Sure, that's what it is that has the U.S. so concerned about Iran. Not the Iranian weapons that keep turning up in Iraq. Not the Revolutionary Guards' involvement there and elsewhere. Not the nuclear program, either, for that matter. "Iran says U.S. shows “Iranophobia” over Iraq," from Reuters:
TEHRAN - Iran accused U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of “Iranophobia” on Sunday for trying to blame Tehran for Iraq’s security problems.
Rice said last week she would press Iraq’s Arab neighbours at a meeting on Tuesday in Kuwait to do more to support Baghdad’s government and shield it from Iran’s “nefarious influences”.
Iran, as a neighbour of Iraq, will also attend the gathering.
“Regarding Rice’s statements, these statements are not something new. American officials follow the policy of Iranophobia,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters in a weekly news conference.
“We see the developments in Iraq today are the outcome of the U.S. administration’s illogical policies. The American officials want to externalise the problems they are facing inside Iraq,” he said, adding U.S. policies in Iraq had failed.
Washington accuses Tehran of funding, training and arming Iraqi militias, a charge Iran denies. Tehran says the presence of U.S. troops is behind Iraq’s problems and wants them out.
"Washington accuses Tehran of funding, training and arming Iraqi militias, a charge Iran denies. "
Iran denies many things. Denying the truth is what Muslims do.
Mohammad taught them that...
and they like MO.
Dual-Dysfunction = Disaster
Never mind the pronouncements, Iran needs a whiff of the grape to focus their attention. Too bad it's Condhimmi Rice as nanny - she'll never crack the whip.
"Never mind the pronouncements, Iran needs a whiff of the grape to focus their attention. Too bad it's Condhimmi Rice as nanny - she'll never crack the whip.
Posted by: jewdog "
Just be patient, things will change when John Bolton is named the new Secretary of State..
Yes, and what about Ameriphobia?
. That is rampant in the Middle East. So is Christophobia and Jewiphobia, not to mention Israelophobia, and kiss-my-anti-facist-butt-aphobia?
"Iranophobia?" Can I laugh, or what? They're such victims, aren't they, Mohammedans?
"Death to America, death to the Jews"- feel the love!
The mullahs are irresistible...
Western activists claim they stand for universal peace, human rights, morals, and ethics. But they sit on their hands while others live in perpetual oppression. They fail to achieve solutions.
They paint their own image of the world. They say force must never be employed. They embrace any ideology or religion. They say all are worthy and equal. But they will not perform due diligence. They believe adversaries will agree to their ideals. They do not see the truth.
I invented a new word tonight. When the tyke announced for the umpteenth time that she was bored, I ask what could be done to deboredify her.
See? Anyone can make up a useful word!
----possible unlikely scenario----
"Why would any rational sane person be afraid of Iran," asked Jimmah Carter to his half-blitzed brother, as he took another swing of the oar against the swimming killer rabbit.
"So many other things to be afraid of," thought the president.
To be more precise, the U.S. suffers from being-targeted-by-an-Iranian-nuclear-warhead-ophobia, which is obviously racist.
Just like it was racist to suffer from Nazi-phobia 60 years ago.
When some one chants for your death and destruction. If you express any amount of concerned that there might actually be some animosity behind it and also the possibility of actions, you are now a phobic? This is catch 22 logic.
“We see the developments in Iraq today are the outcome of the U.S. administration’s illogical policies. The American officials want to externalise the problems they are facing inside Iraq,” he said, adding U.S. policies in Iraq had failed.
From former U.N. ambassador http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/05/AR2007120502234.html "> John Bolton on Iran and the HIE:
Second, the NIE is internally contradictory and insufficiently supported. It implies that Iran is susceptible to diplomatic persuasion and pressure, yet the only event in 2003 that might have affected Iran was our invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, not exactly a diplomatic pas de deux. As undersecretary of state for arms control in 2003, I know we were nowhere near exerting any significant diplomatic pressure on Iran. Nowhere does the NIE explain its logic on this critical point. Moreover, the risks and returns of pursuing a diplomatic strategy are policy calculations, not intelligence judgments. The very public rollout in the NIE of a diplomatic strategy exposes the biases at work behind the Potemkin village of "intelligence."
We should pump this guy up with a dozen shots of espresso and send him to talk to Iran's foreign ministry on our behalf.
One more time:
From former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on Iran and the NIE
Considering the consistently wacked-out statements by its spokesmen, maybe they should change it from: Foreign Ministry to: Foreign Miniseries.
