Just another day in the Persian Gulf
Published by michael- February 8th, 2007 in politics, war
Responding to Iran’s assertion that they will hit back hard if the USA attacks them, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted, “My impression is they make threats like this from time to time. We have no intention of attacking Iran.” (Herald Tribune) He added, “It’s just another day in the Persian Gulf.”
Yet the February 20th deadline for cease-and-desist on Uranium enrichment is rapidly approaching and I think both Iran and the U.S. media are downplaying the possiblity of war. The U.S. probably less so than Iran who according to an Iranian friend of mine with family in Iran says that Ahmadinejad really tries to make the people believe that their government is nearly invincible.
Time closes a piece on how nervous their leaders are becoming with a quote that may well represent much of Iranian public opinion, “America has already shown in Iraq that it can’t do anything,” says Jaleh Momeni, a 26-year-old secretary in Tehran. “They don’t dare attack us.” Granted, I’m far from steeped in media, and subsist purely on a diet of news.google and NPR in my short 15 minute am/pm commute, but I really feel that the need for more drastic public awareness is peaking. Johnathan of A Tiny Revolution, who alerted me to the last quote, also has a great post entitled “Act Now to Stop Bush from Attacking Iran”.
This affects all of us, as does all war on our tax-dollar. As just yesterday, Iran successfully test-fired a land-to-sea missile with a range of 220 miles that is capable of sinking large warships, I take pause. I hope and pray for those caught in the middle, like my dear brother who is serving our Navy on the ship in the above image. As he floats somewhere in the Persian Gulf, wishing he could come home without abandoning his duties, I hope that many of us will be able to take some small action to avert this catastrophe.
Ayatollah Khamenei, in the midst of threatening swift retribution for any attack, added, “No one would commit such a blunder and jeopardize the interests of his country and people.” Oh how I wish Khamenei had a better understanding of our current administration.
2 Responses to “Just another day in the Persian Gulf”
Leave a Reply
Search
President Ahmadinejad’s real views are summarized on this website: ahmadinejadquotes.blogspot.com
Interesting collection of quotes Al, thanks for the link.
One thing is unclear since your blog appears to be neutral; what is your opinion of the man?
It seems to me he has some strong and valid perspectives on the crimes of Israel against Palestinians, and the questionable legitimacy of their strongly militaristic government. At the same time, he erred gravely in suggesting the holocaust was a fiction, to me that was an unforgivable token of his hatred for Jews. Most interviews with him since then have shown that he’s avoiding the topic, trying to stick with more persuasive arguments, such as why should Palestinians be punished for the crimes of the Nazis, which of course is a ridiculous illogical chain of causality, but serves as potent anti-Israeli propaganda to those who already are leaning against Israeli actions.
Also, to suggest that Ahmadinejad’s “real views” are expressed with his quotations is a bit of a stretch. Most politicians don’t usually have total coherence between their “real views” and what they say publically. I wager that Ahmadinejad is no exception to that rule.