Iranian University invites Bush to speak

which students would he be addressing?

these:





or these?

InfinityGoddess said:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/01/AR2007100101462.html?nav=rss_world

This just gets more interesting by the day. Though I doubt the Shrub will take em up on this offer.

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I'd be curious if any president has ever gone into a nation as openly hostile as Iran is.

InfinityGoddess said:

Iranian University invites Bush to speak

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perhaps it would be better to let their own professors and students speak, and then reach out to foreign visitors.

Lol!!

Sorry, that lol was intended for Shadow Ferret. That will teach me not to quote.

Shadow, I laugh because if Bush ever showed up at an Iranian university to which he was invited, his host would be extremely respectful and so would the audience. In fact, I suspect that's the whole reason for the invitation, not to debate, but to show us how it's done. . . .

InfinityGoddess said:

Can you offer valid proof that Iran is really that much of a hostile nation to us?

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depends on how you measure the hostility of a nation. the population, in general, is remarkably pro-western. the mullahs and state apparatus that crushes opposition and personal freedoms is remarkably hostile.

Venezuela defends Iran, blasts 'hypocritical' US policy on terror

AFP - 1 hour 50 minutes ago UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - - Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday used the General Assembly podium here to defend Iran and to blast Washington's "hypocritical" policy on terrorism.


He slammed the escalating international media campaign "aimed at demonizing the Iranian people and government" and called for an end "to the madness of the war in Iraq."

Pointing to the "threatening statements against the peace of the people of Iran," he said it was time "to stop this campaign of demonization..., to build alliances to stop the war-mongering madness of the elites who rule the United States. . . . " http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071003/twl-un-diplomacy-venezuela-us-iran-7e07afd.html

In bold, I agree with him. Enough is enough.

InfinityGoddess said:

Actually, even the mullahs aren't even that interested in war with us. They took Ahmadinijad to the woodshed for being too mouthy and he's calmed a bit since then.

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how did we go from "hostile" to "war"?

of course they don't want war.

InfinityGoddess said:

Actually, even the mullahs aren't even that interested in war with us. They took Ahmadinijad to the woodshed for being too mouthy and he's calmed a bit since then.

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Yes, as I recall, the Supreme Leader chastized him openly - via the newspaper - for provoking confrontation with the US over nuclear power.

you're right.

the "great satan" is a term of endearment.

One indication of some distance between Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei was broadcast by the daily newspaper Jomhouri-Eslami, which is known to reflect the views of the Islamic Republic Supreme Leadership.

The paper has rejected Ahmadinejad's sarcastic comment that the United Nations' resolution against Iran was merely "a scrap of paper," noting that to the contrary "the sanctions will certainly hurt Iran, and that it's not right to dismiss them lightly."

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ouch!

Public opinion also has significant influence on the character of Iran’s decision-making. The results of recent elections furnish evidence of this influence: they have produced presidents as divergent in character and political platform as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mohammad Khatami. International pressure and world opinion, particularly public opinion in the Islamic world, affect Iran’s foreign policies as well. Iranian support to groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas stems in part from the support that those groups enjoy in the Muslim world. In turn, Iran’s leaders perceive that support for these groups contributes to the nation’s regional standing; recent popular opinion polls conducted in the Arab world indicated that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, and Ahmadinejad are currently the two most popular leaders in that region.

That said, the power of republican institutions and popular opinion in the Iranian political order is severely checked by non-elected actors and organizations. The Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, retains considerable power. . . .

Ahmadinejad’s popularity among both the Iranian people and the political elites has declined somewhat over the past two years, and his authority is beginning to wane accordingly. The advent of new criticism of Ahmadinejad’s domestic and foreign policies serves as evidence that he has stumbled. Under Ahmadinejad’s watch, the Iranian economy has continued to deteriorate, and his anti-Semitic rhetoric has brought unwelcome and embarrassing negative attention to Iran. He remains an important and influential political actor, but no single individual in the Iranian system can determine Iranian policy unilaterally. . . . http://www.usip.org/pubs/usipeace_briefings/2007/0412_ahmadinejad_iran.html


Just posting information. I don't think he's anywhere near as popular as he once was - even with his defiant stand toward the US - and given the complexity of the Iranian government, his power could be curtailed.

William Haskins said:

depends on how you measure the hostility of a nation. the population, in general, is remarkably pro-western. the mullahs and state apparatus that crushes opposition and personal freedoms is remarkably hostile.

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This is both exactly correct, and an astute, succinct expression of the current problem we have in dealing with Iran.

Especially if you add a few little details. Like the CIA-sponsored overthrow of an elected democratic leader we didn't like, back around 1954, and our subsequent role in installing Shah Reza Pahlavi, an urbane and comically vain monster as dictator, a position he held for a quarter-century, and a figure who is directly responsible for inspiring the Iranian Revolution and its messiah-figure, the Ayatollah Khomeini. Oh, yeah, and the support we gave to . . . uh . . . this guy, Saddam Hussein, military dictator of neighboring Iraq, when he invaded Iran in the 1980s, in a war that cost millions of lives on both sides, and ended in a stalemate, out of pure physical exhaustion on both sides. Floating about somewhere on the Internets is famous picture of smiley Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam, during this era. Oh, yeah, and the additional problem that our own leader, the current POTUS, is a cretin (I'm soooo glad he's looked into Vladimir Putin's soul and seen a good man, aren't you?).

caw

blacbird said:

. . . and the additional problem that our own leader, the current POTUS, is a cretin (I'm soooo glad he's looked into Vladimir Putin's soul and seen a good man, aren't you?).

caw

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Vlad just wants to be prime minister. What's wrong with that?

blacbird said:

Floating about somewhere on the Internets is famous picture of smiley Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam, during this era.

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Damn it!!!

Saddam/Rummy Pic = 176 appearances
Middle East Map = 175

I'll fix that soon enough!

.

I ain't about to argue with you there, William, though you should have posted the photo, rather than just the link. For the lazy or uninformed, it's a picture of Jimmy Carter shaking hands with Shah Pahlavi of Iran. Iran was Carter's most immense FU, and will be his enduring Presidential legacy. Pretty much analogous to Iraq with GWB.

And in both cases, the CIA was horribly horribly at fault for a lot of sins. If ever there was a major national agency that we need to be afraid of, it is the Central "Intelligence" Agency. Still.

caw

InfinityGoddess said:

Can you offer valid proof that Iran is really that much of a hostile nation to us?

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What type of proof would that be? And who makes it valid? You?

Os.