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Tag Archives: politics

Guest Post by Amil Imani – Obama: Expect No Respect from the Islamic Revolution in Iran

11 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

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Iran, Islamofascism, negotiations, Obama, political, politics, Revolution

What we should envision is a secular Iran which will allow the seeds of our ancient wisdom and goodness to grow and flourish again through our art, music, poetry and social dynamics. The U.S. has, in secular Iranians, its best friends in the entire Islamic world. It is imperative for the U.S. to help these Iranians to dislodge the vicious doomsday Mullahs, not as an act of altruism, but as a prudent measure of enlightened self-interest.

______

My Fellow Traveler,

We no longer have any choice. We no longer can engage in the same old practices to deal with the massive and debilitating threats that face humanity. We must band together and pool our resources to meet the challenges. Our planet’s problems are no longer local problems that a parochial thinking and practices can address successfully. We cannot squander even an ounce of our sorely needed energy in petty squabbles and personal fights.

Unlike anything encountered in recent memory, the formidably complex and unique situation present in today’s world poses an enormous challenge. It defies any conventional solution, and simply resorting to civil disobedience is the equivalent of fighting off a pack of hungry and blood-thirsty wolves with tooth-picks!

The Western leaders and, in particular, President Obama, must know that Hassan Rouhani and his ilk are not interested in any substantial negotiation, any compromise or live-and-let-live policy. President Obama should reconsider his good faith gesture of opening dialogue with this brutal, inhumane and illegitimate Islamic government. The Islamic Republic has no respect for the olive branches being extended to it by the Obama administration; it still continues with full-speed ahead in its quest for nuclear weaponry — and the power to intimidate the region as well as the entire world.

The best predictor of the future is the past. The religious fanatic mullahs’ record is one of deception, dissimulation, treachery, violence and much more. These Quran-trained and directed agents of a wrathful Allah can never be trusted. They are master schemers. They have been at the business of scheming for centuries. They have perfected the art of deception, doubletalk, double-dealing and treachery.

The Western world must rid themselves of the “happy talk” as we tranquilize ourselves by reasoning that these doddering old-world religious fools may be mischievous, but they could never do real harm. Oh, sure, they might be arming some Iraqi Shiites, killing a few .U.S soldiers, providing a little support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas terrorists in Palestine, building several bases in South America and Africa, murdering Iranian people and calling for the eradication of Israel—but they have no global destructive capacity. After all, we pacify ourselves that we’re not exactly talking about criminal masterminds like Hitler, or are we?

I do not claim to have all the answers, but have a fair idea of where to begin. It is high time to realize that we are not dealing with the same social factors or even the same people of three decades ago. We need to collaborate on this effort and invite others who can contribute to this cause without placing personal fame and secondary gains ahead of the ultimate goal of reeducating, rebuilding and liberating Iran.

What we should envision is a secular Iran which will allow the seeds of our ancient wisdom and goodness to grow and flourish again through our art, music, poetry and social dynamics. The U.S. has, in secular Iranians, its best friends in the entire Islamic world. It is imperative for the U.S. to help these Iranians to dislodge the vicious doomsday Mullahs, not as an act of altruism, but as a prudent measure of enlightened self-interest.

Amil Imani

______

Author Amil Imani writes on this web site, “My mission is to raise the clarion call about the imminent and present danger of expansionist theocratic Islam. Having witnessed first-hand the horrors and indignity that Islamofascism visits on people it subjugates, I have taken it upon myself to do my part in defeating this ideology of oppression, hate and violence.”  Amil Imani 

# # #

Turkish Unrest – The Death of Berkin Elvan, Young Passerby, Spurs Anti-Government Protests

11 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Asia, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Politics, Turkey

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Tags

political, political psychology, politics, protests, Turkey, Turkish unrest, violence

Berkin Elvan, then 14, got caught up in street battles in Istanbul between police and protesters on June 16 while going to buy bread for his family. He slipped into a coma and became a rallying point for government opponents, who held regular vigils at the hospital where he lay in intensive care.

Death of Turkish boy hurt in protests rekindles unrest across country | Reuters

* * *

. . . Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the main target of last year’s demonstrations, has so far declined to apologise for any of the protesters’ deaths. He has riled opponents, however, by praising the police response to what he and his allies depict as a foreign-backed coup attempt as “heroic”.

