اهداف جامعه ایرانی چیست؟ « ما چگونه فکر می کنیم» و آنچه که در ایران مهم انگاشته می شود.

۱۳۸۶ مهر ۱۶, دوشنبه

Fabricating the Pretext for Another War

Ahmadinejad is Not My Enemy

By JOHN V. WALSH

I had any number of Yossarian moments this last week as the entire apparatus of respectable opinion unleashed everything they had at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. But what has Ahmadinejad done to me or anyone in the U.S.? Nothing that I know of.

On the other hand Israel and its Lobby, whose hand was very much in evidence at the Columbia demonstrations against Ahmadinejad, is very much my enemy. Along with the industrial/Congressional wing of the military industrial Congressional complex, Israel and its fifth column in the U.S. (aka the Lobby) drove us into war in Iraq, killing thousands of American soldiers and 1 million Iraqis. So there is the Yossarian moment. Ahmadinejad is not trying to get Americans killed, but these other guys sure are--and they have been remarkably successful. So who is our Colonel Cathcart, the commanding officer in Catch-22 trying to drive Yossarian into ever more life-threatening missions? Not Ahmadinejad, that's for sure. (It is striking that Bush and the Democratic Congress are literally latter day Cathcarts, cruelly extending the length of combat missions and multiplying them endlessly based on fine print. Catch-22 is not lost on our rulers.)

And now the Lobby and its allies want to kill Iranians too. In fact they would like to destroy Iran, its army and its infrastructure. Why? Because Iran wants nuclear power? That is hardly believable. At that rate we should be pouring into the streets the next time Sarkozy who presides over a densely nuclear France bares his chest in the U.S. again. And if Iran has nuclear power, so what?

Now do not tell me, as radicals (of both Libertarian and Leftist stripe) are being duly advised by liberals these days, that we are making the classical mistake of identifying the enemy of my enemies as my friend. For I am not saying that Ahmadinejad is my friend. In fact I know very little about the man--except what I hear through the filters of pundocratic respectability and the spin put on his words by the chorus of neocons. He apparently feels that historical Palestine should have room for Arabs and Jews both, as Iran apparently does. That is fine with me. A modern secular state for Arabs and Jews together in historic Palestine is inevitable in the long term anyway, so why not get on with it? (I would differ with Ahmadinejad that Iran should remain an Islamic state and I would like to tell him so. But I find that those who would argue for a Jewish state, or more accurately a Jewish apartheid state, are on thin ice when arguing this point with my non-enemy Ahmadinejad.) He says he wants to study the Holocaust more--and he may even be a genocide denier. But so what? Freedom to discuss things should be open ended. And Abe Foxman and company deny the Armenian genocide, but their praises are sung far and wide, high and low. So Ahmadinejad may not be my friend--but he is not my enemy.

Nor is Iran my enemy--although the U.S. owes Iran a mighty big set of apologies, and Iran should certainly consider our government a power hostile to it. For consider what has been done to Iran with our tax dollars. "Our" CIA overthrew the democratically elected Iranian government of Mohammad Mossadegh in the 1950s because his social democratic party wanted Iran to control Iranian oil--in place of Anglo/American corporations. The U.S. installed the Shah and with the aid of Israel, according to Uri Avnery, trained his vicious secret police who tortured and killed untold numbers of Iranians to maintain his pro-U.S. rule. Then when the Shah was ousted, we supported Saddam Hussein in his vicious war on Iran with chemical weapons. A million people died in that war. Oh, the Iranians did hold a handful of Americans hostage at the time they overthrew our puppet, the Shah, certainly a hostile act but a pin prick compared to the death and destruction we and our Israeli ally have visited on Iran and plan to do again.

So I am really not impressed by the forces arrayed against Ahmadinejad at Columbia and in the neocon "think" tanks. From William Kristol to Michael Lerner (who has also gone after those in the wonderful Jewish Voice for Peace who advocate a one-state solution), they were all attacking the Iranian Pres and Iran itself last week. But the Iranians have not tried to kill Americans--in fact for hundreds of years they have a pretty good record of staying at home, avoiding aggression and defending themselves. They may have a thing or two to teach us on that score. Perhaps Ahmadinejad is right when he says he is just a teacher.

