Unless you been living in another dimension, you are quite aware that the rogue nation of Iran would like to wipe off the face of the Earth both our country and our ally, Israel.
Sure. You’re aware. However, one of the Candidates for the Republican Presidential Nomination seems to think that if we just left them alone, the Iranians would forget about how badly they despise us, and we could sit on a hilltop and have a Coke and a smile together.
Perhaps this individual needs a history lesson. Sherman, start up the Wayback Machine:
In 1953, the CIA staged “Operation Ajax,” which unseated a duly elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and reinstated Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as Iran’s traditional and ancestral shah (monarch). The agreement stipulated that, in exchange for military and economic aid to Iran, there would a continuous supply of oil to the U.S.
Pahlavi, however, made some bad decisions. In the early 1960s, he promised his people increased personal freedoms and other social reforms. That didn’t happen.
The shah’s wealth grew, and he succumbed to the temptations of a luxurious western lifestyle, which angered the Iranian people, especially the religious right wing. The clergy began to preach long and loud against the shah and his queen, which stirred the masses to revolt. The shah was forced to abdicate the throne again and leave the country in January 1979.
The new ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini (pronounced Ko-MAY-nee), railed against the American government, denouncing it as the “Great Satan” and “Enemy of Islam.”
When the shah was diagnosed with lymphoma, he requested to be treated by U.S. doctors. His request was granted. That was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back,” and so enraged Iranians that a rabble stormed the American Embassy in Teheran.
On November 4, 1979, an angry mob of some 300 to 500 “students” who called themselves “Imam’s Disciples,” laid siege to the American Embassy in Teheran, Iran, to capture and hold hostage 66 U.S. citizens and diplomats. Although women and African-Americans were released a short time later, 51 hostages remained imprisoned for 444 days with another individual released because of illness midway through the ordeal.
After months of failed negotiations and a failed rescue attempt by the Carter Administration, the hostages were released the very day that Ronald Reagan became the President of the United States.
You’re probably saying, “Certainly the present leadership in Iran has gotten better than it was back then?”
Nope.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country. An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran’s council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became President on 3 August 2005.
Ahmadinejad is a controversial figure both within Iran and internationally. He has been criticized domestically for his economic lapses and disregard for human rights. He launched a gas rationing plan in 2007 to reduce the country’s fuel consumption, and cut the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. He supports Iran’s nuclear energy program. His election to a second term in 2009 was widely disputed and caused widespread protests domestically and drew significant international criticism. In 2011 the presence of a so-called “deviant current” among his aides and supporters led to the arrest of several of them.
Last night, at the Republican Debate in Sioux City, Iowa, Ron Paul caused a lot of jaws to drop in incredulity:
Paul said there was “no U.N. evidence” that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program, calling claims to the contrary “war propaganda.”
“To me the greatest danger is that we will have a president that will overreact, and we will soon bomb Iran,” he said. “We ought to really sit back and think, not jump the gun and believe that we are going to be attacked. That’s how we got into that useless war in Iraq and lost so much.”
Paul said it “makes more sense” to directly engage with Iran diplomatically. And he even praised President Obama for “wisely backing off on sanctions” against Iran, which he called overreaching.
“We have 12,000 diplomats in our services. We ought to use a little bit of diplomacy once in a while.”
Rick Santorum and then Michele Bachmann rebutted Paul. Santorum equated the leadership of Iran to Al Qaeda and said that the U.S. should be ready to strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“We know without a shadow of a doubt that Iran will take a nuclear weapon, they will use it to wipe our ally, Israel, off the face fo the map,” Bachmann said. “And they’ve stated they will use it against the United States of America. We would be fools and knaves to ignore their purpose and their plan.”
Or Ron Paul and his devout followers.
I wonder how much tin foil hats cost the days?
I know what the price of naivety in Foreign Affairs is: Nuclear Annihilation.
Kingsjester's Blog 
Ron Paul frightens me.
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you’re not alone….
*shudder*
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His followers frighten me more…………
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good one KJ
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Ron Paul will be the reason obaka gets re-elected. Dare I say “wackadoodle”?
