Iran

I don't like the Iranian regime. Recently I saw 1991 footage of an Iranian crowd stoning a woman to death. Mullahs can be quite the barbaric animals, and it disturbs me that SCIRI members are so influenced by the Iranian regime. After we fled Iraq in 1982, my father became obsessed with Khomeini and the "Islamic Revolution". Later he was dismayed to discover that Khomeini's regime murdered more Muslim clerics than did the Shah.

Having said this, I am concerned that the mainstream media in America and Europe are deliberately misquoting Ahmadinejad, who allegedly said that "Israel will be wiped off the map" in a speech to the "World Without Zionism" conference in October 2005. For several months I assumed that the media has been translating his words correctly. It was Christian Sunni who pointed out to me recently that Ahmadinejad did not actually say that Israel will be wiped off the map. In an analysis of Ahmadinejad's speech, the authors of this article conclude that Ahmadinejad was referring to the regime that occupies Palestine and not the country of Israel. Wikipedia also has a good analysis of the speech, with commentary by Juan Cole. The Iranian Foreign Minister tried to explain what Ahmadinejad said, but it did not help, and the mainstream media has been repeating the 'wiping off the map' allegation since then.

Disinformation is a tool used to manufacture consent (to war with Iran in this case), and I am surprised that the mainstream media participates in it, especially when it is obvious that Ahmadinejad was misquoted and did not actually say that Israel should be wiped off the map. He did not even use the word 'map'. The Iranian regime will fall naturally through attrition and Iranian society's thirst for freedom. To bomb Iran (and undoubtedly kill innocent Iranians) because their current President allegedly said that Israel should be wiped off the map is silly. Even if he did say that Israel must be wiped off the map, it would not be a good reason to attack Iran.

Furthermore, attacking Iran would strain US relations with Iraq. Remember Alaa’s first Law: "The relations between the Shiaa’s of Iraq and Iran are reciprocally proportional to those between them and the United States. In other words; the worst the latter gets the closer becomes the first and vise versa. Therefore this question must be dealt with, with the utmost caution to avoid quite undesirable results."