The Big Lie: "Iran is a Threat"

Iran has never manifested itself as a serious threat to the national security of the United States, or by extension as a security threat to global security. At the height of Iran’s “exportation of the Islamic Revolution” phase, in the mid-1980’s, the Islamic Republic demonstrated a less-than-impressive ability to project its power beyond the immediate borders of Iran, and even then this projection was limited to war-torn Lebanon.

Iranian military capability reached its modern peak in the late 1970’s, during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlevi. The combined effects of institutional distrust on the part of the theocrats who currently govern the Islamic Republic of Iran concerning the conventional military institutions, leading as it did to the decay of the military through inadequate funding and the creation of a competing paramilitary organization, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command (IRGC), and the disastrous impact of an eight-year conflict with Iraq, meant that Iran has never been able to build up conventional military power capable of significant regional power projection, let alone global power projection.

Where Iran has demonstrated the ability for global reach is in the spread of Shi’a Islamic fundamentalism, but even in this case the results have been mixed. Other than the expansive relations between Iran (via certain elements of the IRGC) and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, Iranian success stories when it comes to exporting the Islamic revolution are virtually non-existent. Indeed, the efforts on the part of the IRGC to export Islamic revolution abroad, especially into Europe and other western nations, have produced the opposite effect desired. Based upon observations made by former and current IRGC officers, it appears that those operatives chosen to spread the revolution in fact more often than not returned to Iran noting that peaceful coexistence with the West was not only possible but preferable to the exportation of Islamic fundamentalism. Many of these IRGC officers began to push for moderation of the part of the ruling theocrats in Iran, both in terms of interfacing with the west and domestic policies.

The concept of an inherent incompatibility between Iran, even when governed by a theocratic ruling class, and the United States is fundamentally flawed, especially from the perspective of Iran. The Iran of today seeks to integrate itself responsibly with the nations of the world, clumsily so in some instances, but in any case a far cry from the crude attempts to export Islamic revolution in the early 1980’s. The United States claims that Iran is a real and present danger to the security of the US and the entire world, and cites Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear technology, Iran’s continued support of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran’s “status” as a state supporter of terror, and Iranian interference into the internal affairs of Iraq and Afghanistan as the prime examples of how this threat manifests itself.

0000096994-iiiran002-002.jpgOn every point, the case made against Iran collapses upon closer scrutiny. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), mandated to investigate Iran’s nuclear programs, has concluded that there is no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Furthermore, the IAEA has concluded that it is capable of monitoring the Iranian nuclear program to ensure that it does not deviate from the permitted nuclear energy program Iran states to be the exclusive objective of its endeavors. Iran’s support of the Hezbollah Party in Lebanon — Iranian protestors shown here supporting Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during an anti-Israel rally — while a source of concern for the State of Israel, does not constitute a threat to American national security primarily because the support provided is primarily defensive in nature, designed to assist Hezbollah in deterring and repelling an Israeli assault of sovereign Lebanese territory. Similarly, the bulk of the data used by the United States to substantiate the claims that Iran is a state sponsor of terror is derived from the aforementioned support provided to Hezbollah. Other arguments presented are either grossly out of date (going back to the early 1980’s when Iran was in fact exporting Islamic fundamentalism) or unsubstantiated by fact.

The US claims concerning Iranian interference in both Iraq and Afghanistan ignore the reality that both nations border Iran, both nations were invaded and occupied by the United States, not Iran, and that Iran has a history of conflict with both nations that dictates a keen interest concerning the internal domestic affairs of both nations. The United States continues to exaggerate the nature of Iranian involvement in Iraq, arresting “intelligence operatives” who later turned out to be economic and diplomatic officials invited to Iraq by the Iraqi government itself. Most if not all the claims made by the United States concerning Iranian military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan have not been backed up with anything stronger than rhetoric, and more often than not are subsequently contradicted by other military and governmental officials, citing a lack of specific evidence.

Iran as a nation represents absolutely no threat to the national security of the United States, or of its major allies in the region, including Israel. The media hype concerning alleged statements made by Iran’s President Ahmadinejad (left) has created and sustained the myth that Iran seeks the destruction of the State of Israel. Two points of fact directly contradict this myth. First and foremost, Ahmadinejad never articulated an Iranian policy objective to destroy Israel, rather noting that Israel’s policies would lead to its “vanishing from the pages of time.” Second, and perhaps most important, Ahmadinejad does not make foreign policy decisions on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is the sole purview of the “Supreme Leader,” the Ayatollah Khomeini. In 2003 Khomeini initiated a diplomatic outreach to the United States inclusive of an offer to recognize Israel’s right to exist. This initiative was rejected by the United States, but nevertheless represents the clearest indication of what the true policy objective of Iran is vis-à-vis Israel.

