Donald Rumsfeld Thinks You're an Idiot
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3...0&group=webcast
According to CNN, Donald Rumsfeld has claimed that the Iranian government may have aided Taleban and al-Qaida agents to escape from Afghanistan into Iran, in a desperate attempt to justify Bush's inclusion of Iran in the "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea.
What CNN has not reported, nor has the New York Times, nor TIME (who first broke the story), is that the Iranian government has angrily denied the administration's allegations (this was reported in the British paper, the Guardian), and pointed out what our own press had been saying (TIME, MSNBC) earlier: Iran hates the Taleban and al-Qaeda and has no desire to have ties with them or help them out ("We hated each other and we never had any commonalities," the head of Iran's powerful Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said Friday.). Why? Because:
Iran's government, and most of Iran's populace, are Shi'ite Muslims, whereas the Taleban and al-Qaeda are Sunni, and have participated in persecution and massacres of Shi'ites
Iran's strategic interests in Afghanistan have traditionally been head-to-head in conflict against those of Pakistan. Iran backed the Northern Alliance against the Pakistan-backed Taliban for years before the US ever got involved.
Iran nearly went to war with the Taliban after ten Iranian diplomats and a journalist were murdered during the Taliban conquest of Mazar-i-Sharif
So, where did Rumsfeld get the ludicrous idea that Iran is helping out the Taliban and al-Qaeda? From that extremely reliable source, Ismail Khan, the brutal warlord of Herat province (see the TIME report). The main interesting fact of all this is that Khan has historically been backed by Iran, and took refuge in Iran twice while the Taliban was in power. However, Afghan Prime Minister Karzai wants to negotiate with Khan about concerns over Iranian influence [Afghan Radio]. Khan has long been in conflict with other powerful United Front anti-Taliban fighters such as Gul Agha Shirzai, the warlord of Kandahar, and Abdul Rashid Dostum, a northern warlord. There may be reason to believe, then, that Khan wants to solidify his position within the new government by cutting his ties with Iran, which have traditionally been a source of friction between him and the rest of the mujahedeen.
The real issue here is that Rumsfeld thinks we are stupid enough to swallow this ludicrous report. Or if the report does turn out to be true, he doesn't think he needs to give any kind of explanation for such a bizarre turn of events. He just assumes people will think "Oh, Iran, yeah, they're terrorists, so naturally they'll help out anyone else who commits terrorism against the US." And the US newsmedia are doing their best to help ensure that happens, since they refuse to report on Iran's statements or to provide any background on the conflicts between Iran and the Taliban.
Ever since Iran revolted against the US-installed Shah in 1979 and established an anti-US government, many on the Right have been chomping at the bit to conquer Iran and install a new pro-US government. Here is their perfect opportunity. If they can make this story stick, the Bush administration has a sure-fire reason to insist that Iran is a state which harbors terrorists the United States is trying to apprehend - the same reason they used to wage war on the Taliban. And the Right-wing hawks have a sure-fire way of expanding the "war on terror" into Iran.
Don't let Rumsfeld take you for a fool. Contact the Department of Defense and demand further explanation of the basis for their allegations against Iran. Contact national media outlets, particularly CNN, and demand that they do responsible research into the background of claims made by the Department of Defense and Afghan warlords, particularly when another war is on the line and everyone is asking where we will start bombing next.
What do the people here think about this??
And, if i recall correctly Dubya sent more people to the electric chair than Castro, and those that were sentenced to death were some serious Batista killers.
Castro is very popular in Cuba still, ive never been to Cuba but many of my relatives did.It is a very popular place to go, specially between Argentineans, in most of latin america people hate us because of some misterious reason but in Cuba we are very popular cus Che Guevara was argentinean.
If you go to Cuba as a tourist you can travel all along the island with no restrictions visiting all the cities and far away towns, and the gobernment is very popular, and its not the effect of propaganda, the people are very very well educated and know whats happening all around the globe.
Of course, Cuba its not perfect, but if we compare Cuba with some other Capitalistic tropical paradices, Cuba wins, it has the very best educational sistem and sanitation sistem.
Sometimes they dont have enough medications but that is more related with the sanctions against Cuba.
Many tropical paradices consist of complex of hotels for tourist and you cant get out of the hotel because outside it is very insecure and people are starving.
The fact of you being able to travel all along cuba with few limitations suggests something by itself.
There is a very famous saying in Cuba that says, in the world 2104976504981 (some number) of kids die in the world from starvation, none of them was cuban.
Anyway, i am not a commie, and i recognize that La Habana look like a ruin of a city from 1950, and most of the cars they use are cars from the 40s and 50s that were fixed once and again, but this is also related with the sanction.
Iam not a deffender of Cuba, i thinbk that one of the causes of the Popularity of Castro are the sanctions, the sanctions bring the people together in Cuba.
With no sanctions we would see if Castro remains popular and if the causes of the problems of Cuba were because of Castro or because of the sanction.
I still dont understand why cuba is considered a terrorism sponsor country, Cuba suffered some years ago terrorism, some bombs exploded in hotels in La Habana doing a great damage to the Cuban economy that strongly dependes of tourism,
and it seems that they were made by the cuban community from miami, but hey no-one is calling Gloria Estefan a terrorist
I think that the sanctions against Cuba exist because of the need to capture the votes of La Florida, many countries in the world are far worst than Cuba, but one is too populated and has a fast growing economy and others are too full of oil.
I think that if americans were able to go on vacations to Cuba they would change their mind really quickly.
The usa has made some serious **** in the 70s in latin america imposing addict dictatorships unstead of the democratically elected gobernments like in my country or Chile with Allende.
Thousands of people died and no-one is accusing the usa of being a terrorist state.
You have got to read some history, my dear boy. Let's go chronologically:
If i've learnt one thing in life it is never be naive. And i ain't thaattt young, i'm 17 in May (ok, so quite young). But surely it is healthy to have an interest in politics at this age?
