Hi Mani Ahmadi; Re: "It almost wiped out a entire generation of young male adult between 16 to 26 years of age. Iranian (including I) to this day believe that U.S. was very much supporting Iraq toward the end of that war."
The US did exactly that, to my shame. The only thing I can say in defense is that Iran wasn't exactly our big buddy at the time.
On the other hand, when Iraq went into Kuwait, I believe we had full justification to force Iraq out. It appears that that move, and the resulting stationing of US troops in Saudi Arabia, is what really annoyed ObL.
Re the soccer minute of silence. I'm getting the distinct impression that sympathy for the US is concentrated in the wealthier classes of Moslem nations, while sympathy for ObL is concentrated in the poor parts. Certainly the people who could afford tickets to a World Cup qualifying round (or whatever it was) would be fairly well off. So I'm not sure that such an event would display Iran's attitude as a whole. But I do figure that it would demonstrate the attitude of the government.
I would like to see relations normalized with Iran, but don't hold your breath. The US still hasn't normalized relations with Cuba, despite their essential declawing by the collapse of the Soviet Union. My guess is that normalizing relations with other countries generally increases American influence with them, not decreases it.
Coca Cola was one of the major contributing factors to the destruction of the Soviet Union. Capitalism is very effective at filling people's needs. That's why McDonalds is more of a threat to the Taliban than McDonald-Douglas ever was.
-- Carl
P.S. McDonald-Douglas now is part of Boeing, but I couldn't resist the comparison with McDonalds:
boeing.com |
