Iran's Fist Is Clenched for a Reason
Antiwar.com / Muhammad Sahimi
09-Feb-2009 (3 comments)

Presidential candidate Barack Obama promised during his campaign that his administration will take a new approach to the crises in the Middle East and, in particular, to the long-standing confrontation with Iran. He promised that his administration would negotiate with Iran without any preconditions. Most recently, President Obama told the al-Arabiya TV, "If countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us."

Like all of his predecessors, however, Obama is not explaining to the American public why Iran's fist is clenched in the first place. If the reason for this were understood and put in the proper context, it would represent a quantum leap toward resolving most, if not all, of the important issues between Iran and the United States, which would then contribute greatly to stability and peace in the Middle East. It all comes down to Iran's historical sense of insecurity, and U.S. policy toward Iran since 1979.

A glance at history tells us why Iranians have a long-lasting sense of national insecurity. Iran is in one of the most strategic areas of world. This was as true 2,000 years ago as it is today. Because of its location, as well as its natural resources, Iran has been invaded and occupied many times by foreign powers, from Alexander the Great and his army to the Arabs, Moguls, Turks, Russians, and British. Over the last 200 years alone, Russia, Britain, and the U.S. have tried to control... >>>

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Farhad Kashani

Yes, there is a reason, and

by Farhad Kashani on Wed Feb 11, 2009 07:55 PM PST

Yes, there is a reason, and that reason is that IRI thugs are too unwise, illogical, aggressive, cold hearted, chaos-loving and “hasood”. Japan and Germany were bombed and occupied by U.S in 1945, are they treating their citizens like IRI is doing now? And have they become a force of evil and chaos in the world like IRI is now? According to your logic, should Japan and Germany act maniacal too and blame it on events in 1945?

How many bombs did U.S drop on Iran? If it wasn’t for U.S, your beloved USSR commies would have never gave up Azarbeijan. If it wasn’t for U.S military assistance to Iran, Saddam Hussein and Ghadafi and others, would’ve brought mayhem to Iran long time ago.

 

That is the reason. Nothing in the world, and I mean nothing in the world, can justify what these Fascist are doing to our country and how moronic their foreign policy has been for the last 30 years. Their rhetoric, their stance on things, their actions results only from one thing: ignorance. They should be glad though that they have found someone like you to defend their ignorance.

 


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Ostaad

Obama's first step to convince Iran to unclench its fist...

by Ostaad on Tue Feb 10, 2009 01:45 PM PST

should be to rescind ALL of GW's executive orders for covert military operations in Iran. Such a step will deprive the Iranian regime of various excuses to clamp down on people's rights to assemble and form political groups. Such a measure will save the US treasury millions, if not billions, in wasted money doled out to those who have made a career of creating radio and TV stations pretending they are "informing" the deprived Iranian public about "democracy". Removing the money and the orders to destabilize Iran will lead to more sense of security in Iran. Obama can then expect an unclenched fist, which I'm sure the Iranians will extend to the US whether their hardliners want it or not.


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default

Stop the righteousness

by Anoninononi (not verified) on Tue Feb 10, 2009 07:44 AM PST

I understand the leftist rant but the rest of us should understand this is what international politics is. We can go on forever about the wrongs done to us and justify our sulking or actually engage the world. And BTW I'm going to throw up the next time someone brings up our glorious past and engages in the cliched rozekhooni about what Russia and the UK & the US did (I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how Mossadegh was democratically elected). History is important but surely the lesson can't be that we should just not deal with others.


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