The fact of the matter is that the “Iranian Threat” is derived solely from the rhetoric of those who appear to seek confrontation between the United States and Iran, and largely divorced from fact-based reality. A recent request on the part of Iran to allow President Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at “ground zero” in Manhattan was rejected by New York City officials. The resulting public outcry condemned the Iranian initiative as an affront to all Americans, citing Iran’s alleged policies of supporting terrorism. This knee-jerk reaction ignores the reality that Iran was violently opposed to al-Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan throughout the 1990’s leading up to 2001, and that Iran was one of the first Muslim nations to condemn the terror attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001.

A careful fact-based assessment of Iran clearly demonstrates that it poses no threat to the legitimate national security interests of the United States. However, if the United States chooses to implement its own unilateral national security objectives concerning regime change in Iran, there will most likely be a reaction from Iran which produces an exceedingly detrimental impact on the national security interests of the United States, including military, political and economic. But the notion of claiming a nation like Iran to constitute a security threat simply because it retains the intent and capability to defend its sovereign territory in the face of unprovoked military aggression is absurd. In the end, however, such absurdity is trumping fact-based reality when it comes to shaping the opinion of the American public on the issue of the Iranian “threat.”

آمريكادر برابر منطق هسته‌يي ايران كم آورده وراهبرد آن‌هاديگر خاصيت ندارد

رييس‌جمهور بر اهميت علم و علم آموزي و اين‌كه عرصه رقابت در جهان امروز ميان عالمان و معلمان است، تاكيد كرد و با ابراز خوشحالي نسبت به حضور در دانشگاه تهران و در جمع دانشگاهيان گفت: حضور در دانشگاه براي من مغتنم است و در پاسخ به دوستان نيز گفته‌ام كه اگر از كار اجرايي فارغ شوم باز هم به دانشگاه مي‌روم.

به گزارش خبرنگار خبرگزاري دانشجويان ايران(ايسنا) دكتر محمود احمدي‌نژاد روز دوشنبه در مراسم آغاز سال تحصيلي 86 -87 دانشگاه‌ها و موسسات آموزش عالي كشور ـ كه در تالار علامه اميني دانشگاه تهران برگزار شد ـ با بيان اين‌كه " ماه مهر براي ملت ما يك ماه برجسته و بسيار ويژه است و اتفاقاتي كه در آن مي‌افتد بنيادي و سرنوشت ساز است" افزود: ماه مهر ماه تلاش و شكوفايي و بالندگي و شور است. زماني كه ما در دانشگاه بوديم وقتي به دو ماه تعطيلي دانشگاه مي‌رسيديم عذا مي‌گرفتيم؛ چراكه دانشگاه به تعطيلي كشيده مي‌شد. وقتي اول مهر مي‌آمد انگار دانشگاه دوباره زنده مي‌شد و دوره تعالي كشور در تعطيلي دانشگاه كم مي‌شود و با آغاز اول مهر، جنبش و جوشي در شهر ايجاد مي‌شود. گويي خون در رگ هاي جامعه جاري مي‌شود

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احمدي نژاد گفت: صحنه‌هاي فراواني از شادي وغم ، تعالي و انحطاط و رقابت‌هاي سنگين و درگيري‌هاي خانمان‌برانداز، كشتار و جنگ، عشق و محبت و دوستي در صحنه دنيا وجود دارد. در طول تاريخ همواره دو جريان در مقابل هم قرار گرفته‌اند كه در همه عرصه‌ها با هم به رقابت مي‌پردازند. شايد به يك تعبير بتوان گفت كه تاريخ جهان تاريخ تقابل حق و باطل، خداپرستان و خودپرستان، زورگويان و عدالت طلبان است؛ به نظر مي‌رسد سياستمداران در عرصه سياست و تجار و صنعتگران در عرصه اقتصاد و همين طور ساير مشاغل در عرصه‌هاي ديگر در حال رقابتند اما وقتي دقيق‌تر به صحنه رقابت‌ها نگاه كنيم، تقابل اصلي بين عالمان و معلمان با هم است و دو نوع از اين‌ها با هم رقابت مي‌كنند. هر سياستمداري در مسير يك معلم حركت مي‌كند.عرصه جهان عرصه رقابت عالمان و معلمان است. علم به تنهايي تاثيرگذار نيست بلكه همراه با تعليم و تعلم اثر مي بخشد.

