News from Iran? Good? Bad? Who knows?

[garbon]

No, it really wasn't.

Actually, it was. You're too close to the matter at hand.

[Ed Anger]

I'm not bothering to read 38 pages of this useless thread, no doubt filled with the usual delusional "ZOMG TEH IRANIANS PIPPLE ARE ALL UNDER 30 THEY WILL CHANGE FROM WIFFIN" posts from all you suckers who actually think any of this is going to make any fucking difference.
Wake up and smell the coffee, fuckheads.

I think this is precisely right.  Psellus has a very distorted, romanticized view of Iranians. Progressive and yearning to be part of the West they are not.

Spellus has a distorted view based on the last thing he read. Dude would make an excellent cult member.

[Queequeg]

Spellus has a distorted view based on the last thing he read. Dude would make an excellent cult member.

Not really. I'd be into it for a while, and then after maybe four months;

Cult Leader:  Well, the time has come, Brothers and Sisters.  I told you it would.  The Government is trying to take you away from me!  Trying to take you from your family!  That's why we all must shed ourselves of these mortal coi..

Me:HEY GUYS, YOU EVER SEEN ANY WONG KAR WAI MOVIES?  CAUSE THEY ARE FUCKING AWESOME! 

[Phillip V]

She was beautiful.

[Hansmeister]

They are waiting for some encouraging words from Obama.  Without them they are doomed.

I'm not sure it would do more help or harm. I suspect many Iranians may hate their clerical regime, but they do not have much love for America either. And I'd think that trying to portray the protests as a foreign interference may be the only thing that could help the regime.

So the protesters are carrying signs written in english to practice for their ESL exam?

[Hansmeister]

Good thing that even now Obama is still sucking up to the Ayatollah's, according to the AFP:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters.

President Barack Obama's administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"There's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

"We have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran," Kelly said. "We tried many years of isolation, and we're pursuing a different path now."

But he said it was not clear if Iranian diplomats had accepted the invitations.

The State Department has said that the invitations are largely a symbolic gesture of goodwill and that the July 4 barbecues were not intended to take up substantive policy matters.

Obama has walked a tightrope since the violence broke out in Iran, urging the Islamic regime to end its repression of protests but insisting he will not let Tehran's leaders cast the United States as a bogeyman.

[jimmy olsen]

Disgusting

[Queequeg]

Clearly the poster who's talked about invading and/or bombing it since 2003 cares deeply for the Iranian people and their struggle against mindless violence.   

[citizen k]

...the July 4 barbecues were not intended to take up substantive policy matters.

BBQ is a serious matter. 

[Warspite]

Denying the Iranian diplomatic representatives some BBQ rib action on July 4 would have no doubt sent the regime crashing down in Tehran. Another missed opportunity.

[Alatriste]

Denying the Iranian diplomatic representatives some BBQ rib action on July 4 would have no doubt sent the regime crashing down in Tehran. Another missed opportunity.

Besides, can you imagine Iranian diplomats assisting to an event ripe with pork, booze and scantily clad women?

[Hansmeister]

Denying the Iranian diplomatic representatives some BBQ rib action on July 4 would have no doubt sent the regime crashing down in Tehran. Another missed opportunity.

So you think the proper response to the ayatollahs massacring their own people in a desperate gambit to cling to power is to invite them over to BBQ?  At least Obama makes it clear whith whom he stands.

[Alatriste]

Denying the Iranian diplomatic representatives some BBQ rib action on July 4 would have no doubt sent the regime crashing down in Tehran. Another missed opportunity.

So you think the proper response to the ayatollahs massacring their own people in a desperate gambit to cling to power is to invite them over to BBQ?  At least Obama makes it clear whith whom he stands.

Now, now...  I know that the nuances of reality (well, the whole notion of 'reality') isn't your strong point but

1. It's not ayatollahs vs people. I't a more a set of ayatollahs against another. Mousavi is no western style democrat but an ex-Foreign Minister and Prime Minister in the 'Islamic Republic'. As 'apparatchik' as you can get without a black robe and a turban, in fact.

2. It's quite odd, but for the life of me I can't remember you saying this kind of thing about Bush and Iranian, Chinese, Pakistani, or Zimbabwean diplomats... Or anyone else's, actually... some would call this blatant hypocrisy!

Not me, of course. I call this hypocrisy, without adjectives.

3. In the words of a great European when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite. And inviting diplomats to your national festivity is no endorsement, is just basic politeness... and more so when you know they would rather be caught dead than in a July 4th BBQ.   

[Valmy]

Good thing that even now Obama is still sucking up to the Ayatollah's, according to the AFP:

So what should we be doing Hans?  Bombing Tehran?

[Valmy]

So you think the proper response to the ayatollahs massacring their own people in a desperate gambit to cling to power is to invite them over to BBQ?  At least Obama makes it clear whith whom he stands.

Thank you for your deep thoughts dude.