AHMADINEJAD

Here is my 2 cents regarding the points:

1) Obviously "marg bar Amrica" and hostages did not help the situation. No it was not one sided.

2) Iran does have a 7000 + year history. But none of it matters to Islamists since they only consider post Islamic history as important. Why else do they show so much disregard for pre-Islamic Persian history?

3) It is true that Iran was defending itself against Iraq. But Iraq would have never been in a position to attack Iran had it not been for the revolution. By purging the military and alienating the west IRI put Iran in a weakened position and made it vulnerable to attack.

4) Whether we like it or not the west is still strong and does not trust the IRI. Given IRI's record starting with broken promises by Khomeini (free water and electricity; democracy ..); the hostage fiasco and so on who can blame them? IRI leadership has lied so many times that no one trusts them. This is not to say that west does not ' lie but it does explain why so many ordinary people in the world mistrust the IRI.

5 - 8) Israel is an scapegoat for IRI. They just keep using it to cover their own failures. Again I am not defending Israel but just pointing out that this obsession wit it is a distraction. Why is the Holocaust an Iranian issue anyway? It was not Iran that perpetrated it so why should Iran be so involved in researching it. Israel was not made on Persian territory and is not our problem. Iran should fix its own problems.

9) Gays are and have been a part of human race since the beginning. IRI is fooling itself if it thinks they would just go away. Why not accept them as regular people?

Little anecdote for Ben

Some time ago I was in Long beach, a very nice area in California, right on the Pacific Ocean. I was walking by a house and a tiny sign posted on the wall outside caught my attention. It said on it:

"If you are lucky to live by the beach, you are lucky enough."

I immediately felt a laughter coming. I actually had a realization. I realized that there are people in this world who are born into the lap of luxury - relatively speaking. They look at their own conditions and the conditions of others in the world and see that they have been "blessed" by many luxuries. They have peace, security, money, car, house, boat. They have family, relatives, uncles and aunts that are themselves well off which adds to their sense of security. But they don't understand why they are so "blessed." They don't see anything within them that makes them so special. It is rather mystifying. And it bothers them. So some of these people eventually decide that it must be "luck." Of course "luck" is that mythical entity that could be replaced, in all literature, with the phrase "unknown cause." No such thing as "luck" has ever been discovered. On matters when we don't understand the cause we use this word to fill the gap that otherwise bothers us. It makes us feel better to pretend that we "know" the cause than to admit we don't.

Probably one of the reasons we come up with "luck" as explanation is because in fact we are trying to deflect responsibility. We don't want to see that we have a responsibility to others who are not so "fortunate" so we claim "there is a difference" between us and them - we have luck and they don't. There! Problem solved.

Such people look at others who not as "fortunate" and say, "Huh, backwards! Barbarians! Savages! Low-life's! Terrorists!, Bums! Lazy people! etc." It is a really great way of saying I have no responsibility. I am above it all and they are just sub-human. The reason I am doing well is because I am the "Superior Race" or the "Chosen People" and they are not - is it that hard to understand?!

But my personal viewpoint is that evolution is a little bit like a family where the newer generation might look back at the older ones and blame them for all his troubles. The fact is that such a newer generation is ignorant of the fact that the older generations did not have all the current resources available to them. You can imagine a teenager who angrily shouts at her parents and wondering why they didn't Google "good parenting" and read some of the articles!

In the same way, the "more advanced" societies, owe their success to some degree to the ones that haven't quite made it yet. If I have a bachelor's degree in something, it is because many many farmers and villagers worked very hard in their difficult environments to make it possible for me to have that education. It isn't all because I was so smart! Sure, maybe I also did my part, but my being smart or hard working is only part of it - not all. In a way, we can say that all those farmers and villagers gave me part of their lives, in the hopes that I would find better life and better way of living and maybe even bring some back to them- or at least help build a better world for their future generations.

So we see here our Ben born and raised in the lap of luxury, completely ignorant of the life that a Palestinian kid goes through, or some Iranians Basiji goes through, assigns all the difference to the "democratic" "nature" of his beloved country, Israel! Can't be more ignorant than that, my friend. Wake up and smell the coffee! You are not so "chosen." And you have a responsibility. Get out of your warm home and give a hand to those who helped put you there. Stop being so ignorant. Ask yourself this question, if you had opened your eyes from day one to the terrifying noise of F-16I's circling around your village and you knew no other world than what your parents told you about the "occupiers" on the other side of "the wall" would you be so smart to figure it all out now? And please spare me the justification that "it's their own fault." A new born such as that does not have the luxury of seeing what you can see. And he never gets that chance as he grows up. So I guess the solution again is, you are lucky and he is not!

Dear commentators...

There are people who genuinely disagree with me and thanks to the Internet and to the freedom of speech (both gifts we enjoy in the West, but not openly and freely in Iran) these folks can say what they want, and that is great. This website has people from all corners of thought, politics, and geography, so it is normal ro have disapproving comments, no matte what one writes. And thanks for the friendly comments too :)

It is tragic that most of

It is tragic that most of the frequent commenters (mostly Islamists/leftists, western phobic, Ommatists, Antiuated communists...)on this site exploit this site as their own propaganda platform.

Good job Ben.