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Rand Paul’s mother must be a saint or Rand is rebelling against his father….
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The U.S. people who do not understand what Ron
Paul is really saying are also people who would not want their kids sent out to another unnecessary war, yet they refuse to look at the pas and the facts. Even if it had one, Iran will never launch a nuke at the U.S., as it knows that if it does, it will be annihilated by several countries even before the U.S. smells it coming. They are not quite as suicidal as you would wish them to be. One has to wonder who this attitude serves? OH, but hold on……………Of course……….33% of the U.S. GDP depends on how many wars it gets itself into. So, go ahead, continue to tell the world how it should think and live, and then accept the consequences. History has shown us what happens to empires. They always fall for lack of money. Be careful what you wish for.
In the end, the inability to comprehend what RP is saying has already bankrupted America and made it paranoid. Seems to me that OBL was correct in that he would bring the U.S. to its knees financially. Intervention always has long-term consequences, and the U.S. is now learning how destructive those consequences can be.
One has to wonder whether continuing on the same course will ever bring about a different result………..define insanity for me once again?
Perhaps it is time for the U.S. electorate to take a second look at why they are really where they are today. Each war allows your “leaders” to take more and more of your liberties away, in the name of protecting you? The waging of wars with the rest of the world will bring you better democracy and liberty, yes? Well, how free are you today? How is that working out for those boys and girls who got killed in a place where they even knew they should not be, because they were there for the wrong reasons? Is that working out nicely for you? Feel any safer today while the new legislation states that your gov’t can put you in jail forever by simply thinking you may or may not be an “enemy of the state?”
Indeed, the electorate deserves what it gets. The population is simply too dumbed -down to be able to understand the fundamental reasons why things happen around them. They are not able to spend the time informing themselves and prefer to listen to the MSM. Keep doing that, America………..and enjoy the results.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I have never seen a greater example of self-destruction as what i am seeing in the USA. One can only hope that at some point, some will wake up and change the course here, because otherwise…………well, remember the Romans. How did that work out for them in the end, eh?
Cheers and good luck to all of you. You are going to need it.
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Mr. Dinner Jacket believes he can hasten the return of the 7th (?) Imam. If you really think that he won’t use a nuke — if not stopped by the “clergy” — you are not informed. He may not use one directly against the US mainland but, he would against our forces in the area or Israel. He almost certainly would provide nuke materials, if not a working bomb, to several terror organizations who would then use them however they saw fit…
I’m glad Canada can prosper in the shadow of our protection…
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Gohawgs: You might want to take a look at this video, should you wish to continue your education on the matter.
There is a great difference between protecting one’s country and telling the rest of the world how they should live or do business. A history lesson can do wonders.
Enjoy the video, if you are at least open-minded enough to wish to learn something. If not, then good luck with your “overseas victories” and your clearly less than beneficial current foreign strategy. It seems to have paid some very strange dividends to date, yes? Count the boys you have lost for no reason and count the enemies you are making each day by stepping into other people’s back yards. If you believe that your CIA and your intelligence was incorrect, then I can understand why you would not grasp RP’s statements. If , on the other hand, you are unaware of the history behind all of this, then perhaps a history lesson is of the order.
There is one person only who applies the fundamentals of the Constitution and that is RP. Anyone else is just more of the same. Dem or Rep makes no difference. Name one other person in the running that has adhered to his oath to protect the Constitution and his oath to protect freedom, as the founding fathers expressed it.
If that in itself is already not a sufficient reason to further study that persons position, then the electorate ultimately deserves what it gets.
Enjoy.
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“the inability to comprehend”? On, the contrary, Frosty, we understand that he’s a nutjob all too well. That’s why he’s run for president of the U.S. about as many times as the late, great Pat Paulsen did (look him up), with the same results.
And we are not continuing on Obama’s course, we are about to begin a new voyage on an American course.
Try to conceal your envy a little better next time.
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Ron Paul reminds me of Jeff Dunham’s “Walter”…
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…without the brains of Jeff working his mouth.
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