رييس‌جمهور در بخش ديگري از سخنان خود گفت: علم واقعي روشنايي بخش و حركت دهنده انسان به كمال است. اما عالمي كه خودساخته نباشد دريافت‌هايش از علم ناپاك مي‌شود و امروز مهمترين مشكل بشر اين است.

وي با اشاره به تجاوزگري امريكا گفت: خيال نكنيد كه تصميمات امريكا يك روزه گرفته مي‌شود بلكه عالماني اين تصميمات را مي‌سازند و ارايه مي‌دهند. تصور نكنيد كه جنايتكاران بزرگ عالم بدون علم حركت مي‌كنند. اگر دل‌ها پاكيزه نباشد دريافت‌ها غلط مي‌شود.

احمدي‌نژاد در بخش ديگري از سخنان خود گفت: قبل از پيروزي انقلاب دو بلوك به ظاهر قدرتمند در جهان وجود داشتند كه انسان‌ها را به اسارت خود در آوردند، اما انقلاب اسلامي يك فضا و زاويه جديد ايجاد و انسان‌ها را از اسارت خارج كرد.

به گزارش ايسنا رييس‌جمهور با اشاره به حوادث دانشگاه كلمبيا گفت: ما در دانشگاه كلمبيا مي‌ديديم كه تمام اقدامات‌شان طبق برنامه‌ريزي قبلي بود؛ سال گذشته يكي از اساتيد اين دانشگاه از من براي حضور در اين دانشگاه دعوت كرد كه قبول نكردم. بعد گفتند كه عده‌اي از دانشجويان مي‌خواهند پيام شما را بشنوند و نمي‌شد، نرفت. شب قبل از مراسم به من گفته بودند كه نمي‌توانيم امنيت مراسم را برقرار كنيم. چگونه است كه كشوري كه از آن سر دنيا آمده است در اين سوي دنيا، امنيت برقرار كند، نمي‌تواند امنيت يك سالن را برقرار كند، اين‌ها همه يك بهانه بود. آن‌ها مي‌خواستند در وهله اول مرا منصرف كنند، در ثاني اعصاب ما را خرد كنند كه نتوانيم صحبت كنيم و يا فضاي مشوشي ايجاد كنند كه پيام منتقل نشود و همه جزييات را در اين بخش ديده بودم.

وي با بيان اين كه " بسياري از دانشجويان خواستار حضور در اين مراسم و شنيدن پيام ايران بودند اما به آن‌ها اين امكان داده نشده بود" گفت: حتي سي ـ چهل دانشجوي ايراني به من مراجعه مي‌كردند كه مي‌خواهند حاضر شوند، ولي نمي‌شد. تلفن تماسي داده بودند كه هركس تماس مي‌گرفت نوار ضبط شده‌اي ده دقيقه عليه ملت ايران و مواضع ايران موضع‌گيري مي‌كرد.

وي افزود: باور من اين است كه آن‌ها طراحي كرده بودند كه بعد از اجراي موفقيت‌آميز پروژه شان تعرضاتي به حقوق ملت ايران بكنند و بستر اين كار را در افكار عمومي فراهم كنند. حتي بعد از مراسم در رسانه هاي‌شان مارش پيروزي مي‌زدند اما بعد از چند ساعت متوجه شدند كه چه اشتباهي مرتكب شده‌اند.

احمدي‌نژاد در بخش ديگري از سخنان خود گفت: علم قدرت آفرين است و اگر انسان‌ساخته‌نشده آن را به دست آورد مثل كودكي است كه ورزش‌هاي رزمي مي‌آموزد و از آن استفاده مي كند. بعضي از قدرت‌ها احساس مي‌كنند چون بمب اتم دارند خيلي قدرتمند شده‌اند.