Protests erupt in Turkey after death of boy hurt in 2013 unrest – FT.com

Dictators fear making apologies, which perhaps would make them look wrong, or much worse, weak.

Related: AFP: Clashes erupt in Turkey after protest teen dies

* * *

Between the Islamic Small Wars and its pack of malignant narcissists and renewed Russian imperialism driven by the vertical of the hour Putin and his coterie, I think we’re going to see a lot of breathtakingly callous violence perpetrated by the same and lied about in similar ways.

The recent revolution in Ukraine cannot be Yanukovych’s fault, except perhaps for being weak in the face of western-backed nationalist fascist aggression, or so he might say; ditto for whatever Russians may be thinking about Putin tonight while he most certainly intends to annex Crimea, regardless of the true fealty, or lack thereof, on the part of Crimean Ukrainians: and so it goes for Assad and Khamenei and too many others around the world.

Put it in common punk talk: “They wasn’t doin’ nothin’.”

Related: AFP: Clashes erupt in Turkey after protest teen dies; 40 Tragic Pictures From Turkey As Clashes Erupt After Death Of 15-Year-Old Berkin Elvan; Erdogan’s silence shows absence of moral compass – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 3/12/2014.

# # #

Ukraine – The Narcissist is Never Wrong – Yanukovych – Above Criticism

11 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy, Political Psychology, Psychology

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political, political psychology, politics, Ukraine, Yanukovych

Viktor Yanukovich, whose overthrow last month after protests triggered the gravest crisis in Europe since the Cold War, insisted from his refuge in Russia that he was still Ukraine’s legitimate president and commander of its armed forces.

Ukraine forms new defense force, seeks Western help | Reuters

* * *

“I want to remind you that I am not only still the legitimate president of Ukraine but also the supreme commander of the army and I haven’t stopped my duties as president early – I am still alive.”

He took no questions from the press after his speech.

Yanukovych insists on TV he’s still in charge of Ukraine | euronews

😉 Related: Ukraine President’s Brother Weird Al Yanukovych Releases Album | FM Observer Fargo Moorhead News and Entertainment

Related on BackChannels: Yanukovych | BackChannels – 3/4/2014.

* * *

Cash: $12 million. Decoration of a dining hall and tea room: $2.3 million. Statue of a wild boar: $115,000. “A bribe”: $4,000.

 These are some of the expenses detailed in financial documents found in President Viktor Yanukovych’s abandoned residence, which was occupied by protesters after the leader fled the capital.

Documents at Ukraine leader’s home detail spending – Narcissistic views on News/Politics – 2/23/2014.

* * *

Malignant narcissism?

Facsimile Bipolar Narcissistic Sociopathy?

I’d say so.

Borrowing from the Putin-Assad-Khamenei show in the middle east, I would further suggest Yanukovych has no tears, no real ones, for any of dead, injured, and maimed of Euromaidan.  He lost the confidence of his people; he lost the streets; he lost his properties.  Now he’ll pout and throw a tantrum, if he can, with the help of Uncle Vlad.

Perhaps the less they are on the inside, the larger despots wish to look on the outside.

Related Reference

PJ Media » White House Takes Credit for Ukraine Deal – 2/21/2014.

BBC News – Ukraine crisis: John Kerry rejects Vladimir Putin talks

Ukraine’s Ousted Leader Urges Military to Resist New Government – NYTimes.com

Photos: The Brutal DIY Weapons of the Ukrainian Revolution | Raw File | Wired.com

Head of Ukraine’s navy defects to pro-Russian Crimea – latimes.com – 3/2/2014.

Blocked By Sunken Russian Ships, Ukraine’s Navy Stays Defiant | Defense News | defensenews.com – 3/9/2014.

Ukraine navy officers reject plea to defect to Russian-backed Crimea | World news | theguardian.com – 3/3/2014.

Ukrainian navy commander defects to Crimean authorities | euronews, world news – 3/2/2014.

# # #

Israel – Iran – Shipment Intercepted – Context Enlarged

10 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Politics, Regions, Russia, Syria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Iran, Israel, middle east, political, politics

Iran’s Intercepted Weapons Shipment Unloaded in Israel – YouTube – 3/9/2014.

