we had been integrated into this network and had been expressions of its identity and will operating through us. Something had gone wrong; the lights had gone out on Earth.
“….I saw on the inner screen of my mind an inferior agency creeping into our world, combating the wisdom of God…or Valis, as I still preferred to call him. Over the ages God had played a great game for the relief of this planet, but lifting the siege had still not been accomplished. Earth was still an unlit button on the exchange board of the intergalactic communications network. We had not yet begun to function as our first ancestors had, in communion with our creator and the lord of the universe. Such examples as me were random flukes–I had not achieved it; it had happened to me, due to a combination of circumstances. One of the deformed progeny had lifted the receiver of the long-abandoned telephone, so to speak, and was now hearing the sympathetic, informative voice that he and all his kind should have known by heart.”
–excerpt from “Radio Free Albemuth,” by Philip Kindred D.
So true. Cows do like Mozart.
Most cows, anyway; particularly Jerseys and Holsteins. But Longhorns are partial to Waylon, while the descendants of those bulls Hitler bred in Argentina prefer Wagner.
Perhaps Iran has no gender neutral experimentation because the Persian language is already gender neutral. He, she, his, hers are all translated “u’ spelled aleph vav (or aleph waw) in Arabic letters. You can check this on Google translate.
I guess they already went through their gender neutral nuttiness stage a long time ago. I suspect it was the same incarnation of the Persian empire that was also waylaid by Islam. An onslaught from the fundamentalist left and right. If my sources are correct, I think this hapless group of Persians were interfering in the Greater Israel project as well. Moreover, they probably had the hutzpah to issue their own coinage in defiance of the semitic money changers around them.
The West is plummeting in free-fall at terminal velocity, but you suspect that the Arab world is being set up? Well, everyone’s being set up IMHO.
As for Iran, the CIA and British intel broke it by fomenting the coup of Mossedegh, the earliest and by far the stupidest overthrow in a long succession of abject stupidity seasoned by hypocrisy, criminality and hubris. Iran is a natural ally to the US, ancient, cultured and oil-rich; but no, the US goes slumming with KSA and wrecks the ME for Eretz Ysrael. So typical, shows how cheap it is to buy the US.
Basta, I have often wondered what Iran would be today if Mossedegh had not been overthrown…
Oh, the entire ME would be fundamentally different. Iran would have anchored itself as the dominant regional power through stability and democratic government and Lord knows, we can’t have that!
They probably would have come close to Egypt, benefiting both countries, and if the USA had not opted for the KSA slimeballs and been more welcoming, the whole region would have been much more peaceful and prosperous. The horror!
I wonder the same thing!
if memory serves, the cia had their hand in covertly choosing and backing the ayatolha’s over the decades, even and especially the first ones to let their students take hostages. it was all a psyop in psyop in another psyop.
The Western world is so lost I am ashamed to live in it. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to look up “real news”, it is that depressing.
I know it is cruel but I do hope with the ensuing wars on the horizon, USA and NATO ground troops will be deployed and come back in body bags by the thousands. A bit more humility and reality are desperately needed by the people who are hyped up by this insane propaganda from Western news outlets and believe it hook line and sinker and this before WWIII is unleashed.
I, myself, have wrestled with the question: is it acceptable to wish harm to befall others, if it were somehow in the service of the “greater good”? I soon realized, the better question is, what IS the greater good? It implies a lesser good; does good come in grades of quality?
I see nature and anti-nature and human leverage in the middle. Whatever the human chooses there is a consequence. Like anyone else, I like the consequences positive and if that is not possible, negative results as small as possible.
PtT, I have come to define the ‘sides’ as those (human and non-human) who wish humanity to regain the spirituality & empowerment that it once had, and those who wish humanity to remain bestial & asleep (no offense to the beasts – some are better than some ‘humans’). It is ALL GOD at a high-enough level, but down here in the swamp we have – putting it as Gandalf did – to cope with the era we are born-in:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I”‘ said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
(Also, “We cannot use the Ruling Ring. That we now know too well. It belongs to Sauron and was made by him alone, and is altogether evil.)