in 1996 I met a nice Iranian skiing in Maine
his name was Koveh, worked as biochemist in Cambridge MA
he might have been 30-33 yrs old, skinny gentle bright
talked with him for hours that long weekend
tried skiing with him, but he was just learning
his perspective on America alarmed me
he claims his views were shared by vast majority of Iranians
his experience was from Teheran, the main city
he said most Iranians love America and Americans
that most Iranians disliked "the mullahs", their Islamic leaders
he said "they made everything illegal, life is not fun anymore in my home country, running a small business has become very difficult, so many rules, so many executions, they have taken over our country, everyone hates them"
but the shocker was
we in Iran could not understand why your USArmy did not come in and sweep out the crazy Mullahs
you did it in Grenada, again in Panama, and tried in Somalia
you did it on a big scale in Kuwait
why not in Iran?
we are a much more important country that they are
whew!
I told him that Americans and our politicians believed the Iran hated our guts
he explained how absolutely opposite that is from true
he said that is because all we see on TV is what the Mullahs show you
the demonstrations, the bloody self-beating, the chants about Satan, the hostages, reports about the Shah and his brutality/ association with the USA
now Iran is different
and their leaders are more reasonable and moderate now
they have a chance to show America what they can do
but I still maintain: they will not cooperate
to do so results in political suicide
/ jim |