Related: Who is the elite Iranian force behind arms transfers? – Israel News, Ynetnews – 3/7/2014.

* * *

Bill of lading: 40 M-302 rockets, 180 mortar shells, 400,000 7.62 (NATO) rounds.

Iran’s Weapons Shipment Safely in Israel’s Hands • IDF Blog | The Official Blog of the Israel Defense Forces – 3/9/2014.

Related: #IranFail: Iran’s History of Unsuccessful Weapons Smuggling – 3/5/2014.

* * *

On one hand, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani continues to engage the international community in a diplomatic process over Tehran’s nuclear program. He has achieved many successes in a charm offensive designed to rebrand his country as a reasonable and more moderate international player.

Simultaneously, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and its overseas special operation unit, the Quds Force, are strengthening, financing, and arming terrorist organizations all over the Middle East.

Iran’s Two-faced Regime Exposed Again, but is Anyone Paying Attention? (Gatestone)

______

Iran, at a glance, has been sewing conflict around the middle east, building its own energy industry, establishing itself as a nuclear power — well, no one has yet stalled that ambition or dampened the regime’s enthusiasm for achieving it — and it illustrates its efforts in blood, or else why release Hezbollah to defend and sustain the brutality of the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad?  Against that sweeping influence in regional payola and arms shipments, Israel’s recent interdiction of arms intended for Gaza provides but a glimpse of Ayatollah Khamenei’s greater ambitions as the middle east’s greatest Lord of War.

Additional Reference

Israel to show long-range rockets from ‘Iran arms ship’ – Daily News Egypt

Israel says confiscated rockets had 100-mile range | Fox News

Blog: Giving peace a chance the Iranian way

‘Rows of Iranian rockets’ said found on seized ship | The Times of Israel – 3/9/2014.

Iranian influence, Iraq: US, Iranian influence evolves in Iraq – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 11/28/2013; Ten years after Iraq war began, Iran reaps the gains – Los Angeles Times – 3/28/2013.

Iranian influence, Lebanon: Iran Gloats over Ashes of American Influence « Commentary Magazine – 1/3/2014; Iran Uses Lebanese to Project Its Regional Power | Foundation for Defense of Democracies – 4/11/2013.

Iranian influence, Syria: Iranian Strategy in Syria | Institute for the Study of War – May 2013; Will Iran Use its Political Influence in Syria to Halt the Violence? | Majid Rafizadeh – 1/25/2014; Iran, Syria: Smuggling Weapons to Gain Influence in the West Bank | Stratfor – 8/9/2013; It’s Iran, Stupid – Foreign Policy – 2/12/2014.

Nuclear Deal Only Strengthens Iran As Regional Power | Anav Silverman – 11/25/2013.

Iran nuclear deal may be start of new era in Persian Gulf – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 12/1/2013.

Iran’s Flourishing Regional Influence | Science & Diplomacy – 7/15/2013.

Iran Rallies To Salvage Iraq’s Al Maliki Government – 6/4/2012; Iran opposition charges Iraq’s Al Maliki allowing open attacks on Camp Liberty | World Tribune – 2/2/2014: “LONDON ― Iraq has been accused of giving the Teheran regime a free hand to attack the exiled Iranian opposition. / The National Council of Resistance of Iran said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki was allowing Iran to strike the exiled opposition community around Baghdad.” —>

Iraq – 26.12.2013 Missile attack on Iranian dissident Camp Liberty – YouTube – 12/27/2013:

At 21:15 local time Iraq, on December 26, 2013, Camp Liberty was targeted by dozens of missiles of different types. In the early hours 3 members of the Iranian resistance were slain and more than 50 were reported injured, some in critical condition.

This is the fourth missile attack on Iranian dissidents in Camp Liberty (Iraq) in 2013, while the Iraqi government has not yet delivered the bodies of those massacred during the September 1, 2013 attack on Camp Ashraf, to Liberty residents for burial.

While American President Barrak Obama gives diplomacy and peace a chance over Iran’s developing nuclear weapons building potential, Ayatollah Khamenei’s efforts to produce influence and obtain it throughout the region has been also developing unobstructed.  With that in mind, Israel’s interception of a lone arms shipment doubtless intended to arm Hamas for the destruction of the Jewish-majority state represents but a small interruption in the Ayatollah’s efforts to turn a large wheel, a wheel that, in fact, has turned.