Mr Madadi

Back in Iran my uncle owned a book shop and I often found myself there helping out and spending time with my cousins. To entertain ourselves during the slower times we would pick up a RESALEH by some prominent mullah and fall about laughing at the stupidity of some of the stuff written in it. Things like you can drink from a pond that a dog has pissed in but not one that a dog has drank from, or do not use a toothbrush as it is haram and is there to make money for the manufacturer.

Reading your article (and previous ones) reminded me of a RESALEH because just like the mullahs, your only point of reference is your own observations and what you have clearly spent a long time writing, is not really based on fact but your own beliefs and prejudices.

Whilst it is blatantly obvious that IRI is on a charm offensive and Mahmoud was well prepared for the interview, he presented his side of the arguments articulately and accurately (well more accurately than your piece). As previously said, he is ignorant but not stupid.

Excellent!

Mr. Madadi, 100% correct. Thank you. This Ahmadinejad character is a joker and evil.

Re: Playing dumb?

Mr. BiMadadi

Your problem is that you trust west in general and US in particular too much. For example, have you even once asked yourself that if US is so concerned about human rights in Iran and human rights in general, about freedom, and etc., why did they do what they did to Iran in 1953 and then subsequently after Iran's revolution during the war with Iraq? Don't you look around you and realize  that most of the poorer countries in the world  did not really have to be poor if it wasn't for the mischief of US and its so called "allies" in that they want to plunder their resources, and steal their human dignity? .... and on and on ...Could it be that you are too stupid to understand the reality?

Here we go again

Here we go again

Another one of your articles reflecting your apple-polishing attitude toward the West in general and America in particular even at the expense of trashing your own country, what do think you can get out of this, I don’t know?

Please consider the following points:

1. Iran does have7000 years of traceable history. Please go watch the documentary “Seven Faces of a Civilization.

2. Hostage taking was in fact carried out by a bunch of over zealot students revolutionaries and never sanctioned by the government. In 1998, president Khatami came close to apologizing for that incident while addressing the American people on CNN.  Even though, none of us support hostage-taking, you should consider it in the context of time and the history baed on which it regrettably happened.  The US government has interfered in the internal affairs of Iran for over fifty years and no US official has ever offered anything even close to an apology to our nation

3. Contrary to what you said, the Iran-Iraq war was instigated by the West, however, covertly. Saddam started the war and he had to bear the consequences.  You sound as if you are shamelessly blaming our country for the war that costs us most Iranian families, including my own, so catastrophically.

4. On nuclear war issue, You stated that “The fear (of Iran) is genuine and it is based on precedence” When was the last time Iran used nuclear bomb? It was the US, not Iran, that used nuclear bomb before.“The Iranian regime has not stopped interfering in other countries' affairs to create instability, whether it is in Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon, or more recently in Iraq”. If US had slightest evidence of Iran’s interference in Iraq, or any other country, believe me it was on public display and on US mass media 24/7. There reason you don’t see that is that because there isn’t any evidence of such interference unless you have something in your sleeves mr. Kasseh dagh tar as ash. When it comes to interfering in internal affairs of other countries the Oscar goes to American government. Next time you want to claim something as dramatic as the ones in this article make sure to check the facts and don’t try to trash your country simply because you want to appease the west or the US

Varjavand

Please...

America... Israel... democratic world... bla bla bla...

If Ahmadinejad was so pathetic, then people like you and your "western democratic world" wouldn't be dedicating so much of their pathetic attention to him.

I wish these stupid articles were shorter.

My two cents

Mr Ben;

1)1953 Coup, removal of democraticaly elected government. If it still in power, the whole ME and the world would have been better place to live.

2) I think he is talking about Aryans

3)Agree

4)Countries interfere in the affairs of other countries(I wish no one did)due to common cultural, religous interests. Most of Iraqi and Lebenese shite which comprise majority of the population of their countries have close family and religous ties to Iranians which can not be ignored, citizens this country fight in military of foreign country in broad daylight. so it is not specific to Iran. Ironically, some of IRI's tactics and strategies are copy cat of their advesaries.

By the way, I don't agree that world is democratic. you won't find many people agreeing with you.

5)The bitter truth is that is not the case when you count all 70,000,000 not just people who live abroad(even that is dewindling) and shoomaleh-Tehran.

6)-

7)-

8)- summer 2006.

Why Israel is so afraid of Ahmadinejad?

If Ben is right and Ahmadinejad is only ranting and "should not be taken seriously" then why is Ben's country, Israel, so afraid of Ahmadinejad? Why does Ben and his countrymen think that if governments had talks with Ahmadinejad it would be devastating? What are they really afraid of? If Ahmadinejad is a ranter, then he should lose credibility immediately and Israel has nothing to worry about! Why do they work so hard to block Ahmadinejad and not allow him any possibility of explaining himself? Is Israel taking decision on behalf of everyone and thinks that people are stupid and may be fooled? Is that their concern? Or maybe they are afraid their Mafia would be exposed if they let him talk? Clearly, unlike what Ben claims, Larry King himself was quite impressed with Ahmadinejad and realized that he had been lied to by "the media." It was definitely a terrible setback for Israel, especially after the Columbia University embarrassment Israel suffered. Too bad, Israel, people's eyes are opening. And Ben, for God's sake, stop writing for governments and start writing for people.

well, it is obvious that the

well, it is obvious that the writer of this Article is not every well informed of the History of Iran and the history of the Political animosity between Iran and the U.S.. Ahamadinejad didn't say much worth repeating here, but this article's claims are no more objective or factual than Ahmadinejad's.