Sunday, December 13, 2009

"Iranians still oppose foreign intervention in the Middle East: U.S. / Israeli military aggression prevents any democratic development"


http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=9492&lg=en


Iranians demand no foreign intervention in the Middle East. If there is no change in U.S. / Israeli military aggression, then the region will continue to be ruled by a deadlock. That deadlock is imperial power fighting homegrown resistance.

Iranians and others fight the empire directly, and also indirectly: by resisting the local dictators who are unable or unwilling to get the empire off of the people’s backs.

Seven months after the start of the Green rallies in Iran, Iranian students are still filling the streets of their cities to oppose dictatorship and demand democracy. December 7th is a significant day in the history of Iranian people’s resistance against oppression.

On December 7th 1953, just fifty days after the CIA coup d'etat, which had removed the democratically elected government of Dr. Mossadegh, and installed the dictatorial regime of the Shah, Nixon’s arrival was announced to the public. This gesture was perceived by an overwhelming majority of Iranians as putting salt on the wounds of a coup d'etat that had humiliated them a few weeks earlier. To oppose Nixon’s visit, public demonstrations were organized which were brutally put down by the U.S.-backed government of the Shah. Three students were shot and killed on that day.

Since then, student organizations across Iran honor their fallen friends on December 7th while at the same time continuing their demands for a democratic Iran. Demanding a home-grown democracy is what these non-violent demonstrations are all about. Earlier in November 2009, millions had come out chanting "Neither East-leaning, Nor West-leaning, Regimes: A National Democratic State in Iran".


Tehran on Dec. 7, 2009

The people of Iran believe that the current government has stolen the last election (June 2009) and that a repeat of the election is in order; this time with trustworthy observers, and with independent oversight to assure a healthy, honest election process, which will yield accurate results.

No Iranian wants a "regime change" imposed by the U.S. and Israel ever again.

Iranians know, full well, the devastating effects of war-- they were forced to endure an 8-year war with Saddam's Iraq, imposed by Saddam's ally, the United States. At the time, Saddam’s regime had full U.S. military and political support, while Iran was just emerging from a popular revolution which had overthrown the Shah's U.S. puppet regime. The Shah's regime, with full support of the U.S. and Israel, had brutalized and tortured the Iranian nation for almost 30 years.

To weaken the new revolutionary Iran, the United States encouraged and supported an Iraqi invasion of Iran, and continued to support this so-called "Iran-Iraq war" for years. The U.S. offered Saddam chemical and biological weapons to use against people of the region, Iraqis and Iranians alike. The losers of this war were the Iranian and Iraqi people, who lost over a million lives and are still enduring massive public health problems such as cancers, loss of limbs, and psychological disorders inflicted on them by that U.S.-sponsored war.

The Iranian people are also well aware of the fact that the U.S. (despite Obama's pretending to oppose the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan), and despite his "change you can believe in" rhetoric, is still imposing crippling sanctions on Iran. Furthermore, the U.S. has not made a single move to end the illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The people of Iran are encircled by deadly American military power, which has so far claimed millions of lives in the Middle East and made many more millions refugees.

The people of Iran feel that the way to real stability and peace for their country, and for the whole of the region, is peaceful, nonviolent, democratic change that will allow functioning of the civil society without abrupt upheavals that would disrupt life and potentially invite unwanted foreign powers into their land.

So, in answer to President Obama's "We have heard for 30 years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for":

It must be said that: What the current government in Iran wants, and has been pushing for, is a prolonged verbal cat-fight with the U.S. and Israel, to create an atmosphere of crisis, so that the Iranian public will not protest its illegitimate power grab. This verbal cat-fight is a dangerous game, because the U.S. and Israel keep maneuvering to "obliterate" Iran, a land of 76 million people. After Hillary Clinton threatened to "obliterate" Iran, Obama chose her to be his Secretary of State.

The Iranian people, however, want home-grown democratic rule, a demilitarized Middle East, and an independent Iraq and Afghanistan without U.S. intervention. This will guarantee that the people of the Middle East (Iranian, Iraqi, Afghan, etc.) will have the ability to organize their elected governments and build a future THEY see fit for themselves and their children.

The best way that you, Mr. Obama, can help is by taking your hundreds of thousands of military personnel out of Iraq and Afghanistan, to give people breathing space. You can also help by halting U.S. funding of the violently racist state of Israel. Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons and a history of constantly bombing and invading Middle Eastern nations.

Saying "change you can believe in" is a mockery, when you continue sending soldiers to sustain the occupation of millions of peoples' lands across the Middle East and Afghanistan. A change of perspective, an acknowledgment of past wrongdoings by the U.S., is essential if any change is to come to this violent world order that literally threatens life on earth.