Related: The Troika: Putin, Khamenei and Assad | Michael Ledeen – 9/11/2013; Ayatollah Khamenei and Vladimir Putin – The Daily Beast – 9/26/2011.

# # #

Link

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/99f970bc-a4c9-11e3-9313-00144feab7de.html#axzz2vWUyFmAo

09 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Baghdad, conflict, Iraq, political, politics

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/99f970bc-a4c9-11e3-9313-00144feab7de.html#axzz2vWUyFmAo

Ten years ago Christine Spolar reported on the Iraq war. Last month she returned to find her old colleagues and friends living in fear, and a city traumatised by spiralling violence

Link

Hezbollah families: Our sons are cannon fodder for Assad

09 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

conflict, Hezbollah, political, political psychology, politics, Syria

Hezbollah families: Our sons are cannon fodder for Assad

Families of Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon are growing increasingly angry that their sons are being sent to fight and die for Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan reported over the weekend.

Classic Brigitte Gabriel – From 2010

09 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Brigitte Gabriel, Christianity, Israel, Judaism, political, politics, radical Islam, video

The doctor treated my mother before the Israeli soldier laying next to her because her injury was more severe.

Brigitte Gabriel supports Israel as the vanguard against Islamism – YouTube

______

I saw this clip some time ago but am watching it now and appreciating it perhaps more than I did when first encountered.

* * *

FTAC composed while listening to the above:

Without Judaism — and I believe without Hillel the Elder (look him up if you are not familiar with the rabbi) — I believe there would have been no Christianity or Islam. Mohammad appears to borrow directly from Hillel, who said, ” whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” I suggest only that we are more bound by our common humanity than by our will to destroy those who disagree with us; and that the Jews have been working on ethical and psychological issues — start with Pharaoh, that great malignant narcissists, start with Cain, that jealous brother — for 5,000 years. I know how you feel about the “poor Palestinians” but it might surprise you to know that Jews feel about the same way, but not so much about the PLO, PFLP, Fatah, or Hamas who exploit or keep their own in ethnic identification captive to the world’s oldest hate.

# # #

FTAC – A Note Near the Antagonist’s Corner of the Humanist Intersection on the Web

08 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Politics, Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

despotism, political, political psychology, politics

It’s not Israel, R. A portion of Hamas went to fight with al-Nusra in Syria in keeping with their interests as Sunni Muslims. Also, Hamas, along similar lines, lost a part of the faith invested in it by Ayatollah Khamenei . . . and then, because they had felt their interests aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, they lost that too when the people of Egypt (in overwhelming millions on the streets) won their plebiscite and looked to the Egyptian military to intervene.

Along with the adjective, agitprop, and all that early learning, I want to suggest that real independent journalism, from Fox to Mother Jones, seeks factual data to report with reflection and honesty. It takes a dose of paranoia from elsewhere to view “9/11” as an “inside job” or Hamas as a “Zionist invention”.

The central fact about the Jews is their refusal to accept authority at face value and without insight and to then search for knowledge and insight about humanity every day, if perhaps using the Torah as a basis that works — but it never works without argument, commentary, additional research in every realm — or these days an actualizing psychology (Maslow) or an ethical humanism (Hillel to Adler). Either way, trust a Jew to support others in their development, culturally, individually, according to the unique (and wonderful) qualities of each.

That is something narcissists, who are busy with themselves, either don’t care to do or don’t know how to do: they’re better at exploiting others. Putin-Assad-Khamenei, bound together in Syria’s Civil War, have the qualities of malignant narcissists (http://www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/#article/part1). One might add to Khamenei, “Khamenei-Nasrallah” — and what they do themselves, they will tell you the Jews do, Israel does, the west most of all: except the criminality they complain about is not that of the Jews, Israel, or the west: the accusation is the project of what is in themselves and has been allowed or enabled by fate and a vast ignorance. And fear.

______

People who care about people, or say they do, carry their prejudices with them, and that perhaps often with anti-Semitism foremost.  The above note, which by the time I got to it seems to have been off-topic, addresses the ad hominem attack rhetoric that passes for thought in some places.  At the end, it found its way to the Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation that provides despots the language leveraging tool to launch arms against the innocent and unprepared.

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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