No to war, No to the Mullahs

[democratic]

http://www.iranian.com/Mather/2006/February/Iran/index.html

The recent pronouncements by the governments of the USA and UK regarding Iran’s nuclear programme have more to do with Iran’s close relations with all factions of the occupation government in Iraq and the long-term consequences of such influence.

That is why, before the anti-war movement falls into the trap of supporting Iran’s reactionary rulers, they should consider if such a move would lead to indirect support for the occupation government in Iraq and be in confrontation with ordinary Iranians and Iraqis who are victims of these regimes. Whether wearing a turban or a suit, the super-rich corrupt shias in power in both countries oversee dictatorship, poverty and destitution for the majority of the population. In other words, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.

The anti-war movement should also remember that two wrongs do not make a right: just because the United States is opposed to Iran’s nuclear policy, or just because Israel has nuclear weapons, the left inside and outside Iran cannot take the opportunist position of defending nuclear proliferation in Iran while opposing it in the rest of the world. First of all, Iran, a country with the second largest oil and gas reserves in the world, does not need nuclear power. Secondly defending the Iranian people is not synonymous with defending the repressive, corrupt regime in power in Tehran.

Iran’s capitalist government has embarked on an unprecedented programme of privatisation, accompanied by the systematic non-payment of workers’ wages, including those in the state sector, while constantly citing financial difficulties. Many are questioning the wisdom of spending astronomic sums on the purchase of nuclear technology on the ‘black market’ by a government that claims to be short of funds and to be unable to pay the wages of its public sector employees.

Over the last few years, every day - and at times more than once a day - workers in Iranian cities and towns have protested not only against the non-payment of wages, but against unemployment, job insecurity, and low wages. For most Iranians, shia islam in power has become synonymous with corruption, greed and clerics gathering huge fortunes. In Iran they are called Mercedes-driven mullahs, who accumulate huge wealth at the expense of the masses.

[Jim Sagle]

1. Excellent link. K&R.

[Colorado Blue]

2. Thank you for posting, thoughtful article.

[barb162]

3. good article! KICK!

[meti57b]

4. excellent article!! thanks for posting!!

[Coastie for Truth]

5. Excellent article

coincides with the views of the assimilated Iranian-American community with kids in college, car payments, mortgage payments, credit card payments, American graduate degrees, and US citizenship.

One of my Iranian friends was telling me about the corruption - a previous oil minister was a college classmate of his. This "Oil Minister" flunked out of Petroleum engineering, then flunked out of geology, and then ended up graduating with a degree in teaching high school science - but his uncle is an Ayatollah. Kind of a "Brownie" type.