رييس‌جمهور گفت: دنياي مادي امروز به پايان خط خود رسيده است و هيچ پيام اميدبخشي از نظام ليبرال دموكراسي به گوش نمي‌رسد و هيچ مشكلي از مشكلات بزرگ بشريت توسط اين نظام حل نشده است. پديده عراق، فلسطين، لبنان و همه پابرجا هستند و كسي نمي‌تواند آن را حل كند. آمريكا جلوي منطق هسته‌يي ايران كم آورده است و راهبرد آن‌ها ديگر خاصيت ندارد.

وي در ادامه سخنان خود با اشاره به فوايد زياد انرژي هسته‌يي گفت: با انرژي هسته‌يي مي‌توان صدها زمينه شغلي ايجاد كرد اما برخي فقط بمب هسته‌يي آن را مي بينند.

رييس‌جمهور گفت: امروز مسووليت و ماموريت دانشگاهيان بسيار سنگين است، ساختن ايران و پاسخگويي به نياز بشريت مسووليت آن‌هاست. وجه غالب ملت ايران همواره علمي و فرهنگي بوده است و هيچ‌گاه قوت نظامي و اقتصادي سياست برتري اين ملت نبوده است. نام ايران در همه جاي جهان تداعي كننده علم، انسانيت و فرهنگ است و بايد علم و فرهنگ مفيد در دانشگاه‌هاي ما توليد و به جهان عرضه شود.

وي در ادامه سخنان خود به دانشگاهيان توصيه كرد كه " در علم آموزي حد و مرزي براي خودقائل نشويد" و گفت: مشكلات و كمبود امكانات وجود دارد، در كل عالم هستي اگر دو يا سه پزشك جهاني وجود داشته باشد، يكي از آن‌ها ابن‌سيناست.نگاه‌تان در علم‌آموزي به افق‌هاي بلند باشد و مسووليت خود را در عرصه جهاني پيدا كنيد. ديگران امروز با تمام پيشرفت‌هايي كه كرده‌اند نيازمند شما هستند. وزراي محترم و مسوولان درها را باز كنند و با همه دنيا تعامل چندجانبه داشته باشند. همان‌طور كه قبلا گفته بودم. ما با تمام كشورهاي دنيا به جز اسرائيل كه آن را كشور نمي‌دانيم حاضريم تعامل كنيم. شما باب تعامل سطح بالا را در جهان ايجاد كنيد. در تعامل علم و انديشه هم بدانيد كه انديشه شما غالب خواهد بود.

وي افزود: اگر مي‌خواهيد دنيا اصلاح شود، راه آن علمي است. آن‌هايي كه فكر مي‌كنند با سلاح مي‌توان اصلاح كرد، در اشتباهند. امروز جوانان ايران پاكترين، مومن‌ترين، آرماني‌ترين، حق‌طلب‌ترين و هوشمندترين جوانان جهان هستند.

*** در حاشيه ***

* در پايان اين مراسم مدال يادبودي از سوي دانشگاه تهران و دانشگاه علوم پزشكي تهران در تقدير از مواضع رييس‌جمهور در دانشگاه كلمبيا به وي تقديم شد.

* هم‌چنين پيش از سخنان رييس‌جمهور از سوي بسيج دانشجويي لوح يادبودي در تقدير از مواضع رييس‌جمهور در دانشگاه كلمبيا به وي اهدا شد.

* پس از سخنان رييس‌جمهور يكي از حضار طي سخناني به رفتارهاي برخي از اعضاي دانشگاه تهران اعتراض كرد و خواستار برخورد با برخي از كاركنان و اساتيد اين دانشگاه شد.

* آيت‌الله عميد زنجاني رييس دانشگاه تهران طي سخناني گفت: دانشگاه جاي ستايش كسي نيست اما شما كه يك دانشمند و استاد هستيد و اكثريت آراي ملت ايران را به دست آورده‌ايد، قابل تقدير هستيد.

وي هم‌چنين در پايان مراسم و حين ارايه مدال تقدير به رييس‌جمهور گفت: اين مدال به خاطر شجاعت علمي و سياسي به شما اهدا مي‌شود.

رييس‌جمهور نيز پاسخ داد: من هيچ‌گاه حرفي كه به آن اعتقاد نداشتم نزدم، بهترين لوح‌ها را بايد به دانشگاهيان داد و من خاك پاي اين دانشگاهيان هستم.

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