If you had the chance to get to know the "real" Iran within 10 minuttes, would you do that?

[Ryan8319]

You sound like a propagandist for the current Iranian regime, which is only supported by 50% of the people. There is a growing opposition to Ahmadinejad, the economy has collapsed, the currency is worthless and your despot gets a war going between Hezbollah and Isreal whenever he is threatened by an uprising.

I know about Iran, and I know Iranian Americans who want democracy in their native land. Some of us here are smart enough to see your true agenda.

[FarronT]

A response to Mordent's points:

1) But many countries have restrictions on various things that other countries might see as nonsensical. I have to agree with you that beating or opressing women is wrong but I'm not sure it's something worth going to war over, rather something that the Iranian people will hopefully move rapidly towards improving. Certainly as more wealth comes into the region this is likely to change, once the majority of women aren't as dependent on their husbands and are above the poverty line it's not likely to be an enforcable policy.

2) Most countries in the world have these problems to a greater or lesser extent. The US has a far worse drug problem, causes proportionately more air pollution than anywhere else on the planet and has a huge foreign debt for example.

3) I agree with you on that one but also see point 1.

4) Again I agree with you on that one too but also see point 1 again.

5) This isn't quite accurate - Australia is building another nuclear reactor, had one for a long time and was secretly enriching uranium for years during the cold war in order to build a bomb (this was only recently divulged as files on it were unsealed). Also many, many countries around the world are pushing towards switching more power generation to nuclear. This in itself isn't odd, even for an oil rich country since many are concerned about the effect of burning so many fossil fuels on the environment - you can hardly criticise the quality of a country's air and then be mad when they want to improve things in this regard surely? I think they'd be better off if they built a geothermal power station at any rate (better land usage vs energy generated, more sustainable, less criticism from foreign powers, etc) but we also got to remember that nuclear power is seen as a status symbol by many smaller countries (including Australia for example).

6) I agree with your assessment on this, pinicity as it is.

7) I agree about Israel being strongly pro-American, not so sure about the Saudi's. Also the United Arab Emiritz, Turkey and quite a few others are if not pro-American then not anti-American either.

8) Other countries are allowed to legitimately use nuclear energy, why not Iran? Further other countries are allowed to produce nuclear weapons despite not being permanent members of the UN security council, again why not Iran? Nuclear weapon development has proved generally a waste of resources and a very ineffective threat. Further Iran's missile technology isn't all that good, I very much doubt they'd be capable of threating the US with any sort of nuclear weapon any time in the even close to near future even if they put much of the country's resources into developing it.

9) Totally agree with you on this one.

10) Being able to march in the street is surely a symbol of the much vaunted freedom, surely if they'd locked up people protesting that would be worse? I think the media has certainly strived to portray Iran negatively so the truth is somewhere in between the ultra positive and the ultra negative perhaps?

The US is a country with problems too, what country is without them? Most citizens of most countries don't tend to be critical enough of their own nation and government, that's as true in the US or Australia as in Iran. I agree with international monitoring but only if it's for ALL nations, no exceptions. Having another nation run a nuclear reactor in your country is not a workable suggestion and would require an almost unquestioning level of trust.

As for government's run by madmen who believe they are appointed by God, dodgey elections, enormous power and influence of religion on the state and limited candidates... perhaps people who live in glass whitehouses shouldn't throw stones? Does the US not censor artists, often based on political purposes? Doesn't the US legislate on personal morality sometimes too (drugs for example), rightly or wrongly?

In short I think many of your criticisms are expecting things of Iran that the US itself doesn't deliver although I do agree with some of the points you made and applaud the fact that you're not promoting war but rather just voicing your opinion. I think probably we all need to be a bit more circumspect and try to fix our own flaws before calling others on theirs though, Australia and the US aren't perfect so they probably shouldn't expect that standard of others. I think more open dialogue and exchange of ideas between Iran and the US would be a good start. Let's not forget that aggression between the two is simply playing into the hands of extremists on both sides.