Or, how about Foreign Miseries... since that's what they're likely to bring home in the long run.
Whatever happened to Baghdad Bob, anyway?
Whatever happened to Baghdad Bob, anyway?
Posted by Lex
You mean: ">http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/"> this guy?
"There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!"
"My feelings - as usual - we will slaughter them all"
"Our initial assessment is that they will all die"
"I blame Al-Jazeera - they are marketing for the Americans!"
"God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis."
"They're coming to surrender or be burned in their tanks."
"No I am not scared, and neither should you be!"
"Be assured. Baghdad is safe, protected"
Etc,
Etc,
Etc,
... and my personal favorite:
"We are winning!"
... uh, right Bob.
Maybe he's on Al Jazeera to promote that perennial best seller in the area: "Mein Kampf". Oh, sorry… I guess that sounded Islamonaziaphobic.
... and again: You mean: this guy?
RalphInfidel the best seller of the Middle East is not "Mein Kampf" but the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". Something Dhimmy Carter must have read before he wrote his last book.
yeah yeah yeah - and they have jewophobia, westernophobia, americaophobia, nonmuslimophobia, and the name calling goes on. They even have femalemuslimophobia, gayophobia, etc. They are the biggest phobes in the world and their solution - kill 'em all if they don't stink like us!
Should we be surprised if a rapist and murderer is happy to compound his crimes by deceiving whoever he can with an elaborate lie that the victims are somehow the criminals? When an actual criminal seeks to deceive in that way, he is not merely an out-of-control beast. No, he is a ruthless, strategically evil actor. Yet the evil person perhaps doesn´t quite realize that he is in fact evil! His consciousness is evil, so how cannot perceive himself and his own deeds quite accurately!
Evil seems to be simultaneously a moral failing and a sickness. It involves choice, hence a moral component, yet it´s a sort of illness of the mind, and in that sense is not entirely a matter of choice. Somehow it´s paradoxically both a choice and yet an illness, which means one cannot speak of choice in the full sense of the word: a moral illness for which the evil person is partly responsible, even while being partly an innocent victim of that illness. The philosopher Owen Barfield once dealt with this perhaps insoluble conundrum, about whether evil is sickness or a choice, by refusing to pick either answer, and simply saying "a bad apple is a bad apple." I gather that Aristotle, too, refused to say whether criminals should be punished (as responsible choosers), or rehabilitated (as victims of a kind of illness). Instead, his concept of how to deal with the criminal apparently incorporated both punishment and rehabilitation.
Muslims are terrified of the other MUslims, they suffer from Islamophobia.
Baghdad Bob looks like the drummer on the Conan O'Brien show, Max Weinberg.
As for Iran, we cannot deal with a government that invaded our embassy and took the staff hostage. Period. This government remains in power in Iran, and has never shown an ounce of regret for the hostage siege. In fact, they gloat over it.
We should never feel obligated to engage in diplomacy with irrational actors on the world stage.
Why did I have to be born in an age when neologisms like this are taken seriously? If Edward Albee were writing today, he'd probably call his play "Virginiawoolfophobia".
This whole back and forth banter between Iran and the West reminds me of the section of Thycidides when he explains how words became debased in the run-up to the Peloponnesian War. There is obviously no basis for dialogue here, so we should just hit them and hit them hard. Re-institute the draft for all men under 40 (which would include myself), throw out the Geneva Conventions and make widows of all their women.
Phobia: an obsessive or irrational fear or anxiety
-Random House College Dictionary
Wariness is not phobia. The overuse of phobia in common parlance is rendering it meaningless.
Americans don't have Iranophobia. We don't even have Islamophobia. What we do have is a wariness of Iranian mullahs and of many Muslims, given their PAST BEHAVIOR and their CURRENT PUBLIC STATEMENTS. It is not a phobia by any means.
Am I fearful of what they might do with the weapons they are developing? Very much so. Is that irrational? Not at all.
Fear that is grounded in reason and fact is very useful. It's rational. A rational fear is not phobia. We became fearful of an atomic war between the US and the USSR after seeing what such weapons could do. It wasn't a phobia. There was nothing irrational about it. It kept us from the brink but it didn't prevent us from defending ourselves. We weren't consumed by it.
And the American Embassy taking and holding of American citizens for 444 days was what 'Americanphobia'?
Posted by: Mystical Time Traveler
RalphInfidel the best seller of the Middle East is not "Mein Kampf" but the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". Something Dhimmy Carter must have read before he wrote his last book.
Didn't mean to imply it was number one on the charts, but certainly it is one of the best sellers.