Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging thinktanker, aspiring novelist, "tribal elder", 2019 parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, "Speedboat", "The Cockroach", eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Saturday, 28 September 2013
Walking The Walk
On President Rouhani's return to Iran, his opponents have thrown their shoes at him.
Whatever else Iran may be, then, she is not a dictatorship.
You cannot throw your shoes at a dictator and live.
What is it with the Iran love-in in some sectors of the left? Is it just that they are opposed to the Great Satan of the U.S. (which anyone with half a brain instinctively detests)?
The enemy of my enemy isn't necessarily my friend, though, and the reports on Iran from Human Rights Watch, for example, make for colourful reading.
There are far worse. In both of Iran's regions, the Middle East and Central Asia. On our side. Or on what we have decided to treat as our side.
Iran, which has not started a war in a very long time, no longer is "opposed" to the United States, whatever that might mean. That is the story here. People to whom the world only made sense in such terms are just going to have to get used to it.
I hate both the U.S. AND Iran. Their politicians are all liars. (Incidentally, "far worse" is a relative concept - I suppose you have Saudi Arabia in mind, and as it happens I agree with you, for what it's worth.) Maybe, unlike most of us, you have some kind of privileged access to the inmost thoughts of the people who rule these nations (rather than to the official line that they peddle), though, so I'll bow to your obviously superior wisdom.
None of geopolitics makes any sense in terms of little people like me, however we interpret it (or, more likely, whosoever's interpretations we are persuaded to swallow).
Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot know the impact you have had on so many people's lives.
You are too kind.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with the Iran love-in in some sectors of the left? Is it just that they are opposed to the Great Satan of the U.S. (which anyone with half a brain instinctively detests)?
ReplyDeleteThe enemy of my enemy isn't necessarily my friend, though, and the reports on Iran from Human Rights Watch, for example, make for colourful reading.
There are far worse. In both of Iran's regions, the Middle East and Central Asia. On our side. Or on what we have decided to treat as our side.
ReplyDeleteIran, which has not started a war in a very long time, no longer is "opposed" to the United States, whatever that might mean. That is the story here. People to whom the world only made sense in such terms are just going to have to get used to it.
I hate both the U.S. AND Iran. Their politicians are all liars. (Incidentally, "far worse" is a relative concept - I suppose you have Saudi Arabia in mind, and as it happens I agree with you, for what it's worth.) Maybe, unlike most of us, you have some kind of privileged access to the inmost thoughts of the people who rule these nations (rather than to the official line that they peddle), though, so I'll bow to your obviously superior wisdom.
ReplyDeleteNone of geopolitics makes any sense in terms of little people like me, however we interpret it (or, more likely, whosoever's interpretations we are persuaded to swallow).